Courtesy of Douglas Boultinghouse

Commencement 2011 - Susan Pruitt, Douglas Boultinghouse, Shane Glass and Sitton pause for a photo after the event. For more about Sitton's education, consult Erudition

    He advises students interested in the Communication major or minor, specifically those emphasizing in media. In addition to teaching, Sitton advises the award-winning online news source, The Voice, which meets Mondays from 11:10 a.m. to noon in 106 Wells Hall. Contributors who appear in four consecutive issues can join the staff ; student-media supporters can join the Journalism Club, which he also advises. A 2005 article describes his thoughts about the journalism program. 

   Sitton can be found in 110 Wells Hall during office hours Mondays through Fridays from 8-9 a.m.; other meetings may be scheduled by appointment. Catch him most any time via e-mail -- sitton at uamont dot edu -- or call his office at 870-460-1138, which he checks less frequently. He receives snail mail at 562 University Dr., Monticello, Ark., 71656-3460.

   A native Arkansan, his educational background includes two degrees in journalism from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and a doctorate of philosophy in Communication from the University of Tennessee. He expects to teach you about communication in this course. Although Sitton gained tenure and was promoted to associate professor of journalism in 2009, he continues working hard for full promotion. In 10 years, he also plans to finish traveling the United States as he only has Alaska and Hawaii left.

   This article reminds Sitton of his childhood, when the family visited Gilley's Honky Tonk in Houston, Texas; that might be good blog fodder. He occasionally blogs at -more- and, less frequently, The Southerner Journal; when time permits, he also freelances. Sitton started working on the Web in 1996 for graduate school and considers himself an eight on a scale of one-to-10. His cyber-home, Sitron's Fence (www.southerner.net/sitron), hosts additional personal interests. He maintains a facebook account: "follow" if you want to know the Song of the Day, but he only "friend"s when a conflict of interest cannot exist. Yet for those wishing to professionally network, Sitton keeps contact with business associates via LinkedIn.

   Though he seldom watches TV, you'll typically find Sitton in front of his own "devil box" — the computer. He saw "Star Trek" the last time he went to the movies (sad, I know). He and his wife typically watch movies via Netflix; he rates them via Flixster. The most recent viewings included "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," "Winter's Bone," "Objectified," "Even the Rain," "HappyThankYouMorePlease" and  "True Grit." He prefers reading, having most recently finished Xavier Amador's "I'm Right, You're Wrong, Now What" and Nicholas Carr's "The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains." His favorite books include Somerset Maugham's "The Razor's Edge" and Umberto Eco's "The Island of the Day Before," each of which examines self-reflection and the decisions from this exercise.

   Online, Sitton downloads nugcasts from nugs.net's stash, discovers new artists through Daytrotter and purchases singles via the iTunes store. Over Christmas, Santa Claus gave him Ne-Yo's "Year of the Gentleman" and Minus the Bear's "Omni." Occasionally he whines about music on his personal blog;  Sitton also subjects his students to a daily dose of songs running through his head via twitter.

  Sitton admires the Washington Post for keeping the secret about the identity of Deep Throat for more than 30 years. He also admires anyone who can buy good food  for $50 that'll last two weeks. He suggests peanut butter, jelly, bread, beans, rice, Cajun spice, coffee, spaghetti, sauce and a six-pack of Guinness, i.e. one every other day. Ron loves Tanya more than media.