Updated Tuesday Nov. 10, 6 p.m. PST to reflect that Click has resigned from her courtesy appointment within the University of Missouri's journalism school.
University of Missouri communications professor Melissa Click has landed at the center of a media firestorm after a widely-circulated video showed her trying to blockade a student reporter from the site of an on-campus protest on Monday -- at one point calling for "muscle" to forcibly remove him.
The irony was too much: a professor who studies mass communication at a university that's home to one of the country's top journalism schools attempting to "muscle" the press out of a lawfully public place.
Click's aggressive technique did not escape the national media's attention, and on Tuesday, the school's journalism school said in a statement that its faculty members would consider stripping her of a courtesy appointment within the school. Later on Tuesday night, Click voluntarily resigned the appointment.
While the J-School faculty were meeting, Dr. Melissa Click resigned her courtesy appointment with the School. #Mizzou @mojonews— Kurp (@Kurp) November 11, 2015
Meanwhile, Click has reportedly received death and rape threats, prompting her to cancel her classes on Tuesday. She deleted her Twitter account shortly afterwards, and released a statement on Tuesday claiming that she has apologized to the reporters involved.
"I regret the language and strategies I used, and sincerely apologize to the MU campus community, and journalists at large, for my behavior, and also for the way my actions have shifted attention away from students' campaign for justice," Click said in the statement.
Statement by Melissa Click, Assistant Professor of the Department of Communication, Regarding Carnahan Quad Protests pic.twitter.com/FJPUJUL5b3— MU College of A&S (@MUCollegeofAS) November 10, 2015
Twilight and Lady Gaga
Click has worked as an assistant professor in the school's communication department since 2008. According to her university profile, her research centers on pop culture -- "particularly texts and audiences disdained in mainstream culture."
She has written extensively about how gender roles play out in film, television and music -- including an interpretation of fan responses to the Twilight movies and an examination of masculinity in HBO's Entourage -- and she's currently working on projects related to 50 Shades of Grey and Lady Gaga fans on social media.
In one study, she and a team of other researchers surveyed hundreds of teen Twilight fans to examine the role of abstinence in the Twilight series (In the series, 17-year-old Edward insists that he and Bella wait to have sex until they are married).
"We provide a brief overview of how the themes of abstinence and romance emerged in responses from teen Twilight fans, recount the ways in which the media responded to and framed our research, and problematize the abstinence and romance messages in Twilight," the study reads.
Another paper, entitled "Let's Hug it Out, Bitch," Click posits that Entourage fans were responding to a perceived dearth of masculinity in pop culture.
"We found that participants were drawn to a fantasy version of a powerful, dominant masculinity and felt less favorably about characters who exhibited forms of masculinity that incorporated attitudes and behaviors deemed feminine," the study says.
In a telling article Click wrote for a University of Wisconsin publication, The Antenna, in 2010, she discusses her feelings about the role of television newscasters during a crisis.
"I really hate US television news," she begins the piece. "I detest its lack of historical context and investigative journalism, and its drive for ratings through fantastical and voyeuristic stories. There are moments, however, when I turn to television news to provide the visual, immediate, and ongoing coverage of stories not easily gained through newspapers, radio programs, or the Web."
In a longer version of the video of the confrontation posted on Tuesday, Click can be heard mocking the objections of a student reporter identified as Mark Schierbecker, who told her that the protest grounds are "public property."
"Yeah, I know, that’s a really good one," Click says in a sarcastic tone. "I’m a communication faculty, and I really get that argument. But you need to go. You need to go. You need to go.”
As Schierbecker walked away, the professor shouted: “And don’t let him back in!”
Another point of irony in Click's confrontation was that just days earlier, she had sought out members of the "national media" on Facebook, looking for someone who could get the protestors' message into the national media.
"Who would want a scoop on this incredible topic?" Click wrote.
@JoeWalljasper @CaitlinSwieca yet a couple days ago she was courting the media... pic.twitter.com/8uZsQQfv2k— Kevin Hardy (@kevinmhardy) November 10, 2015
The day after the altercation, Click has certainly attracted the attention of the national media. While Monday's news centered on the surprise resignations of system president Tim Wolfe and school chancellor R. Bowen Loftin, the news cycle on Tuesday was dominated by the fallout of the spat and criticism of Click.
@melissaclick was that you on the video calling for "some muscle" to remove a student journalist from a public space?— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) November 9, 2015
Watching 'media professor' Melissa Click deal with media was like watching cartographer Buster Bluth deal with an actual map— Brandon McCarthy (@BMcCarthy32) November 10, 2015
It also sparked a debate between some activists and journalists on Twitter over how members of the media should cover big protests. Recent social movements have had a sometimes testy relationship with the press that partially stems from a historic distrust of the media among minority communities.
And was the protest space not a "private event" because the protestors didn't have a permit? Or something else? https://t.co/OlLqh8u1DT— deray mckesson (@deray) November 10, 2015
black person: "i don't trust the media because they don't allow me to speak for mys" media person: "you MEAN to say that the m..." BP: "nvm"— Piyush Shmurda (@Felonious_munk) November 10, 2015
Meanwhile, many right-leaning critics attacked Click as another example of how the so-called "p.c. movement" is stifling free speech on college campuses.
"Hey hey ho ho, journalists have got to go!" The p.c. left is telling us what it believes. Take it seriously. https://t.co/3y0NmocUdb— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) November 10, 2015