Author Archives: Joseph Glennon

SCT well represented at international conference

Many School of Communications and Theater representatives presented their work at the International Association for Media and Communciation Research (IAMCR) conference in July 2011 in Istanbul, Turkey. SCT attendance at this large international communications conference included Interim Dean Tom Jacobson; faculty members Susan Jacobson, John Lent, Nancy Morris, Patrick Murphy and Karen Turner; Banu Akdenizli, MMC ’06, Leanne Chang, MMC ’07, Warat (Sudjai) Karuchit, MMC ’05, and Selcan Kaynak, MMC ’03; and MMC student Satarupa Dasgupta.

The 2012 IAMCR conference will be held in Durban, South Africa.

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TUJ faculty members examine social media after tsunami

Professor Cornelius Pratt, STRC, along with TUJ Professors Irene Herrera and Ronald Carr, have written a chapter titled “Social Media for Crisis Communication on Japan’s 2011 Tōhoku Earthquake: A Critical Textual Analysis,” which will be published in The New Media and Public Relations (second edition), New York: Peter Lang, 2012. In it, they write that social media platforms “are redefining Japanese cultural values and assumptions vis-à-vis communications — those that no longer depend solely on conventional outlets and cultural practices, but are being expanded to incorporate alternative media platforms as channels for the public good as well as for public vehemence and outrage.”

Associate Professor Feistman discusses reputation management at conference

Associate Professor Gregg Feistman, STRC, recently gave a presentation on Reputation Management at the Insurance Marketing Communications Association’s annual conference in Toronto, Canada. Speaking before a room of marketing communications professionals, Feistman’s presentation, “Reputation Management: Building It, Maintaining It and What it Means for the Bottom Line,” is based on his reputation management class in the Strategic Communication Department’s M.S. program.

“Most people have a misconception of what reputation and reputation management is,” Feistman notes. “It’s not branding or advertising. It’s a very high-level strategic approach dealing with the expectations of an organization’s stakeholders. Whether it’s a Fortune 500 corporation, a non-profit organization or an educational institution, reputation is critical to sustained success. It’s very fragile, and understanding what makes up reputation and how it can be managed through effective communication is of vital importance to communicators and businesspeople in all organizations.”

Feistman’s message of aligning business strategy, marketing strategy, brand management and employee engagement was well received by those in attendance.

“Similar to what I discuss with my students, I tried to get the marketing communications professionals in the room to think about reputation in a definitive, measurable way, not just as some intangible concept. Reputation has real value, and a real impact on the bottom line, and professional communicators have a vital role in building and protecting it in any organization.”

Associate Professor Gluck: Social media allows people to participate in Casey Anthony verdict

When Casey Anthony was found not guilty on charges that she killed her daughter, people raced to their computers to voice their opinions on the verdict.

Associate Professor Paul Gluck, BTMM, says people tend to connect to news stories like this on an emotional level. And now, technology provides them a platform to tell the world how they feel.

“Social media in particular has provided people with a lot of impetus to participate, to observe, to connect,” he told NBC 10. “It’s a gut-level story. It doesn’t just engage you intellectually.”

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Theater professors’ shows rank among Philly’s best — Philadelphia Weekly

Philadelphia Weekly writer J. Cooper Robb ranked his top ten shows from the 2010-11 Philadelphia theater season.

Among them were [title of show], staged by Mauckingbird Theatre Company, of which Assistant Professor Peter Reynolds is the co-founder and artistic director, and Superior Donuts, directed by Assistant Professor Ed Sobel at Arden Theatre Company.

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Professor Cai trains Afghanistan workers in gender communication

Professor Deborah Cai, STRC, spent five days in Rome this spring in an effort to help a group of government workers from Afghanistan improve their gender communication and leadership skills.

From May 23 to 27, she and a team from Women’s Campaign International trained 25 Afghanistan government employees as part of a seven-week program organized by the Italian Foreign Ministry that covered topics such as public policy and project management. The participants – both men and women – were from government departments such as Justice, Agriculture, Women Affairs and more.

“My primary role was to cover gender and intercultural communication — talk about being a competent communicator, how to build trust, types of personal power we can have and how to develop them — and then to work with the students on public speaking — how to project, how to organize a speech, and how to deliver it,” Cai says.

Other WCI trainers covered leadership and managing the media, while Marjorie Margolies, president of WCI, and Valerie Biden Owen, who creates political campaign ads for radio and television, talked about crisis management in the workplace and delivering messages effectively through the media.

The training sessions helped the civil servants create five-year plans and develop speeches about their personal visions for their work in Afghanistan. They shared their speeches and critiqued one another on their delivery.

“The Italian Foreign Ministry see this training as one way to bring about long term change within Afghanistan, by working with those that work in the government to help them learn how to do what they do better and to gain a vision for the future,” Cai said. In December, she and her WCI colleagues trained diplomats from Afghanistan on similar topics.

Cai noted that the women in the class were particularly interested in learning more about the trainers and their abilities to balance their personal and professional lives to achieve success.

 

Paper by Associate Professor Darling-Wolf earns award

Associate Professor Fabienne Darling-Wolf, JOUR, received the Top Faculty Paper Award from the Global Communication and Social Change division at the International Communication Association’s annual conference in Boston in May.

The paper was titled, “Disjuncture and difference from the banlieue to the ganba: Global hip hop and the politics of representation.”

Professor Fernback earns Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching

Broadcasting, Telecommunications and Mass Media Professor Jan Fernback’s class sessions might best be described as journeys of interactive discovery.

Students in her “Law and Ethics of Digital Media” course, for example, have robust discussions on issues ranging from file sharing, to copyright law, to fair use. They contribute first-hand examples, drawing from their own experiences as consumers and creators of digital media in its many forms.

The exchange is far-reaching at times, but Fernback thoughtfully moves the conversation forward, highlighting relevant points (“Check it out.”), prodding (“What do I mean by that?”), confirming understanding (“Does this make sense to everyone?”) and always encouraging (“That’s a great example.”).

These classroom interactions directly reflect Fernback’s teaching philosophy, which is founded on openness and the inherent value of a learning process that values questions as much as answers.

“Seeking and asking and questioning are where true desire for lifelong learning comes from,” said Fernback. “It’s the best way to encourage a love of learning among students. Answers are only satisfying for a certain amount of time. If you learn facts, they’re in your head — great. But new questions are what keep us learning, and the desire to know is at the heart of what we’re trying to do.”

It’s an approach that has led to Fernback’s selection for a 2011 Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching, and one that has garnered glowing reviews from her students, who consistently rate her at or near the highest score in numerical course evaluations and praise her in their open-ended survey responses.

“She’s awesome,” said Nadine Schneider, a BTMM graduate. “Beyond the fact that she’s very clearly competent and a smart person, she’s good at explaining theoretical concepts and facilitating a good discussion in class. It makes it a more dynamic process.”

That process is essential to learning, says Fernback, who believes that her role is not simply to convey course material, but to create engaged citizens of the world.

“I like to learn from students,” said Fernback. “I’m not as interested in replicating myself as I am in having interesting and enlightening conversations with groups of people who are about to make their mark on the world.”

But Fernback’s commitment to teaching doesn’t stop at the classroom door. She has shared her approach with other Temple faculty by developing and conducting pedagogy workshops through the university’s Teaching and Learning Center. And, as professor for the “Communication Pedagogy” course she developed, she is helping to give the next generation of communication scholars the tools necessary to be outstanding professors.

“She is a visible presence for ushering doctoral students through the process of pursuing an academic career,” said fourth-year doctoral student Byron Lee, who says the pedagogy course helped set the tone for the entire Ph.D. program. “The way she designed the class was very practical, in terms of directing strategies, but also theoretical in terms of how to engage learning. Jan was really good about making connections to concrete strategies.”

At a time when digital technology is changing the world around us, Fernback takes a broad view of the importance of studying mass media and technology, focusing on how critical it is to an effective democratic society.

“What a great time to be teaching media,” she said. “We experience so much of the world through media — they are our cultural touchstones.  I’m interested in that process.”

– by Vaughn Shinkus, University Communications
vaughn.shinkus@temple.edu

Professor Hobbs on federal efforts to cut ads targeting kids — WHYY-FM

Food marketers are under mounting pressure to either change their advertising tactics aimed at kids, or the foods they promote to young people. Professor Renee Hobbs, BTMM/MMC of Temple’s Media Education Lab said she expects the Federal Trade Commission and health advocates to pressure companies such as McDonald’s and Kellogg’s to adopt the recommendations. At this point, they are voluntary. “The government wants them to not use Toucan Sam and all the other slick and compelling cartoon images that attract kids’ attention and try to sell them things,” she said.

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