Author Archives: Joseph Glennon

Associate Professor Harper: Wikileaks’ Assange ‘has an agenda’ — KYW News Radio

Associate Professor Christopher Harper, JOUR, co-director of Temple’s Multimedia Urban Reporting Lab, questions the motives of Julian Assange, Wikileaks’ spokesperson and editor in chief. “I just see the actions that are taking place right now as making him not a credible source,” Harper said. “He has an agenda. He’s not doing it out of the goodness of his heart, for the greater good of the world, to embarrass world leaders and to show what’s going on. I think his motives are highly suspect.”

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Adjunct Professor Quesenberry publishes article on interdisciplinary instruction

Adjunct Professor Keith Quesenberry, ADV, had an article published in the December 2010 issue of the American Academy of Advertising Newsletter. “The Ad Age Is Over: A Call For Interdisciplinary Instruction” talks about the latest trends in the marketing and communications industry and leads up to call for a pre-conference program at the 2011 AAA’s conference on April 7 in Phoenix. There, Quesenberry will host and present the pre-conference program. Professor Michael Maynard, ADV, will also be one of the presenters. In addition, Quesenberry will be a panelist for a special topics session during the regular conference discussing integrating interactive, digital and social media into the advertising curriculum.

Assistant Professor Tharps publishes new novel

Lori Tharps (photo by John Barone)

Assistant Professor Lori Tharps, JOUR, has published her most recent novel, “Substitute Me” (Atria Books).

Prior to joining Temple’s School of Communications and Theater, Tharps was a staff writer for Vibe magazine and a correspondent for Entertainment Weekly. She continues to write and has appeared in publications such as Glamour, Essence and Vogue Black. She has authored three books.

Synopsis: “Zora Anderson, an African American 30-year-old college dropout with wanderlust, leaves her accidental au pair position in Paris and returns to her hometown of Ann Arbor with no life plan in mind and no real goals on the horizon.  With pressure mounting from her well-educated, upper-middle class parents to do something useful with her life and with her own self-doubt growing, Zora decides to start over in New York and sublets a small Fort Greene studio apartment from a friend who is attending college in Massachusetts.  After combing the newspaper classifieds and finding a want ad for a “substitute me,” Zora lands a job in Park Slope with a WASP-y professional couple in their 30s, Kate and Brad Carter, to look after their young son, Oliver. Although Zora’s primary goal is to merely keep the rent money coming in to pay for her sublet, she soon becomes attached to Oliver, a baby with a sweet disposition who is adored by his parents. But as happy as she is with the Carters, Zora keeps her job a secret from her parents whom she is certain will view her position as demeaning and not much different than one of servitude. While Oliver’s mother, Kate, initially feels ambivalent about returning to work after her maternity leave, she soon adjusts to being back in the office and spends long hours there as she keeps a close eye on a competitive colleague who wants her job. With Kate’s new long hours, Zora begins working overtime to accommodate her employer’s hectic schedule and becomes a true substitute in the Carter household in ways she never would have imagined.”

Visit Tharps’ website.

Professor Hobbs: Digital, media literacy are essential life skills

The Knight Commission has released “Digital and Media Literacy: A Plan of Action,” a new policy paper by Professor Renee Hobbs, BTMM, and founder of the Media Education Lab. In it, a detailed plan positions digital and media literacy as essential life skills and outlines steps that policymakers, educators and community advocates can take to help Americans thrive in the digital age.

Coming the day after U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan released the National Education Technology Plan, “Digital and Media Literacy: A Plan of Action” provides four broad strategies and 10 specific recommendations on how to provide students and adults with the knowledge and critical thinking skills to sort through the overwhelming amount of digital information they receive every day in our media-saturated society.

“Full participation in contemporary culture requires not just consuming messages, but also creating and sharing them,” writes Hobbs. “To fulfill the promise of digital citizenship, Americans must acquire multimedia communication skills and know how to use these skills to engage in the civic life of their communities.”

This is why the commission recommended that digital and media literacy be integrated as critical elements for education at all levels through collaboration among federal, state and local education officials, and that public libraries and other community institutions be funded and supported as centers of digital and media training.

The paper focuses on steps to ensure that citizens are equipped with the analytical and communications skills they need to be successful in the 21st century.  It also proposes the integration of digital and media literacy into advocacy campaigns, education curricula, and community-based initiatives. From parents concerned with online safety issues, to students searching for information online at home, schools and libraries, to everyday citizens looking for accurate and relevant health care and government resources, all Americans can benefit from learning how to access, analyze and create digital and media content with thoughtfulness and social responsibility.

(The Knight Commission press release)

Virtual art show features Associate Professor Drury

Associate Professor Sarah Drury, FMA, is showing in the Virtual Public Art Project show, based at the Esther Klein Gallery. The VPAP is a series of eight augmented reality pieces, which are virtual public art pieces that can be accessed with a smartphone at particular locations around Philadelphia. VPAP is sponsored by the Breadboard Initiative of the University City Science Center.

FMA chair appointed to art museum committee

Chair Nora M. Alter was appointed to the committee of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Additionally, she gave the following Public Invited Lectures: “The Essay Film,” Center for Humanities at Temple University, Philadelphia, (October 2010); “National Performances” Live Cinema/In the Round: Contemporary Art from the East Mediterranean, Newark, Delaware, (September 2010); “Between Art and Documentary,” Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, (September 2010).

Assistant Professor Evans holds several screenings for latest film

Assistant Professor Rodney Evans, FMA, will screened his new narrative short film, Billy and Aaron, at the MIX Experimental Gay and Lesbian Film Festival Nov. 10 in New York City. The film also screen in Amsterdam on Nov. 5 to 7 at the Africa In the Picture Film Festival  and in Johannesburg and Capetown in South Africa in the Out in Africa Film Festival. Billy and Aaron chronicles the personal and professional experiences of jazz composer, Billy Strayhorn. It premiered in April at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival.

Interim Dean Jacobson earns NSF grant

The decision-making process can be complex, especially for a governmental body whose choices directly impact the public it serves.

Interim Dean Thomas Jacobson is currently conducting research, with a $195,844 grant from the National Science Foundation, that examines how communication might change how an agency makes a decision that satisfies the public’s demands. In many cases, an agency will include public dialogue in a decision-making process and incorporate the input into its conclusion.

“While there is much advice from conflict resolution and public participation practitioners on how to do this well, there is little scientific understanding of how people judge the quality of these dialogues and how those judgments, in turn, affect the acceptance of decisions,” according to the project overview.

Jacobson and a team of researchers, led by Thomas Webler of the Social and Environmental Research Institute, are focusing on a series of public discussions led by the California Department of Fish and Game as it formulates a plan to comply with the Marine Life Protection Act and its requirement to redesign California’s system of protected marine areas.

The research team hopes to offer insight into how an agency can make decisions with “higher democratic legitimacy.”