Category Archives: Strategic Communication

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.”

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.

 

Faculty authors talk shop during Alumni Weekend

Two School of Communications and Theater faculty members offered insights into the creative writing process April 16 as part of Alumni Weekend 2011.

Assistant Professor Gregg Feistman, STRC, and Assistant Professor Lori Tharps, JOUR, stepped out of their normal roles in front of the classroom and offered a peek into their lives as writers through a discussion moderated by Tamala Edwards of 6ABC.

They spoke of character creation and working toward an editor’s definition of “reader friendly.”

The two authors differed most on their approach to research.

Tharps says she knew her characters well when she first conceptualized Substitute Me, but she needed several years to fully develop them and her storyline.

“I didn’t sit down with a blank piece of paper and say ‘Speak to me,’” she said.

The years of research benefitted her when she finally sat down to write the novel; it only took three weeks.

Feistman, on the other hand, researched background for his novel, The War Merchants, as he wrote it. He said he doesn’t work from an outline, but knows the ending and will let the story tell itself. When it comes time to ensure he’s writing about something accurately, “Google is a wonderful tool.”

The editing process can be a gut wrenching process for both Tharps and Feistman, whether done by themselves or someone else.

“A good writer has to be a good self-editor, which is hard,” Feistman said. “If I don’t throw up [when editing], then it stays in.”

Tharps said her cousin’s criticism of a later draft was the hardest to swallow during her editing process. “She thought the main character was boring. It took a long time to care about her. That broke my heart.”

SCT’s Alumni Weekend events continued with a lunch in Annenberg Hall’s Joe First Media Center and a performance of Temple Theaters’ A View From the Bridge.

The authors share a laugh with the audience.
Assistant Professor Lori Tharps and 6ABC reporter Tamala Edwards.
Assistant Professor Lori Tharps
Lori Tharps and Gregg Feistman sign books for their new fans.
Alumni gather in the Joe First Media Center for lunch during Alumni Weekend 2011.
Several alumni take the opportunity to tour the new TUTV facility during the SCT lunch.

photos by Hillary Petrozziello/Aperture Agency