SWECJMC #8

Well, I found out what happens when blogspot goes off for a few hours while you're trying to blog--you wait. So, with any luck, here's all the last post I did and saved to computer.

The Southwest Education Council for Journalism and Mass Communication symposium program ended Saturday 11/5/05 with a 12:30 p.m. panel presentation called "Selena's Death Revisited: How Are We Doing on Covering Hispanic Subculture a Decade Later?" Panelists included Randy Bangart of the Greeley Tribune, Michael Madigan of the Rocky Mountain News, Greg Nieto of WB2 in Denver, Edwin Ruis, editor or La Tribuna, Manny Trevino of U. of Northern Colorado and John C. Merrill or Northwestern State. How much better does the mainstream media pay attention to subcultures in our society now than they were doing 10 years ago?
Bangart mentioned some backlash with La Tribuna when people thought it was a mistake to publish a paper in Spanish--with the feeling that people in the U.S. should learn English. In La Tribuna they do not simply translate English language stories from the Greeley Tribune into Spanish--La Tribuna does its own stories.
Nieto mentioned in Yakima Washington covering Selena's death what he did in doing stories--10 years later he doesn't sense a lot of progress in covering Latino issues and stories. In TV news 'if it bleeds it leads' keeps station from carrying stories about issues of a community. News judgment made by news director, based on their target audience. He mentioned studies show what people want to know about. Crime stories often give descriptions that are useless -- 'suspect in Hispanic male with black hair, brown eyes.' They have about 12 reporters--about 8 are white, a few Hispanic and a few black--trying to reflect community diversity in reporters not the same as getting into their communities.
Trevino mentioned several Latino performers who don't get covered as one example of how things are. There are plenty of Hispanics who don't read Spanish so La Tribuna does them no good, while the Tribune in English may miss stories important to Tejano culture. Our society tends to cover a variety of cultures but when it comes to Hispanics it's often about illegals or crime. Trevino mentioned the acculturation shuffle--issues include language, religion, family. There are more Hispanics in America than Canadians in Canada, so the Hispanics are not going to go away. For many years, Hispanic cultural activities like qincineras were not done, but these days Latinos are more often doing things like this that are part of their culture and people involved in the activities include other cultures.
Madigan started by reflecting back on when Selena died and their news meeting about what would go into the newspaper, the editors decisions about what would go in, the discussion about Selena--they was not a Latino at the table--they ended up having a reference headline on page one, but it ended up not being a big story for them at that time. NAHJ parity project launched about three yers ago noted. Rocky Mountain News one of the first to embrace the project. The real issue is to better cover the community and culture need more staff from that culture--the project has helped them do a better job with that.

Ruis talked about their small staff but increasing success of La Tribuna. Won first national award and are proud of the work they are doing. He just came to U. S. one year ago. They are a tie between their community, showing people how to do things like how to gt a driver license, how to use the library—and offering them entertainment. They do the basics of a newspaper to be connected with their readers. That means change the language and the interests but still maintain the quality in trying to cover the community of Spanish-speaking Hispanics in Northern Colorado. They are influencing the Greeley Tribune—sharing information they also may use in English. Their paper covers the regular life of their readers that the mainstream media often misses.

Merrill said we don’t do a good job in the U.S. of covering other countries’ news—Latin America, but Canada too. Having people on the staff is only part of the issues. Only 10% of newspaper is news—so imagine how little foreign news there would be because of this. He then opened the sessions up to discussion and questions. People reading this blog—here’s a great session to offer comments on!

By the way, if you teach journalism and have any interest in teaching these kinds of issues to students, watch for The Best Storytelling on Race and Ethnicity from Arlene Morgan and Keith Woods from Columbia University Press.

SWECJMC #7

The session at 11:00 was moderated by Roger Saathoff from Texas Tech. The topic is a discussion of convergence in the curriculum. Saatthof noted the plans for a convergence Ph.D. at Texas Tech. Russ Shain from Arkansas State began by talking about what they're doing. Noted faculty who say 'we have teach more than one thing." Compared characteristics of broadcast and print then discussed the web component. Partnership with department of Art for digital media. Last summer they visted Ole Miss, who got Gannett grant to remodel the department, As part of this, they kicked out student media center because of space, so student media was able to remodel other space and have a converged news operation. They're doing pilot test of some software. They discovered the same problems you'd expect in throwing students into 'doing everything.' But some of it seems to be working. So, Arkansas State is doing a converged media class in the spring. Doing it as a team teaching approach. Test it to see how convergence, podcasting, etc. can work.

Paula Furr from Northwestern State says they are limited by their department and faculty size but also limited by ACEJMC accreditation effects. They are focusing on still teaching the basics of good writing, good skills, etc. and not trying to 'teach everything.' But, they are pointing students in a capstone class to have had given themselves experience with all their department media and learned some aspects of print, broadcast and Internet. The idea that you are going to teach 'everything' you have to have students come in with good basic skills already--which they mostly do not have.

Charles Ingold of the University of Northern Colorado, said for them the idea was no so much about media convergence but to make students more marketable -- more skills to take to a different assortment of jobs. Also telecommunications emphasis based on technology, PR based on content--theorectically it should be easy for students to cross over through electives. Now, getting into convergent media product--kind of relates to the question of 'what is a convergenc]tmedia product.' Resouces also become an issue--how can you make all your students do a class that is technology-driven and by its nature needs to be small? Referred to BYU's plans (was not aware of recent developments at BYU--pulling back from convergence). Overall, faculty difficulty in being interested in and wanting to cover a variety of activities in one class and disgruntled students make doing convergence a challenge.

Jamie Byrne of Arkansas-Little Rock talked about 'officiating at the shotgun wedding' in pulling together curricula in convergence effort. In looking at new faculty, they are looking at people who have more diverse backgrounds to be able to teach more than one area. In dealing with the faculty--current faculty member who is a newspaper journalist type can do some retraining for other areas. The university needs to suport that financially. Their new convergence effort is to create generalists with a specialty. School of Mass Communication core, with concentrations in journalism, mass communication, strategic communication and media design & production.

As a panel discussion, after the overview from panelists, the audience and the panel interacted on issues of convergence--with a note made that maybe it's better to see it as co-existence. Convergence Tracker from API noted.

SWECJMC #6

Outside readers--note that for each time slot, two sessions are going on at the same time. Persons in the session I am not in are asked to add their comments by summarizing those sessions.

At 9:30 Marlin Shipman from Arkansas State began the session I am in with "The Newspaper Press, Capital Punishment and Religion." The purpose of the study was to try to identify and classify types of religious statements or images that appeared in execution stories in newspapers, and how these might influience public perception about capital punishment. Shipman talked first about the repentence-redemption model used in stories in the 1800s to the mid-1900s. Race also comes into the coverage--white-owned press reported images about African-Americans based on myths. Black-owned press became important between 1830-1860.
The next model discussed--just punishment model: you break the law, you pay the price. Newspapers 'precahed' in the stories about the messages in this view. Beginning in the 1960s, the 'sanctity of human life' model emerged and continues through to today. Readers started seeing more stories about people protesting the executions. The Roman Catholic Church started evaluating the sanctity of human life as organized religions started speaking against executions. More religious beliefs were included in execution stories.

The second presenter, Janice Wood from Texas Christian University, did "Foote Work for Free Speech: Two Doctors Foote Support Defendants Charged Wth Obscenity, 1872-1915." Wood talked about Anthony Comstockwho in 1873 lobbied Congress about obscenity. Father/sons-doctors named E.B. Foote Sr. and Jr. who were prosecuted. The paper is about a campaign started by the doctors to defend people based on free speech. Summarized obscenity, anti-anarchist, reform issues and courts hostile to free speech. Hicklin rule noted. The paper looks at people affected by some prosecutions under the law-- D.M. Bennett, Exra Heywood, Charles Reynolds, Dr. Sara Chase, Ida Craddock, John Turner, Emma Goldman, Margaret Sanger.

James E. Mueller of the University of North Texas presented "Victims, Villains and Heroes: Comparing Newspaper Coverage of World War II and the Iraq War." Presented related story about media coverage in Iraq--speaking with a student who returned from Iraq--angry about media coverage. If there was a foul up the story led CNN; something good , he couldn't find any news . Feeling that the coverage indicated the war was a lost cause and its failure made him feel like a fool for being there as a soldier. This anecdote led the author to lok at how news stories framed war coverage. Hero-type stories shown, like one from the Dallas Morning News during WWII. Iraq coverage stories of this type were hard to find. In contrast a lot of the Iraq stories portrayed the story in a victim mode, hopelessness of the war effort, person killed in war had joined the miltary to help pay for college and was a victim by being killed. Even editorial page cartoon portrays Iraq war as hopeless. In the frame of 'soldier as villain, ' Iraq war coverage it was dominant; in WWII similar stories looking at soldiers killings or enemy did not question soldier's motives or look to outside interpretations.

Charles (Curt) Yowell of the University of Houston presented "Community and the Public Realm of Alternative Media" (Don't Hate the Media, Become the Media)
Defined alternative/independent media--not mainstraeam media, non-profit, ideally accomplishes such goals as facilitation of group/organization identity for audience /producers, formation of community by unique use of public space, and engagement of disenfranchised groups. Noted Independent Media Center founded in Seattle 1999 as part of the protest of the WTO meeting. Community Public radio can be for people like the alienated or the faceless. It facilitates discussion of social power, political power and group identity. Discussed how alternative media empowers . Research questions: what role does the production/reception of alternative media have on group identity and what role does the production/reception of alternative media have on public sphere. Evaluated KPFT in Houston, run by Pacifica Radio; noted the station's mission as noted on its web site. Ethnographic and other research is being conducted to continue to add to theory on alternative media influence.

SWECJMC #5

Saturday morning 11/5/05 and the first session I am attending started even before its 8:00 a.m. scheduled start time! Paula Furr, Interim Chair in the Journalism Department at Northwestern State in Louisiana is talking about faculty collegiality in "Collegiality Helps Put the 'C' in Success." Maybe should be more toward congenialty. There is a misperception about faculty members jobs--people assume long vacations, just show up and teach classes, etc.
How is it best to have collegiality? Can be accomplished through faculty search committees, administrators setting tone, self reflection, guard against clicques/silencing opinion, undestand that criticism/opposition is not necesarily conflict.

Second presenter Kate Pierce of Texas State University - San Marcos. The study that is part of a graduate student's thesis, looked at gay characters on TV as a content analysis, and to look at it from a gay audience's perspective. Study identified a variety of gay characters--like Hetero-Homo characters (Will on Will and Grace; flamerqueen, Jack on W&G ; fabulous fag--helps straight people learn stereotypical things--Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, Business Betty--Melannie Queer as Folk; and queer fatale, like Shane of The L Word.


The next speaker, Mark Finney of University of Colorado - Boulder presented "Against a Totalizing Theory of Media Influences." The study seeks to analyze the relationship between U. S. journalism and U. S. foreign policy decisions. Does journalism influence foreign or is it used to promote policies? Are there situations where there is more or less influencence? Two schools of thought--Manufacting Consent, media operate on behalf of govt and CNN effect--media can affect government policy. This study is an effort to compare the merits of each theory in continuing this type analysis. THis paper is an exploratory analysis as part of his dissertation.

Fnally, George Daniels of Alabama and Lillie Fears of Arkansas State presented "So What Can You Do? Perceived Entry-Level Journaliosm Skills of Mass Communications Students."
What kind of predictors are there for high school students going into journalism degrees? Theu also sought to compare journmalism students to ones in other areas like advertising or PR.
Trade publications are critical of how educators are training students for newspaper jobs
The reserchers sought to look at how pre-college socialization affected the pipeline into journalism courses. Among the hyopotheses: years of high school publication experince is positively related to students encouragement to pursue journalism careers, years of high school publication experience is positeively related to students comfort level with technical equipment, and industry introduction skills will predict a student's entry-level journalism skills. The first two hypotheses listed about were not supported. The third one listed above was supported. (There were other hypotheses discussed.) Networking was noted as the most important element in students' introduction to J/MC programs.

As is often the case at the end of the formal presentations, the session ended with a lively Q&A time between audience members and presenters.

New to Blogging --Damn Spam

Well, I've been involved in discussing blogs for a few years now and thought I would try one of my own related to Mass Communication-based conferences I attend, starting with SWECJMC 11/3-5 in Colorado. My first evaluation is to wonder how the spam shows up so quickly, and to ask if anyone knows how to keep it from showing up as comments when the comments are not specific to the blog and clearly are just people looking for free advertising and such. I guess I solved the problem by setting it up so the moderator has to approve all posts.

SWECJMC #4

A reception and dinner topped off the day Friday. Long-time educator and scholar John Merrill was acknowledged. The Northern Colorado School of Communication Director and university president welcomed the group to the university. A university jazz vocal group performed two songs.

The top six papers were recognized, including: "Gagging Trial Participants: Responsibility, Substantiality and Imminence of Prejudicial Publicity in Civil and Criminal Cases, 1991-2005," by Edward L. Carter and Brad Clark, Brigham Young University; and "Online Brand Personality: Test of Big-Five Personality Dimensions," by Hwiman Chung, New Mexico State University and Youngjun Sung, University of Georgia; and "Advertising Believability Based on Medium and Language: A Comparison of Hispanic and White Consumers," by Alex Ortiz, Texas Tech University; and "Victims, Villains and Heroes: Comparing Newspaper Coverage of World War II and the Iraq War," by James E. Mueller, University of North Texas; and "Misappropriation of Justice: Media Framing and the Supreme Court's Abolition of the Juvenile Death Penalty," by Emily Metzgar, Louisiana State University; and the first-place paper "Improving Web Literacy Among Students in an Introductory Journalism and Mass Communication Course,' by Sarah L. Naper and Wayne Melanson, University of Northern Colorado, and Molly Susan Mathias, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Members were reminded by Judith Sylvester of LSU that next year's symposium will be hosted the first weekend of November 2006 at Louisiana State University.

Gil Fowler led the group in honoring Marlin Shipman of Arkansas State University.

Incoming SWECJMC president Meta Carstarphen of the University of Oklahoma closed the program.

SWECJMC #3

At the same time of this session, a Special Tour is going on called "James A. Michenor Collection" Michenor was a graduate student and faculty member at the University of Northern Colorado and left an endowment and personal collection that is on public display.

The 4:15 p.m. Friday session began with Ray Niekamp from Texas State University - San Marcos presenting "Audience Activity Among Users of the World Wide Web." Uses and Gratifications research assumes and active audience, but are they really? There are passive viewers but there are also active or instrumental viewers--involved and focused on the content. If this is true in TV, does this also apply to the World Wide Web? Audience activity includes Selectivity, involvement and utility (How you make use of the media after you saession has ended. The study used an online survey of web users. 288 usable cases were analyzed. The study expected that a) instrumental users are more selective than ritualistic users, b) selection of informational content predicts an instrumental user, b2) Selection of entertainment content predicts a ritualistic user, c) selectivity during Web use predicts an instrumental user, d) involvement before Web use predicts an instrumental user, e) involvement during Web use predicts an instrumental user, and f) distractions predict ritualistic user. Is the WWW a mass communications medium. Uses and Gratifications is legitimate for studying the Web. Web site design is a practical application to this understanding.


Tony DeMars from Sam Houston State University next presented "Local TV Market Multicasting: A New Paradigm for Digital Television." Started by discussing problems with cable TV system and continued rate increases, problems with retransmission consent and the effect of forcing cable systems and DBS providers to carry extra, minimally-viewed channels from big program suppliers that own local market TV stations, continued rate increase from increasing sports rights fees and sports channels costs--that everyone pays for but few people watch. Local over-the-air DTV channels have the ability to carry 4-5 different services--referred to as multicasting. Presentation demonstrated how multicasting could act as a replacement for having to buy multiple channels through cable TV or DBS. Local (terrestrial) broadcasters could carry about four standard definition digitally-delivered channels on their one digital channel, or one high definition channel. During major events like a Super Bowl, or during prime time, the stations might have their one HD channel; during other dayparts, the stations could send multiple channels. For example, Viacom owns CBS and UPN and they also own local market TV stations. Their CBS affiliate in a market could carry the CBS network, but then also broadcast Viacom-owned channels like Spike TV, Nickelodeon, and TV Land. The locally-owned UPN station could carry UPN, but also MTV, VH1, CMT and BET. In this model, the channels go back to being only advertiser-supported, and the weaker channels will go away when they are not profitable. This compares to the current cable model where subscribers pay for scores of channels they never watch, and these channels that have very low viewership manage to stay on because of the way carriage is currently negotiated.

The final presenter is Edward L. Carter from Brigham Young University, speaking on "The Day Grokster Ate Sony: Examing the Rationale Behind..." Study was based on a Supreme Court case. Started with statement of coyright clause, definition of originality and fixed in a tangible medium, what copyrigjht protects, what copyright does for copyright holder. Copyright infringement--what happens upon infringement. Napster case in 2001 -- court found Napster could be liable for contributory infringement and vicarious infringement. AS Napster began charging users, Gokster and StreamCast came along and targeted previous Napster users. 9th Circuit Appeals court said Grokster did not have secondary liability because of the way it worked--had examples of non-infringing uses. Case then went to Supreme Court, that reversed the 9th Circuit's decision--result is to narrow application of Sony case (1984). Ruling said there was evidence in Grokster of intent to induce copyright violation. People thought the case would help clarify the Sony case, but it did not.

SWECJMC #2

Shu-Ling C. Berggreen from University of Colorado - Boulder is speaking at the symposium on "Multiculturalism in Children's Television: Disney and the Nickelodeon Examples." Children's programs expose children to cultural stereotypes and can accept images as the norm. Pocahontas example--people outside U.S. seeing this will not know the history, so this is the only way people 'know' the story of the history of European/American Indian events. The speaker noted that Chinese children for example would see this Disney film as a true story. Even though company's goal is to make money do they have a social responsibility to be socially/historically correct? Lilo and Stitch dolls shown and impact of program discussed. Even as a movie and TV show like this tries to promote multiculturalism, it reinforces stereotypes. Dora the Explorer discussed--Dora as a Latina--basics of characters and that Dora teaches Spanish as part of what children learn from the show. Dora first had blue eyes in first drawings for the show--but not realistic so adjusted to be accurate. Dora is successful and is not so stereotypically done--cultural and social responsibility can be met while also having corporate profitability.

The final speaker in this session is Hwiman Chung from New Mexico State University presenting "The Effects of Web Site Sequence: The Role of Personal Difference." The study is about the structural effects of web sites on users. Many studies on effects of interactiviy--but much of the evidence is based on unrealistic materials, only a few studies have looked at ad design and effects. So the research questions linear or interactive structure as more effective. Different types of structures--hieracrchical, relationally linked or mixed type. Which has the greatest effectiveness? Study also recognizes five different personality dimensions, and the study is based on social responsibility theory.

Southwest Education Education Council for Journalism and Mass Communication

The SWECJMC symposium (see http://www.swecjmc.org) at the University of Northern Colorado is underway 11/4/05. The first sessions at 1 p.m. included

Nicole Smith –Ph.D. student at UNC--Current State of Online Education in J and MC
56% offered distance education; most use online--U. of Phoenix now the nation’s largest private university--Criticism—what is the quality? Purpose—discover what is being done, share findings with others involved, offer this info online. Stage 1—nationwide mail survey – sent to more than 500 universities. 37 schools offering courses and or degrees in J/MC. See LSU web site Stage 2: follow-up, qualitative with those 37 schools—54% response rate. Limited number of schools offering certificates, degrees (bachelors or masters). Limitations in offering these kinds of degrees noted. Problems with faculty assignments. Equipment resources issues
Problems—time required, student apathy, students expect faculty to be available 24 hours, faculty motivation, students may expect the courses to be easier—higher drop rate
Conclusions—university support manadatory, faculty member has to be in charge of deciding what/how, maybe use to reach students you can’t reach now
Know your audience --huge potential 70 million working adults w/o college degree

Cheryl Pawlowski U. of Northern Colorado
Chat Room conversations
Internet as a democratic form of communication – but what we expected is not what has happened—listing of facts about how people use chat rooms, what people use Internet for
Research questions—based on 19 students given gender-specific or neutral usernames. Males communicated more with gender based names and less when user name was gender neutral; females communicated more when username was gender-neutral.

Sarah Naper Northern Colarado
Improving Web Literacy in an Introductory J and MC Course
Literature-- Singh (2005) perception of literacy study
Pre-test administered in computer lab – general Internet knowledge etc.
But this time added a tutorial with four units
Then did post test
Research questions about web literacy
The online tutorial seems to improve web literacy

Last speaker, Mary Tolan of Northern Arizona University, with Facing Media Convergence--In the Newsrooms, In the Classrooms."

At 2:30, I'm listening to Kendra Gale from U. of Colorado - Boulder present "'I haven't made a scrapbook for either of my kids. Does that make me a bad mother?' Scrapbooks and Social Reproduction of the Good Mother"
The presentation said the symbolic interaction of scrapbooking creates the image of being a good mother. The documeted materials of a scrapbook reinforce the notion of good motherhood. More to come...