AEJMC & ASJMC Presidential Statement to U.S. Sinclair-owned Stations
Contact: Jennifer Greer, AEJMC President • 205-348-6304 or Sonya Forte Duhé, ASJMC President • 504-865-3633 | April 18, 2018
We, the Boards of Directors of AEJMC and ASJMC, stand in support of the letter sent earlier this month to Sinclair Broadcast Group about the danger of news organizations interfering with the journalistic process. By requiring news personnel to read prescribed corporate commentary without labeling it as such, Sinclair compromised the viewers’ trust. We condemn this behavior and encourage autonomy among journalists.
Please read the letter signed by deans, directors, and other leaders in our field below.
April 6, 2018
David D. Smith
Executive Chairman
Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc.
10706 Beaver Dam Road
Hunt Valley, MD 21030
Mr. Smith:
We are writing to you as faculty and leadership of journalism schools that have produced many fine graduates who have gone on to work at Sinclair-owned stations across the United States. Our comments are informed by our awareness of these fine, responsible, ethical journalists at Sinclair stations who have spent years building reputations as professionals with high standards for accurate and ethical news reporting.
One of the tenets of American journalism and one of the foundations of American democracy is that news reporting serves as an independent voice free from government censorship and influence. Moreover, American news consumers have come to expect that news professionals cover news rather than advance the business or political interests of news organization owners.
While news organizations have historically had and used the prerogative to publish and broadcast editorials clearly identified as opinion, we believe that line was crossed at Sinclair stations when anchors were required to read scripts making claims about “the troubling trend of irresponsible, one-sided news stories plaguing our country.”
Certainly, no news organization is beyond critique. And, as the Sinclair stations noted, social media have been used all too often to spread “false news.” But these are two very different things – the work of professional journalists who produce real news and the false accounts on social media. In making the leap to disparage news media generally – without specifics – Sinclair has diminished trust in the news media overall. Ironically, Sinclair’s use of news personnel to deliver commentary – not identified as such – may further erode what has traditionally been one of the strongest allegiances in the news landscape, the trust that viewers put in their local television stations. Indeed, the fears articulated in the Sinclair script regarding an extreme danger posed to democracy by news media telling the public what to think describes our fears about the impact of the Sinclair must-carry script.
We have heard from students who now are apprehensive that what they have come to believe and appreciate about ethical and unbiased news reporting will come into conflict with demands placed on them by future employers. We would like to be able to continue to enjoy the relationship we have had with Sinclair, which provides our students with important opportunities to advance their careers while maintaining their journalistic integrity. We hope that your response to these concerns will make that continued and mutually beneficial relationship possible.
Click here to view the complete letter signed by deans, directors, and other leaders in our field.
Tips from the AEJMC Teaching Committee
Five Tips to Make the Second Half of Your Class Better than the First
By Jennifer Jacobs Henderson
AEJMC Standing Committee on Teaching
Professor and Chair
Department of Communication
Trinity University
(Article courtesy of AEJMC News, March 2018 issue)
The first days of the new term are like visiting Disney World for the first time. Everything is new and shiny. All wishes can be granted and all hopes fulfilled. The second half of the semester is more like holding on to the seat in front of you on a roller coaster. There doesn’t seem to be any good way to change course as everyone careens toward the end of the term, screaming in fear.
The second-half of the term doesn’t have to be all panic and final exams, though. With a few small changes, you and your students can leave the academic term feeling accomplishment rather than anxiety.
1. Ask students what is working (and what isn’t). Midterm is an excellent time to find out how things in your class are going. Not what the students have learned or not learned (what you grade) but how your teaching is going (what they grade). These formative class assessments are helpful for both professors and students. Not surprisingly, students often see class much differently than we do. Time and again, we think class is going poorly when students are enjoying it, or we think it is amazing and they are lost, bored or both. Midterm is a great time to figure out the reality (which is often somewhere in between these extremes).
An assessment like this can easily backfire if not carefully planned, though, turning into a gripe session rather than a productive exercise. To avoid the piling-on that can occur, ask things like: “what do you like most about class so far?” and “What one thing would you change if you could?” These questions allow students to give useful feedback that can actually be integrated into your future class sessions.
2. Implement the best suggestions. If you ask students for feedback and then do nothing with it, you are actually harming both you and them. It is better not to implement a formative assessment at all than pretend you are listening to students. Trust is an essential classroom element. Like molecular binding, it connects professors and students in a symbiotic, stable balance. I tell students before they complete a midterm evaluation of the class that there are things that I won’t change (assigning readings, giving exams), things that I can’t change (the date of the final, the number of credit hours of the class), and everything else, which can be altered.
In past semesters, I’ve changed the amount of material we cover each session, the options for writing projects and the make-up of student teams, all because students said the change would make the class better. They were right. It did. Every time.
3. Remind students you listened. If you ask students for their input, and you’ve made changes based on that input, don’t forget to tell them so. Try to include as many students as possible in the praise, such as “Many of you suggested moving reading quizzes to Mondays when there is more time for reading. That’s really paid off in raising quiz scores. Great idea.”
When students feel their ideas are taken seriously, they move from recipients of information to participants in education.
4. Change it up. By the time you get to the second half of the term, everyone in the classroom has figured out the routine and the expectations. Of course, this is what we want. To an extent. There is a fine line between routine and boredom. So, change things up. Go outside. Do a team exercise. Let them use their phones. Add a guest speaker.
Students never complain that they didn’t do exactly what was on the syllabus for one day, but they always seem to remember the mock trial or ethics debate or television history timeline you added to liven things up after the thrill of Spring Break has faded. Low-stress surprises are a great way to improve productivity in the last weeks or months of the term. Like the groundhog, we all need to get out of the winter rut.
5. Plan an end-of-term celebration. I am a strong believer in marking occasions with celebrations. Birthdays. The Super Bowl. Ice Cream Day. My family makes fun of the fact that I have 17 door mats, one for each calendar holiday (and some for holidays I’ve invented). This philosophy has carried over to the classroom as well. While I have many colleagues who think my celebrations are beneath the dignity of the academy, I am a full professor, and I’m pretty sure that it’s okay to have fun while you learn.
Examples of celebrations? Breakfast tacos during final presentations (I live in Texas). An exam review game with media fandom prizes (who doesn’t like a Wonder Woman pencil?). A snack free-for-all where students bring their favorite childhood treats (Gushers, anyone?). The end-of-term celebration is not a reward for surviving your course; it is an acknowledgement that they have reached another milestone. Something to celebrate for sure.
Tips from the AEJMC Teaching Committee
Some Thoughts on Advising
By Natalie Tindall
AEJMC Standing Committee on Teaching
Chair
Department of Communication
Lamar University
(Article courtesy of AEJMC News, January 2018 issue)
Academics have an opinion on everything, including the issue of faculty advising. Some of us would prefer to advise the students in their departments from the moment they step on campus until the moment they walk across the stage. Some of us would rather chew glass than add another layer of work and work-related stress on top of the triad of teaching, research, and service. Some people don’t know what advising is or looks like, but they are terrified of it in any form.
Now here is what the president of a national advising association said about faculty advising: “When it comes to helping students be engaged, to give them advice about what they need to do outside the classroom, faculty are not always the best,” said Charlie L. Nutt, executive director of the National Academic Advising Association, which represents professional advisers. “It’s not because they don’t care, but because they are hired to teach a specific set of courses. So they end up advising like they were advised in college: They give students a schedule and send them on their way.”
Ouch. That hurts. We can do better than that.
Many of us are required to do formal advising – the make-an-appointment-and-let’s-look-at-classes advising. Research on the topic of advising finds that these interstitial, informal advising moments as well as the more formal appointments play a role in promoting student success (Light, 2001), retaining college students (Feghali, Zbib, & Hallal, 2011) and bonding students to the university (Heisserer, 2002).
Whatever your opinion is and whatever your title and role is on campus, faculty can do more with advising. Here are some tips and ideas. I hope this advice helps makes your spring 2018 advising a bit smoother and less hectic.
Understand the value and weight of advising. Kennemer and Hurt (2013) recognized that faculty priorities may not be solely focused on advising: “the quality of faculty advising can be impacted by the lack of reward for advising…Tenure track faculty are typically consumed with other responsibilities including teaching, scholarship, and service. In many cases, exceptional advising and out of classroom access to students is expected but has no real impact towards the tenure or promotion process.” Delve into your the promotion and tenure guidelines for your unit and the faculty handbook and note how advising is counted. If there are no specific, clear expectations for advising, the authors advocate for faculty to “[w]ork with appropriate colleagues and campus administrators to make advising part of reappointment / promotion / tenure criteria.”
Know your role. Faculty and graduate students are not professional advisors, and that is important to note. We should know what perspectives exist on advising as well as best practices for working with undergraduate students. Montag et al. (2012) outlined the three orientations toward advising: prescriptive, developmental, and praxis. Crockett (1987) believed that the best role for faculty to assume is the developmental role where the faculty is a guide/mentor. That role may not work for all faculty. Some faculty might only be information centers, and “Disseminating accurate information such as degree plans and institutional deadlines is important, especially early in the advising relationship” (Kennemer & Hurt, 2013). This is known as prescriptive advising. Finally, other faculty members may choose a hybrid method known as praxis advising, where “advisors give students expert advice on course selection, but also engage them in discussions about their declared major” (Montag et al., 2012, p. 27). Whatever your preferred role is, it may shift dependent on the context and the student (Smith, 2002).
Be prepared. Brush up on your institution’s requirements and your department’s requirements. Know who you are meeting with and review their status, current classes and degree plan. Also, be aware of additional resources on campus that may be helpful and necessary for students (e.g., the Student Health Center, Counseling Center, Office of Disability Support Services, Tutoring Center).
Document the appointment. Take thorough notes on what happened in the meeting. Place in the student’s paper file or electronic file so other faculty members or advisors have a record of what was shared. You may want to email or copy the notes for the student as well, so they can keep a personal archive of their progress toward graduation. As a department chair who has to validate students for graduation, I appreciate a complete set of advising notes in a student file.
Ask that your students be an active participant in the advising process. Crockett (1987) considered an effective advising situation to be one where all of those involved assume certain responsibilities and complete those responsibilities. For your students, their responsibilities should include thinking about the purpose of the advising appointment, having a list of questions or concerns, reviewing their transcript/degree audit for missing classes, and knowing which classes they would like to take during the next semester. The student handbook my department is developing gives students a checklist of things to do to prepare for an advising session.
Advising is not a one-time event. Developing a relationship, especially a student-faculty advisor relationship, requires commitment, trust, and satisfaction. For a student to develop a trusting connection, he/she will need to have frequent interactions with the advisor. Faculty can encourage this by contacting the students via email, opening up office hours for drop-in advising appointments.
Consider your professional liabilities. Many universities are moving to having all or part of advising done by people with the time and expertise to advise on pathways and document these interactions with students. Juggling multiple student appointments between teaching, research and service responsibilities can set up a faculty member for exhaustion as well as making mistakes. No one wants to make an error that would prevent a student from progressing in a degree plan or graduating, but mistakes can and do happen. Just in case, I would recommend that you consider professional liability insurance.
Look for discipline-specific advising assistance. Although we are not trained to do advising in most graduate programs, all of us – graduate students, instructors, tenured and tenure-track faculty – will advise students informally. We will receive questions about which classes to take, which professors (in other departments, of course) to avoid, and what I should do with my life, and we will try our best to answer those questions. If you cannot find any, ask your organization or divisions to provide relevant, specific help via the annual conference, webinars and task forces/committees.
References
Crockett, D. S. (1987). Advising skills, techniques and resources: A compilation of materials related to the organization and delivery of advising services. Iowa City: ACT Corporation.
Feghali, T., Zbib, I., & Hallal, S. (2011). A web-based decision support tool for academic advising. Educational Technology & Society, 14(1), 82.94.
Heisserer, D. L., & Parette, P. (2002). Advising at-risk students in college and university settings. College Student Journal, 36(1), 69-84.
Kennemer, C., & Hurt, B. (2013). Faculty advising. Retrieved from http://www.nacada.ksu.edu/Resources/Clearinghouse/View-Articles/Facultyadvising.aspx
Light, R.J. (2001). Making the Most of College: Students Speak Their Minds. Boston: Harvard University Press.
Montag, T., Campo, J., Weissman, J., Walmsley, A., & Snell, A. (2012). In their own words: Best practices for advising millennial students about majors. NACADA Journal, 32(2), 26-35.
Selingo, J. (2014, April 13). Who advises best, pros or profs? Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/13/education/edlife/who-advises-best-pros-orprofs.html?_r=0
Smith, J. S. (2002). First-year student perceptions of academic advisement: A qualitative study and reality check. NACADA Journal, 22(2), 39-49
Tips from the AEJMC Teaching Committee
Strategies for Leading Discussions of Race and Diversity in the Classroom
By Karen M. Turner
AEJMC Standing Committee on Teaching
Associate Professor
Department of Journalism
Temple University
(Article courtesy of AEJMC News, November 2017 issue)
My original idea for this month’s column was to focus on recapping and providing advice from a robust teaching panel discussion I participated in at the 2017 Chicago AEJMC Conference entitled, “Your Candidate Is a Loser – Strategies for Leading Discussions of Race and Diversity in the Classroom.” And then Hurricane Maria slammed into the Caribbean and I got another idea.
Since both are important, this column will address two issues.
Strategies for Leading Discussions of Race and Diversity in the Classroom
The idea for the AEJMC panel came from Iona’s Mitchell Bard. He said the spark was watching the now president make racist comments during the presidential campaign and emboldening people with similar views to speak so openly. He questioned what he would do if a student said something offensive or insensitive in his class. As teaching chair of the Political Communication Interest Group, Bard said he approached the Minorities and Communication Division’s Melody Fischer about co-sponsoring and the panel collaboration was born.
All four panelists provided tips from their well-worn teaching toolboxes and strategized with audience participants about specific classroom challenges. I shared many of the teaching strategies I wrote about in my March 2017 column:
http://www.aejmc.org/home/2017/02/conversation-about-race/
What made the panel so valuable was the diversity of the panelists and their institutional environments.
Here are some words of wisdom from panelist Katy Culver, Wisconsin-Madison ():
• Pay attention to your course materials. I realized my readings in a technology class tilted almost entirely male. One of my lectures on visual communication included only one example featuring a person of color and that was in a negative context. Things like the names you include in assignments or quizzes matter. Diversify across the board.
• Recognize that group projects can be a problem. Students’ implicit — or explicit — biases can make these projects thorny, yet problems are often invisible to you. I set up surveys at different mile markers in a project and ask students about the dynamics in the group. I don’t make it explicitly about race, gender, class or other variables that can raise bias concerns. Instead, I ask things like, “Is there anything I can do to help you be successful within your group?”
One time, an adult returning student used this opportunity to tell me she felt shunned by her group members because she worked two jobs to put herself through school, which made meeting times tough to coordinate. I was able to both advise her on how to respond directly and alter my schedule, so class time could be used for meeting.
• Talk about bias early and openly. I have students take a survey at the start of the semester about the kinds of qualities they think they have and the kinds they value in other people. I talk about how we may think we value others regardless of our differences, but what we think and how we act can be at odds.
I have them do a reading on unconscious bias, and we talk about it in class. I haven’t had much luck with readings that are academic in nature. Instead, I use more popular ones, like this Fast Company article: https://www.fastcompany.com/3044738/7-simple-methods-to-fight-against-your-unconscious-biases.
I also use current examples, saying things like, “I watched CBS News this morning and got ticked off because they went 21 minutes before I saw a female source used in a story. Do you guys ever notice that? Why do you think that happens?”
The Importance of Leading Discussions about News Coverage
I always teach a media literacy module focusing on what stories are missing from the news; or perhaps were covered in depth just weeks ago and have disappeared from the headlines; or those stories covered but perhaps not completely.
A day or so following Hurricane Maria’s destruction in the Caribbean, I was scheduled to begin this literacy module. We talked about the top stories in the news including the aftermath of Hurricane Maria and the devastating conditions reported on the ground in Puerto Rico.
I pressed them to tell me about the condition of the other islands that were in Maria’s path. Then I asked them to check their various mainstream media sources for hurricane reports. What we found were numerous stories about the worsening situation in Puerto Rico. At this point I shared with my class a friend’s personal story to illustrate the reality of stories not covered.
The weekend following the storm, a colleague was desperately trying to get her daughter and fiancé off the island of St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. That group of islands had suffered devastating damage, too, resulting in no electricity, lack of water and limited access to medical care – just to name a few of their challenges. However, the story of the U.S. Virgin Islands was missing from U.S. mainstream media reports.
When I personalized a situation where reporting was lacking, the students seemed to grasp how the gatekeeping function of journalism can fall short. I admitted that my personal connection to the Virgin Islands made me more aware of the reportorial shortcomings. We then identified other stories that had disappeared from the headlines such as the latest about ISIS, Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria.
What’s encouraging is we then looked at several reputable social media sources where we found stories that were outside the reporting of mainstream outlets. With so much media attention to low-hanging fruit and shiny objects, it’s always good to remind ourselves and this generation of news consumers to be aware of those important issues that are under-covered or not covered at all.
JLID Fellows
Universities listed were at the time of graduation from the JLID program.
JLID Fellows 2008-09 [Final class of the JLID program.]
- Brigitta Brunner, Auburn University
- Heidi Hatfield Edwards, Florida Institute of Technology
- Marie Hardin, Penn State University
- Karen Kline, Lock Haven University
- Teresa Lamsam, University of Nebraska Omaha
- Loren Mulraine, Middle Tennessee State University
- Greg Pitts, Bradley University
- William Sutton, Achieving the Dream
- Frances Ward-Johnson, Elon University
JLID Fellows 2007-08
- Kathy Bradshaw, Bowling Green State University
- Carolyn Byerly, Howard University
- Anita Fleming-Rife, Grambling State University
- Jon Funabiki, San Francisco State University
- Sherlynn Howard-Byrd, Alcorn State University
- Kimberly Lauffer, Towson University
- Julianne Newton, University of Oregon
- Humphrey Regis, North Carolina A&T University
- Felecia Jones Ross, Ohio State University
JLID Fellows 2006-07
- Louise Benjamin, Associate Professor, University of Georgia
- Linda Callahan, Professor North Carolina A&T State University
- Rochelle Ford, Associate Professor, Howard University
- Louisa Ha, Associate Professor, Bowling Green State University
- Suzanne Huffman, Professor, Texas Christian University
- Mary Jean Land, Professor, Georgia College & State University
- Amy Reynolds, Associate Professor, Indiana University
- Sharon Stringer, Associate Professor, Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania
- Barbara Zang, Associate Professor, Worcester State College
JLID Fellows 2005-06
- Professor Hub Brown, Associate Professor, Syracuse University
- Dr. Lillie Fears, Associate Professor, Arkansas State University
- Dr. Mary-Lou Galician, Associate Professor, Arizona State University
- Dr. Robyn Goodman, Associate Professor, Alfred University
- Dr. Derina Holtzhausen, Professor, University of South Florida
- Dr. Sundeep Muppidi, Associate Professor, University of Hartford
- Dr. Zeny Sarabia-Panol, Professor, Middle Tennessee State University
- Dr. James Tsao, Associate Professor, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh
JLID Fellows 2004-05
- Dr. Debashis “Deb” Aikat, Associate Professor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Dr. Elizabeth V. Burt, Associate Professor, University of Hartford
- Dr. Dwight E. Brooks, Associate Professor, University of Georgia
- Dr. Jinx C. Broussard, Associate Professor, Dillard University, Associate Professor, Louisiana State Univ.
- Dr. Kris Bunton, Professor, University of St. Thomas
- Dr. Caryl Cooper, Assistant Dean of Undergraduate Studies, Associate Professor, University of Alabama
- Dr. Judith “Judy” Cramer, Associate Professor, St. John’s University
- Dr. Jennifer Greer, Associate Professor, University of Nevada-Reno
- Dr. Linda Jones, Director, School of Communication, Associate Professor, Roosevelt University
- Dr. Therese “Terry” L. Lueck, Professor, The University of Akron
- Dr. Virginia “Ginny” Whitehouse, Associate Professor, Whitworth College
JLID Fellows 2003-04
- Dr. Eddith Dashiell, Ohio University, Associate Professor, Scripps School of Journalism, Associate Dean, College of Communication, Ohio University
- Dr. Barbara DeSanto, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Associate Professor, Graduate Program Coordinator, Department of Communication Studies
- Dr. Nancy Mitchell, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Associate Professor, Department Chair, College of Journalism and Mass Communications
- Dr. Jan Quarles, Middle Tennessee State University, Professor, Assistant Dean, College of Mass Communication
- Dr. Sandra Utt, University of Memphis, Associate Professor, Assistant Chair, Journalism Department
- Dr. Liz Watts, Texas Tech University, Associate Professor, Associate Director, School of Mass Communication
- Dr. Maria Williams-Hawkins, Ball State University, Associate Professor, Department of Telecommunication, College of Communication, Information and Media
JLID Fellows 2002-03
- Dr. Janet Bridges, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Associate Professor, Department of Communication
- Dr. Kathleen Endres, University of Akron, Professor, School of Communication
- Dr. John Omachonu, William Paterson University, Associate Professor, Chair, Department of Communication
- Dr. Federico Subervi, Pace University, Professor, Chair, Department of Communication Studies
- Dr. Birgit Wassmuth, Drake University, Professor, School of Journalism and Mass Communication
- Dr. Jan Whitt, University of Colorado at Boulder, Associate Professor, School of Journalism and Mass Communication
- Dr. Lynn Zoch, University of South Carolina, Associate Professor, College of Journalism and Mass Communications
JLID Fellows 2000-02 [Inaugural class began as a two-year fellowship.]
- Prof. Sandra Birdiette, Wayne State University
- Dr. Kenneth Campbell, University of South Carolina
- Dr. Shannon Campbell, University of Kansas
- Dr. Meta Carstarphen, University of Oklahoma
- Dr. Qingwin Dong, University of the Pacific
- Dr. Martin Edu, Grambling State University
- Dr. Kathleen Fearn-Banks, University of Washington
- Dr. Camilla Gant, State University of West Georgia
- Dr. Cathy Jackson, Norfolk State University
- Dr. Phil Jeter, Florida A&M University
- Dr. Carmen Manning-Miller, University of Mississippi
- Dr. Diana Rios, University of Connecticut
- Dr. John Sanchez, Penn State University
- Dr. Jeanne Scafella, Murray State University
- Dr. Linda Steiner, Rutgers University
- Dr. Karen Turner, Temple University
Tips from the AEJMC Teaching Committee
Are your students jittery, jaded or jazzed after the first day of class?
By Carol Schwalbe
AEJMC Standing Committee on Teaching
Associate Professor
Director of Graduate Studies
School of Journalism
University of Arizona
(Article courtesy of AEJMC News, September 2017 issue)
Summer is over, and the semester is about to begin. You’ve ordered books, selected readings and finished the syllabus.
But have you paid much attention to what you’ll cover on the first day of class beyond reviewing the syllabus?
Years ago, I met an architecture professor who told me that he launched his course by skimming over the syllabus, then energizing the students about the semester ahead by asking them a thought-provoking question: What is architecture? Does it have to be a human-built construction, or can it be an inspirational space, such as Lascaux Cave? What about a circus tent? A beehive? An egg carton? A merry-go-round? A log cabin? A computer program? A bonfire?
Before long, we were engaged in a lively discussion.
I often think of this encounter as I prepare for the first day of class each semester.
Here are a variety of ways you can immerse your students in the content of your course and get them excited about the semester ahead. These activities will help you learn the students’ names, their aspirations and what will motivate them to do well in your course. The students are actively engaged. They begin to learn one another’s names, and they start doing journalism on the first day of class.
First Impressions
Students will size you up in just a few seconds. To set a positive tone, greet each student individually before your class begins.
Dive into Content
Save the syllabus review for the end of the class. Instead, use the first valuable minutes to stimulate students’ interest in your course. Ask a thought-provoking question, as the architecture professor did. Or pose an ethical issue, discuss a hot news topic or critique a media piece.
Speed Interviewing
I do a variation of speed dating known as speed interviewing. In addition to serving as an icebreaker, this activity primes students to listen for quotable quotes. We also review interviewing tips, such as keeping eye contact while taking notes.
Before we start, we discuss the advantages of open-ended versus close-ended questions, then list possible items to ask about during the interview:
Name, including the correct spelling of first name and last name
Hometown
Favorite things to do
Reasons for studying journalism
Best or worst journalism experience
Dream career
Contact information
With notebook in hand, the students pair off and interview their classmate. The students then switch roles.
Volunteers introduce their classmate and include a quotable quote. I give the volunteers a reporter’s notebook or extra credit. Afterward, the group discusses the questions that worked well and those that didn’t — and why.
If I have enough time, the students write a short bio (between 250 and 300 words) of their classmate. They then exchange the bio with their classmate, who checks it for accuracy. The students hand in the bios, which give me a sense of the strengths and weaknesses of their interviewing and writing skills.
Sharing the Syllabus
To free up time for activities like speed interviewing, I ask the students to read the syllabus ahead of time and come prepared to answer questions. Here are examples:
What two things surprised you about this syllabus?
What two questions do you have about this course?
What’s exciting you about this course?
What’s confusing or making you nervous about this course?
What would you change?
I post the syllabus in our course management system several days before the first class, then email the assignment to the students.
Divvy up the Syllabus
If you prefer to review the syllabus in class, you can save time by dividing the students into small groups. Each group reviews a different section of the syllabus and shares the five most interesting/surprising things with their classmates.
Ticket Out
In the last few minutes of class I hand out blank 3×5 index cards. On this Ticket Out the students write two things they want to get out of class besides an A, along with any concerns, questions or things they’re looking forward to. The cards are anonymous, so students can express their honest feelings. During the next class I review the students’ answers, which often reveal concerns and misperceptions I can address early on.
Wrap up 5 or 10 minutes early
For some reason, many students resent profs who go the whole time on the first day of class. It’s a quirky thing with students. If you wrap up a bit early that first day, they will appreciate it. You can make up for the shortened class later in the semester.
Bottom line
These activities make students more excited about the semester ahead than they would be if we devoted the first class to reviewing the syllabus.
Tips from the AEJMC Teaching Committee
Drones: Just Another Tool
By Mary T. Rogus
AEJMC Standing Committee on Teaching
Associate Professor
E.W. Scripps School of Journalism
Ohio University
(Article courtesy of AEJMC News, July 2017 issue)
“Drone journalism? I didn’t know they could write.” Sometimes it takes someone completely unattached to journalism to cut right to the heart of an issue. Suddenly the thousand or so words already written to make a point seemed superfluous, but since they’re written, here they are.
Two summers ago, a television station in my local market, Columbus, OH, received one of the FCC waivers to operate a drone for commercial purposes (before the licensing rules were adopted). With great promotional fanfare, the drone was named and launched. Every night on the evening news there was at least one story with drone video and multiple live aerial shots for weather, traffic or beauty bumper shots. Only about one in four of the stories effectively used or needed the drone video, and the weather and traffic shots were no better than those the station already had from tower and traffic cameras.
I was immediately transported back to my years as a television news producer when some shiny new piece of technology came into our newsroom, and we were tasked with finding ways to use it. I vividly remember the frustration, shared by many, of having to kill legitimate stories so we could go to one more “Sky-7” chopper shot for breaking news, that often wasn’t news at all.
That same “finding ways to use our new technological toy” attitude seemed to be the focus of drone classes presented at a recent academic conference for educators in broadcast and digital media. We heard all about what equipment to buy, and teaching students to operate drones and pass the certification test. One class even received a grant to buy kits for each student to build his or her own drone. But it wasn’t until we got to ask questions that there was any mention of ethics, or when and why to use drone video.
There is no question that drones already are enhancing video journalism in the same way that helicopters did in the 1970’s and 80’s. It’s difficult to remember the days when we covered floods, tornado and hurricane damage, wild fires, crop damage from droughts, etc. without helicopter cameras. And that view from above provides an important perspective to coverage of marches and protests, while also being safer for journalists on the ground. More important, drones make aerial photography and videography accessible to a much wider range of journalism outlets because they are less expensive to own and operate.
Getting certified to fly a drone and having the skills to shoot video or pictures with it would be a valuable extra for a journalism student entering the job market. But the essential skill is knowing when drone video or pictures are the best way to visualize a story and when they are simply a distraction. You do not need to be a certified Apple trainer to edit a compelling video story. You do not need to know how to take apart and put together a Sony XDCAM to shoot good video stories.
University of Nebraska’s Drone Journalism Lab and University of Missouri’s Drone Journalism Program have the right idea in training students and professionals to use drones as one tool for visual storytelling. Both run regular workshops (although Missouri also is now teaching a full class) and have a professional staff, with certified and experienced pilots to operate and maintain the drone equipment. They have developed drone operation manuals, with safety and ethics prominently discussed. They also do what journalism schools should do with new technology — experiment and research the ways it can help journalists tell better stories. In addition, Poynter partnered with UN’s Drone Journalism Lab, Google News Lab and the National Press Photographers Association to provide intensive three-day workshops on using drones for journalism.
The Professional Society of Drone Journalists (yes, there is one!) developed what it calls a layered approach to drone ethics, layered on top of existing ethics codes from organizations such as SPJ, RTNDA and NPPA. There are five layers creating a pyramid — the foundation of the pyramid is Newsworthiness and the top of the pyramid is Traditional Journalism Ethics:
• Traditional ethics. “As outlined by professional codes of conduct for journalists.”
• Privacy. “The drone must be operated in a fashion that does not needlessly compromise the privacy of non-public figures…”
• Sanctity of law and public spaces. “A drone operator must abide by the regulations that apply to the airspace where the drone is operated whenever possible…”
• Safety. “A drone operator must first be adequately trained in the operation of his or her equipment. The equipment itself must be in a condition suitable for safe and controlled flight….”
• Newsworthiness. “The investigation must be of sufficient journalistic importance to risk using a potentially harmful aerial vehicle. Do not use a drone if the information can be gathered by other, safer means.”
As journalism educators, we struggle with the journalistic value and ethical considerations, not to mention the skills learning, of constant technological innovation. A digital editor for the New York Times provided very helpful advice during a Poynter seminar on the Future of Journalism. As we eagerly asked which software and hardware we should be teaching our students, he said, “None! Any technology they use in college will be obsolete by the time they enter the job market.” Instead he urged us to always emphasize the story. Then get them so adaptable to changing technology, that when they have an idea for a story element, it’s second nature to google search for the freeware tool they need and find the YouTube video that teaches them how to use it. The first thing I did when I got back to my office was delete every step-by-step cheat sheet I had painstakingly created for the tools my students use.
Sources:
PSDJ Code of Ethics for Drone Journalists, http://www.dronejournalism.org/code-of-ethics/
Poynter, https://www.poynter.org/
The Drone Journalism Lab, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, http://www.dronejournalismlab.org/
Visual Communication 2017 Abstracts
Online Coverage of Brittany Maynard’s Death: Visual and Verbal Information • Kelsie Arnold; Kimberly Lauffer • This study examined textual and visual elements in web-based coverage of Brittany Maynard’s decision to exercise Oregon’s right to die in order to understand how the media framed their coverage using multimedia components. The authors used a qualitative perspective and a quantitative data collection instrument to synthesize data and key themes that emerged from the research. Culturally embedded frames, loaded language, and graphic elements were all deemed essential to telling the story of Brittany Maynard.
Attributes of Likable Organizational Logos: An Exploratory Study using Q Methodology • Angie Chung; Dennis Kinsey • Logos have a big impact on how people feel about an organization. The goal of this research is to identify the subjective perceptions when people evaluate logos and explore what elements affect the likability of organizational logos. This exploratory research used Q Methodology to quantitatively and qualitatively examine subjective preferences for different types of logos. Forty participants sorted 50 organizational logos (Q sample) from “most appealing” (+5) to “most unappealing” (-5). Three different factors emerged from the correlation and factor analysis—the first group expressed the importance of color, the second group thought logos with living creatures were appealing and the third group were attracted to logos suggesting dynamic movement. Findings are discussed in terms of practical implications for how organizations can choose logos that can be received more positively.
A reciprocal-networked model of the photojournalistic icon: From the print-television news era to the present • Nicole Dahmen, University of Oregon; David Perlmutter, Texas Tech University; Natalia Mielczarek, Virginia Tech • Millions of news images have been created, but only a relative few have become the fabled “icons” of photojournalism that have been popularly ascribed with extraordinary powers to mobilize national opinion, start or stop wars, or at least capture “decisive moments” in history. Since most of the photoicon era occurred when news was a wholly industrial (via print and then broadcast and cable) enterprise, media gatekeeping has been a critical component of the process of icon creation, distribution, and maintenance. Traditionally, news photographs became iconic, in large part, through their purposive, industrially defined, and prominent placement on elite newspaper front pages and lead position in broadcast/cable news across the globe. But as we rapidly move away from print news and towards a digital/internet/social news environment, what is the effect on the formation of iconic imagery? We argue that it is both a changed reality of news delivery formats and the democratization of news production and dissemination via social media that predicates a theoretical shift in the formation of iconic imagery. Using the historical research method, we draw from current theoretical tenets of iconic image formation and leading research on iconic imagery to present propositions of a model of iconicity that we term the “reciprocal-networked model of iconicity,” which presents four central and related stages: creation, distribution, acceleration, and formation. We conclude this philosophy of images with some speculative predictions about the development of photoicons within the evolution of our reciprocal-networked model, arguing that several trends are predictable.
Fire, ice or drought? Picturing humanity in climate change imagery • Kim Sheehan; Nicole Dahmen, University of Oregon; David Morris II, University of Oregon • Despite scientific evidence of climate change, Americans continue to minimize its importance. At the same time, research suggests that advocacy campaigns and news media coverage of climate change—both text and images—do not necessarily resonate with audiences. The current study brings together existing theory on the knowledge-deficit model and research findings on both climate change imagery and story personification to explore in a 3x3x2 experiment how photographs relating to climate change have the best potential to connect with people regarding emotion and engagement.
Resignifying Alan Kurdi: News photographs, memes, and the ethics of visual representation • Meenakshi Gigi Durham, Iowa • The Turkish photojournalist Nilufer Demir’s photograph of the drowned refugee child Alan Kurdi attained worldwide recognition as a media spectacle, initially prompting humanitarian responses and political action, but later morphing into online memes and inciting public backlash as “war porn.” I argue here that the ethical motivations of photojournalism and memes are oppositional with regard to their representations of embodied vulnerability. While photojournalistic depictions of vulnerable bodies are motivated by an ethics of care intended to generate empathy and progressive social change, memes disrupt those affective connotations through processes of mimicry and replication. By means of a comparative semiological analysis, this paper examines the way the sign system of Demir’s photograph was mutated into a meme, radically changing the ethical connotations of the former. The differing ethical affordances of news photos versus memes, and their relationship, may help to explain the reversal of the cosmopolitan humanitarianism initially sparked by the Alan Kurdi photograph and tell us more about the ethical frictions and contrapositions at work in the contemporary media environment.
Access, deconstructed: An analysis of metajournalistic discourse concerning photojournalism and access • Patrick Ferrucci, U of Colorado; Ross Taylor, University of Colorado • This study examines metajournalistic discourse published surrounding the intersection of photojournalism and access. Researchers conducted a textual analysis of metajournalistic discourse published in articles by The Image, Deconstructed from 2011 to 2017 (N=70). Findings suggest that photojournalists define access differently than scholars. They obtain access through purposeful body language and verbal communication, clarity of intent and persistence. These findings are interpreted through the lens of the theory of metajournalistic discourse.
Using Angle of Sight to Confirm Media Bias of a Political Protest • Michael Friedman, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga • The study sought to understand if photographic media bias of political protest could be detected by applying the photographic principle of angle of sight to the pictures of the event. The investigation focused on the photographic news coverage of the Occupy Wall Street protests from two competing and politically opposite New York City tabloid newspapers. The purpose of the study was to determine if there were any differences in the selection of angle of sight photographs, which could act as a subtle cue to either glorify or condemn the protests. Results show strong statistical support that both papers chose the angled photograph that matched with their political opinion of the protest and is relevant to other researchers who seek to understand our legacy of media coverage of political protests.
Professional Photographers and Platforms and the Perceived Credibility of Photographs on the Internet • Gina Gayle; Andrew Wirzburger, Syracuse University; Jianan Hu; Honey Rao • As the use of amateur journalists in place of professionals to photograph current events has begun to shape news content (Pantti & Anden-Papadopoulos, 2011), and people assign varying levels of credibility to the sources of news content (Bracken, 2006), understanding the effects of “professional” labels is growing increasingly salient. This study sought to investigate differences in perceived credibility of photographs on the internet depending on whether or not a professional had taken the photograph and whether or not it had been published by a professional media outlet. Definitions for the dimensions of perceived photograph credibility were adapted from previous research into general internet credibility (Metzger, 2007). The researchers hypothesized that people provided with information that the photograph was somehow “professional” would perceive it to have higher credibility. The study was designed as an experiment with four groups that evaluated photographs using a self-administered online questionnaire; each group was provided with different information about the photograph to stimulate differences between groups. Results produced no significant differences between groups for the concept of credibility but did yield significance for “authority,” one dimension of credibility. These results may be due to the influx of citizen journalism as well as diminishing public trust in mainstream news media.
Chaos, Quest and Restitution Narratives of Depression on Tumblr • Ali Hussain, Michigan State University • This paper studies how visuals from Tumblr might be used to evoke narratives of depression. Fourteen patients with moderately severe depression were interviewed using photo-elicitation method. Findings encompass three types of narratives: chaos, quest and restitution. Chaos narrative describe experiencing illnesses with no cure or unreliable treatments. Quest narrative are about patients’ fighting back. Restitution narrative points toward the belief that health is restorable. Study offers implications to use images during depression counseling sessions.
Show me a story: Narrative, image, and audience engagement on sports network Instagram accounts • Rich Johnson, Creighton University; Miles Romney, Brigham Young University • Social media is a growing space for interpersonal and masspersonal communication and the shared image that often accompanies these messages has become a factor in increasing audience engagement. This study seeks to understand what types of images generate more engagement from social media audiences. A group of communication scholars argue that narrative is the most basic form of human communication and therefore messages with strong narrative themes more easily connect the message from the communicator to the audience. This study performed a content analysis of nearly 2,000 images shared by Sports Networks on Instagram. Operating under Kress and Van Leeuwen’s (2006) methodology for determining narrative in image, the study found that images that contained narrative or metacommunicative messages (Bateson, 1951) resulted in greater interest and engagement by audiences through the manifestation of likes and comments. The study offers a methodology for organizations seeking greater engagement from social media audiences.
Cognitive Effects of Emotional Visuals and Company–Cause Congruence in Visual CSR Messages • Sun Young Lee, Texas Tech University; Sungwon Chung, Fort Hays State University • Using the limited capacity model of motivated mediated message processing (LC4MP), associative network theory, and expectancy violation theory as theoretical frameworks, this study seeks to explore the cognitive effects of two aspects of corporate social responsibility (CSR) messages: emotional visuals and company–cause congruence. We employed a 2 (emotional tone of visuals: positive vs. negative) × 2 (company–cause congruence: low vs. high) within-subjects experimental design. We tested these factors using three CSR issues: hunger in Africa, water shortage in Africa, and an environmental issue. The results showed interaction effects between the two factors for recognition sensitivity (d′) to company logos, ordered from being the highest when using a negative image and high company–cause congruence, to a negative image and low company–cause congruence, a positive image and low company–cause congruence, and a positive image and high company–cause congruence as the lowest. For cued recall of company names, we found that there were two main effects, with no interaction effects, and negative images were more effective than positive images: high company–cause congruence was more effective than low company–cause congruence. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our findings.
Sleight of Hand, Slight of Truth: Deceptive Editing of Documentary Footage in The Look of Silence • Thomas Mascaro, Bowling Green State University • Abstract: The documentary film The Look of Silence conceals editorial sleight of hand involving a 1967 NBC documentary The Battle for Asia, Part III: Indonesia: The Troubled Victory. The editing, which is not disclosed to audiences, misrepresents the original report and contravenes documentary practice. This case illuminates libel law, with regard to DVD and interview statements accompanying a film’s release, and worrisome trend of “poetic” films eclipsing empirical reporting in documentaries.
Solutions in the shadows: The effects of incongruent visual messaging in solutions journalism news stories • Karen McIntyre, Virginia Commonwealth University; Kyser Lough, The University of Texas at Austin; Keyris Manzanares • This experiment examined the impact of story-photo congruency regarding solutions journalism. We tested the effects of solution and conflict-oriented news stories when the photo paired with the story was congruent or incongruent with the narrative. Results revealed that a solution-oriented story with a congruent photo made readers feel the most positive, but surprisingly readers were most interested in the story and reported the strongest behavioral intentions when the story was paired with a neutral photo.
The dead Syrian refugee boy goes viral: Funerary Aylan Kurdi memes as tools for social justice in remix culture • Natalia Mielczarek, Virginia Tech • The picture of the 3-year-old Syrian refugee Aylan Kurdi, whose dead body washed up on a Turkish beach in September 2015, became iconic after it went viral on social media. Within hours, Aylan was a symbol, a hashtag and a meme. This project analyzes the most popular funerary Aylan memes to understand their meanings and functions as they proliferated cyberspace. Through visual rhetorical analysis, the project expands the functions of memes from the typically theorized visual jokes and social commentary to tools of social justice. The case study demonstrates how memes get deployed as rhetorical statements to subvert and re-negotiate reality, in this case to create a ‘better ending’ for the dead boy and to seek atonement for his death. The project also analyzes the paradoxical relationship between a news icon and its digital appropriations, suggesting a new metric for iconicity in digital participatory culture.
What Makes a Meme a Meme? Five Essential Characteristics • Maria Molina, Pennsylvania State University • During the 2016 presidential elections (December 2015-2016), the term “meme” had a higher search interest in the U.S. than the word “election” (Google Trends, 2016). But what makes an Internet meme a meme? And what attracts users to not only view memes, but also create and share them? This article reviews the existent literature, explicates this form of user-generated content, and provides a set of characteristics to differentiate Internet memes from other type of content also shared online. The goal of this exercise is to provide the study of Internet memes with an integrated definition, encompassing the mutually understood set of characteristics of memes. As Chaffee (1991) describes, a concept explication plays a vital role for the advancement of a field as it helps uncover the different components of the term, provides a description of the studies that have been done in the field, and postulates areas of future research and how to move in a cohesive direction. More specifically, it will provide a tool, or measure for the analysis of the uses, motivations, and effects of this new media trend.
The Graphicness of Renowned Imagery: A Content Analysis of Pulitzer Prize Winning Photography • David Morris II, University of Oregon; Nicole Dahmen, University of Oregon • An ongoing journalistic debate centers on the extent of acceptability of graphic imagery in the news media. In order to provide a more complete understanding of this ongoing debate, it is essential to conduct research that provides insight into the content of such imagery, especially renowned imagery. The current research uses a content analysis to explore the visual themes and type of graphicness present in the census of 763 Pulitzer Prize winning photographs from 1942 to 2015.
Closing the Gap Between Photojournalist Research and Photojournalism Practice: Exploring the Motivations of the Subjects of Sensitive Photo Essays • Tara Mortensen; Brian McDermott; Daniel Haun, University of South Carolina • There have always been challenges to pursuing photo essays, including the wariness of potential photo subjects who are often in the midst of personal hardships themselves, as well as a commitment of months or years to a single story. But contemporarily, there is a shrinking number of photojournalists and resources in the newsroom, as many have been replaced with iPhone-armed reporters and the abundance of citizen-shot photography (Allan, 2013; Hartley, 2007; Örnebring, 2013; Stelter, 2013; White, 2012). Citizens are more willing than ever to share thousands of photos a second on Snapchat and millions of photos on instagram every day (Biale, 2016; Schlosser, 2016), but an irony to this phenomenon and additional blow to photojournalists who are struggling to maintain their professional status (Gade & Lowrey, 2011; Mortensen, 2014) is that these same people are often hesitant allow professional photojournalists to tell their story (McDermott, 2012). This study is the first to inquire about the factors that influence peoples’ willingness to allow professional photojournalists tell their story, including topics such as sexual assault in the military, a woman’s struggle with losing her legs, and a mother’s struggle with losing a child. Guided by uses and gratifications theory, ten in-depth interviews with subjects of peer-judged contest winners from 2014 – 2016 in the multiple picture story categories of the NPPA Monthly Clip Contest, the NPPA Best of Photojournalism Contest, and the World Press Photo Contest were conducted and analyzed using a constant comparative method (Lincoln & Guba, 1985).
Priming effects on Instagram: An analysis of how pictures on Instagram affect individuals’ risk perceptions and information seeking behaviors • NIcole O’Donnell • This research explored how images on Instagram affect individuals’ information processing and seeking. Participants viewed Instagram posts that discussed the natural flavors added to processed foods. Individuals in a science-image condition had higher risk perceptions than individuals in a health image condition; however, this effect was moderated by nutrition label usage. Additionally, 45% of participants choose to seek further information on the topic. Implications for the integration of priming effects and information processing theories are discussed.
Profile Pictures and Political Expression: The Perceived Effectiveness of Avatar Activism (an Austrian Case). • Judith Schossboeck, City University Hong Kong • This paper investigates the phenomenon of avatar activism (AA), understood as changing one’s profile picture in a social media (SM) or online social network (OSN) for political reasons or a good cause from a quantitative perspective. Specifically, the effectiveness of avatar activism as perceived by users engaging in this practice, as well as its relation to factors like age, participation in OSNs, online social capital and political engagement are investigated. An online questionnaire of n = 210 was distributed before the Austrian Presidential Elections in December 2016, and the topic AA was placed within the context of the elections, but also addressed other examples of AA. After increasing the variable perceived effectiveness of AA along several levels related to cognitive or actual impact, results show that most people do see this activity as a good form of self-expression, but doubt the actual political impact. Age, participation in OSNs and online social capital could not be identified as influencing factors of perceived effectiveness of AA. However, engagement in AA is related to other forms of political engagement. The limitations of the study and possible further directions are discussed.
Networked photographic repertoire and capital: Prosumption of selfies among Taiwanese gay men on Instagram • Hong-Chi Shiau, Shih-Hsin University • This study attempts to illustrate identity performance and consumption by Taiwanese gay men through their behavior of posting and commenting on selfies. This study selects a gay community on Instagram as a site for fieldwork because millennials are quitting Facebook, once Taiwan’s most popular social networking site, but now in a steep decline. The prosuming of selfies on Instagram is analyzed as a particular form of speech community, adjusted to the orientation of users towards initiating social bonding, corporal aesthetic regulation, or even sexual encounters. Through ethnographic interviews with 17 gay male college students from Taiwan and textual analysis of their correspondence though texting on Instagram, this study contextualizes how the rituals and social processes engaged in on Instagram help constitute a collective identity pertaining to Taiwanese gay men on Instagram. The prosuming of selfies is examined as an identity-making process involving three nuanced types of cultural capital. These uploaded representations of the self are referenced to the collective past. Three typological personae are identified to illuminate the notions of cultural, aesthetic and emotional labor. The conclusion offers an alternative sociological intervention that goes beyond the notion of digital narcissism to help understand how the labor of presenting selfies is invested and reproduced.
‘Sight Beyond My Sight’ (SBMS): Concept, Methodology, and a Tool For Seeing • Gabriel Tait, Arkansas State University • Sight Beyond My Sight (SBMS), a new visual research method, aims to empower individuals to participate in the photographic communication and social science research process. This introductory study examines local people taking pictures to share knowledge about topics. This SBMS case study of photos from eleven participants (eight men and three women) between the ages of 18-65 from Liberia, West Africa, explains the method, discusses the participants, highlights some photographs taken, and offers an encapsulated analysis of what was learned from Liberians about Liberia. Advancing the participatory research methods of “Photovoice” (Wang and Burris 1994) in public health communication education, “Shooting Back” (Hubbard 2009) in photojournalism, and “Autophotography” (Ziller 1990) social psychology, SBMS bridges a gap in communication and social science research practices.
The evolution of story: How time and modality affect visual and verbal narratives • T.J. Thomson, University of Missouri • A majority of Americans distrust the news media due to concerns over comprehensiveness, accuracy, and fairness. Since many interactions between journalists and their subjects last only minutes and can be published within minutes, if not live, research is needed to explore how journalists’ understandings of their subjects’ narratives evolve over time and how much time is necessary to avoid surface-level coverage. Also, since people are now exposed to more image-based rather than text-based messages, additional research is necessary to explore how the verbal narratives spoken by subjects compare to their nonverbal narratives as captured by news photographers in visual form. Through a longitudinal, interview-based approach, a photojournalist working on a 30-plus-day picture story was interviewed weekly for six weeks over the course of his project to track perceptions of how his subjects’ verbal narratives changed. At the conclusion of the projects, the photojournalist’s subjects were also interviewed to explore how their verbal and nonverbal narratives compared. Informed by literature in role theory, narrative, and visual journalism, the findings explore how news media narratives can be more nuanced and how people shape their visual and verbal narratives consciously and unconsciously.
Parsing photograph’s place in a privately public world • T.J. Thomson, University of Missouri; Keith Greenwood, University of Missouri • Billions of personal cameras exist globally that capture more than one trillion images each year. In contrast to studies that focus on cameras in a particular industry or field, such as body cameras in law enforcement or diagnostic imaging in medical settings, this study adopts a comparative and integrative approach using the public-private distinction to explore 1) how people in different social spheres perceive cameras and those who operate them, 2) what factors influence those perceptions, and 3) how technological convergence, camera access, and digital dissemination ease are impacting social life. Through in-depth interviews with individuals in the public and private spheres, an understanding of camera operators as primarily disruptive or primarily affirmative emerged and participants and factors that influenced their perceptions were gathered. Participants also said more cameras and converged technology are blurring the lines between public and private, that exposure in public seems to reduce inclination for private exposure, that cameras are shifting the nature of experience, and that cameras are becoming increasingly regulated.
Location, Location, Location: Visual Properties and Recognition of Video Game Advertising. • Russell Williams • Videogame placements are important for advertising and there is limited cognitive capacity available to players during a game to notice these ads. This is a quasi-experimental study using a commercial videogame and the Limited Capacity Model as an exploratory mechanism. It demonstrates that positioning in the focal visual block enhanced recognition, and that integrated ads and landmarks are better recognized than interruptive advertisements. Practical implications are discussed.
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