Volume 5 Issue 4 June 2011
In this issue The Nicholson School of Communication hosted the International Crisis and Risk Communication Conference on May 10-11 at the Pegasus Ballroom in the Student Union. Attendees and participants in the 2011 conference traveled from as far as Korea, UK and all across the United States to hear fellow professionals and scholars speak about the significance of new trends and technology such as social media on crisis communication in the 21st century.
ICRC Conference Student Spotlight Faculty Spotlight Knights Helping Knights NSC Faculty Research Proposals Keeping PBS in Orlando Faculty Publications Her Campus Interview Charity Challenge National Association of Hispanic Journalists
Some highlights from the two-day event include corporate case studies from Ann Cline, Manager of Emergency Response for Airtran, Michael Griffin, Vice President of Communications for Disney and Marc Ladin, Vice President of Everbridge. Of all of the corporate speakers, Neil Chapman, former Director of Public Affairs, BP (British Petroleum) and Gerald Baron, Executive Vice President, Communications, O’Brien’s Response Management, accrued the most interest from the attendees. These executives, who represented the oil industry during the Gulf Oil spill last year, gave a rare glimpse into the strategies, choices, and yes even mistakes made in communicating to the media, government, and public during the Gulf oil disaster. The Nicholson School also welcomed a diverse group of scholars to the convention ,including O.C. Ferrell Ph.D. and Linda Ferrell Ph.D. from the University of New Mexico, Michael Palenchar from the University of Tennessee and UCF’s own Dr. Steve Collins and Dr. Timothy Coombs. Kevin C. Thomas, M.B.A., Ph.D., Director, Master of Science in Healthcare Emergency Management Program, Boston University, presented the results of his psychometric, behavioral, neurophysiological research into cognitive information processing of persuasive messages during high critical contexts. He also offered useful information for teams, group communication, and decision-making communication insights. David Barney, a graduate student from Bowie State University, stated the convention was “the most informative conference on Crisis Communication ever! The diverse schools of thought were incredibly valuable.” Maureen Taylor Ph.D., Professor from the University of Oklahoma, said “ICRC brought together high level crisis communications experts with top scholars. The topics were highly relevant and I would recommend this to others.” Dr. Robert Chandler and the rest of the Nicholson School of Communication look forward to hosting this annual convention again March 5-7 2012.
For submissions please contact: Stephanie.Jarvis@ucf.edu
Sabrina Deaton, current NSC graduate student in the I-O track received a scholarship from the National Federation of the Blind of Florida. Sabrina has been a member of the National Federation of the Blind of Florida for seven years, where she handles public relations. She has also served as a State Board Member and President for the Daytona Beach Chapter of the NFBF. Sabrina is one of the few visually impaired students to come through this master’s program in the NSC and we wish her luck as she starts her thesis research this summer. Amanda Tetlak, a 2007 graduate of the Radio and Television program, moved from Reporter/Anchor at KFYR-TV in Bismarck, N.D., to Reporter, WSJVFox28 in South Bend, Ind.
Harry Weger attended the Ontario Society for the Study of Argumentation conference in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Dr. Weger was invited by the conference organizers to serve as a commenter for a presentation integrating concepts from formal logic, speech act theory, and the elaboration likelihood model of persuasion by Dr. Katarzyna Budzynska from the University of Warsaw, Poland.
Robert “Bobby” Olszewski '99, a NSC double major in Radio-TV and I-O and current NSC adjunct instructor, graduated on May 21 from the Central Florida Political Leadership Institute (CFPLI). BusinessForce, the political arm of the Central Florida Partnership, presented an intensive three-day program on the basics of leadership skills for effective governing, critical public policy issues, and political campaigning. The CFPLI is a nonpartisan program for business and civic leaders with the potential to become political candidates and government leaders. Olszewski was one of 25 members in the Class of 2011 selected from an applicant pool of over 130 candidates from throughout the greater Central Florida region. Olszewski is the managing principal of the Emerson Management & Consulting Group, Inc.
John Malala has been accepted to be a 20112012 Leadership Enhancement Program Scholar. The UCF Leadership Enhancement Program provides leadership development opportunities for program scholars to gain career enhancing skills and leadership experiences in today's changing educational environment.
Knights Helping Knights has delivered two drop boxes in the Nicholson School of Communication, one on each floor of the building, to make donations to fellow Knights in need. The pantry is run by student volunteers and is open Monday through Friday from 1-6:00 p.m. and is located in the Ferrell Commons. The pantry is accepting food, clothing and hygienic items. Along with these items, students can donate their time to sort goods and run the pantry. Pantry volunteers will monitor the drop boxes and empty them as necessary. Additional location for donations are the Student Union Help Desk, the Counseling Center and at the pantry. The director of the pantry, Willis Chico, can be reached at chico@ucf.edu and is happy to come to classes and present on the Knights Helping Knights Pantry. To find out more information please contact Mr. Chico or visit http://khk.sdes.ucf.edu/pantry.
Nicholson School of Communication’s Director, Dr. Robert Chandler, was selected as the winner of the 2011 Ronald K. Mengel Award, for his paper “Emergency Environmental Stress Induced Diminished Cognitive Capacities: Adapting to Audience Challenges for Successful Emergency Communication and Incident Alerting Notification Applications”. This award is for the best paper presented at the fire detection sessions of the recent Suppression & Detection Research and Applications Symposium (SUPDET 2011), as voted by those present at the symposium and affirmed by the Program Committee. The award honors the memory of Ron Mengel, who had a long a distinguished career in the fire detection and alarm industry, and was a valued member of the Foundation’s Fire Detection and Alarm Research Council.
We are delighted to announce that the following NSC faculty members’ proposals were positively reviewed and have been selected for their work in pursuit of major external funding as part of the NSC Major External Funding for Research Development Stimulus Initiative (III): Dr. Ann Miller: Effectiveness of HIV health prevention communication in sub-Saharan Africa Dr. Will Kinnally: Comparative analysis of US and Canadian media Dr. Kim Voss: Newspaper coverage of food news and related public policies Dr. Tim Coombs : Public relations activism Ms. Lindsay Neuberger: Impact of health communication [including nutritional labeling messages] on target audience dietary behaviors Dr. Denise DeLorme: The uses of social marketing for protection of marine ecosystems from boating impacts on the Indian River Lagoon
Funding is currently being sought for all research projects.
It all began on April 1, 2011. It was on this day that WMFE-TV—our source of public broadcasting for 45 years—announced that they would be selling their television station to Daystar, a faith-based network. Because the announcement was made on April Fool’s Day, the majority of us thought that it was a joke. And yet, nobody was laughing. Indeed, WMFE made the decision to sell our publicly funded television station without telling any community members. Even their largest donors were initially unaware of the sale. And to make the situation even less transparent, the buyer Daystar created a faux organization called “Community Educators of Orlando, Inc.” This two month old organization was listed as having both the same address and the same owners as Daystar. It was obvious they were attempting to trick the community—and they were not trying to be subtle about it. The University of Central Florida (UCF) already has a television station-- it's called UCFTV. The channel itself actually airs PBS programming on occasion, so it was obvious that UCFTV values good television. It should also be noted that the other two PBS stations in the area--WDSC in Daytona and WBCC in Cocoa, are both owned and operated by local college campuses. Why couldn’t UCF do the same? For the second largest physical campus in the nation, I felt UCF becoming our community's source of Public Broadcasting was not only feasible-- it just made sense. Supporting a local PBS station would also serve as an excellent learning tools for students from all disciplines-- imagine the opportunity. (and isn't that what UCF stands for?) Our campaign was designed with four main objectives in mind—the first being to petition the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for denial of the WMFE-TV/Daystar transaction. When television licenses change, the public has 30 days to comment on the transaction. And so, we launched a Facebook campaign to encourage community members to petition the FCC for denial of the WMFE-TV/Daystar transaction. The ending result: close to 500 letters submitted to the FCC. That meant that almost 500 individuals within our community wrote letters to the FCC, expressing their concerns regarding the WMFE-TV/Daystar transaction. This small two-person campaign had quickly evolved into a large scale community movement. One that the UCF Board of Trustees (BOT) took notice of. And indeed, on May 26, 2011, the UCF BOT voted on a resolution to partner with Brevard Community College (BCC) to create a new source of public broadcasting for the Central Florida community called WUCF-TV. Scheduled to be on-air on July 1, 2011, WUCF-TV will provide the community with both nationally acclaimed PBS programming and locally made programming. The station itself is without a doubt the result of a community movement—and with that said, we urge you to visit their new website, spread the word, and show your support: http://wucftv.org/
Jeff Weiner, an Orlando Sentinel reporter and 2010 graduate of the NSC's journalism program, has won the top public-service reporting award in Florida -the James Batten Public Service Award -- for his series of stories last year about illegal barbering raids by the Orange County Sheriff's Office. The SPJ Sunshine State Awards are the highest recognition a journalist can earn in Florida.
Dr. Kimberly Voss has authored: “Who’s Wearing the Pants? How The New York Times Reported the Changing Dress of Women,” was published in the Media Report to Women, Spring 2011. “More than Beer and Brats: Peggy Daum and the Milwaukee Journal’s Food Section, 1960s Through the 1980s,” was published in Milwaukee History: The Magazine of the Milwaukee County Historical Society, Spring 2011. UCF Journalism Instructor Lance Speere is the co-author. “A False Start, a Heavy Burden and Hugs: A Study of the Female ‘Firsts’ in Newspaper Management,” has been accepted for presentation at AEJMC in St. Louis. co-authored by Lance Speere, UCF Journalism Instructor.
Dr. Denise E. DeLorme's co-authored chapter, "Advertising in Health Communication: Promoting Pharmaceuticals and Dietary Supplements to U.S. Consumers" was recently published in the Routledge Handbook of Health Communication, Second Edition.
Kaite Detlefsen, a NSC graduate student and UCF women’s golf team member, earned a place on the Capital One Academic All-American At-Large First Team for her second year. This team is one of 13 different women’s teams that feature female students who excel on and off the course. Detlefsen graduated from the Nicholson School of Communication with her master’s degree in Mass Communication with a 4.0 GPA.
NSC graduate, Presley Adamson, received his first AP and Reuters photo credit on June 16, 2011, for this photograph taken of paddle boarder Cynthia Aguilar as she paddles across Florida Straits. Presley is currently a photographer and editor for Digital Island Media in Key West.
Jeff Blank & Rachel Loyd
Karine Guilbert Ben Schepler
The following students took part in the challenge:
A crew of NSC RTV students was presented with an interesting challenge: document, record and produce a half hour program of the 26th Charity Challenge, a large fundraising event at the Orlando Citrus Bowl in May. The students covered both the kickoff party the all-day event and then spent the next two weeks writing and editing the program. The half-hour program will be shown on Brighthouse OnDemand starting in early July. It will also be available online through RTV soon after that.
Brittney Nadya Grace, Producer Logan Kriete, Photographer/editor Ben Schepler, Photographer/Editor Jeff Blank, Photographer/Editor Steven Davis, Photographer/Editor Karine Guilbert, Photographer/Editor Bailey Logan, Correspondent Rachel Loyd, Correspondent Chad Hounshell, Correspondent Anthony Ferrara, Correspondent
Faculty Advisors/Executive Producers Dr. Tim Brown Prof. George Bagley Engineering Assistance: Jim McCully Jeff Van Treese
The Next Anna Wintour: UCF Undergrad Becomes Editor-in-Chief of Online Magazine’s UCF Branch By Jacquelynne Faith For most female writing students, becoming an Editor-in-Chief of a women’s magazine is a goal to be attained in the distant future. One undergraduate, however, has removed a few steps from the corporate ladder. Demonstrating more initiative than impatience, Sara Newton grasped a rare opportunity to lead a publication before even becoming a senior. By utilizing her Interpersonal/Organizational Communications major and English Writing minor, Sara single-handedly brought Her Campus magazine to the University of Central Florida. An online magazine for college-aged women, Her Campus was the perfect way for Sara to commence upon her journey to becoming the next Anna Wintour. Sara was encouraged by her mentor to apply for the job, and recalls the day she got the position with sentimentality. “I remember getting the e-mail while it was just me and my dog in my house. I turned to him and said, ‘We did it!’” Besides an immense love of her late pet, Sara also expresses a profound interest in fashion, beauty, and social issues, all of which made her the quintessential candidate to harness the website’s success for one of the largest schools in the nation. Sara’s undeniable leadership skills, coupled with a dynamic team of UCF student interns, enabled the UCF branch of Her Campus to become one of the most successful branches within one semester of its launch. Sara explains her role and future aspirations in an interview for InterCOM.
What is Her Campus magazine all about? Her Campus magazine is the best thing to ever come to UCF, if I do say so myself. We give advice on everything a coed would want to know. From fashion to beauty tips, fitness to what’s going on around campus, and even Campus Cuties (wink) that go to UCF. I think Her Campus UCF is a great way for not only readers to have a break to enjoy their day, but also for all of my interns to really express themselves in a positive way that UCF can enjoy.
What really makes Her Campus different from other college publications? I think it is the fact that we are “students writing for students”. We’re very relatable, we’re able to work off of each other, and we really relate to other people on campus. Whether they are in a club, a fraternity, or in a different college on campus, it doesn’t matter. It’s kind of like a slightly more G-rated Cosmo, especially made for college girls. Everything that I had read, every article and quiz to every cutie, everything pertained to me, and I feel as if I am the average viewer. Essentially, if I enjoyed it, I felt the girl sitting next to me in my math class was going to enjoy it.
How did you first hear about Her Campus? Twitter. Here comes the Twitter spiel. Everyone needs to be on Twitter. I love Twitter. So with the help of social media and my previous mentor at College Lifestyles, I was referred to Her Campus nationals. I applied in December and got the position in January.
Can you briefly describe the process of getting a Her Campus branch at University of Central Florida? When I applied, I had to come up with…a syllabus, per say, to send to them. [It reflected] my ideas, goals, how I would influence the campus, [and] publicity ideas since we would be brand new… I had to create a Launch Line Up, which included an article for each of our eight features
What do you think about Her Campus being entirely online? So when I found Her Campus, the fact that it was virtual, which is the new age, stood out to me. People need to hop on the virtual train! You walk down the street and everyone our age is on their smart phones. Nobody even looks where they’re walking anymore.
Can you list some of the achievements that your team has had and how you got there? I upload [articles] twice a week which means about a total of anywhere from 10-12 articles a week. Each week, 4-5 [articles] are
listed on the Top 10 nationally,that’s throughout all 126 branches. Per week, we ranged anywhere from 1,000 to 3,000 views. There was a time when our branch [as a whole] was number one in the entire United States, within only 3 months of being launched. We were number one the last week of March, just 3 months after launching, with over 3,700 views.
Making a name for your team on such a large campus is not easy. What has your team done to promote the magazine? After the launch party came definite tabling. [We were] getting the word out there and asking students to not only become a loyal reader but also to get involved…from there we scheduled events. Every Wednesday before an event we would table in order to have everyone on campus know about it and the magazine in general. We’ve also gone before Greek organizations and clubs to ask for collaboration, if not just to spread awareness. We’ve had, to date, a Zumba event, a Ladies Night at a local classy bar, and- oh, a beauty party! So, those were events that were very successful. I’d like them to be even more successful, but we’re definitely getting our name out there.
What is the most challenging part of being Editor-in-Chief? Sigh. If you must ask…I want to say the most challenging part is being a positive leader. The difficult thing, I find, is that we’re all on the same playing field. We’re all the same age, so establishing the right amount of authority, but not too much, is what is challenging. I’m so passionate about the magazine and some people (for whatever reason) aren’t, seeing that come out through actions is definitely hard.
How do you think that your major has prepared you for this role? Ah, my major. Interpersonal and Organizational Communications is exactly that. I communicate with people one on one every day. Being able to understand people and knowing the outcome of handling things professionally is so important. Everything I have learned, I am definitely using. I know that I’m getting a great education.
If you could name one person at UCF who has influenced you the most, who would it be, and how did they do it? Miss Sherry Hodgson. I had her when I was a freshman and then again as a sophomore. *She’s+ an amazing woman, just amazing, definitely teaching for the right reasons, you know. She inspired me to go after what I want, which isn’t necessarily in her job description, but makes her an even better teacher. I think that what I learned from her in Speech, being a freshman and not wanting to talk in front of people…she taught me that I do have a strong voice and my thoughts can be converted into words and heard. It’s definitely her.
What kind of support have you received from the Nicholson School of Communications? Our first big jump of support came from Mrs. Christine Hanlon. She was one of my professors in spring and became our professor adviser shortly after. Thus far, she’s helping us with becoming a part of the Office of Student Involvement (OSI), which is absolutely the number one thing on my list. She has a strong voice and really cares about what I’m doing, so having her on our team is extremely exciting. We all welcome her.
You obviously are very passionate about Her Campus. Knowing that the national magazine sets a tone for its branches, as far as material and writing style, what appealed to you about it? What have you done to make the UCF branch your own? We’ve implemented our own regular feature items, for example, the Her Gay Best Friend column. One of our interns is gay, and he gives advice on anything and everything your own gay best friend would tell you. Also, we currently have a sponsorship with Paramount Pictures, so we have one of our interns writing about specific movies that they invite us to screenings for. It’s great, because I want to appeal to everyone. If someone thinks fashion is not an interest but they love movies…I want to write about it, too. No reason not to. Having a wide range of articles so everyone can relate to us is my goal.
Having reached such a major goal so early leaves people to wonder where you could go from here. So, I want to know: what do you want to be when you grow up I’d love to say that I want to be happy, but that’s not the only answer. When I grow up, I want to be Anna Wintour. For those of you who don’t know her, she is the editor-in-chief of Vogue, an icon in every sense of the word. I adore her. Anytime I can read anything on her- or really anything on anyone who has made it in the fashion magazine industry,I absorb it.
So you would like to progress from being an editor-in-chief of a magazine… to being an editor-in-chief of a magazine? Of a national, print, international magazine! Yes. I love magazines. I’ve ventured into PR and…not really my thing. Fashion is something that sparks my interest…I also like leading people. I like being able to tell people, “You’re doing a great job”. I like being able to be confided in or asked for help, because essentially, when I was younger, that’s what I wanted. I’m just like every other girl who wanted something and went after it.
www.hercampus.com/ucf
@HerCampusUCF
The National Association of Hispanic Journalists and the Nicholson School of Communication hosted the “Student Campus,” a workshop for Hispanic and Latino college students from around the country interested in journalism. Twelve students joined faculty from California, Michigan and Arizona, as well as Central Florida, in an intense “boot-camp” of multimedia reporting over three days. The Student Campus was hosted by Dr. Tim Brown with help from RTV engineers Jim McCully and Jeff Van Treese. NSC Alumna Victoria MollRamirez RTV ’09 was one of the panelists for the “Jump Start Your Career” forum.
Several NSC students attended the Annual Convention of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists at the Coronado Springs Resort and Convention Center at Walt Disney World. Students were able to attend workshops and meet with leaders in both English and Spanish Language media. Pictured from left to right: Kelly Casas, Valezka Gil , Ybeth Bruzual (Central Florida News13) and Paula Machado
Melissa Patterson, a 2008 NSC Journalism graduate, was a panelist in the “Going Mobile” workshop at the National Association of Hispanic Journalists Annual Convention at the Coronado Springs Resort at Walt Disney World, June 15-18. Melissa is currently a web and mobile editor with the Palm Beach Post newspaper.