April & May 2024 College News

Dale Blasingame coordinated a team of 30 undergrad and graduate students to work on the SXSW Content Team 1 Nandini Bhalla receiveda DEFCon Teaching Fellowship 1 JOURNALISM AND MASS COMMUNICATION Advertising, Digital Media Innovation, Electronic Media , Mass Communication, Journalism, & Public Relations FACULTY ACCOLADES Nandini Bhalla received a DEFCon Teaching Fellowship funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Nandini presented her first-authored study, LGBTQ CSR in India: Impact of CSR Levels and Issue Involvement on Public Responses, at the 27th annual International Public Relations Research Conference. [1] Dale Blasingame coordinated a team of 30 undergrad and graduate students to work on the SXSW Content Team – a partnership with SXSW now in its 8th year. The student team covered the conference and festival and provided content for SXSW’s various social media channels and website. [2] Larry Carlson' s sports media class visited and toured the broadcast facilities of the San Antonio Spurs in April. The Spurs' Director of Broadcasting, Mike Kickirillo showed students the camera arrangements, "live" booth and courtside broadcast set-up. Kickirillo then toured the class members through the broadcast truck, just hours before tipoff against the Phoenix Suns. They got the chance to meet six members of the Spurs broadcast team who got their start as interns from TXST between 1995 and 2019. The fourteen students also visited with current intern and SJMC student, Liam Capwell and participated in a Q&A session with Bill Schoening, the radio voice of the Spurs. Michel M. Haigh gave a keynote address to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers World Wide Public Affairs Conference. Haigh has been a regular keynote presenter since 2016. Michel M. Haigh was a co-author with Shelley Wigley on the paper "Online Games as Inoculation Interventions: A Critique of the Bad News Game" The PRSSA chapter visited Circuit of the Americas 2 3 which was recognized as the Top Paper for the Communication and Methodology Division at the 2024 annual Southern States Communication Association conference. Michel M. Haigh presented multiple papers at the Broadcast Education Association. Haigh presented her co-authored paper Inoculation: An Antidote to Protect Against the Influence of Disinformation About Organizations during the BEA Research Symposium. The paper has been accepted into the edited book called The Impact of Disinformation and Misinformation on a Democratic Society . Haigh co-authored the paper with Youjeong Kim , and Erin Hester. She also presented the paper “Disinformation and Organizations: Protecting Stakeholders' Perceptions Against Disinformation in Memes.” She co-authored the paper with Shelley Wigley and Erin Hester. Haigh serves as the Broadcast Education Association Research Committee Chair and moderated multiple panels before and at the conference. Cindy Royal , along with co-author Allie Kosterich of Fordham University, had the article Coding Compe- tencies Across Roles: Computer Programming Practices Across News Media Organizations published in Jour- nalism Studies . Results highlight the usage, value and nuances of coding skills relevant to journalists, editors, social media managers, designers and developers in me- dia organizations. Dan Seed created and moderated a panel discussion for BEA (Broadcast Education Association) 2024 in Las Vegas, titled Getting Creative (Output): Best Practices for Advancement of Non-Tenure Track Faculty. The panel featured professors of practice from univer- sities from Florida, Mississippi, Texas and Kyrgyzstan discussing best practices on ways to strengthen creative output to their institutions. SJMC professor Michel Haigh provided support and guidance in the panel's creation and submission. Seed , who worked in television news as an on-air news reporter and sports anchor for nearly a decade, is SJMC's representative on the Texas State Non-Tenure Line Faculty Committee. DEPARTMENT ACCOLADES Bobcat Promotions launched Moon Street Media, a team that will promote select productions in Texas State’s renowned Theatre Department. The collaboration began with When Thou Wakest , a production written by theatre faculty member Nicholas Lawson . Promotional content appears under a Moon Street Media tab on the Bobcat Promotions website www. bobcatpromotions.com. Lauren Magee has worked to implement the concept and is the media group's director. In March, the first TXST PR Day brought students, faculty and alumni together to connect, learn from professionals, and celebrate the public relations community at Texas State. The keynote was delivered by Shelley Spector, founder and director of the Museum of Public Relations, who spoke on hidden figures in public relations. Brand culture expert Pam Nemec kicked off a panel of PR alumni who gave tips on battling imposter syndrome and building power as a young professional in honor of National Women’s History Month. The panelists included Alexandria Blott, public relations coordinator, Zen Media; Charlcee Cervantez , communications and outreach manager, Texas State College of Education; Hailey Hoffman, digital account associate, ECPR; Serenity Mixon , Texas State PRSSA president; and Paige Vaughn Deshpande, corporate and wedding photographer. We look forward to hosting our next TXST PR Day to continue connecting, celebrating and building our PR community. Our PRSSA chapter visited Circuit of the Americas to hear the organization’s marketing, communications and sports media pros explain their roles and the strategic planning that goes into large-scale events like concerts and racing days. They even got to see Ferrari in action on the track! [3] The University Star staff members and contributors won 15 awards from the Texas Intercollegiate Press Associa- tion (TIPA) during the spring convention. For previously published contests, Texas State competes in Division I. Students that received awards were: On-Site Competition Awards (Open Division) First 14 | April & May 2024 | College News College of Fine Arts and Communication | 15