November December 2020 College News

1 Journalism and Mass communication student participating in Mass Comm Week 2 Alumnae Maira Garcia and Virgnia Alves talk with Jon Zmikly about how they build online communities during Mass Comm Week 3 Emma Chase and Nancy Lein, who are both at public relations agencies, speak with PR student Sydney Prior during Mass Comm Week 12 | November & December | College News JOURNALISM AND MASS COMMUNICATION Advertising, Digital Media Innovation, Electronic Media , Mass Communication, Journalism, & Public Relations FACULTY ACCOLADES Gene Brenek , lecturer of Mass Communication and former group creative director at GSD&M Austin, recently won this year's Big Wig 2020 Educator of the Year award. He was one of fve fnalists from throughout central Texas in this category. Te awards show is hosted annually by Austin Ad Fed. Dr. Clay Craig and Jenny Buschhorn recently published their research, “All guest speakers are not created equal: Diverse students require diverse speakers” in the Journal of Advertising Education . Teir research stresses the importance using guest speakers, but also that faculty need to strategically select who they invite and guide presentation styles, as students have difering preferences. Tis research was also virtually presented at the 106th Annual National Communication Association Convention in November. Dr. Vanessa de Macedo Higgins Joyce was awarded the 100K Strong in the Americas Innovation grant which is funded by the US Department of State with partnership with Colsciencias, a Colombian government institution. Te grant will promote the exchange between Texas State University and the Colombian universities Fundacion Universitaria del Area Andina and Fundacion Universidad de Bogota Jorge Tadeo Lozano (UTADEO), with a project entitled "Cine Clubs in Community: Video as a Tool for knowledge, Creation and Identity." She also had her co-authored study entitled "Defning Journalism Innovation in Latin America: Exploration Into Perceptions Among Educators, Students, and Journalists" published at the 75th anniversary special issue of the Journalism and Mass Communication Educator journal. She has also presented her work “¿En Quién Confían los Periodistas Latinoamericanos? La Evolución de la Percepción de la Fuente en las Redes Sociales” at the Asociación Latinoamericana de Investigadores de la Comunicación (ALAIC) virtually, in November. Amber Hinsley had a research article published in Newspaper Research Journal , which examined how local journalists used Twitter to cover crises in their communities. Te crises included the wildfres in Northern California and fooding in West Virginia and also Michael Brown's death in Ferguson, Mo. and the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando. Te fndings can help develop best-practices strategies for journalists as they cover diferent types of crises, and the article was featured for its professional relevance by the American Press Institute. Hinsley has another study accepted to the journal Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy , which was the result of an interdisciplinary project with a team at four universities. Te study examines preventative behavior that the public engaged in related to COVID-19 and found that people often underestimate their risk for the disease due to optimistic bias. Te fndings can assist health professionals in creating more efective communication strategies that reduce misconceptions and improve preventative intentions. Te Media Innovation Lab in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication published the report "Te State of the News Product Community 2020." Dr. Cindy Royal , in conjunction with News Product Alliance (newsproduct.org) , surveyed professionals working in the emerging role of product management in media. Te results indicate a young community of innovators in need of professionalization and career development support and highlighted important implications for media education. Read the report here. SCHOOL ACCOLADES Despite this year’s unending challenges, the School of Journalism and Mass Communication’s annual Mass Comm Week was a resounding success. [ 1 ] This yearly event usually brings speakers to campus to speak to students about different industry- specific topics and their current professional roles. Students are able to network with, learn from, and be inspired by these professionals. Though many events were being cancelled this year, the experience that Mass Comm Week provides to students seemed too important to cancel. The conference made the shift online (as most of us have had to do this year) and was delivered entirely via Zoom sessions. [ 2 - 3] There were 28 official sessions for the week with more than 35 individual speakers. 20 of these speakers were SJMC alumni. Several sessions had attendance of more than 200 students. The event also continued the SJMC’s partnership with the Vidal M. Treviño School of Communication and Fine Arts in Laredo, Texas as part of the D.D. Hachar Visiting Hispanic Media Professionals program. This program connects Hispanic media professionals with students from the school to inspire them to seek careers in media and mass communication. Mass Comm Week is coordinated by lecturer Nicole Hengst-Thompson along with a group of 14 students who applied to be part of the event team. If you missed a session, you can still watch most sessions on the Mass Comm Week website at www.txstatemcweek.com. The University Star was selected as one of 10 newsrooms nationwide for Poynter’s 2020 College Media Project. On Nov. 2, they began to publish some of their work created as part of this training program entitled The 11% Project. On Oct. 24, The University Star staff placed in the Best of Show competition at the National College Media Convention. They won seventh place for Social Justice Reporting and seventh place for Advertising Rate Card. On Oct. 23, College Media Association was recognized for the best in student media. The University Star won several Pinnacle Awards including second place for Best Campus Engagement for Star Stories; second place for Best Sports Feature Photo; and honorable mention for Best Online Sports Section. On Oct. 22, the Associated Collegiate Press gave out Pacemaker Awards. Sports writer Colton McWilliams received an honorable mention for Story of the Year Best Sports News Story. The University Star was named a Society of Professional Journalists National Mark of Excellence Awards Editorial Writing finalist in September 2020. College of Fine Arts and Communication | 13