The effectiveness of Google+ Hangout office hours

I experimented with Google+ Hangout office hours this semester. However, the success of the experiment was lukewarm. I video chatted with a total of two students over the semester. I don’t believe new students feel comfortable video chatting with teachers. I think that there may be a greater likelihood that I will chat with former students more often than my present students.

But many students were logged into their Gmail accounts. Many students regularly text messaged me through GChat. They would ask about assignments or about my day.

Andrew Lih, a journalism professor at the University of Southern California Annenberg School of Journalism, uses Google+ Hangouts for weekly story meetings with students. He also speculated that interactions with students were minimal because the service was so new.

Here is some advice on how to Hangout:

1. First, you will need to set up and label a circle for your class.

2. Sharing your circle with your students is the easiest way to connect with the class which includes yourself. Students will have to label the shared circle.

3. Select “Start a hangout.” A post in the G+ feed will appear that indicates you are hanging out. You can control which circles of people you engage while hanging out.

There is a newer feature called “Hangout with extras.” You can add a document from Google Documents or Share a Screen from your computer. The Documents feature has potential because student teams or teacher and a student could edit a document together while they video chat.

Other academic uses for G+ Hangouts include requiring your students to hangout with niche communities related to a professional interest. I hear photographers regularly use G+. If you click the hangout icon on the left side panel, you can see that public hangouts exist. gphangouts also lists permanent and future hangouts.

Students could also embed an On Air broadcast adjacent to a story or blog post because they can record and upload a hangout to a YouTube account.  You could critique their interviewing skills with this exercise.

I will try Hangout office hours in the future. But I believe students prefer to meet in person when it is an issue of serious concern and they prefer to text when it is not.

Online portfolios and the splash page

Each year I encourage my students to visit sites that aggregate the latest web design trends in hopes that they will become inspired.

This semester appears to be the semester of the splash page. A splash page is a page that is typically taken up by an image. Many students recruited someone to take professional portfolio pictures of them. As you browse these sites, you will see many sites feature an image of the student with a quote adjacent to their image.

Feel free to comment on their sites or visit sites from previous semesters.

Section 1
Kelly Andersen
Tara Boyd
Caitlin Cruz
Harmony Huskinson
Olivia Khiel
Leila O’Hara
Torunn Sinclair
Preston Sotelo
Cassie Strauss

Section 2
Hayden Packwood
Erin O’Connor
Vanja Veric
David Sydiongco
Ali Lasch
Haley Buntrock
Michelle Rivas
Hannah Shive
Devin McIntyre
Samantha Koukoulas
Sebastian Zotoff
Sonya Chavez
Haley Madden
Monique Zatcoff
Charissa Heckard
Mohamud Ali
Charles Hall
Daniel Escobedo
Osej Serratos

A letter to my students

I have accepted an academic position at Michigan State University in the School of Journalism, and I am excited to engage with the professors and students intellectually.

I am saying goodbye to the past five years at Arizona State University, but I most sad to say goodbye to my students. My students handed in their final projects last night.

This is a note to them:

As a teacher, I have several goals for you: increase your confidence, help you find your creative self and understand the importance of relationships.

Most students do not believe at the beginning of my class that they can handle learning social media, multimedia and coding. At the end of the semester, many of you were teaching students in other classes.

Each person is able to do anything if they work for it. You will discover that skills are only a small part of your future success; the most important part of the equation for your future is developing a work ethic.

In the future, I plan to develop more exercises that allow students to tap into their creative selves. Through this exploration, you better discover your many sides and potential. I hope that you will continue to experiment and challenge ways to share and communicate information.

Most teachers at ASU are only able to work with students during one semester. This means that students are less likely to develop relationships with potential mentors. I want you to seek out people who will challenge and critique you. It is the most efficient path to professional success. It is important to develop relationships with people in the administration, with leaders at your jobs or internships and with other professors.

Many of you have learned that your classmates are resources as well. Remember, the bonds developed in my class do not have to end. You can connect with your classmates again to create another product together.

My professors are the reason that I became a professor. They helped me see my potential. I owe them so much for their kindness and time. And I am still here to help you.

I saw many of you became teachers in this class and previous classes, which means you are leaders. And I hope that with what you have learned you are better able to follow your passions and be happy. I firmly believe you can have it all.

Serena

Journalism and public relations student’ blogs

Online Media 1:30 section
Kelly Anderson
Tara Boyd
Caitlin Cruz
Harmony Huskison
Olivia Khiel
Leila O’Hara
Torunn Sinclair
Preston Sotelo
Cassie Strauss

Online Media 4:30 section
Erin O’Connor
Charissa Heckard
Charles J. Hall
Mohamud Ali
Vanja Veric
Haley Madden
Ali Lasch
Haley Buntrock
Hayden Packwood
Osej Serratos
Sonya Chavez
Hannah Shive
Devin McIntyre
Samantha Koukoulas
Michelle Rivas
David Sydiongco
Monique Zatcoff
Daniel Escobedo
Sebastian Zotoff

Digital and social media class syllabi

I try to identify and share recent syllabi that I believe would be of use for the academic community. I know many educators are working on their syllabi over winter break. If you have one you would like to share related to digital media topics, email me or post it below.

I have also posted other syllabi in previous posts. Be sure to browse those posts as well.

Tim Currie | University of King’s College | Audience and Content Strategies
Marcus Messner | Virgina Commonwealth University | Reporting for Print and Web and Business of Media
Susan Currie Sivek | Linfield College | Introduction to Mass Communication

Keith Hampton | University of Pennsylvania | Five Digital Media and Social Network Classes
Zizi Papacharissi | University  of Illinois at Chicago | Democracy in a Digital Age
Columbia Graduate School of Journalism | Social Media Skills for Journalists
Mark W. Smith | Central Michigan University | Social Media and Journalism
Bill Handy | Oklahoma State University | Social Media

Cindy Royal | Texas State University | Web Design and Publishing
Jake Batsell | Southern Methodist University | Technology Reporting | Digital Reporting
Katy Bartzen Culver | University of Wisconsin-Madison | In-depth Multimedia Reporting
Serena Carpenter | Arizona State University | Online Media

 

Focus on the homepage to grab attention

I wanted to share with you my Online Media students’ portfolios. The group sought to capture attention by incorporating graphics, rollovers, and pictures on their homepages. You can also browse portfolios from past semesters.

Mauro Whiteman
Gabriela Rodiles
Kayla Frost
Connor Radnovich
Aiyana Havir
Alex Gregory
Kelsey Roderique
Josselyn Berry
Kate Kunkel
Brittany E. Morris
Alex Lancial
Pearce Bley
Dani Schenone

Encourage students to design with the intent to help

My students completed their final projects for my Online Media class. Their projects impressed me. Many students have not had any technical skills training prior to this class.

I was also moved by my students’ desire to help people with their research and reporting on difficult topics.

I try to encourage students to create a site that reflects quality and experimentation. I ask students several questions as they design their final projects:

1. Is this information meaningful?
2. Are you helping?
3. Why is this information important?
4. Will people understand what you are trying to communicate?

I would also suggest another tip to educators. People need context. To help orient the reader, students should use summary decks, definition of terms, information history boxes, timelines, lists of facts, a resources page, etc. to help readers understand the issue. I often ask my students what do people need in order to understand this topic.

Next semester I plan to try another experiment focused on encouraging public engagement. I will let you know how it turns out. Feel free to browse my students’ sites.

ALS
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease. Also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, it attacks brain and spinal cord cells responsible for muscle movement. About 30,000 Americans have the disease at any given time, according to the ALS Association. Currently, there is no cure. ALS affects more than just nerves—it wears at patients’ families, lifestyles and emotions. From the loss of independence to the loss of a loved one, the struggles are plenty for those affected.

The Pain of Healing
Self-injury is a difficult topic to discuss. Society often fails to look past the cuts and burns to find the real source of pain. This website provides an in-depth look at different behaviors associated with self-injury, the reasoning behind these behaviors, and treatment options for those wanting to seek help. After conducting extensive research on this topic, the goal is to raise awareness and help erase the stigma associated with self-harm.

For Sale: A Home Foreclosure Educational Resource
From the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to ASU’s Civil Justice Clinic, resources aimed at helping families overcome the effects of foreclosure have attempted to alleviate the situation. These are the stories of the impact of home foreclosure in Phoenix.

Scars of War
In 2001, the United States became embattled in the longest war in U.S. history. Since it began, more than 42,000 military members have returned home injured. These injuries can range from concussions to missing limbs. But they also include injuries that aren’t physically visible. No scars are the same. And every wounded warrior experiences them differently. This is an in-depth look at service members’ experiences and how they deal with the prolonged effects of war in the Middle East.

The Perils of Public Transit
A team of reporters sought to more precisely understand the public transit conflict. You can read stories about local bus drivers, the dangers that Phoenix bus operators face, the status of contract negotiations, and the future of passenger service.

Immigration Economics
Even before Arizona’s immigration law, known as SB 1070, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio made it his goal to end illegal immigration in his county. His plans are to arrest and turn over illegal immigrants, who were violating other laws such as working with fake documents, to Immigration officials. So far, Arpaio’s office has arrested hundreds of suspected illegal immigrants, but little is known about what happens to those arrested. This site touches on some of those issues.

Citizens of Nowhere
The journeys of refugees from their countries of origin to the United States may last only a few days, but adjusting to their new life is a long process — one that often involves government-funded agencies and community groups. Once the refugees become citizens, they often create cultural centers and continue their traditional celebrations. This site shares some of those stories.

 

 

A Job is in the Details: 10 Tips on Elevating a Portfolio

I strive to help my students understand how to visually communicate their work with people. One way of reaching people is through their  professional portfolio.

If your school or department does not help students present themselves professionally online, your students will struggle finding employment. To help my future students and other people, I post my Online Media 305 students’ portfolios every semester. I was asked to present on how I help students with this task at the Journalism Interactive conference. In my presentation, I shared some of the advice I give my students.

1. Clean Design
You must help people “see” your content. The “seeing” of content can be enabled through the design principle of contrast. Our eyes like contrast. To create contrast, vary up site font size and type. A trend that some site creators are following is a minimalist design with big headings. Marie Catrib, Brian Hoff, and Jacqueline Guiterrez are examples.

Color is also another way to create contrast. Your website should not always be painted with blocks of your favorite color. One tip is to use color as an accent. I am not a fan of pink, but Jessica Goldberg used it effectively by including touches of it in her headings throughout her site. Remember, site design can affect your credibility.

2. Clear Navigation
Keep your navigation simple. One of the best ways is to categorize your work rather than forcing the visitor to scroll through a maze of unrelated clips. Some good examples of navigation include Dave Hill’s photo portfolio and Julia Tylor’s use of folder icons. You could also consider creating a tab for your latest projects.

3. About Me
One way to connect with the web audience is by sharing your passion for your work and people. A bio should not lead with “I am a student studying at XYZ university. I will complete my degree in 2014.” It is important to lead with your professional foot rather than your student identity.

People connect with faces and smiles. Post a natural-looking professional photo of yourself. Do not include the high school photo of yourself with a guitar or dance club pictures. Good examples include Laura Parkinson, Molly Smith, and Etka Poudel.

4. Contact
On a contact page, you should post your full name, a professional email address, and social media identities. Social media and community building skills are attractive to employers. Social media skills reflect that you understand how to connect your content to people. I would suggest Googling for free social media icons.

5. Resume
For SEO purposes, I require my students to post a portion of their resume in text. Stephanie Paeprer created beautiful contrast on her resume by using both a serif and sans serif font. Remember, a resume should be well-designed and the job responsibility section should include powerful verbs and specifics about what you did.

In addition, it is important to clearly communicate that a PDF copy of your resume is available for download.

6. Content Motivation
If you are a journalist, self-motivation is an expectation. The ease of publishing has enabled any almost person to publish content, but most people are not motivated to publish content on a regular basis.

• Blog:  As you write, you learn more about yourself and the topic. I have posted tips on how to encourage students to publish blog posts, think of blog topics, and connect content to readers.
• Clips: Michael Pollen linked to his articles appropriately by providing a headline, publication, summary and date of each article. To make increase levels satisfaction, add a summary paragraph for each multimedia project.  You should aggregate PDF copies and links to your articles. It is important to capture PDF copies of site pages because link stability can be an issue. You capture PDF screen grabs by selecting File > Print > Save as PDF.
• Multimedia Web Series: A few ways to show your multimedia work is by creating a YouTube channel (e.g., Peter Hadfield), sharing social media releases for a company, launching your own radio program, or starting your own video web series on a issue in your community.

7. Services
Angela Grant clearly communicates her desire to get paid for her talents on her homepage. You should do the same. For example, Aaron Lavinsky created a separate tab listing his photography costs. This is an opportunity for you to earn freelance money and learn how to continue doing what you love following graduation.

8. Images
People are attracted to images. Anyone who uses Facebook can attest to the lure of images. Most people have access to a camera, and thus, there is no reason why you can’t post a photo portfolio such as this slideshow created by using Flickr.

If telling stories on the human condition is your dream job, show me humans. Photographs that display emotion and human faces can affect the visitor. Selena Larson included a photo from her volunteer efforts in Africa to show the type of work she desired. Stephen M. Katz and Poh Si Teng designed their portfolios with a similar intention.

9. Video Resume
More than 80% of U.S. internet users have watched an online video. People spend more time on a website if a video is present. One way to elevate your video resume is by making it interactive. Mashable reported on Graeme Anthony who used YouTube Video Annotations to help visitors more easily digest his video resume reel. Annotations enable you to create a video with clickable chapters.

10. Infographic
There are some simple tools to use to create a graphic that visually communicates your skill knowledge areas. Jeremy Pennycook‘s circles, Jessica Goldberg’s WordCloud, and Heather Billing’s interactive graphic are examples.

Take advantage of free services that help you present your resume in a creative way. I suggest to all my students to sign up and complete bios on free sites such as About.me (e.g., Lee Semel),  Flavors.me (e.g., Jade Rehder), and Visualize.me (e.g., Erica Swallow). Also, some sites for design inspiration include WebDesigner Depot‘s web design trends, flavors.me directory, and Leslie-Jean Thornton’s aggregated list of examples.

I tell my students that the only limitation is your mind. Give yourself or your students’ time to be creative. To help them transform a blank page into a website, tell them to list words and draw pictures that come to mind when they think about their lives and their career. Every semester I am taken aback by what they accomplish when given the time.

Hiring trend: we’ll take you and your followers

Students must know how to cultivate community. It is becoming more common to expect that they secure a social media following prior to graduation. As an example, the Klout score is the new the press pass. A high Klout score suggests that you have influence among your followers.

The number of people using social networking sites is growing. And more than half of U.S. adults follow a brand. Information providers must know how to write stories, but they must also learn how connect that content to readers.

The responsibility of promotion and connection is shifting from the organization to the individual. Broadcast journalists are expected to tweet and Facebook. The majority of journalists operate social media accounts. However, the posting of content does not guarantee an audience especially if you are a student.

I have found students can learn computer-mediated communication in a short amount of time. But at first, most students treat social media applications as if they were Facebook.

My students are required to tweet for two weeks after my Twitter lecture. The reoccurring theme I hear each semester is that they do not understand Twitter until I ask them Tweet information for two weeks. Following that assignment, I require my students to write a small reflection paper. These are excerpts from my honor’s section:

“Before this project, I didn’t fully understand the point of Twitter, and I mostly used as an extension of my Facebook profile.”

“I was aware of the value of Twitter, but I had yet to reap the rewards because I did not understand how to make use of all of its advantages.”

“I had a Twitter account, but it might as well have been completely inactive. My lack of interest probably spawned from not understanding the purpose of the social media site … I would never anticipated at the beginning of this project that I would 53 followers within two weeks. I will absolutely continue to use Twitter.”

“Coming into this Twitter project, I didn’t have a high opinion of Twitter and my underlying, unspoken goal was to get through this project as quickly as possible. However, after just two weeks on the aforementioned social media, I have come to understand and enjoy the rapid sharing of information.”

My students are amazing. But it is an invalid assumption to think that students are digitally savvy in all spheres. Each application cultivates a unique community, and to be respected by its members, people must know how to speak the language to engage participants. People tend to connect to people they perceive as like-minded, which positively influences trust.

As a teacher, you need to encourage them to publish useful information for a niche community. One component of credibility is expertise. They should develop expertise in a topic area to help position themselves as an information authority. This is uncomfortable for some students, but it is how intellectual communities are built.

Improving the building and testing of communication theory

I am blessed to teach Mass Communication Theory to our new doctoral cohort. In preparation, I immersed myself in literature on theory including how we define and extend knowledge in the field of communication.

I found several studies examining the state of theory (or collective knowledge) in our field. That research shows that we as academics do little to extend theory. Bryant and Miron (2004) found in a content of analysis of Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Journal of Communication, and Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media that if researchers included theory it was mostly merely referenced (45%), followed by using it as a framework (23%), constructing it (18%), or critiquing it (14%). Similarly to Bryant and Miron, Potter and Riddle (2007) discovered that most (65%) published journal articles were not guided by theory.

This is a question academics should be asking themselves as a research community. What can we do to ensure that we are contributing to the development of knowledge? Melvin DeFleur has argued that few mass communication scientists have made significant theoretical contributions since the 1980s.

Theory reflects the recorded effort of scientists trying to predict and explain human behavior. The goal of science is to test and produce theories. If research is derived from theory, we have more confidence in our knowledge.

In a basic definition, theory is the interrelationship among concepts. We as social science researchers cannot directly observe all phenomena. To overcome this obstacle, we create concepts to build and test theory. Concepts are made up of observable attributes. Example concepts include measure fairness, deception, bias, etc. The human is the instrument of observation.

The foundation of a theory is the concept. But it is not considered a theory until we examine the relationship among concepts. For example, an increase in interactivity negatively affects memory recall.

We need to critically examine how theory is taught at the doctoral level. Our job as scholars is to transfer knowledge in hopes of building knowledge. If the percentages referred to above reflect reality, we can do a better job of teaching theory construction to our doctoral students.

I designed my theory class with the intent of helping students untangle theory. My doctoral class addresses academic socialization, history of communication science, philosophy, schools of thought, theoretical issues and divides, theory construction, and an overview of major theoretical advances in mass communication.

I was fortunate to be taught theory by Michigan State University Professor Frederick Fico. I admire him as a scholar, teacher and mentor. Some of his and other scholars’ teachings were the foundation for the design of my theory class.

My present concern is that I have heard from several Ph.D. graduates that they do not understand what theory is or they didn’t start understanding it until after they received tenure (approximately a seven-year process). The question is why.

Is it to some scholars’ advantage that a notable number of scholars do not understand theory?

Very few scholars are able to publish in academic journals, but publication is a measure of our success. The mean publication rate for active scholars for the period of 1915-1990 was 2.5 articles (Hickson, Stacks, & Amsbarym, 1993). To be considered a prolific assistant professor, one should publish 6 or more articles (Bunz, 2005; Hickson, Stacks, & Amsbury, 1989).

Most journal editors will not publish research unless it is connected to theory (again, what we know). But what do we know? How good are our theories? One step in the right direction is to begin discussing the philosophy of communication science.

Controversial reasons cited for the lack of development in theory include: 1) increasing attention paid to qualitative and critical research, 2) focus on teaching of skills rather than research, 3) use of part-time instructors increasing faculty workload, 3) decrease in funding of research, 4) decrease in number of social scientists from other fields, 5) focus on nurture rather than nature-driven research, 6) intellectual divides, and 7) a focus on prediction rather than explanation (Berger, 1991; Carey, 1979; DeFleur, 1998; Sherry, 2004).

Another critique is that we work in silos. Philosopher and historian Thomas S. Kuhn argued that knowledge is defined and defended by communities of scholars. In communication science, we are no different. However, each specialty (e.g., communication, psychology, American studies) differs in how it defines theory. I take a class each summer in a different department at ASU in hopes of understanding how those scholars define what is knowledge.

On a more regular basis, senior scholars should be having this dialogue. We as young scholars would be a captive audience.

To begin the conversation, I emailed my mentor Dr. Frederick Fico. He suggested that researchers should ask themselves two questions:

1. What is your dependent variable?
1. This question is essentially asking what do you want to explain and predict. He says to think about the DV is to think about theory.
2. Who is your research community?
1. Theory building is an effort of a community of scholars focused on the same “problem.” No one person can build theory. To connect and build theory with scholars interested in your DV, you should strive to publish work in their preferred journals.

I am also looking for potential panelists who have taught theory, taught philosophy or who are doctoral student mentors to discuss this topic at AEJMC in Chicago. The panel submission is due in one week.

References
Berger, C.R. (1991). Communication theories and other curios. Communication Monographs, 58, 101-113.

Bryant, J., & Miron, D. (2004). Theory and research in mass communication. Journal of Communication, 54(4), 662-704.

Bunz, U. (2005). Publish or perish: A limited author analysis of ICA and NCA journals. Journal of Communication, 55, 703-720.

Carey, J.W. (1979). Mass communication research and cultural studies: An American view. In J. Curran, M. Gurevitch, and J. Woollacott (Eds.), Mass communication and society (pp. 409-425). London, UK: Edward Arnold.

DeFleur, M.L. (1998). Where have all the milestones gone? The decline of significant research on the process and effects of mass communication. Mass Communication & Society, 1(1/2), 85-98.

Hickson, M., III, Stacks, D.W., & Amsbary, J.H. (1989). An analysis of prolific scholarship in speech communication, 1915-1985: Toward a yardstick for measuring research productivity. Communication Education, 38, 230-236.

Hickson, M., III, Stacks, D.W., & Amsbary, J.H. (1992). Active prolific female scholars in communication: An analysis of research productivity., II. Communication Quarterly, 4, 350-356.

Kuhn, T. (1970). The structure of scientific revolutions, 2^nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Potter, W.J., & Riddle, K. (1993). A content analysis of the media effects literature. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 84, 90-104.

Sherry, J.L. (2004). Media effects theory and the nature/nurture debate: A historical overview and direction for future research. Media Psychology, 6, 83-109.

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