| Diversity Activities in Spring 2006
Teaching
61-141 Introduction to Journalism and Mass Communication (Lim)
In the Intro to Journalism and Mass Communication class, we addressed diversity, such as thought, race or culture, as part of the regular material. We discussed the social implications of Katie Couric as the first female network news anchor; we followed the media‚s coverage of the Duke lacrosse team rape case and the race issues that accompany it. We watched The Shadow of Hate: A History of Intolerance in America. The Oscar-nominated film for short documentary traces the history of racial, religious, and social intolerance in the United States. The film uses case studies from memoirs, eyewitness accounts, archival photographs and documents. My students, many for the first time, learned how American society discriminated against Jews, African-Americans, Chinese, Irish, Native Americans, and Baptists in the United States. We then had a powerful discussion about how intolerance is alive and well in the U.S. and how we have to continually fight it.
61-211 (Interim session) Principles of Public Relations (Hansen)
Students are assigned to read chapter on diversity issues in public relations. The class discussed diversity issues related to PR in lecture. The discussion was rather extensive using many current examples. Students participated in small-groups workshop - with each creating a PR strategic plan (goals, objectives, tactics) related to an organization trying to reach out to one or more diverse groups as publics.
61-221 Writing for the Media (Lim)
The class went to Read Elementary school where students interviewed grade-school children and their retiring first-grade teacher. My students learned first-hand that not all people talk and think like they do, especially those who are 6 years old and have incredibly short attention spans. My students learned to adapt. They quickly realized that towering over the little kids only intimated them, so they scrunched their bodies into the pint-sized chairs and met the kids at their level.
61-221 Writing for the Media (Davidson) & 61-327 Reporting (Davidson)
Davidson participated in the UW System Race and Ethnicity project arranged by Colleen Callahan, journalism chair at UW River Falls. In the project, "Shelter from the Storm," profiles of refugee students were to be run on the River Falls Web site. The subject was tied it in with the profile section of the Reporting class. One of our students wrote a great profile on one of the Lost Boys of Sudan who is a student at UW Oshkosh (it ran on the front page of the A-T) and another student in the class took a picture of that Sudanese refugee. The teacher also submitted a profile and photo done by Reporting students on Rayna, hoping that though she is not a refugee from another country, she is certainly a refugee seeking shelter from the storm and might therefore qualify.
61-239 Media Photo I (Gleason)
The class textbook addresses photographing other cultures and I make sure to include people of color when they look at examples of portraiture. One portrait we look at is a cover image for Yolk, a magazine by and for Asian-American men that closed shop in 2003, which was pretty hip and trendy. I discuss why the publishers chose that name and what the visual representation of a yolk is and how that reflects what the publishers felt about being Asian in a predominantly white society. I show and discuss this portrait among others every semester.
When appropriate I address the importance of representing skin tone in publications, especially the problem many newspapers have in representing African-American skin tones. I also briefly discuss how one news magazine made OJ Simpson look more dangerous by darkening his mug shot.
61-250 Principles of Advertising (Tsao)
Students were assigned to study market profile of three ethnic groups, African, Asian, and Hispanic Americans and develop an integrative advertising campaign for a hypothetical product to reach one of the three ethnic markets. The project is an individual research assignment accounting for 10% of the final grade.
61-315 Public Relations Techniques (Henderson)
Students in Public Relations Techniques worked on projects for Head Start, the Inviting Convicts to College program, the Multicultural Education Coalition, The office of Adult Student Access Services, International Education, and Campus Awareness and Relationship Education. These projects vary a bit from semester to semester.
61- 341 Press & Society (Gleason)
The Press and Society text deals with diversity issues, and we additionally dealt with diversity issues in viewing and discussing racial/ethnic issues of the movie In the Name of the Father; we discussed gender issues by viewing Kylie Minogue music videos and then the class wrote interpretations in D2L, and later we discussed their comments in class. Lastly, we watched Control Room, a documentary on al Jazeera, and we discussed the difficulty of covering the Middle East and Muslims. Some of the students wrote their term papers on female body image, portrayals of gays on TV, gender roles in movies, and coverage of African-American athletes.
61-351 Ad Copy, Layout, and Production (Benish)
Students had to create a TV Storyboard for the Florida Lottery aimed at the Hispanic consumer. The advertising had to convey that they could "win big" in the Florida instant-win games, as well as explain what instant-win games were, since familiarity was low with Hispanics.
I then took their completed storyboards to a Hispanic family who recently moved here from Florida to get their impressions. Would it make them want to buy a lottery ticket? If not, why? Those comments were then included in the students' evaluations.
61-424 Strategic Campaign in Advertising (Team teaching)
The class debated if ethnic groups should be singled out from the mainstream market in the integrative marketing communication campaign developed for Postal Vault, the client of the National Student Advertising Competition project. Research data, company information, and creative executions were considered in the extensive discussions. The student team decided to include a research report in the book, yet the creative execution was eliminated due to budgetary concern.
Other activities
The department and the Women’s Center co-organized the Speaker Series on Minorities and Women in Journalism inaugurated on March 10. An advertising scholar, Dr. Jean Grow, was the first presenter in the series. Grow presented “Stories of Community: The First Decade of Nike Women’s Advertising.” Grow is an assistant professor in Marquette University’s Department of Advertising and Public Relations and founder of Grow Creative Resources.
The department provided three Multicultural Media Awards to journalism students, Kimberly Fay, Richard Nelson, and Rayna Andrews for their active learning and participations in promotion of multicultural issues in journalism.
Ten minority speakers were invited to give speeches in different sessions and panels in the annual conference of the Northeast Wisconsin Scholastic Press Association, sponsored by the department on April 23. These speakers spoke at several sessions focusing on diversity topics including “Minority Voice to Publications,” “The Value of Knowing Two Languages When Reporting,” “How the Latino Press Club is Enhancing the Status of Minority Journalists,” and “Understanding the Hmong Community and Writing a Column Focusing on Race as the Issue.” The NEWSPA paid the registration fees of 50 minority students to attend the conference.
Miles Maguire traveled to the People’s Republic of China in May to attend the 7th World Media Economics Conference in Beijing, where he presented a paper on Internet journalism.
Rayna Andrews, a transferred student from Xavier University at New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, graduated from the journalism program of UWO in May 2006. The UWO Student Ad Club sponsored a fundraiser to benefit the Salvation Army thrift store and those affected by Hurricane Katrina Sept. 12, 2005. The sale ran from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and raised $150 for Salvation Army programs.
The 200-2006 department and alumni newsletter was edited and designed by Marisa Cuellar, a Hispanic American student. The 12-page newsletter is published every year. Diversity is one of the key subjects covered by the newsletter.
The department nominated Melissa Johnson, a journalism graduate and black American, to be a recipient of 2006-2007 UWO Outstanding Young alum. |
