| Diversity Activities in Spring 2007
Teaching
61-141 Introduction to Journalism and Mass Communication class (Grace Lim)
The class addressed diversity, such as thought, race or culture, as part of the regular material. 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. Also this semester, we watched Still Killing Us Softly: Advertising’s Image of Woman, a documentary that depicts the harmful effects of stereotypical and sexist images in advertising. I then asked the students to bring in examples of print ads with women in them. Although the assignment was voluntary and had no bearing on their grades, students brought in more than 50 examples, which I shared via PowerPoint. They said they were horrified and embarrassed by many of the ads, and that the exercise had taught them to look at ads in a different light.
61-221 Writing for the Media (Grace Lim)
In all my classes, which include Intro, the Writing for the Media and Reporting, we routinely followed hot current events topics such as Imus and the First Amendment; the discrimination of young women who were deemed too ugly and too fat for a sorority at DePauw University; the transgendered Largo, Fla., city manager who was outed by a newspaper and subsequently fired by the city council. We discussed the case of the Emmanuel College adjunct professor, who was fired after using a classroom discussion to mimic the recent tragedy at Virginia Tech. We debated again the meaning of the freedom of speech.
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.
61-221 Writing for the Media (Sean Johnson)
Class discussions were formally incorporated into discussions about fairness and accuracy, ethics and careers. It came up as a teaching opportunity with an impromptu discussion of the AT April Fool edition.
61-250 Principles of Advertising (Jennifer Cianciolo)
Students were assigned to study a market profile of an ethnic group of their choice: African, Asian, Hispanic or Native Americans and develop an integrative advertising campaign to reach that market. The project includes two components. The first component is the research on the ethnic market and the second is the strategic media choices based upon their research findings. Primary research methods as well as secondary research are required to complete the assignment.
61-315 Public Relations Techniques (Julie Henderson)
Students produced campaigns for the American Democracy Project.
61-327 Reporting (Grace Lim)
The class watched a film called “The Hobart Shakespeareans,” a documentary about a fifth-grade class in inner-city Los Angeles. In this particular class, none of the students spoke English as his or her home language. But these students, many of whom have been written off by former teachers as a lost cause, perform Hamlet internationally. I use this award-winning documentary to show my students that even though society often puts labels on people, we as journalists need to disregard such labels.
61-341 Media and Society (Gleason)
The class textbook addresses media representation of people of diversity, as well as media productions by audience members. Examples of this is how Star Trek fans have created their own texts with gay themes and how diverse groups use internet forums to discuss issues relevant to them.
61-351 Advertising Copy, Layout and Production (Barb Benish)
A guerilla advertising assignment was given to the students to challenge them to think diversely. The creative brief asked the students to create a guerilla-advertising tactic that would increase awareness around why placing children in booster seats could save their lives. The target audience chosen was Wisconsin Hmong-American parents who have children ages 5 through 8. Students could decide when and where to place the advertising, and several chose parks where Hmong soccer tournaments and family reunions are routinely held. Others chose Hmong grocery stores and local Hmong Associations.
The reason the target was chosen is because Hmong-American parents have been slow to adopt the laws requiring their children to be placed in safety belts. Guerilla advertising was chosen for this target market because traditional advertising channels have not reached this group effectively. It was also a challenging assignment since many Hmong parents or grandparents don’t read English or Hmong.
The assignment was also timely. In June 2006, Wisconsin issued a new child safety seat law requiring kids to be in a booster seat until they reach age 8. The 6-month grace period ends Dec. 31, 2006, and citations have been issued since January. Despite the citations and press, many Hmong-Americans still aren’t aware of the new law.
Thomas Xiong, UW Oshkosh admissions officer, provided creative suggestions to the student campaign and answered student questions about the Hmong culture.
61-424 Strategic Campaign in Advertising (Kathy Fredrickson, Dana Baumgart, and Kevin Rau)
Online research was conducted in the fall 2006 semester for the 2007 spring National Student Advertising Competition to study the drinking behavior and consumption habits of the multicultural youth target, understand their psychographics, demographics and lifestyle and comprehend the purchase behavior. The students conducted pre-testing to verify validity of survey questions. Online survey tools and distribution through networking websites such as facebook.com and myspace.com enabled the students to reach beyond the traditional 300 person survey size. Students also distributed surveys at the UW Oshkosh Asian Student Association, the Black Student Union, Hispanic Cultures United and the Hmong Student Union. The team completed over 600 surveys, with incoming survey data monitored using QuestionPro.com to prevent corruption.
Focus groups were also conducted with multicultural youth to provide a deeper dive into the target market. Based on the survey findings, the target market profile was developed. Significant discoveries include ≤ of all respondents use instant messenger up to two hours each day. Brand perception of Coca-Cola Classic was the most traditional and also the least fun, which provided strategic rationale for positioning the product as youthful while maintaining their traditional roots (a position currently not occupied by the competition).
Annual Convention of Northeastern Wisconsin Scholastic Press Association (NEWSPA):
There were five minority speakers, whose honorariums were paid for through a Diversity Innovation Grant. Those speakers were Grace Lim, from our department; Gregory Stanford, editorial writer for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; Eugene Kane, metro columnist for the Journal Sentinel; Georgia Pabst, reporter for the Journal Sentinel; and Mark Stewart, sports writer for the Journal Sentinel.
In addition, all of the minority students attending NEWSPA received free registration through the grant.
Others:
Journalism graduate, Melissa Ewey Johnson, ’95, was awarded as one of UWO Outstanding Young alumni, by the UW Oshkosh Alumni Committee. She is currently a free-lancing writer/editor and previously was a senior associate editor for two subsidiaries publications of Time Magazine publishing.
Journalism Department joined UWO African American Studies and Women’s Center to made two proposals submitted to the UW System Race and Ethnicity Program. One proposal focuses on the press coverage on poverty in urban areas, while another is centered on the popular culture of Hip Hop music.
Dr. Tim Gleason published an article on LIFE magazine's special issue on Asia during the Korean War. "Asia in LIFE: The Magazine's Representation of 'Its Troubles and Opportunities' " appeared in EnterText, a British journal for cultural and historical studies. The article is now on the reading list for his Media and Society class.
Dr. Tim Gleason published an article on male and female responses to Kylie Minogue music videos in Studies in Media and Information Literacy Education. “The crime is that she’s so deep and complicated:” Using an Online Forum to Generate Students’ Interpretations of Three Kylie Minogue Music Videos is now on the reading list for his Media and Society class.
Dr. Tim Gleason led six students to Cambridge and London for a July 2-Aug. 4, 2007, study abroad trip. Among their activities were visits to the University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and the Fitzwilliam Museum that exposed the students to different cultural relics and lifestyles.
Dr. Tim Gleason received a Faculty Development Program research grant to study Mariko Mori and Julie, two Japanese female photographers, during the summer of 2007.
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