Past Issues Fall 2015

Department of Communication student members of the ESPN@UNF Club swoop to center court at the UNF Arena for an ESPN3 season-ending team photo.

In conjunction with the Atlantic Sun Conference and ESPN, UNF began streaming men’s and women’s home basketball games in January. Under the guidance of Dr. David Deeley, assistant professor of multimedia journalism, communication students managed every aspect of game production including directing, graphics, audio, replay, camera operation, halftime feature production and ESPN3 network coordination. This new opportunity is giving students hands-on experience working with state-of-the-art professional equipment currently in use throughout the industry. Following the successful production of 16 regular season and home tournament games, several students were able to provide ESPN with production assistance during the Atlantic Sun Championship game. 

Communication students prepare in the UNF Arena control room for one of their 16 UNF men’s and women’s basketball game productions that streamed on ESPN3 during the 2014-15 season. 

Department of Communication student Anthony Cinca directs a four-camera live production of UNF basketball on the same type of Ross switcher currently used by the Jaguars.

Heading into fall 2015, the production schedule will expand to add home volleyball games as well as all home men’s and women’s basketball games. Unlike UNF, most schools in the Atlantic Sun are paying freelance professionals to staff their productions. Thanks to the initiative and professionalism of the initial student volunteers and ESPN@UNF club officers, communication students now have access to valuable experience to advance their skills beyond the classroom to better prepare them for future internships and employment.

Deeley and Lee Moon, UNF athletics director, discussed the new athletics partnership on “UNF On The Record,” a weekly radio show featuring campus life.

By John Parmelee 
Professor and Chair, Department of Communication

Oscar Patterson, who served two terms as chair of the Department of Communication before retiring, continues to contribute to the department and the lives of students with his scholarship award. The Patterson Scholarship is designed to go each year to a communication student who demonstrates academic excellence as well as financial need. The scholarship will rise from $500 to $1,500 starting next year. This year’s scholarship goes to Maya Dartiguenave. Her story is below. She talks about how her lifelong love of writing is being nurtured by our faculty. Scholarships like this can help our students greatly and bolster our efforts to recruit the best students to become communication majors. Please consider making a donation to the department. No contribution is too small. To donate specifically to the department, please visit our website, or I can be reached at my e-mail. 

What winning the Patterson Scholarship means to me 

By Maya Dartiguenave
Senior, Department of Communication

 As editor-in-chief of Her Campus UNF, Maya Dartiguenave manages a team of writers, as well as a number of other tasks, like planning giveaways.

I am a 20-year-old public relations major with a minor in creative writing. In the three years since I graduated from high school, I have been to three colleges in two states, with more than five changes in my major. It could easily be argued that my college career thus far has strayed from the norm.

Senior year of high school was an enlightening time for me. With the final months of that time in my life winding down, I looked around me and saw changes. Students were preparing to move off to college. Some were ready to join the military. Most decided to stay close to home. I also saw those who were unsure of their path. Personally, I was ready to go. For me, college had always been the next step.

Getting the acceptance letter to what I thought to be my dream school was equivalent to getting a golden ticket. With that, just three weeks after my high school graduation, I packed my things and left for New York, only to find myself six months later on a road trip moving back to Jacksonville. My first school felt distant. I was so disconnected from my professors and peers. Nothing felt real, and nothing felt right.

Back in Jacksonville, I completed my associate’s degree at a community college and finalized my third transfer, to UNF. I was nervous that I wouldn't’t connect to this University just like I hadn’t with the first. Honestly, I was scared. I feared that after two years at two other institutions, I would never feel what other students felt, which was a sense of pride in where they study.

Still, I refused to let fear ruin the time that I had left as an undergrad. My first semester here, I started and became the editor-in-chief of the UNF chapter of Her Campus, which is part of a national online magazine. It wasn’t until I took MMC 3200-Law and Ethics of Communication and a visual poetry class in my second semester on campus that I knew I had finally made the right choice. I had found the school that would bring me back to the excitement that I had for reading and writing and words in general – one that has been with me since I was a child.  

I was reintroduced to the passion that I had for words, for writing, for digging deeper and wanting to know more about the space around me. I found again the love I had for school, one that had vanished on Interstate 95, somewhere between Westchester, N.Y., and Jacksonville. I have seen that I can learn and experience just as much in two years as in the four that I felt were lost.

Winning the Patterson Scholarship is an additional voice telling me that I can accomplish the goals that I have set in front of me, as long as I continue to work toward them. It is an award, of which I humbly accept, that gives me more room to grow. More than that, it is another nod of encouragement that I needed to pull me further into this world of words that I love so much.

Outstanding student winners (left to right) Kiersten Brauner, Gracie Lopresti, Riley Wolf and Alexandra Crotts celebrate before graduation.

The department’s Outstanding Student Award winners, which include the top students in advertising, multimedia journalism, production and public relations, were honored at the department’s spring graduation reception. The event took place on May 1, a few hours before the UNF graduation ceremony, and offered a chance to say goodbye to favorite professors and classmates over dessert and beverages. Also recognized were the department’s scholarship winners. The event was also a chance to talk about the benefits of joining the department’s alumni association.

Faculty and new graduates of the Department of Communication share one last moment together at the department’s spring graduation reception.

Below are the Outstanding Student Award winners’ comments about what they value the most about their time in the department.

Kiersten Brauner, Outstanding Advertising Student: “My greatest accomplishments as a communication graduate were completing my project, 'People of UNF,' for The Spinnaker and volunteering at K9s For Warriors. Both experiences fostered my individual talents and allowed me to grow within the community. I am grateful to UNF for affording me both opportunities.” 

Riley Wolf, Outstanding Multimedia Journalism Student: “My last senior semester was by far my most rewarding and memorable experience I had while at UNF in the communication department. I was managing editor of #IgniteMedia and the producer for 'Inside Jacksonville.' Both of these classes and leadership positions offered me the opportunity to combine all the skills I have learned in college with both print and broadcast journalism. I also had the opportunity to work with ESPN3 this year. My college career changed drastically as I feel I had three real-world job experiences this past semester.” 

Alexandra Crotts, Outstanding Production Student: “As a student of the Department of Communication at UNF, I am proud to say I've been able to create a strong foundation for the future I want in television production. Through directing 'Inside Jacksonville,' working as an anchor on Spinnaker News and being a teaching assistant, I have been able to obtain my dream internship with Taillight TV in Nashville.” 

Gracie Lopresti, Outstanding Public Relations Student: “My time as a public relations student in the Department of Communications has been unforgettable. I am proud to have served as treasurer of PRSSA, and I will always treasure and remember my experience working with my team when we were selected as the winning agency by our client during my time as campaign director in professor Dee Colvin’s PUR 4800-PR Campaigns course.”

By Frank Goodin
Class of 1994

Frank Goodin has enjoyed being behind the camera for more than 20 years.

The photo above was used in conjunction with a story published about me in the March 1992 publication of the UNF Osprey, a newsletter from the Office of Admissions. As I stop for just a moment to write about where I am at this point in my life’s journey of learning and giving, I reflect with great fondness on that younger version of Frank Goodin many years ago. Here’s a short excerpt from that story:

Frank Goodin envisions making films that enrich lives. Like his inspiration, filmmaker Spike Lee, Goodin's aspirations include producing films that reflect reality, no matter how controversial. Goodin believes that film is another avenue to addressing social problems in America.

"I want to create movies that are influentially positive – the type that make people think. My films will show possible solutions to problems," says Goodin, a communication major. 

Aside from classes and studying, Goodin is involved in various clubs, committees and Student Government. He is best known on campus as the president of the African-American Student Union (AASU). Although he has held the post for only a short time, his personal goal is to unify the students on campus, starting with the members of AASU. His strongest motivation is a desire to help people understand and respect different cultures.

"I am a people person, and in today's society no one takes the time to communicate," he says. "I want to change that."

I smile when I read that today. It reminds me of the power of aspiring to live up to great ideals with passion while encouraging me to remain true to them. Our communication department was absolutely critical in helping me form, develop and ultimately express my point of view to the masses. Influential instructors such as Marcia Ladendorff (I was a student in her very first UNF class) helped to mold and prepare me for my career as an independent filmmaker.

In the years between then and now, I have consistently nurtured that vision into many powerful film narratives. My first feature film, "Love Trap," a powerful story about the true nature of love, won several film festivals, screened internationally and was featured on Showtime for 18 months before being picked up for distribution through First Look Studios. Check it out on Netflix when you get time! My first independent documentary "The 904," a gritty, yet insightful story about violent crime in Jacksonville, won an Emmy Award in 2011 and is currently distributed by NEHST Studios.

The 904 came out in 2010, and Love Trap was released in 2005.

Needless to say, I’m an enormously proud Osprey, and UNF has always been a home away from home for me. Between film and video projects, I have returned to help the University community in many ways. In 1997, I helped create the UNF Pathways To Success scholarship program to help socio-economically disadvantaged students afford college. More recently, I created UNF's Transfer Student Virtual Orientation (online) video series, produced the One Stop MyWings “How To” series of videos that all students use for help with some of their most common student MyWings interactions, and refined our efforts to directly recruit Florida's highest academic achievers to our institution with great success. Currently, I serve UNF students as an academic advisor here in the Department of Communication, and I consider it a blessing to be able to help students through many of the same challenges I faced many years ago.

Looking forward, my aspirations remain exactly the same as that skinny kid in the photo. I will continue to plan and execute the vision of producing thought provoking and inspirational material while helping as many people as I can, and I'll always explore unique ways to promote cultural understanding. The faculty of the communication department (and the overall institution) helped to provide me with an invaluable foundation for my journey, and I'll always love this place for that.

By Emilee Speck
Class of 2011

Emilee Speck covers space and other beats for one of the largest newspapers in Florida.

After graduating from UNF with a communication degree focused in journalism I set my sights on working in a large city. I started as a communications fellow with NeighborWorks America, a nonprofit in Washington, D.C., two weeks after graduating.

When my fellowship ended, I landed at the National Press Foundation in Washington as a digital media manager. I worked with journalists from all over the world and traveled to conferences in Kuala Lumpur and Dubai. During the fall, new journalists to the D.C. metro area could apply for a fellowship, and NPF would show them the ropes of covering Washington. It was a great experience meeting so many journalists with different beats and also helped me determine that I wanted to work in a newsroom setting.

After moving back to Florida, I started at the Naples Daily News as a Web producer where I managed social media, edited breaking news video and managed their website. Last year, I became a Web editor with the Orlando Sentinel, where I am now. I edit stories for Web, work with a national desk in Chicago and do a lot of blogging.

I use skills I learned from my advanced reporting class every day, ever since I started my Twitter handle as a part of class. I always know where to look when breaking news happens. When I was working in Naples, Twitter was how we got the scoop on a popular Southwest Florida congressman getting busted for buying drugs in D.C.

A few months back, we started a new space blog called "Go for Launch," where I write about launches, astronomy and some funny items like people sending cool stuff into space, such as doughnuts. Recently, I covered my first launch at Cape Canaveral and landed an A1 byline when the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded minutes after launch. No college course would have prepared me to cover a launch failure like that, but having AP style drilled into me in MMC 3105-Advanced Writing for the Media gave me the tools to hit the ground running.

Starting with an education in journalism at UNF gave me the tools to work in a field where hard work and time will get you ahead, but learning from professors who worked as editors and reporters was one of the most valuable assets the Department of Communication has to offer.  

By Amanda Dawson
#IgniteMedia

One Spark 2015 drew more than 320,000 attendees and saw audience donations to creator projects jump by 75%.

The Department of Communication’s independent news bureau, #IgniteMedia, once again partnered with Jacksonville news media to cover the One Spark crowdfunding festival.

IgniteMedia consists of 20 talented communication students under the direction of Dr. Paula Horvath, senior instructor at UNF and writer for The Florida Times-Union.

The young journalists engaged in partnerships with local news media sources to provide high-quality content for online, print and television media. The content was provided free of charge, as long as publishing credit was given to the young journalists.

“It’s an ideal situation for both local media and students,” Horvath said. “The media get free, well-written stories, and the students get important experience.”

The initial and primary partnership is with the Times-Union, which provided a well-equipped media lab and office space in downtown Jacksonville, from which the class ran live media coverage during the week of One Spark, which took place April 7-12.

“What 20-year veteran journalists learn from 22-year-old college students never fails to amaze me,” said Jeff Davis, creative director for The Florida Times-Union. “These students approach the world and the stories they cover in ways that are refreshing, relevant and desperately needed as the rapidly shifting journalism world moves under all of our feet.”

Students were busy filming video spots, making social media statements across numerous platforms, and designing a user-friendly website, all while investigating the most compelling stories to create informative articles pertaining to One Spark.

“These students are receiving valuable feedback from mentors in their field that normally isn’t possible inside the classroom,” Horvath explained. “It is so exciting to watch students gain confidence in their work – and in themselves – after they see their stories published.” 

All information about the bureau, including the print and video segments, is available on the bureau’s website.

Assistant Professor, Department of Communication

File-sharing app Infinit launches smartphone apps for both iOS and Android
As the smartphone’s video capacity has improved, its file size has increased. Infinit now offers an unlimited file sharing app for smartphones. It’s available for iOS and Android. File sharing has been a basic need that has led to the development of key Internet technologies (e.g., TCP/IP, FTP, peer to peer, cloud computing, etc.). Although Gmail, Dropbox and Bittorrent have offered great solutions, the problems have been either the file size limit or the complicated configuration. This French startup, Infinit, has successfully solved these two problems with unlimited file size sharing features and an intuitive user interface. Go to their site for more information. 

Charlie app: A background checking app using public information online
This app was originally designed to provide some background information about people that you plan to meet according to your work calendar. The technology is simple: The app identifies people you plan to meet from your work calendar and your contact list of e-mail and social media accounts. Then, it fetches people’s background information mostly from social media such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. It then sends you a one-page summary report. The real use of this app is checking your own reputation based on your online presence. This can be another research/feedback source for your search engine optimization evaluation and reputation management tools. It’s a great tool for PR professionals. The app’s website has all the details. 

Microsoft app Office Lens turns your smartphone into a scanner
Microsoft released an image-capturing app, Office Lens. This app provides two innovative features: 1) It converts images into Word, PPT or PDF documents with OCR technology, and 2) connects to MS cloud services, OneNote or OneDrive. The first feature demonstrates the key technology for augmented reality and the second feature shows Microsoft’s attempt to turn personal documents and unconnected information into searchable databases. This video tells more. 

By Dr. Robert Bohle

Thousands of students took Dr. Robert Bohle’s classes in editing, design, reporting and research methods. 

It is hard for me to believe but nearly 20 years have passed since I arrived here in August of 1995, hired as the chair of the conjoined departments of Communication and Visual Arts.

That’s how it was back then, when UNF was relatively shiny and new: departments too small to justify standing on their own were put together in sort of an academic shotgun marriage. So I had to deal with both broadcast equipment and issues with nude models.

When I came on board, I believe there were five communication faculty members: Paula Horvath, Joe Lesem, Ed Grimm, Marcia Ladendorff, part time (she also was in honors), and me. I was charged by the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences to bring the communication program into the 1990s; to create from scratch a mission statement for both sides, by-laws (we were working with our 1997 version until a couple of years ago), and tenure and promotion guidelines; to gain accreditation for both halves of the department; and to lay the groundwork for a School of Communication.

Back then, we were in Building 3. The office had space (barely) for three visual arts professor offices, the chair’s office, a jammed and crammed main office for Donna Oxford and a part-time student assistant, a photo studio of sorts and a darkroom. Donna – who looks as young today as she did back then, and remains just as positive and cheerful – had to do virtually all the paperwork the two halves generated.  

Making photocopies was always an adventure because departments couldn’t afford to have their own machine. Comm had a copier counter key gizmo, which we could insert in various copiers placed non-strategically around campus, assuming the previous user remembered to return it from his or her own hunting trip. If Donna wasn’t at her desk, it meant she was out searching, Diogenes-like, for a vacant copier that was functional.

The other Comm faculty offices were several buildings away, in Building 11, and the others were strewn around campus wherever they would fit. Building 11 was later torn down. 

In 1995, the one Comm computer lab was filled with late 1980s Macintosh Plusses (1 meg RAM) and Mac 512k’s, connected via AppleTalk, a rudimentary network, to two usually inoperable dot-matrix printers. As I am sure Paula well remembers, getting the damn stuff to work was both maddening and rare.

The broadcast studio was in even worse shape, with old and huge studio cameras and a control room fit for the Smithsonian. Still, Joe Lesem was able to get student work produced – in between its use as one of our classrooms. 

I feel certain that 20 years hence, many of you will look back at our current setup and chuckle about how backward our technology was in 2015.

We all worked hard at the by-laws and such and made progress and some good hires during my three years: for instance, we hired a woman named Bobbi Doggett as an adjunct and she refused to leave! And Judy Sayre. We hired Jozsef Szeremi. And Tricia Booker, among many other top adjuncts. Then-President Adam Herbert granted the department $100,000 for a new computer lab. We were finally able to bring in a second full-time secretary to help Donna. And a full-time technician for the photo lab

The next 17 years here as a classroom teacher have been bittersweet: I mostly have enjoyed my time, but dealing with Parkinson’s Disease for the last 15 of those has been challenging. I deeply appreciate the understanding of my colleagues as I learned to live with my new, lifelong friend, Petey. He was the reason behind my Bret Favre-ing the timing of my retirement, by the way.

Since I arrived, I have been witness to huge changes in the department I once chaired, not the least of which was the separation from the Visual Arts folks, who are succeeding under the wise guidance of former colleague Debra Murphy. The growth in Comm students and faculty has been tremendous. The ensuing chairs (Oscar Patterson and David Goff) each made significant improvements in the department. And now, John Parmelee, the current chair, has gotten the department ready for its two-year trip to accreditation. 

To quote W. B Yeats: “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” Thanks, UNF, for helping me be a match.

Dr. Christa Arnold presented “Are Florida Physicians Skilled Listeners? Reflections From Physicians” and “Patient Medical Education Training: A Pilot Test of the AGENDA Curriculum” and “Medical Education Patient Training: Improving the Medical Interview” to the International Conference on Communication and Healthcare (ICCH), in New Orleans.

 Dr. Berrin Beasley edited a book, Social Media and Living Well (Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books) and published a book chapter, “Research Ethics,” in Research Methods in Communication (Northport, Ala.: Vision Press).

 Dr. David Deeley was a panelist on the topic “Digital Opportunities, Possibilities, and Challenges for University Sports Media Programs and Curriculum” at the Broadcast Education Association national convention in Las Vegas.

 Dr. Christine Holland presented “Communication Pedagogy: Maximizing the Culture of Assessment” to the Florida Communication Association, in Orlando, Fla.

 Dr. Junga Kim published an article, titled “Factors Affecting Information Sharing in Social Networking Sites Amongst University Students: Application of The Knowledge Sharing Model to Social Networking Sites,” in Online Information Review.

 Dr. Chunsik Lee and Dr. Junga Kim presented “How Do Individual-Level Cultural Orientations Affect Electronic Word of Mouth (eWOM) Communications in Social Networking Sites (SNSs) Within and Across Countries? American and South Korean SNS Users” to the Korean Society for Journalism and Communication Studies Conference, in Pohang, South Korea.

 Dr. Carolynn McMahan and Dr. Jae Park presented “Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Online Marketing: Cross Cultural Analysis of U.S. and Chinese Websites” at the Academic OASIS-PARIS International Multidisciplinary Academic Conference.

Dr. Jae Park and Dr. Carolynn McMahan published “A Topology of Online Brand Communities: An Examination of South Korean Automobile Online Brand Communities” in the Journal of Promotion Management. Dr. Park also published a book chapter, “Blue Governors in Red States and Red Governors in Blue States,” in The 2014 Mid-Term Elections (New York, N.Y.: Palgrave Macmillan) and presented “The Effect of Nostalgic Advertising and its Relationship with Psychological Comfort, Life Satisfaction, and Self-Regard” to the American Academy of Advertising Global Conference, in Auckland, New Zealand.

Dr. John Parmelee and Dr. David Deeley presented “Examining Interactivity Between Florida Political Reporters and the Public on Twitter” to the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication annual convention, in San Francisco.

Dr. Stephynie Perkins presented “Show Me the Value! Using Public Relations Campaigns as an Exemplar for the ‘Return’ on Engagement Classes” to the Gulf South Summit, in Little Rock, Arkansas, and “Fearsome or Benevolent? Letters to the Editor Reflect 21st Century Interpretations of the Ku Klux Klan” to the 35th Annual Intercultural Communication Week at Texas Southern University, in Houston, Texas. 

Dr. Tulika Varma published “Sowing Wild Oats: Online Commercial Speech, Corporate Takeovers and a New Commercial Speech Doctrine” in First Amendment Studies, and she published “Unmasking the Anonymous Commercial Speaker” in Communication Currents. 

All communication alumni are invited to be a part of the conversation on Facebook.

This is the go-to spot for UNF communication alumni. The Facebook group includes information about alumni social events, recently posted communication jobs, tech tips, departmental news and pictures/video from departmental events, such as Media Week. In addition, the communication faculty have joined the group, so you can connect with your old professors. Here’s how to join the alumni Facebook group: Search for UNF Communication Alumni and ask to join.

There are eight great ways to stay connected with the Department of Communication: 

1. Join the department's Professional Advisory Board. The board helps us make sure we are getting students prepared for the current media environment. If you have risen to a position of leadership at a news organization, PR firm, advertising agency or other media outlet, please contact the department chair, John Parmelee. Even if you don't want to be on the board, feel free to e-mail the chair with any advice on making the curriculum better. 
2.  Join the department's alumni association. This is a great chance to interact with fellow communication alumni and current students. To join, please contact the department's alumni association chair, Lauren Furey, mention your interest in joining, and please include your name, contact information, year of graduation and track. 
3. Let faculty know how you're doing. Below is a link that lists faculty and their e-mail addresses. Faculty love to hear what their former students are up to and are always happy to offer advice: http://www.unf.edu/coas/communication/faculty.aspx
4. Participate in the Internship Fair. Every spring, representatives from companies such as WJXT, The Florida Times-Union, United Way and Mayo Clinic meet with communication students to discuss upcoming internships and jobs. If you are a leader at a company that is looking for interns to do advertising, public relations, journalism or production, please contact professor Bobbi Doggett to participate. 
5. Be a guest speaker. Your expertise in advertising, public relations, journalism or production could be a real benefit to current students. We are always looking for such guest speakers to come to communication classes. A good time to do this comes during the fall semester when the department hosts Media Week, an opportunity for media professionals to speak with students and faculty about the media landscape. Contact John Parmelee for more information. 
6. Contribute to Alumni Notes. This is your chance to let faculty and fellow alumni know of any big career or personal changes in your life. Also, consider contributing a 300- to 500-word piece on which professors made the biggest impact on your career. Submissions will be published in the alumni newsletter. Contact John Parmelee to submit. 
7. Donate to the department. Even a small gift can help us enhance our facilities, academics and recruiting of top-quality students and faculty. To contribute, please go to https://give.unf.edu/Communication.
8. Join us on Twitter and Facebook. The official social media pages for the department are: https://twitter.com/unfcomm and https://www.facebook.com/unfcomm