October 7, 2009

Contacts:
Carol Pardun, AEJMC President (803) 777-3244, pardunc@mailbox.sc.edu
Charles N. Davis, AEJMC Law & Policy Division Chair, (573) 882-5736 daviscn@missouri.edu

AEJMC Supports Free Flow of Information Act

The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) joins the dozens of news organizations supporting the Free Flow of Information Act (FFIA), a federal shield law that passed the House and is now under debate in the Senate. A key component of the bill is how a journalist will be defined. The current definition, attached to the bill as an amendment, is too restrictive.

The definition of those who gather and disseminate news and information of public interest should not be predicated on an individual’s employment, but instead on an individual’s journalistic practice.

Freelance journalists (who disseminate their work in a variety of ways, including through reputable blogs) and student journalists need the protections extended through the FFIA.

The AEJMC encourages lawmakers to expand the definition of a journalist to be more inclusive so that this important law will be strengthened.

This statement was issued by the President of AEJMC and through the President’s Advisory Council.

About AEJMC

The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication is a nonprofit, educational association of journalism and mass communication educators, students and media professionals. The Association’s mission is to advance education, foster scholarly research, cultivate better professional practice and promote the free flow of communication.

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Pardun is the director of the University of South Carolina’s School of Journalism and Mass Communications. Prior to her appointment at USC, Pardun was the director of the School of Journalism at Middle Tennessee State University from August 2005 through July 2008. She has held faculty positions at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1997-2005) and Kansas State University (1992-97).

Pardun sits on the editorial boards of Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, Journalism and Communication Monographs, Journal of Media & Religion, Simile, Mass Communication & Society, and Journal of Advertising. She was the co-principal investigator with Jane Brown (UNC-Chapel Hill) from 2001-06 for a $2.6 million grant investigating the impact of the media on adolescents’ sexual attitudes and behavior funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Pardun’s research has been published in the Journal of Early Adolescent Research, Pediatrics, Newspaper Research Journal, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, Journal of Advertising Research, Public Relations Review, and elsewhere. Her current research investigates the prevalence of co-existing messages of nutrition and physical activity in entertainment programming, and advertising aimed at young elementary school-aged children. Her new book, Advertising and Society: Controversies and Consequences, is published by Wiley-Blackwell.

Pardun holds a PhD from the University of Georgia in mass communications, an MA from Wheaton (IL) College Graduate School in communications, and a BA in English Literature from Wheaton College.

CONTACT: University of South Carolina, Office: (803) 777-3244 E-mail: pardunc@mailbox.sc.edu

*Historical records indicate no sitting president or convention from 1918-20. Additionally, several presidents served two consecutive terms, including: Merle Thorpe, Kansas, 1914-16; Ralph L. Crossman, Colorado, 1932-34; Charles L. Allen, Northwestern, 1939-41; Douglas W. Miller, Syracuse, 1942-44; and Frederic E. Merwin, Rutgers, 1944-46, making Pardun the 91st person elected to lead AEJMC.

The Future of AEJMC

To help kick off the new year, we sat down with Carol and asked her to share some of her thoughts and plans for AEJMC during her term as president.

How do you plan to strengthen the voice for journalism and mass communication education?

We are already on the way. The Strategic Plan Implementation Committee has spearheaded some early initiatives that I plan to champion as well. The first is the Presidential Advisory Council, which is tasked with helping the President speak out on important issues facing journalism and mass communication. We have already met via conference call and several emails as we sorted through the kinds of issues worthy of an official statement. These conversations have been lively!

I invite all AEJMC members to contact me directly (803-777-4979 or pardunc@mailbox.sc.edu) or any members of the Advisory Council (Marie Hardin, Paul Lester and Julianne Newton) if you have issues that you’d like us to explore.

How do you plan to support research and creative activity?

Putting the right people in the right positions at the right time is one concrete way I can support research and creative activity. I was able to appoint three people to the publications committee and I’m happy that I was able to recruit productive, energetic, visionary scholars for that role. Again, making sure that the committee members for the new AEJMC Scholars Program are all capable scholars is another way to assure that we are supporting research and creative activity.

Finally, I’ll be traveling a good bit this year in order to support scholarly activity. I’ve decided to attend a number of regional conferences so I’ll have a better chance to talk with young academics and graduate students. In mid-October, for example, I’m going to the District II and III BEA conference. In March, I’ll attend AEJMC’s Southeast Colloquium. Also in the spring, I’ll head to LSU to participate in awarding the first Equity & Diversity Award to the Journalism School there. Talk about creative activity! The faculty and administrators at LSU have done an excellent job in developing initiatives that support equity and diversity.

In your campaign platform, you spoke of “small, evolutionary changes” having big payoffs, citing examples like “Members’ Meetings” and “High Density Sessions.” What changes, small or big, do you hope to institute during your term as president?

The longer I’ve been in administration the more I have come to understand that what really excites me is figuring out how to make things better–because no matter how solid an organization is, it can always get better. So, with this “look inside first” approach, one thing I am planning to do (and have already begun) is to create a task force to examine our bylaws and see what ought to be changed in order for us to work more effectively as an organization.

Another change is to create an environment that will help our members to think of AEJMC as a place to connect to for the long haul. With our Centennial fast approaching, it’s time for us to think about what AEJMC has meant to us–and what we can do to assure its next 100 years. To that end, I’ve created a task force to look at ways to promote opportunities for stronger, demonstrable connections to AEJMC, such as the possibility of lifetime memberships, donor levels, etc.

Also in your campaign platform, you described yourself as an “observer,” a “defender” and an “optimist.” Please share one thing about AEJMC you’ve observed that you feel needs changing.

The urge to reinvent the wheel. It is frustrating to me that I continue to hear about things we do, that in reality, are things we haven’t done in years. For example, there is a residual legacy that the chip auction at the December meeting is a “free for all,” everyone battling positions, wrestling over chips, etc. It’s not like that AT ALL. Because our leadership rolls over so quickly, I can understand how this enduring myth continues, but we all have to work harder to make sure we’re communicating to those we’re working with now and those who will take over the work when we move on.

Please see Everything You Want to Know About “Chips” by Sue O’Brien and Glen Bleske, 2002-03, Revised 2008.

Please share one thing you’ll protect from changing.

The Council of Divisions always has been the heartbeat of AEJMC. This won’t change. But, in the midst of strategic plan initiatives–when we’re talking about change–it’s easy to understand if people wonder what might happen to the Council. Many people know that I attribute my role within the CoD as what gave me the experience and credentials to lead AEJMC this year. So, while this might be stating the obvious, I want to assure the entire membership that our commitment to the Council of Divisions is sacrosanct.

What legacy do you hope to leave behind once your term is complete in September 2010?

What’s great about this organization is that there have been many different kinds of presidents who have left behind different kinds of legacies. All are different, but all important. We can thank past presidents for focusing on internationalization, others on increasing diversity awareness, others on creating strong ties with our profession. I look back and realize that those were issues that bubbled up at just the right time–and I’m thankful those people were there to lead the way.

We are at a crossroads now in the academy, in our economy, and in our media organizations. It’s not a time to be timid, but a time to value what’s important, leave behind what is unnecessary, and hold our heads high, assured that we are engaged in an essential profession. The legacy that I hope to leave behind is that people will say AEJMC has not only weathered the storm swirling around the media and media education today, but that we’ve engaged in the debate, we’ve offered insights, and we’re optimistic about the future.

Turning over a New Leaf

In part to honor our history as an association and to welcome Carol into leadership, we asked the past three presidents of AEJMC to share some words of wisdom and encouragement with Carol as she embarks upon her journey:

Congratulations, Carol – your day is finally here.

I’m passing on the AEJMC Officers’ Handbook to you, knowing that you’ll need to consult it regularly to keep up with the myriad activities of the divisions, commissions and task forces. AEJMC is truly a membership organization and represents all that is best in journalism and mass communication higher education. Treasure the moments, both big and small, and the special places you’ll visit as AEJMC’s persona. As the captain of our ship – we’re ready to follow you as the organization continues to sail!

– Dr. Barbara B. Hines, Howard, AEJMC President 2008-09

Carol,

Congratulations on ascending to the Presidency of AEJMC. It will be an exciting and invigorating ride. I don’t think we have ever had anyone better prepared than you are for the job or anyone with a better grasp of the diverse elements that give our association its strength. You certainly need no advice from me. Still, I would only suggest that you keep in mind the whole-part paradox and mind the center, for it draws and unites those parts. Have a fantastic journey.

– Dr. Charles C. Self, Oklahoma, AEJMC President 2007-08

Carol,

The best of luck on your year as president. I’m sure you’ll do wonderfully. As far as advice, gosh, there are a million things I could tell you. Get a good keynote speaker. Outlaw cash bars (heh…). Maybe the best advice would be to not let criticism bother you. I had an unusual year as president since I had some new committees to name and people for the strategic plan. It always seemed like someone wanted someone else on some committee. Don’t take it personally, and just enjoy the many new friends you’ll make. My year was incredible, and I’m sure yours will be too.

– Dr. Wayne Wanta, Oklahoma State, AEJMC President 2006-07

Stop the Presses! Revamped Journalism Courses Attract Hordes of Students
Even as job prospects dim, a focus on new media and entrepreneurship produces record enrollments
By Katherine Mangan

At a time when the newspaper industry is in free fall and thousands of jobs are being cut each year, one would think that the halls of the nation’s journalism schools would be awfully quiet. Think again.

Many universities report that journalism enrollments are up this year. Over the past few weeks, a lot of these budding journalists have been blogging, broadcasting, and tweeting their way through introductory courses that have been revamped to embrace the digital age.

Applications to Columbia University’s master-of-science program in journalism rose 44 percent, to 1,181, for the class entering this fall, and an investigative-journalism specialty drew more than twice as many applications this year than last year, up from 54 in 2008 to 121 this year.

Elsewhere, applications to master’s programs were up 30 percent at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 25 percent at the University of Maryland at College Park, and 24 percent at Stanford University.

Students in Temple U.’s Multimedia Urban Reporting Lab interview people in Philadelphia neighborhoods where stories often go unreported, the program’s director says.

Enrollment in undergraduate journalism programs nationwide has grown 35 percent over the past 10 years, to 201,477, and was up slightly in 2008, the most recent year for which data are available.

“There are still plenty of people who love to write and think that their journalism degree will serve as an entree to just about any field they could go into,” says Barbara B. Hines, president of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

Dismal Job Outlook

Being flexible is important during tough times. A report released last month found that in 2008, graduates of journalism and mass-communication programs had far fewer job interviews and offers than in 2007, and that full-time employment was at its lowest point since at least 1986.

The report is based on an annual survey conducted by researchers at the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. Some 2,542 graduates of bachelor’s and master’s-degree programs at 86 institutions responded.

The report blamed the declines on “the sharp downturn in the national economy and the collapse of the economic model for media industries.” Paper Cuts, a blog that tracks layoffs in the U.S. newspaper industry, has recorded more than 29,000 layoffs and buyouts since 2008.

Only six in 10 graduates had full-time employment six to eight months after earning their degrees, the Georgia report noted. Graduates of newspaper and telecommunications programs fared worse than those pursuing careers in advertising and public relations, whose programs are often housed in the same colleges.

Hunter Walker, a student in the master’s program in journalism at Columbia, shared his concerns on Gawker.com, a New York-based media-and-gossip blog, after his orientation session last month. “I owe this school a lot of money,” he wrote, “and I’m still not entirely sure how I’m going to come up with it.”

Columbia’s 10-month program costs about $49,000; with living expenses factored in, the cost is $70,000.

It was a “scary time” to be a journalism student, Mr. Walker wrote, but he remained optimistic that his training in research, writing and investigative skills would land him a job … somewhere.

Push Toward Multimedia

Part of the draw for students still flocking to journalism schools is a new generation of courses retooled for new media. The same rapidly changing technology that is creating headaches for many media executives appeals to a generation of students who grew up playing computer games and texting and now tweeting their friends on the microblog Twitter.

“These students are also very comfortable multitasking, and they like the allure of doing different things every day,” says Ms. Hines, who is director of Howard University’s graduate program in mass communication and media studies.

Bill Grueskin, who left his job as managing editor of The Wall Street Journal Online last year to become dean of academic affairs at Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism, believes some students see opportunity in the industry turmoil. “Ambitious and creative young people see this as an opportunity to be part of the effort to recast and remake journalism,” he says.

At Columbia incoming graduate students attend a multimedia boot camp, and the introductory “Reporting and Writing” course has been overhauled to include more multimedia content. Students are also required to take a course in the business of journalism so they will better understand the seismic changes shaking up the profession.

“We want all students, even those with fairly traditional aspirations, to understand the nexus of journalism and technology in a broader way,” says Mr. Grueskin. “Any technological skill you teach them in 2009 will be obsolete by 2012, but we want them to understand that this is the beginning of a lifelong process they need to be open to.”

The University of California at Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism also requires incoming graduate students to participate in a multimedia boot camp, which runs from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. for five days. Lessons in multimedia storytelling are reinforced in a required class in Web publishing skills that runs parallel to one in basic reporting. Students learn how to use digital video, audio, and photo equipment.

Students were also blogging last month from American University’s three-week multimedia boot camp and sharing videos of the speakers on YouTube.

Two years ago, Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism introduced a revamped curriculum emphasizing multimedia storytelling and lessons in “audience understanding” (The Chronicle, August 10, 2007).

Skeptical Professors

A number of faculty members, however, object that gadgets are being emphasized over reporting fundamentals.

Ari L. Goldman, a professor of journalism at Columbia, says basic skills like accuracy and fairness are more important than ever at a time when inexperienced reporters are rushing to post news updates on the Web, often with little editorial oversight.

“I don’t want us to lose focus on the standards of good journalism in our rush to embrace all the latest technology,” says Mr. Goldman, who wrote for The New York Times for 20 years.

“I want to give students a consciousness that there’s a need to be thorough and not just be first–to consider the importance of fact-checking, copy editing, spelling, and grammar, and to make sure they are armed with all those tools as they write and put things on the Web.”

Ms. Hines, of Howard, says journalism professors are struggling to integrate constantly changing multimedia skills into already jammed curricula without sacrificing attention to the nuts and bolts of good journalism.

If technology is overemphasized, she says, “students will be whizzes at singing and dancing and making the equipment work, but they may not understand why zoning is important in a community, or how a city council functions.”

Michael J. Bugeja, director of the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication, at Iowa State University, agrees.

“Many journalism schools, to please industry, started creating courses that were merely about presentation, and they forgot about content,” says Mr. Bugeja, who would rather see most technological training take place on the job.

“Too often, when the technology is overemphasized in the curriculum, it gives the impression that you can do journalism sitting down in your pajamas,” he says. “You can’t do that.”

To become good journalists, he argues, students need to get out into the field and spend time with their sources.

Covering the Neighborhoods

That is what journalism students are doing in Temple University’s Multimedia Urban Reporting Lab, although they are taking the technology with them.

The students tell stories about underserved and underreported local communities via print, broadcast, and Web media. When they head out on assignments, they use digital video cameras along with reporters’ notebooks. They hand neighborhood residents other, pocket-sized video cameras to record their own stories. Students are trained to use video-editing software and can enhance their reports with audio slide shows.

But the program still pushes reporting skills, with or without gadgets and gizmos. “The mainstream media don’t go into these communities unless there’s yellow police tape and something bad has happened,” says Christopher Harper, an associate professor of journalism who co-directs the lab. “Our students are there all the time, burning up shoe leather.”

Other journalism schools, including those at Berkeley and the City University of New York, have been pursuing such “hyperlocal” reporting, sending students into diverse neighborhoods to report on the day-to-day news that shrinking mainstream newspapers don’t cover. But while hyperlocal Web sites are springing up, and some community newspapers are growing, salaries remain low. “Our students are saddled with an average of $30,000 in debt,” says Mr. Harper. “They can’t pay that back on a $25,000 salary at a community newspaper.”

Reinventing a Profession

Journalism schools are also trying to give students the tools they need to invent new models of the profession.

In addition to multimedia skills, Temple also teaches an elective undergraduate course on “entrepreneurial journalism,” which, according to the syllabus, helps students “understand the changing media landscape and recognize underserved niches.” Students study why the field is changing so fast, anticipate which direction it will go, design business models, and begin the process of creating new journalistic outlets.

“There’s not a great future in working for mainstream media,” says Mr. Harper. “The future is for smart, hard-working students to band together, create their own media, and make a business out of it–and that’s what a lot of them are doing.”

Christopher Wink hopes to be part of that reinvented future. He graduated from Temple last year and spent three months stringing for daily newspapers in Pennsylvania before heading on a European backpacking trip with a journalism-school friend.

“We returned to an economy in recession and the print industry in free fall and said, ‘Hell, let’s build something of our own,’” he says. In February the duo began publishing Technically Philly, a news site that covers local technology and innovation.

Although it has yet to make a profit, Mr. Wink remains optimistic. “I very much feel in this media environment you have to create your own job,” he says.

Source: http://chronicle.com/article/Stop-the-Presses-Revamped/48497/

 “Women look around and the lack of men in their classes makes them think that gender isn’t an issue. But in reality that’s not the case. They need to broaden their horizons, top of the class doesn’t mean top of your business,” said Stacey Hust, assistant professor at Washington State University.

In a panel discussion at the annual Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication convention in Boston, six women presented their research about the role of women in the workplace and discussed the looming presence of the “glass ceiling” and its impact on the careers of women around the globe.

Temple University Professor Donnalyn Pompper said although there is research showing women are often not treated equally in the workplace, she has a hard time getting that message through to her students.

“We need to do a better job educating our students about gender. But it’s difficult because even when I tell them that equality is not absolute, there is a hesitancy to accept that,” Pompper said.

The research showed women in mid-career are becoming unhappy with the state of their careers, saying they had to work twice as hard to meet the expectations of their bosses. This has resulted in health issues, concerns about retiring and an overall feeling of disappointment and frustration.

 Katie Place, a graduate student from the University of Maryland, said many women say they feel they have to work longer and harder in an organization to achieve some kind of success and this has greatly reduced job satisfaction.

In her presentation on the “glass ceiling” effects on women of color, Pompper cited statistics indicating women make up 3 percent of Fortune 500 chief executive officers, of which only two are women of color.

Professor Kathryn Jenson White of Oklahoma University suggested this gap is created partly because of the gender roles and stereotypes still alive in and out of the workplace.

“In our culture there are distinct ideas about gender that impact the way we think. When we think ‘man’ we immediately think leader.’ Whereas when we hear female leader, we think it’s atypical,” White said.

Pompper said the stereotyping of women of color is still apparent. She found diversity often is not a priority when it comes to higher positions.

“Many women told me that although diversity exists at the lower and middle levels, once you reach a high position there is no such thing as diversity,” Pompper said.

Another important topic up for discussion was age and the growing importance of appearance. Pompper spoke of the pressures women at mid-career feel to adhere to the standards of a “youth-obsessed culture,” even citing a woman who referred to her own body as “the enemy.”

Looking back to the 1970s, University of Ohio Professor Sarah Guthrie cited Alison Owings, a reporter for CBS and a radical feminist who fought for women to be heard on the news. Guthrie noted although there has been much advancement for women in journalism, she wonders how much has really changed since Owings’ struggles.

“Have we really made it?” Guthrie asked.

The topic of this year’s Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications convention is Surviving and Thriving, and it increasingly appears that new technologies will continue to thrive while conventional journalism continues to fall. One Emerson College professor sees it the other way around.

“The Internet is not the ubermedium that will eclipse older media,” Paul Niwa, who teaches Broadcast Journalism at the Boston school, said. Niwa suggested journalists look at ways to “re-engineer our story telling.”

JHistory’s panel discussion, Should the Changing Means of Delivering News Redefine Reporting, Commentary, and Opinion?, didn’t just dwell on the oncoming death of newspapers as print journalism faces unprecedented challenges from the onslaught of new communication technologies.

Niwa said journalists can use new media to tell more interesting stories, but that they should always “apply our values of journalism in whatever stories we choose to create.”

Dr. Sue Robinson, an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said The Capital Times, a 90-year-old newspaper that went completely online last year, used research to find new ways to get their community involved online.

The online paper started taking advantage of live blogging and offered readers space to post comments on news articles.

“The forums were being hijacked,” Robinson said. “The purpose [of including the comments] was democratic discourse. The people just wanted to express themselves.” Robinson said more often than not the comments were negative and uncivil.

The Capital Times, like many news websites across the country, disabled the comments. After the staff discussed ways to moderate the forums, comments were brought back. Robinson said the anonymous online exchanges were rarely on the positive track.

Mitchell Stephens, a professor at New York University who has also authored books used in journalism classrooms, said the news industry has started to give away their product for free and can’t repair its value.

“I think journalists are going to have to aim higher,” Stephens said.

Stephens suggested journalism schools start preparing their students to be experts in a given field, so that news organizations have knowledgeable reporters who can both disseminate the news and interpret the events.

“We need journalists to have an idea,” Stephens said. Stephens said journalists who can think creatively and interpret what’s happening in the world would be ahead of the game, no matter what the medium might be.

At the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications annual conference in Boston the two fellows discussed the findings of upcoming report.  They said private foundations and non-governmental organizations, along with the federal government, could work independently to raise money and support for journalistic ventures.

Dave Westphal, a senior fellow and executive in residence at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication, spoke on behalf of the Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership and Policy’s upcoming report, saying, “There’s plenty of room to widen tax breaks for publishers.” Westphal cited postal rates and antitrust regulations among other federal regulations that could be rewritten.

But Westphal said, so far, the government is staying out.

“And this may be exactly the right choice,” Westphal said.  “The odds that policymakers would make a helpful response may not be very high.”

Westphal also said it’s time foundations and NGOs start exploring ways they can keep the power of the press alive by funding news organizations and other journalistic ventures.

The exciting bells and whistles that come with new media aren’t necessarily the saving grace for newsrooms. Instead, Westphal said, that government should remain involved in the reinvention of the dissemination of news.

“Government support for the news business, direct and indirect, was present at the country’s founding. It continues today,” Westphal wrote in a handout given to attendees of the breakfast Communication Leadership Research Presentation, The Future of News.

Westphal colleague Adam Clayton Powell III suggested news organizations build on their existing brands in search of revenue, citing a radio station that used its own airtime to promote its Web site, leading to a surge in traffic online and in ad revenue.

Powell said news organizations can create multiple products out of a single brand.

Jody Brannon, the National Director for News21, Phoenix, said after attending the event she was skeptical these means would save journalism.

“The struggles across the country are really shaking the souls of newsrooms,” Brannon said. “I left [the presentation] feeling like we have a lot of forward progress to make.”

Brannon said the old principles of journalism will not stick as the future of the industry becomes more of an everyday reality, and while these ideas presented may not be the cure, she’s glad academia is talking.

“The industry would love to have some help.”

“Although these characters possess good and bad qualities, they are extremely popular which is what motivated me to do this research,” Krakowiak said at the Entertainment Studies Interest Group’s presentation of “The Best of ESIG” at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications convention in Boston.

Krakowiak discussed why people tend to enjoy morally ambiguous characters such as Severus Snape from “Harry Potter” and Dexter Morgan from the television show “Dexter.”

Krakowiak discovered that people who have a higher tolerance for ambiguity tend to enjoy characters that are not completely good or bad. She also found that a higher ambiguity tolerance may lead to more cognitive enjoyment and therefore those individuals may enjoy reading more than people who have a low tolerance for ambiguity.

In another presentation on the way in which we select media, Mary Beth Oliver from Pennsylvania State University, asked,  “Does sadness predict the selection of sad media?”

Through her research, Oliver suggests it isn’t sadness that predicts the choosing of sad media but rather a desire to seek the truth, and to experience something meaningful. She uses the term “mixed affect” to describe an emotional state of being that stimulates a desire for media that will be equally as emotional and that which tends to be more serious rather than light hearted.

“When you feel meaningful you want to see things that elicit that effect, which is why often times ‘sad’ movies are chosen rather than something like Wedding Crashers,” Oliver said.

In an examination of the television show “30 Rock,” Lauren Bratslavsky, a graduate student from Oregon, looked at the way humor is presented from the perspective of four thinkers, Bergson, Freud, Frye and Bakhtin. She says the show combines several elements of each of their philosophies including the use of laughter as a social function and satire.

“The show is interesting because it offers critical humor about the television industry and yet it is a product within the industry. NBC is willing to be the butt of the jokes and so the show acts as a release valve for this social commentary and that’s why there is so much to look at in terms of its humor,” Bratslavsky said.

Stepping away from the world of television and film, Ashleigh Shelton, a graduate student from Minnesota, said she wanted to determine the effect of temperature on the gaming experience. Shelton found when the temperature of a room where matches were played mirrored the temperature of what was going on in a game, it made for a more enjoyable experience. This discovery she said may be beneficial to the videogame industry and could lead to new ideas for future technology.