From eMarketer: Thanks to Facebook, social networks are steadily increasing their share of total online ad spending in the US. In 2011, 10.8% of all US online ad spending will go to social networks. Read more.
Incorporating Social Media in a Required Research Course for Advertising / PR / Strategic Communication Majors
July 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment
By Joe Bob Hester, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
JOMC 279, Advertising and Public Relations Research, is a required course for students majoring in advertising, public relations, or strategic communications in the UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication. The primary goals of this course are for students to learn 1) to conduct research and evaluate information by methods appropriate to the advertising and public relations professions, and 2) to apply basic numerical and statistical concepts.
During the spring 2010 semester, I integrated social media, specifically Twitter, into all aspects of the course. I had previously used local/regional businesses as “clients” for a research project in the course. However, the benefit of working with real clients carried with it some fairly serious drawbacks, particularly the difficulty in finding appropriate new clients each semester. A previous instructor in the course had always used Super Bowl advertising as the topic for the research project since the course was usually taught in the spring semester. Now that the course would be taught year round, I was looking for a research project topic that would be appropriate regardless of semester. [Read more...]
NYT: Screenvision to Revamp Preshow Ads at Cinemas
July 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Brooks Barnes talks what’s next at the movies, and mobile tie-ins:
Instead of the usual assortment of trivia, banner ads and snack-bar enticements, the new advertising preshow will rely more on celebrity and sponsored entertainment.
Nascar, for instance, has signed on to deliver exclusive video, which marketers can sponsor. The music producer Timothy Mosley, better known as Timbaland, will pop up in a series of 60- to 90-second videos during the block to talk about his influences and pick songs to play behind more traditional-looking ads. Paula Abdul is another partner, although Screenvision is keeping her role under wraps. [Read more...]
Advertising, Media and the Convergence Model
July 7, 2010 By Leave a Comment
By Tom Mueller, Appalachian State University
There’s a race underway at many academic institutions. A mass communication movement is working to build media interactivity, where the potential for convergence occurs. Convergence is a somewhat mythical place where all things come together into a concurrent stream of messaging and effect. To succeed, one needs to disseminate media through multiple channels. Where a print communication might have succeeded in the past, one must now craft the story, get it to press, post the blog entry, tweet the copy, launch the YouTube promo, alert LinkedIn and Facebook contacts and find a marketing partner to infuse revenue. It’s all in a day’s work for the modern, educated and converged communication professional.
A weblog created for the non-profit Center of Innovation in College Media stated that the University of Missouri now features a degree in “convergence journalism.” Department chair Lynda Kraxberger reported that students are given the opportunity to tell stories in the traditional way, but also integrate “information delivery platforms” such as live blogs and mobile devices. Terry Eiler, a professor at Ohio University’s School of Visual Communication, is quoted on the weblog regarding Ohio University’s graduate multimedia program. “At the core of the curriculum is the ability to learn,” Eiler said. “You don’t teach a software package – you teach the ability to learn.”
If learning is essential within the new convergence model, how must we, as advertising educators, modify and adapt our curricula? Advertising offers an essential component within the mass media industry; some would portend that adverting fuels media, which allows for free press, which fires the engines of democracy. With that relevant deliverable in our tool kit, we must find traction as we craft our own convergence initiatives. [Read more...]
Teaching Social Media
July 7, 2010 By Leave a Comment
By Tricia Farwell
Assistant Professor, Middle Tennessee State University
Walk into any classroom with computer access, WiFi access or cellular phone service and you will, most likely, find at least one student on Facebook, MySpace or YouTube. The students will tell you how they “get” social networking sites. Put up a few (usually less than sober) pictures. Post a few status updates ranging from song lyrics to what they did last night. Et voila! You have instant social media expertise through user experience without training.
However, some industry professionals appear to be less confident about their use and understanding of social media; they are still trying to discover the most meaningful way to incorporate it into their profession. Slips such as the infamous Memphis Twitter post by a Ketchum Vice President have shown organizations how a misstep can be a public relations disaster. In this case, the employee posted to his Twitter feed while waiting to meet with the client (FedEx). The post (http://shankman.com/wp-content/uploads//keyinfluencertweet.jpg) read: “True confession but I’m in one of those towns where I scratch my head and say ‘I would die if I had to live here!’” Understandably, FedEx employees were upset and the Ketchum employee experienced how public social networking can be.
While these social networking may not change the messages that the organizations intend to deliver to the public, the tools are impacting the way the messages are delivered. Century 21, for example transferred its national television advertising budget to focus on online media (Bush). The switch provided the company a way to open the lines of communication with publics by using vehicles most often thought to be, if not free at least inexpensive (Johnson). [Read more...]
Rethinking Media Writing
July 7, 2010 By Leave a Comment
By Tricia Farwell
Assistant Professor, Middle Tennessee State University
Back in the dark ages, during my undergraduate education, there were two choices for me as a student (or at least that was how I saw things). Option one was to be on the print side of the world. Option two was to be on the broadcast side. In my mind, the two were never to meet. The broadcast students scrambled into their editing bays and studios; they played with pictures and sound. In my mind, print reigned supreme. We had words to craft into wonderful tapestries. We strutted into the computer labs, knowing that what we had to say was important.
A few courses into the program I experienced a crisis of epic proportions…I realized I didn’t like most of what was involved in being a journalist. Thanks to one wonderfully astute advisor, I was counseled to take public relations courses. I was lucky. I found a happily ever after early. Some of my friends weren’t as lucky and had to take “extra” courses when they found they didn’t like what they originally intended to pursue.
Fast forward a few years (ok, maybe a decade or two) and I find myself in a place I never expected to be: part of the curriculum committee discussing a course that, in my opinion, might help students to make slightly more informed choices. That course is our media writing course. In its current incarnation, the class is designed to be an overview of various types of writing that students of the mass media might encounter. As you can see by the sample syllabus, we try to spend a few sessions on each writing area. It’s a sampler platter, for sure, but one that may be more beneficial than harmful. [Read more...]
The Future of Local Journalism
July 7, 2010 By Leave a Comment
By Stephen Lacy
Professor, Department of Communication and School of Journalism, Michigan State University
Journalists face a crisis. The migration of readers, viewers and advertisers from newspaper and broadcast TV to the Web has combined with the current recession to eliminate jobs and raise concerns about the future of journalism itself. Many observers have addressed these concerns with conflicting conclusions. However, the importance of the discussion is not that someone will be right or wrong but that the conversation might help journalists better understand the trends, and, therefore, help them influence the ways they react to the trends.
Much of the disagreement in the discussions comes from a failure to address the particular type of markets being discussed. National journalism will be affected by the trends, but the number of news outlets addressing national issues insures that citizens will continue to receive national news from a diversity of outlets. Local news markets, however, have smaller consumer and advertising bases, and the news organizations in these markets confront a more uncertain future than do national news organizations.
The following predictions about the future of local journalism (coverage of communities, towns and cities) start with some observations about current conditions and then suggest what these mean for the future of local journalism. [Read more...]
Discussing JMC with… Jan Slater
June 23, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Jan Slater is the Head of Advertising at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Prior to her appointment at Illinois, Slater was an associate professor and the associate director of the E. W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University for nine years. Slater joined the academy following a long career as an advertising practitioner, working in private industry, as well as advertising agencies in Omaha, Nebraska. When she left the business, she was running a successful advertising agency, J. Slater & Associates. Slater has been an active member of the Association for Educators in Journalism and Mass Communication since 1995.
How do you define mass communication?
Mass Comm has traditionally referenced a means to conveying information to a population. I think many, in general, apply the mass media to the term. In the past — that has meant newspapers, magazines, and broadcast channels. My personal take on this is that communication has never been mass in its message — in that all messages have been tailored to a specific audience – and while we may have used mass media channels to deliver this – our message has been carefully crafted and targeted to a specific group.
Today, of course – mass media is shrinking in size and strength and consumption. That doesn’t change the context of our message – it simply changes the delivery. [Read more...]
Monograph Explores Cultural Politics of Colorism in India
December 16, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Magazine advertisements and television commercials for cosmetics and personal hygiene products in India illustrate a cultural bias toward lighter skin, according to the findings of a study published in the fall 2009 issue of Journalism and Communication Monographs.
In their monograph, “Melanin on the Margins: Advertising and the Cultural Politics of Fair/Light/White Beauty in India,” Radhika Parameswaran and Kavitha Cardoza first provide context for “colorism,” or skin color discrimination, in India. They explain that the nineteenth century colonial attitudes that considered the science of race looked at physical characteristics of natives in order to prove their inferiority. Likewise, colorism has roots in the caste system of India, as well as in the country’s ancient history when lighter-skinned tribes invaded around 1500 B.C. [Read more...]
Enhancing Student Segmentation Skills and Targeting Knowledge
July 25, 2009 By Leave a Comment
In the advertising world, it is becoming ever more important to justify advertising expenditures. In order to more effectively assess the impact of advertising investments, a popular strategy is to divide the market place into meaningful segments, evaluate the responsiveness and profitability of each segment and then select the “best” segments to target. Given that there are numerous methods for dividing the market place and as a result, numerous potential segmentation schemes, it is necessary to utilize an effective metric that will allow for the evaluation and selection of the most beneficial segmentation scheme. [Read more...]