Ted Spiker, an associate professor of journalism at the University of Florida, teaches Magazine Management, Magazine & Feature Writing, Advanced Magazine & Feature Writing, Finding Your Voice, Journalism as Literature, Health & Fitness Writing, and Applied Magazines—the course that produces the campus magazine, Orange & Blue. Spiker, a contributing editor to Men’s Health magazine, is also a freelance writer who specializes in health and fitness writing.

His work has also been published in Outside; O, The Oprah Magazine; Fortune; Women’s Health; Best Life; Prevention; Runner’s World; Reader’s Digest; Sports Illustrated Women; AARP The Magazine; and more. Spiker is also co-author of about a dozen books, including the national bestselling YOU: The Owner’s Manual series with Dr. Mehmet Oz and Dr. Mike Roizen. Spiker is currently serving as the head of the AEJMC Magazine Division.

How do you define mass communication?

I think anytime we’re sending out messages to a group of people, that’s mass comm. But I tend to make a distinction depending on the audience. I think of mass communication as a form of media that sends a message to an audience that the sender doesn’t necessarily know personally. So to me, the traditional Facebook status updates (as opposed to fan pages) is merely talking to a group of friends electronically, but a Twitter update where you have followers you don’t know, that’s mass communication. The size doesn’t matter as much as the relationship. [Read more...]