Mark Johnson, a lecturer in the photojournalism
department, manages the UGA Photojournalism blog,
which keeps students, alumni and professionals abreast
of new developments in the field. (Photo by Peter
Frey)
Blog Dawgs
Web logs connect faculty to students, alumni and each
other
With their easy manner and relaxed
tone, Web logs may seem like the opposite of academic
writing, but for several faculty members in the Henry
W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication,
they’re ideal for sharing information in the digital
age.
Blog
Dawgs
Several Grady College
faculty members are maintaining blogs. Here are
some contained in the college’s Blog Dawgs
consortium. A link to the page is available at www.grady.uga.edu.
Economics of
Media
Hugh J. Martin, associate professor of journalism.
Features discussions of the economic forces
that shape mass media.
Emerging New Media
Bruce Klopfenstein, professor of telecommunications.
Focuses on interactive television.
Media Consultant
Michael Castengera, lecturer in telecommunications.
The homepage for Castengera’s weekly “Message
from Michael” newsletter on a wide range
of media-related issues.
Sex in Advertising
Tom Reichert, associate professor of advertising.
Features Reichert’s comments on a particularly
newsworthy event or a particularly interesting
instance of sex in advertising.
Teaching PR
Karen Russell, associate professor of public
relations. Focuses on a broad range of issues
relating to public relations education.
What People Know
Barry Hollander, associate professor of journalism.
Discusses how people learn from the media,
what they learn (or don’t learn) and
why it matters.
Blog Dawgs is a loose confederation of 11 Grady College
faculty blogs that range from covering industry news
to commenting on research analysis and theory. Entries
span the college’s breadth, from public relations
to telecommunications and journalism.
Mark Johnson, a lecturer in the photojournalism department,
manages the UGA Photojournalism blog, which updates students,
alumni and professionals to new developments in the field.
It evolved from the mass of e-mails Johnson previously
sent to students and alumni.
“I needed a better way of sharing information with
current students and alumni who wanted to keep track
of stuff going on in the industry,” he said. “As
our students left and their e-mail addresses fell off
or changed, they started calling me saying, ‘I
don’t get your e-mails anymore,’ so this
way they can check the blog and we don’t have to
worry about e-mail.”
In addition to requiring current students to read the Photojournalism
blog, Johnson asks them to sign up for individual class
blogs, where they can post their own submissions.
“If the students come across interesting material
on their own, they can post on the blog with things such
as links to photo stories they see online or to videos.
And they can ask technical questions and respond to each
other,” he said. “We’re really using
this as a form of communication outside the class. The
students are all used to MySpace and Facebook, so they’re
used to this sort of social media, but they’re
not used to it as a professional communication tool.”
Participating in a class blog can even challenge students
to work harder, said Kaye Sweetser, assistant professor
of public relations. Sweetser maintains a blog called
So This is Mass Communication?, which focuses on social
media as a political communication tool from a public
relations perspective.
“If a student knows his or her piece of writing
for an assignment is going to be seen by everyone in
the class, he or she is likely to spend more time in
making sure that the communication is clear and pay good
attention to detail, rather than just writing it up quickly
and turning it in,” she said.
But not all the benefits go to the students. Carolina
Acosta-Alzuru, associate professor of public relations,
keeps a blog of her studies concerning telenovelas. So
far, she’s been overwhelmed with responses from
other professionals and interested readers.
“My research had never reached so many people,” she
said. “None of my published scholarship has been
read by this amount of people around the world.”
A link to the Blog Dawgs site is available from the college’s
home page at www.grady.uga.edu.
Columns
is produced by the UGA News Service, a unit of UGA Public Affairs. 286 Oconee St., Ste. 200N, Athens, GA 30602-1999 Juliett
Dinkins (jdinkins@uga.edu):
editor (706) 542-8017, Janet Beckley (jbeckley@uga.edu):
art director (706) 542-8170, Peter Frey (pfrey@uga.edu):
photo editor (706) 542-8086, Matthew
Weeks (mweeks@uga.edu): senior reporter (706) 542-8024, Sara
Freeland (freeland@uga.edu): reporter (706) 542-8077
Questions or comments should be directed to columns@uga.edu
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