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Spring 2013
Posted by teresarlynch on 04/29/2013
http://iutelecomgrad.wordpress.com/2013/04/29/spring-2013/
Final Brown Bag of the Semester – April 26, 2013
Rachel Bailey, Ph.D. Candidate: Department of Telecommunications at Indiana University
Title: Encoding Systems and Evolved Message Processing: Pictures Enable Action, Words Enable Thinking… the Special Case of Food and Advertising.
Abstract
Food, when presented as tasty and ready-to-be-eaten, makes overcoming biological drives to consume difficult. For example, chimpanzees repeatedly make inappropriate decisions in these contexts, incapable of overriding their biological responses, but can make expedient decisions about items that only symbolize food. Extending these findings to how food is presented in advertising leads to interesting ideas. In this talk, initial studies examining how the way food is presented in media affects processing will be discussed. These studies (Bailey, 2012; Bailey & Yegiyan, 2012; Bailey, Connolly & Lang, 2013) have found greater tendencies to approach ready-to-eat representations of food (e.g. a Big Mac) compared to symbols, or packages, of food (e.g. a Big Mac wrapper). But more importantly, when food was only symbolic, emotional responses were more nuanced and cognitive categorizations were easier to make. Thus, when food is merely symbolic, individuals can overcome their biological drives and respond in ways beyond a strictly appetitive response. Future research and real world implications for these findings will be discussed.
Speaker Bio:
Rachel Bailey is a PhD candidate at Indiana University in the Telecommunications Department. She will join Washington State University’s faculty soon where she will be the director of the Communication Cognition and Emotion Lab. Her research interests lie in the complex dynamics of how individual differences, variations in mediated messages and environments in which they are consumed come together to influence how media are processed, remembered and later acted upon.
Posted by edostein on 04/29/2013
http://iutelecomgrad.wordpress.com/2013/04/29/final-brown-bag-of-the-semester-april-26-2013/
This Was the Blog That Was
It is hard to believe that it has already been a whole academic year since I started writing this column. A lot has changed since September. Consequences have been paid for my truth telling. Harmeet, who decided to allow me on the blog, was banished for a whole semester to a faraway place to think about what he has done. Sure, he had announced he would be going on sabbatical even before the school year began, but I wholeheartedly reject the most sensible explanations.
I myself have paid a price for my revelations. I was given a serum which suppressed my need to expose departmental conspiracies and forced to write “regular” blog posts. Mysteriously, the serum wore off after a month, so I could quickly shoot out another Sine Qua Nonsense before I was fed the next dose.
Working on the blog is harder than you might think. It tears you away from building your secret apocalypse shelter and forces you to talk to different people in the department, some of whom you wouldn’t normally run into. Even with the people you do see regularly, interviews aren’t usually about the things you discuss every day. I don’t talk about hunting, rap and porn very often. Now that I think of it, I shouldn’t have mentioned all three in one sentence, since mixing hunting, rap and porn together can lead to disaster.
Faculty, staff and graduate students here sure aren’t dull. It makes you wonder what dark forces are luring so many interesting people to this department of all places. The Radio and Television Building must be the world headquarters of the Free Masons, with the Department of Telecommunications and WTIU and WFIU as a cover. Also, all those satellite dishes on the roof – are they really broadcasting the local PBS and NPR stations, or are they receiving surveillance data about the entire world?
Anyway, enjoy your summer blissfully ignorant of all the conspiracies out there!
Posted by edostein on 04/24/2013
http://iutelecomgrad.wordpress.com/2013/04/24/5435/
Off to London
by Teresa Lynch
Although many members of the department will be travelling to London, England this summer to attend ICA, several graduate students – Senia Borden, Dan Levy, Gabe Persons, and Garrett Poortinga, to be specific – will be travelling there for a different reason. After a quick stopover in Iceland, the four will be meeting up with Susan Kelly to take her specially designed production course. Last summer, Susan took only undergraduates for her course abroad, but this year, the opportunity was offered to graduate students, as well.
The Tower Bridge in London. Photo courtesy of Susan Kelly.
Susan says the theme of the class is twofold. “One [portion] is to show that there are other ways of storytelling than the American way. The American way is purely driven by the bottom line. The British system is driven by a cultural mission. New voices are funded by the citizenry who actually pay a licensing fee – a tax – to fund new voices and make stories specifically about British culture. They actually have a mission statement about what their media should aim for. You’ll never find that in America.” The other portion of the class will focus on storytelling in film and story analysis. Susan has also lined up guest speakers for the class including a BAFTA recipient and an employee of the BBC. The group will also tour sets from the Harry Potter films, James Bond, The King’s Speech, the BBC Sherlock series, and Sherlock Holmes.
While they’re in London, the group will all be residing in Nido, a student housing complex in the Spitalfields neighborhood. Class will take place in facilities provided by the International Education of Students. Susan has also planned to hold class in the early afternoon so students can enjoy the walk from Nido to the IES if they choose. “It’s a beautiful walk, an amazing walk…it’s through the Bloomsbury neighborhood – the same neighborhood that housed the modernist literary movement.”
In addition to class and working with the 15 undergraduate students, the graduate students are hoping to make the most of their time professionally. Garrett has already been in touch with department alum Lora Speers. “I’ve been talking to [Lora] through email about actually producing a short form on one of her [underground hip-hop] connections,” said Garrett. “I’m hoping to go to some shows, film some interviews, and cut it together to align with the course.”
The London Eye. Photo courtesy of Susan Kelly.
Gabe and Susan are the only members of the group who have been to London, but it’s safe to say that every member of the group is very excited to be hopping the pond. Listening to Susan tell it, London is a city of incredible depth, heaviness, and beauty. She said one of the things she is most looking forward to, “the light in London in the spring is spectacular. It’s clear and the buildings are made out of limestone…some of it’s gold, some of it’s buttery, and some of it’s rose…and when the sun hits [the buildings], if you have any aesthetic bone in your body, you have to stop in your tracks and just be bathed in northern light. In London you will get scudding clouds, huge cumulus clouds that are white with some dark grey underbellies with this beautiful light that slants through and casts shadows that make designs on the ground and you are bathed in the light.” And getting to see her students experience London is an experience of pure joy for Susan. “I get to experience that, to watch students take it all in. Sometimes I have to remember this is my job.”
Posted by teresarlynch on 04/22/2013
http://iutelecomgrad.wordpress.com/2013/04/22/off-to-london/
Signing Off for Summer
by Edo and Teresa
As another academic year comes to a close, we’re wrapping up the blog for the summer break. We wanted to take a moment, though, to thank you (dear readers) for reading and supporting the blog by giving us your thoughts, ideas, and sharing your stories with us. Notably, as we wrap up for summer, we are also bringing the third year of the blog to a close. In that time, the blog has hosted six writers. We’ve all contributed different styles and flavors that have now mixed to become something representative of the department in and of itself.
We’ve tried new ways to present Telecom graduate life this year. We took the silly road and the visual road. If you have any suggestions for new things to experiment with here, feel free to tell us.
Finally, we’re proud to announce the winners of our first photo contest!
The winning photo for the category “Life in the Department” was submitted by Garrett Poortinga.
Photo submitted by Garrett J. Poortinga
For the category “Life in Bloomington,” we had not a two-way, but a THREE-way tie! The winning photos were submitted by Garrett Poortinga, Ashley Kraus, and Nic Matthews.
Photo submitted by Ashley Kraus.
Photo submitted by Nic Matthews.
Photo submitted by Garrett J. Poortinga.
Congratulations to the winners and thanks again to all who submitted, you all made the blog better this semester! Starting next week, we’ll have an interactive collection of all the photos submitted this semester hosted here for you to click through.
From both of us here on the grad blog, have a great summer!
Posted by teresarlynch on 04/22/2013
http://iutelecomgrad.wordpress.com/2013/04/22/signing-off-for-summer/
Eighth Brown Bag of the Semester – April 19, 2013
Jim Krause, Senior Lecturer: Department of Telecommunications at Indiana University
Title: Producer’s Logbook: Behind the scenes of the documentary Spirit of Brown County.
Abstract
Take a peek behind the scenes of a broadcast documentary with producer/instructor Jim Krause. In this presentation, Jim will show excerpts and discuss the process behind his latest documentary, Spirit of Brown County, which he produced for WTIU. This seminar is ideal for anyone wishing to learn more about writing and producing documentaries, camera and editing strategies, and techniques for working with clients and subjects.
Posted by edostein on 04/22/2013
http://iutelecomgrad.wordpress.com/2013/04/22/eighth-brown-bag-of-the-semester-april-19-2013/
Exciting Times for Policy Buffs
By Edo Steinberg
As John Lennon said, life is what happens to you when you’re making other plans. Prof. Barbara Cherry had intended to go on sabbatical during the spring semester. She was going to finish writing a book integrating almost two decades of research, but circumstances led her to indefinitely postpone the sabbatical.
“To make the sabbatical work, I would have needed to make significant progress on the manuscript, or at least my outline for it, before the sabbatical itself started,” Barb says. This part of her plan was disrupted by two deaths in the family and a riding accident which resulted in two broken ribs. “My energies were obviously diverted for a spell from being able to focus on the book prospectus.”
By December, it had become clear to Barb that it would be wiser for her to delay the sabbatical. Not only had she not gotten as far as she would have liked in laying the groundwork for the book, but there were developments in Washington related to the topic of her book. “It became clear that the timing wasn’t going to be right for the book I wanted to work on for two reasons. One, the book would likely not come out soon enough to be an input to the debate on policy issues as I had hoped; and number two, if I went ahead with it, then the book would not be able to reflect the latest developments that were occurring.”
“In the policymaking world, it’s ‘timing, timing, timing,’” Barb paraphrases the real estate adage. “My energies would be better spent going ahead with pieces of my research, not in book form, but with papers and more active presentations and involvement in Washington itself.”
Barb has taken a few trips to DC lately. She and Telecom lecturer and Indiana State Representative Matt Pierce have had meetings on Capitol Hill and at the FCC about legislation passed in Indiana, which they believed was adverse to consumer interests. In addition, “in January I went to Washington to speak on some panels and before a special task force established by the current president of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissions (NARUC). Meanwhile, in January, my mentor, Steve Wildman, became Chief Economist at the FCC. I’ve also been asked to make a presentation to the FCC’s Technology Transitions Policy Task Force at the end of April.”
“The window of opportunity to get something done is not yet open. It’s coming – soon, but exactly when is unpredictable,” she says. A case before the DC Circuit Court of Appeals concerning whether the FCC has jurisdiction allowing it to make net neutrality rules will have an impact on policy. If the court strikes down the rules, either the FCC would have to reclassify broadband as a telecom service or Congress would have to pass new legislation. Another change in the policy world is the upcoming end of FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s term.
“The sabbatical is just postponed until I can better determine the appropriate time to most effectively use it,” says Barb. “Sabbaticals aren’t an entitlement. You don’t just take off. It has to be for an express purpose that is approved by the university.” Not only does she not know when she will take the sabbatical, she doesn’t know what she would use it for yet. “This is part of what the real world is going to tell me, based on activities this year.” She will probably use it to write a book, but spending more time in Washington is also an option.
Posted by edostein on 04/15/2013
http://iutelecomgrad.wordpress.com/2013/04/15/exciting-times-for-policy-buffs/
