Cleaning a white board, arranging classroom chairs, and punching holes in a compact disc may not sound like the makings of art to some, but to Derek Smith these simple every day acts are meaningful experiences. Smith has launched a website that will house a collection of pieces that together form his M.F.A. thesis project.

“Sometimes people think that art is created at the hand of a master, and that we should view it in a gallery from behind a rope,” said Smith. “I don’t think so. Art is all around us every day. It takes a new frame of mind to see everyday events as art, and that is what I am trying to help people do, with my thesis project.”

Smith, who will graduate in August, titled his project 108 Kōans. Kōan is a term associated with Zen Buddhism. A kōan is a story or statement for students to meditate on during their path to enlightenment. According to Smith, he thought this was appropriate because he wants his work to inspire people and cause them to think about what they are seeing.

Smith’s goal is to remind people of their own ability to create art.

“Art is like food, we should be consuming it daily, but most people are malnourished,” said Smith.

Robert Spahr, assistant professor in Cinema and Photography, is Smith’s committee chair. According to Spahr, Smith uses his work to frame life and to distribute new ideas about art using the new medium of the Internet.

“Derek’s work is quite fascinating,” said Spahr. “He is working in the 100 year old tradition of artists as philosophers. The way he presents every day events is very thought provoking.”

Smith was not quite sure at first how to present his various pieces as one unified project.

“I create most of these pieces spontaneously.  I came into this with the idea that anything could potentially be a kōan.  So I had to figure out a way to display 108 Kōans that would allow for anything, but without knowing in advance what that would be,” said Smith. “A website was a great solution. I can document each piece differently, whether it's a video or simply a text description of what I did. The site allows each piece to stand alone, but when you look at it all together you see the threads.”

Smith’s work can be viewed on his website (derekwesleysmith.com).  He is currently applying for faculty positions. He hopes to secure a position that will allow him to teach video and new media in an art department.

Sesame Workshop is known around the world for innovations in children’s media. It has become a leader in the field in large part because of the research behind program development. Beth Spezia, M.A. student in SIUC’s College of Mass Communication and Media Arts, has played an active role in a recent international collaborative research project designed to evaluate Sesame Street programs.

Spezia, who is the field representative for outreach for WSIU Public Broadcasting, is using data she gathered for an ethnographic study that is part of the larger summative research project as the basis for her thesis.

“Shalom Sesame is a cultural adaptation of Sesame Street that teaches U.S. families about Jewish life and Israel.” said Spezia. “This new version of the program is designed to reflect life in the Jewish community in this country.”

Spezia said the program uses both English and Hebrew languages. It contains messages for youth about doing good deeds and acts of charity, as well as provides educational information about Jewish traditions and practices.

She credits the arrival of Dr. Dafna Lemish, professor and chair of the Radio Television department, as the catalyst for the study coming to SIU Carbondale. Professor Lemish is a leading scholar in the field of children’s media, with her work covering and recognized around the world. This is a project that Lemish was working on when she arrived in 2010.

“The project is more than just research; ” said Lemish. “beyond an academic experience, we are collaborating with the industry and we will have an impact on children’s programming.”

Lemish explained one of the goals of the study is to explore how media can help children from a social minority group gain understanding and pride in their cultural history. The study should also help parents of these children to better pass on their heritage.

“The research project asks, ‘How does Shalom Sesame fit into the lives of Jewish families in the U.S.?’,” said Spezia. “A series of three home visits with each of 10 Jewish families in southern Illinois and Georgia allowed us to interview children and parents. This helped us to identify what parts of the program are best received.”

Complimenting the ethnographic study in the larger project are a survey of east coast viewers and an in-depth look at Rechov Sumsum, the Israeli version of the program.

“We are providing Sesame Workshop with information that will help them make decisions about production and distribution,” said Spezia. “This is such a great opportunity to have a direct impact on children’s television program’s content.”

Spezia added this project is a good example of SIUC bringing what has been learned through research back to the community through programming. She said it helps audiences understand that research is integrated with the local community.

“This is real, practical work affecting families in southern Illinois,” said Spezia. “We are in a living laboratory. With a project like this, the outcome can reach across the globe and touch families here.”

Spezia found that parents in Jewish families like the program because it helps them to connect with their faith and pass on traditions to their children. It also helps families to feel a sense of community in a geographic region where there are not many Jewish people. Shalom Sesame fills a gap in the lives of Jewish families who do not have easy access to educational resources about their culture.

“It is fantastic to be a part of this important project that goes beyond the classroom into the homes of families,” said Spezia. “With Professor Lemish’s leadership we are able to recruit more students into the field of children’s media; and we are growing the program.”

Lemish added this project was a great opportunity for she and Spezia to learn about each other, as well as the families involved.

“I am Jewish. Beth is not,” said Lemish. “She was able to learn about me and my culture in a new way. I learned about her as well. The cultural discussions we have had add so much to our understanding and to the research.”

Lemish hopes to do more research like this in the future.

“We hope this will lead to other collaborative projects with Sesame Workshop and other children’s media producers,” said Spezia. “This, and projects like this, are positioning the College as an important participant in dialogue and development of children’s media in the U.S.”

Top image: Logo for Shalom Sesame. Bottom image: The Hebrew alphabet. 

The research project of a recent graduate from the Mass Communication and Media Arts Master of Science program in Professional Media and Media Management is featured on a new investigative journalism website.

Izabel Liwo who is originally Cameroonian, but born and raised in the United Arab Emirates, completed the program with a specialization in broadcast journalism. Liwo graduated from high school at 16, and then came to Southern Illinois University Carbondale at 17 to pursue a bachelor’s degree in Radio-Television.

Her research project focused on mental health on college campuses as part of the Investigative Journalism Education Consortium (IJEC). She created an investigative video and research that took a look at three campuses in the state of Illinois to see how they are dealing with the rise of students coming to college campuses with severe mental illness.

Liwo used a comparison between Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Northern Illinois University in Dekalb, to see how their counseling services measure up to the guidelines and recommendations offered by the International Accreditation of Counseling Services.

Her project shed light on the consequences that an institution could face if the quality of services does not meet accredited (IACS) standards.  It also examined what these three universities are doing to follow federal and state laws when it comes to the release or exchange of information about students who are seeking counseling services.

Her research involved an analysis of the state's recommendations for universities to implement prevention plans and threat assessment teams on campus to ensure campus safety and healthy campus cultures.

The IJEC is a network of university and college professors who work with students on investigative reporting and collaborate on stories, according to Brant Houston (title).

First proposed by Bill Freivogel, director of the journalism program at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, in the spring of 2010, the idea grew into a network of Midwest university professors and students from six states who recently completed the first phase of their initial project. Liwo’s master’s research project was among those completed and posted on the IJEC website (ijec.org).

Key to the establishment of the network was a grant of $75,000 from the Robert M. McCormick Foundation in Chicago. The grant provided funds for a part-time project coordinator, Web site development, meetings among participants, and travel for project work, said Houston.

The current members of the consortium are The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (which coordinates the effort), Southern Illinois University, Columbia College in Chicago, the University of Wisconsin, Ball State University, University of Missouri, and the University of Iowa. Houston added there are plans to include many more institutions with the realization that subsets of the network may work on different stories at the same time.

Liwo’s three part series can be found on the IJEC website, or click here.

Liwo plans to seek employment at a news network or local television news station where she can report and anchor the news daily.

 In December seven students graduated from the Mass Communication and Media Arts Master of Science program in Professional Media and Media Management. Those graduating were: Beth Alongi, Cary Bryant, Scott Changnon, Shuman Deng, Izabel Liwo, Erica Mills, and Sean O'Connor.

The seven graduates conducted a wide array of research projects as part of their degree completion. Several plan to stay in the Carbondale area. Here is a sampling of the graduate research projects:

Cary Bryant conducted a research project looking at the trends in social media to determine what motivates people to use social media. She also studied how hard various groups have to work to create and maintain an online presence. She created theSocialMediaBubble.com as a free resource for people to learn more about social media. After graduation, Bryant, who is from Centralia, Ill., will be working for the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute and continuing personal online projects.

Another graduate, Beth Alongi, compared the effects of past technologies on society to the cultural transformations from modern technology, specifically the Internet. Internet habits of the college age culture were researched as well as a look at how today’s students use the Internet in obtaining and utilizing health care information found on the web. This research, including a survey of social media use in university health centers across the United States and a survey of current university students’ website usage, assisted in the case study of the re-design of a university health center website. Alongi, is from DuQuoin and she will continue at SIU Carbondale Student Health Services where she has worked since 1989. She is the Publicity and Promotion Specialist.

Scott Changnon, completed a research project titled, "Live 3D Production of Sporting Events, The Future of Sports Broadcasting."  Changnon, a Champaign, Ill. Native, was very activity with media coverage of SIU Carbondale sporting events during his graduate studies. He recently interviews with NFL Films and hopes to hear from them soon. In the meantime he plans to do freelance video work for local sports.

Izabel Liwo who is originally Cameroonian, but born and raised in the United Arab Emirates, completed the program with a specialization in broadcast journalism. Liwo graduated from high school at 16, and then came to Southern Illinois University Carbondale at 17 to pursue a bachelor’s degree in Radio-Television.

Her research project focused on mental health on college campuses. She created an investigative video and research that took a look at three campuses in the state of Illinois to see how they are dealing with the rise of students coming to college campuses with severe mental illness. Liwo used a comparison between Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Northern Illinois University in Dekalb, to see how their counseling services measure up to the guidelines and recommendations offered by the International Accreditation of Counseling Services. Her project shed light on the consequences that an institution could face if the quality of services does not meet accredited (IACS) standards.  It also examined what these three universities are doing to follow federal and state laws when it comes to the release or exchange of information about students who are seeking counseling services. Her research involved an analysis of the state's recommendations for universities to implement prevention plans and threat assessment teams on campus to ensure campus safety and healthy campus cultures.

Liwo plans to seek employment at a news network or local television news station where she can report and anchor the news daily.

The PROMPT Fellowship/Assistantship (Proactive Recruitment of Multicultural Professionals for Tomorrow) is an award program developed by the Graduate School of Southern Illinois University Carbondale to increase the number of individuals receiving advanced degrees in the U.S. from families which have traditionally not had access to the opportunities of higher education. The award program aims to target individuals who, through their lives and/or cultural experiences, have unique and potentially positive contributions to make to their program, discipline, and in the larger academic community.

PROMPT recipients receive a two-year departmental assistantship with a stipend award. Since 1994, the award program has helped to impact the lives of hundreds of students.

The College of Mass Communication and Media Arts is pleased to announce that four students from the College were selected to receive PROMPT awards for 2011-2012.

Benjamin Lyons graduated cum laude in English and Psychology from Illinois College in Jacksonville, IL. He is originally from Riverton, Ill. Rather than enrolling in a master’s degree program at Illinois College, he made plans to transfer to SIU Carbondale where he is working to earn his M.S. in Professional Media and Media Management.

“I hope to move onto a Ph. D. and into teaching some day,” said Lyons. “I am really enjoying being challenged and learning so much about the field of media and communications.”

Darren O’Bryan is a graduate of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. He returns to the University’s Carbondale campus to study in the College of Mass Communication and Media Arts where he hopes to earn a Master of Fine Art degree.

O’Bryan was in the U.S. Army, but after an ankle injury and an honorable discharge, he returned to school. He attended the SIU Carbondale Law School. After completing his studies there in 1999, O’Bryan put his legal prowess to work as a public defender.

In 2008, O’Bryan left his position as a public defender and returned to academia to study film production and film writing. Thus far he has produced three documentaries while at SIU Carbondale.

Claire Soares is a former student of Southern Methodist University and the University of Dallas, Texas, her hometown. Her undergraduate degree is in Mechanical Engineering. She is attending SIU Carbondale’s College of Mass Communication and Media Arts where she hopes to work towards a Master of Fine Arts degree.

“I hope to teach media at a major university and produce television programs and films,” said Soares.  “This semester is going very well, I am just really busy.”

Chastity Spencer knew as an undergraduate student that she would continue to graduate school. During her undergraduate career, she worked hard to earn stellar grades so that she could make graduate school a real possibility. She is enrolled in SIU Carbondale Graduate School and is working towards a M.S. in Professional Media and Media Management.

Heather Lose, 2009 graduate in the M.A. Professional Media Practices program, is currently teaching Graphic Design at the Art Institute of Tennessee-Nashville. Lose is originally from Nashville, Tenn.

“I am on cloud nine,” said Lose. “The Tennessee State Museum is buying three pieces of my work for their permanent collection.”

All the pieces are from Lose’s ongoing “Tennessee Fireworks Project.” The museum is purchasing “Frisky Starburst” and “Mt. Juliet,” two large works on canvas, and a map info graphic that explains the overall project.

“These images have been culled from a larger body of photographic work called the Tennessee Fireworks Project,” said Lose. “Each year since 2004, I have gone on the road to photograph the seasonal fireworks stands that mushroom up alongside Tennessee’s two-lane highways during June and July.”

Lose said the body of work is a tribute to her much-loved home state of Tennessee.

“Phil Greer was a beloved mentor to me while working on my master’s at SIUC,” said Lose. “I have continued to expand and develop this body of work ever since it hung in the gallery space in the MCMA building.”

Youssef Osman, M.F.A., ‘10 had his film “Two Thousand and One Nights” premiere at the Cannes film festival this year. This was the world premiere for the film.

For more information about the première, visit this link:

http://www.shortfilmcorner.com/sfcfilm/filmFiche2.Aspx?id=53529564

Kate Balsley, M. F. A. ’09, had her short film “anima mundi” screened at the Cannes film festival this year as well. For more details about the short film visit this link:

http://www.shortfilmcorner.com/sfcfilm/filmfiche2.Aspx?id=53637418

 Steve James, graduate of our MFA program, whose first major film "Hoop Dreams" gained international attention is launching another film. Check out this link to an interview and trailer about Steve’s new film, "The Interrupters".

http://www.truth-out.org/chicago-violence-streets-documentarian-steven-james/1312829671

James Anderson:

“Laughter is Critical: A Critical Discourse Analysis of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report using the Propaganda Model as a Guide.”

Presented at the Southern States Communication Association Convention in Little Rock, March 2011.

2011 Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools & ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Distinguished Master’s Thesis Award.

Namrata Bansal:

Aaron S. Veenstra, Narayanan Iyer, Namrata Bansal, Mohammad Delwar Hossain, Jiwoo Park and Jiachun Hong, "#Forward!: Twitter as Citizen Journalism in the Wisconsin Labor Protests," Civic & Citizen Journalism Interest Group. Paper to be presented at the 2011 AEJMC Conference, St. Louis, MO Aug. 10-13, 2011.

David Farrell:

MFA David Farrell featured student which came with a $500 software award to the college.

http://www.mac-on-campus.com/

Yang Feng:

Xie, W. & Feng, Yang. Frustration in search for health information: Results from a national survey. Paper presented at the annual convention of International Communication Association, Health Communication Division, Boston, MA, 2011.

Jiachun Hong:

Aaron S. Veenstra, Narayanan Iyer, Namrata Bansal, Mohammad Delwar Hossain, Jiwoo Park and Jiachun Hong, "#Forward!: Twitter as Citizen Journalism in the Wisconsin Labor Protests," Civic & Citizen Journalism Interest Group. Paper to be presented at the 2011 AEJMC Conference, St. Louis, MO Aug. 10-13, 2011.

Delwar Hossain:

Veenstra, A., S., Iyer, N., Bansal, N., Hong, J., Hossain, M., D., Liu, X., Park, J. (2011). Forward!: Twitter as Citizen Journalism in the Wisconsin Labor Protests. A paper accepted for presentation to the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Conference 2011 to be held in St. Louis, Missouri from August 10-13, 2011.

Hossain, M., D. (2011). Framing the Liberation War of Bangladesh in the U.S. and U.K. Media: A Content Analysis of the New York Times and the Times (London). A paper accepted for presentation to the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Conference 2011 to be held in St. Louis, Missouri from August 10-13, 2011.

Mark McCleery:

McCleerey, Mark. "Robots Playing Dress-Up: The Android as Child and Adult in Blade Runner and Teknolust." A Vampire, A Troll, and a Martian Walk Into a Bar… Current Research in Speculative Fiction.

Abu Naser:

Naser, M.A. & Aikat, D. “Can the Mobile Communication Transform a Society? Mobile Phone Use as an Agent of Social Change in Bangladesh,” International Communication Association (ICA) Preconference Workshop, Boston, May 25-26, 2011.

Aikat, D., Moro, N., Sen, A. & Naser, M. A. “Theorizing Technology: Theoretical Trends and Core Concepts in Visual Communication,” Academic Conference of International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR), Kadir Has University in Istanbul, Turkey, July 13-17, 2011 (accepted for presentation).

Naser, M. A. & Aikat, D. A. “A Watchdog of Democracy”: State of Media Ethics in Bangladesh,” Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) Annual Convention 2011, St. Louis, MO, August 10-13, 2011 (accepted for presentation).

Naser, M. A. & Aikat, D. A. “Media of the People, by the People, for the People: Redefining Public Service Broadcasting in Emerging Democracies,” Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) Annual Convention 2011, St. Louis, MO, August 10-13, 2011 (accepted for presentation).

Ji Woo Park:

Park, Jiwoo. 2011. “The Role of Media in the Life of a Korean-American Child.” Paper presented at the Global Studies Association 2011 Conference, Chicago.

Nelson, M., Oh, S., & Park, J. 2011. “Consumer Knowledge of News Making: How Increased Persuasion Knowledge of Video News Releases Influences Beliefs and Credibility in a News Story.” Paper going to be presented at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, St. Louis.

Veenstra, A. S., Iyer, N., Bansal, N., Hossain, M., Park, J., & Hong, J. 2011. “#Forward!: Twitter as Citizen Journalism in the Wisconsin Labor Protests.” Paper going to be presented at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, St. Louis.

Onyebadi, U., & Park, J. 2011. “I’m Sister Maria. Please Help Me: A lexical study of 4-1-9 International Advance Fee Fraud Email Communications.” International Communication Gazette, forthcoming.

Sam Robinson:

Robinson, Sandra (2011). Smoking Bananas and Stolen Presses. [Review of the book Smoking Typewriters]. Democratic Communiqué, upcoming Summer 2011.

Robinson, Sandra (2011). Press on the Plains. Upcoming paper presentation at Midwest Pop Culture Association Conference, Oct. 14 - 16, 2011, Milwaukee, WI.

Kristi Scott:

Named Director of Student Outreach at Humanity+ http://student.humanityplus.org/ Serve as a liaison between the leaders of H+ Student Network and the H+ Board of Directors. Also to serve as an academic scholarly resource and guide on the relevant studies and literature

Scott, K. (August 2011) “Let’s talk about the future: How to use A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Westworld, and Bicentennial Man to discuss possible human-robot relations,” Presenting at Speculative Frontiers: Reading, Seeing, Being, Going, the Academic Program at Renovation, the 69th World Science Fiction Convention, Reno, NV

Scott, K. (May 2011) “Living with the Robots Rising:  How We Understand Robotic Technology through Media,” Presenting at 2011 SIUC Graduate Symposium, Carbondale, IL.

Scott, K. (May 2011) “Understanding the role of popular culture in emerging technology discourse,” Presenting at Humanity+ @ Parsons, New York, NY.

Scott, K. (April 2011) “How to play in the sandbox together: Science fiction film as a way for scientists, policy-makers and society to talk about technology,” Presented at the 11th Annual Conference on Science & Technology in Society, ST Global Consortium, Washington D.C.

Updated June 2011