December 2014 
 

Wilborn P. Nobles III, Aryanna Prasad and Elbis Bolton are the three Manship students working to develop a police-accountability app.
Fall 2014 is coming to an end

Dear alumni and friends,

 

As the calendar year ends and final exams approach, we want to wish you a happy holiday and invite you again to let us know if you're in the Baton Rouge area. We'd love to see you. 

 

We're looking back on a year that included hosting the final U.S. Senate primary-election debate, announcing the launch of our Manship in Washington program next summer and designing our new Social Media Response Lab, which we hope will open next semester. 

 

We also made huge progress on our Social Media News Challenge, financed by a Knight Foundation gift of $150,000. The program is challenging 15 students to connect with local people and issues, and they've come up with such ideas as an app to document acts of police misconduct or exemplary conduct. Another project promoted voter turnout last month and this month through use of a #TigersVote hashtag on Twitter. The challenge has turned out to be a wonderful combination of our two themes, the study of media and public affairs and the study of technology's effect on mass communication. Details of the project are at http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2014/12/lsu-students-take-on-knight-funded-social-media-projects/

 

On a personal note, I just returned from an accrediting visit to the American University in Dubai. It is a private university, although the journalism school is named the Mohammed Bin Rashid School for Communication, for the country's ruler (that's his title). While we struggle with our own diversity issues, diversity there is perhaps yet more complex, affected by language, religion, class (as here) and country of origin. Even in small groups, we'd often find students from seven or eight countries, such as Egypt, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and the Emirates. Heightening the complexity, the school teaches in both English and Arabic. I'm hoping that we can establish ties with the school; our students would be as stunned as I was by the cultural and, to some extent, journalistic differences.

 

One other note, of a different sort of personal nature: Steve Buttry, our Lamar Family Visiting Scholar and the inspiration behind the Knight challenge, has just learned about a personal medical challenge of his own. Steve, a nationally known blogger,  did what is natural for him: He blogged about it. One of our staff members, who has faved her own medical challenges, told me that his blog was "an inspiration." Others around the country have said similar things in notes appended to the blog. I encourage you to read it, at http://stevebuttry.wordpress.com/2014/12/12/cancer-2-0-i-already-won-im-planning-to-run-up-the-score/


Again, best for the holidays.

 

Jerry Ceppos

Dean

225-578-9294

[email protected]

"Working Congress: A Guide for Senators, Representatives and Citizens"
Bob Mann's new book, "Working Congress," is a product of the 2013 John Breaux Symposium held in Washington, D.C. The book
identifies the reasons for Congress's declining public approval and proposes solutions to reverse its current dysfunctional state.

The book will be sent to all members of Congress over the next month or so, Mann said, in hopes that they will read it and take its advice on how to better America's main political institution.

Read more.
Retirements
Bob Ritter (director, Student Media) and Tim Schreiner (content adviser, Student Media) have been talking to me separately about the possibility of retirement, and both have decided to take that step.

Bob will retire at the end of the academic year, and Tim will leave us at the end of December. We all know how important Student Media is to the Manship School, to LSU and to our community. Bob and Tim, along with others in Student Media, have helped our students achieve journalistic greatness, from the Society of Professional Journalists declaring the Daily Reveille the best student daily in the country to winning a pile of Pinnacle awards in the last month. Importantly, they have helped students through good guidance and teaching rather than hands-on editing.

I appreciate their work and also thank Bob for the extra assignments that I've asked him to take on maneuvering through the mechanics of the new Washington program, leading last month's spectacularly successful U.S. Senate debate and many other chores.

Faculty Spotlight: Jun Heo
Jun Heo joined the faculty in August 2014 and teaches advertising industry and society and quantitative audience analysis. He has recently published an article on social networking sites in Computers in Human Behavior (with Chen-Wei Chang). In this study, he examines factors that explain self-disclosure on Facebook. He reports that those who have social motives for using Facebook are more likely to disclose their personal information regardless of how sensitive the information is. He also suggests that perceived benefit and trust in Facebook are associated with disclosing basic and sensitive information, but not with highly sensitive information. Time spent on a social networking site and number of Facebook friends also appear to be significant predictors of information disclosure.

Another article examining advertising agency-client relationship has recently been accepted for publication by Journal of Advertising Research. Using data collected from the industry, this study emphasizes the importance of an agency's perception of the client. He provides clients with practical advice about how to improve an agency's commitment and performance by building a healthy relationship with an agency staffer.  

 

Jun is investigating factors that influence whether mobile users opt in or out of location-based advertising. He's using college students as a sample, and his study suggests that social influence, trust and what is expected from the advertisements play important roles in their decision. He is planning a large scale study to better understand contemporary mobile users and factors explaining their willingness to opt in to marketing messages through their mobile devices. His current project is supported by the Manship School's new-faculty professorship.

Notes from you

"What a wonderful job 'my' Manship School did in hosting the Senate debate! Several classmates from my years (at Manship and Student Media) messaged reminders, comments from it and celebrated it personally and on social media. I especially loved seeing the student involvement. Wish I could have been a bird above to observe. I also can imagine the incredible work it involved from across the school. Thank you and congrats to all!"

 

Nancy Malone

Class of 2002

Chair, Hall of Fame Committee

Public Affairs Director

South Louisiana Region

American Red Cross   

"I'm glad there are so many eager mass comm students at LSU. My B.A. in Mass Communication from 1993 has served me well. I now live and work in New Orleans and am always happy when I get to interview LSU mass comm candidates. I hired one five months ago, and she has become a great asset to or PR team... Keep up the great work. I have fond memories of my time in the Journalism building, which is much improved by the way."

 

Kristian Sonnier

Class of 1993

Director of Public Relations

Peter Mayer, New Orleans 

Manship students help "Save Highland Coffees"
Two Manship students played a big role in saving Highland Coffees from closing. Read more about their efforts.
Student calls football games for Spanish-language radio
Sophomore Manship student Mario Jerez calls home LSU football games for Spanish-language radio stations in Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Jerez recently was featured in the Baton Rouge Advocate. Watch and read more, here.
Chris Mann quoted in ElectionLineWeekly
Dr. Chris Mann was quote extensively in ElectionLineWeekly, a major news aggregation site on election administration. Read more.
Johanna Dunaway featured in Politico
Dr. Johanna Dunaway's study on media coverage of female political candidates was mentioned in the Politico article, "Women Fight More Than Men Over Politics."
Adjunct Hunter Territo featured in Business Report's 40 under 40
Hunter Territo, creative director at local marketing and design firm XDesign Inc., has taught MC 3031 (Advertising Creative Strategies) at the Manship School for six semesters. Hunter was recently named to the Baton Rouge Business Report's Forty Under 40. Congratulations, Hunter! 
More stories at manship.lsu.edu


Let's stay in touch

 

Have you moved? Changed jobs? Updated your e-mail address or phone number? Received an award?

 

If there's anything you'd like us to know, send an Alumni Update to Linda Rewerts. We'd  be happy to post internships or job openings, too.

 

We also encourage you to visit the Manship School website - there is so much happening, you won't want to miss a thing.