Are you interested in sports reporting? Would you like to learn how to interview college and professional athletes? Would you like to cover a Buffalo Bisons game at Dunn Tire Park and learn the ropes of a sports reporter?

If you answered yes to any of these questions then send an email to mattykwmcb@yahoo.com explaining what kind of sports reporting that you want to get into and exactly what you want to learn.

Matty K

WMCB Sports Director

Mattykwmcb@yahoo.com

In past weeks I have talked about the different job positions in newspaper offices.Positions included design, editing, writing, and photography. Today, I will mention another, advertising.

Many newspapers, especially those that are free, run primarily on advertising revenue. There for, daily and weekly newspapers hire a lot of advertising representatives.

Working as an advertising representative for a newspaper is a good opportunity, it has the ability to strengthen ones communication, networking, and sales skills. If you excel at selling advertisements, it is very rewarding, as most newspaper pay advertising reps a salary and commission on what they sell.

The neat part of advertising is that you are exposed to a variety of personalities, and learn a great deal about the different types of business that are world is made up of.

Also, selling advertisements allows you to be creative like most other newspaper positions. For example, if an advertising representative is accustomed to using Adobe software they can not only sell the advertisements but design them too. Designingthem allows you to be creative, and once you build relationships with your clients you get a feel for what message they are trying to convey with their advertisement and you can design it for them.

Advertising is a great opportunity because it allows you to strengthen so many areas, not to mention that it can be very enjoyable if you like meeting new people. And what can be better then getting paid for how hard you work? The more sale calls you make the more customers your are likely to have and the more commission you have to make.

Summer Gemmati

The next radio station meeting for WMCB will be held on Feb. 25 at 12:30 p.m. All communications and non-communications majors welcome so feel free to bring your friends. Star Search, individual radio shows, and sports reporting will all be discussed.

How does THIS keep happening? And why?

Cross posted on my own page.

In Defense of Theory

I never thought I’d end up writing something called “In Defense of Theory.” I graduated from a communication program that emphasized theory to the near-exclusion of hands-on, practical learning. I hated it. I had a hard time sitting in a classroom and learning about theory in all its abstractions and removal from real life situation.

However, I share Professor Schedel’s concern after reading the Perspective’s recent editorial, “Theory Useless in Job Force.” In any communications career, an employee needs concrete skills and relevant experience to complete tasks. I would suggest that college graduates about to enter the job force need to do more than be able to just complete tasks. They need to understand the frameworks, and yes, theories, within which they are working in order to do those tasks better, faster and smarter.

If you’re in a position where you aren’t able to apply even rudimentary elements of well-known communication theories to what you’re doing, then you’re just a worker bee, and you will not grow professionally. I work with technology. Having learned about the diffusion of innovations, a theory first put forth nearly fifty years ago to explain the ways in which ideas and concepts are adopted by society, I’m in a better position to understand and implement the technologies I encounter. That’s one example. With a few hours and some of my old comm theory textbooks I could define a few dozen others.

When I think of the theoretical knowledge I learned in pursuit of a degree, that is training that best came from learned professors in a classroom setting. I look back and am grateful for the opportunity to acquire such learning, as it has strongly prepared me for a career doing exactly what I want to do in communication. You can learn skills on your own and on the job – the best learning comes from experience, and experience takes time.

Having some skills might get you your first job, but they won’t get you your first promotion, and they won’t make you competitive in today’s communication marketplace.

Kara Kane

Here’s a chance to win a $50 gift card from Target. Submit your best audio or video demo tape, aircheck, news story, sportscast, or interview according to the guidelines below by Monday, March 10, 2008.

We’re looking for audition tapes, test tapes, shows or clips from shows, and anything you would consider sending to a prospective employer to show them what you’ve got. As long as at least 6 entries in each category (video and audio) are received by that date, we will vote for the best entry in order to a winner!

One entry per student is allowed. The winner will be announced on Wednesday, March 12.

By submitting an entry, you agree that it may be posted on this web site (medaillecommunication.com) and other web sites. Entries that do not follow these guidelines will not be counted.

• Video files should be posted to youtube, facebook, or a video-sharing web site and the link emailed to webmaster@medaille.edu.
• Audio files should be emailed in mp3 format to webmaster@medaille.edu.
• Include your name, major, class year and something interesting about your life with your entry. Read the rest…

I was a bit distressed to read Courtney Pellet’s editorial, “Theory Useless in the Job Force”. I can only conclude that we members of the Medaille College faculty could do a better job of articulating the place and importance of theory.

There is no substitute for hands-on learning and instruction that “shadows” the skills that are needed in the work force, especially at the entry level. However, an education, if it is to be truly that, cannot just be about “how to do”. It also needs to provide possible insights and perspectives concerning “what to do and why to do (or not to do)”.

This fact has been continually impressed upon the Communication Department’s faculty by members of the department’s advisory board. While it is true that some of the board’s members consider the value of Communication Theory, the Humanities and the Social Sciences as being “b.s.”, the majority of the members have strongly affirmed the value of theory and general knowledge, especially as it applies to the likelihood of promotion. Statements such as “I need people I can promote” and “I can teach a person to run a board, if I have to, but I can’t teach the ability to read, write, and think” have been the norm.

In fact, many of the most successful media figures, especially those who have jobs on-air or in print journalism, have not had “media” degrees but, rather, degrees in one or other of the Liberal Arts and Sciences. For these people the deficiencies that they may have had, early on, in hands-on skills were more than compensated for by the knowledge and the potential perspectives and insights that a liberal education can provide.

I suspect that internships, however valuable they can be, may not be the best basis for judging what the value of “theory” might be. This value most likely will be more apparent in what is often called “the real world” when a person is called upon to make decisions that might have serious consequences for himself/herself and others. This kind of responsibility is about as “real world” as it is possible to be. It very often forces a person to call upon and critique everything that he/she knows, believes, and stands for. The bases for such decisions are, to a great degree, the provinces of “theory”, the Humanities, and the Social Sciences.

Even more important, an education must do more than prepare a person for the work force. It must also be preparation for life as an educated citizen and leader. In the roles that such a life can and should involve there is no substitute for the knowledge, skills, and judgment that are the business of theory and a liberal education. These roles, too, are crucial in and to “the real world.”

We members of Medaille College’s faculty are very aware of the sacrifices that our students are making. In part to justify these sacrifices we are committed to providing our students with the best and most comprehensive theoretical and practical preparation for “the real world” that we can.

~Dr. John Schedel

danah boyd has written a blog entry about the economics and logistics of academic publishing. For anyone looking for a career in academics, her piece gives a good overview of the trends in scholarship and publishing.

Did you watch the Grammy’s last night. I caught a little bit. How are award shows related to communication?

There is a concept called “masking” in nonverbal communication. Basically it means that you “mask” (hide) your true emotions when you’re in a situation where it’s not socially appropriate to show how you really feel. (Meetings at work, meeting people that you may have passed judgment on, etc.). There’s also an theory about micro-expressions. That’s the split second where are true emotions show through before we mask them.

Any show where there’s a competition and clear winner and loser are announced is where we can see real life examples of these nonverbal concepts. Did you see any masking last night? Fake happiness? A moment of disappoint before the smile?  While we’re on it, how to the expression of genuine emotions of the winners show up nonverbally?

If you’ve got a few minutes, check out the content on How Stuff Works: Communication Channel. Though slanted more towards the technological side of communication, its articles on emerging technologies and communication devices are first-rate. Knowing what terms like FoIP and WiFi mean could give you an edge when dealing with your next job interview.