Inside the SCOM – Harrison Connect

February 27, 2017woocw No Comments

How do you teach students to use critical thinking to solve real world problems?

Dr. Michael Broderick, an assistant professor in JMU’s School of Communication Studies, uses monstrous, magical puppets to teach his students how to develop out-of-the box techniques to address complex social issues and challenges. Students create puppets to address such diverse topics as the similarities between art and science or the predator and prey in society.

But, as in real life, there are no directions or boundaries for this assignment. Broderick’s students are on their own from the moment they are divided into work groups until their final presentations at the end of the semester.

Before then, students spend weeks brainstorming how to articulate and give social issues understandable shape and form.

Puppet with JMU JAC Cards, tuition checks, textbooks and supplies, room and board, and meal plans.

For example, one group brought the predator student debt to life. To express themselves as prey to student debt, students covered the puppets with JMU JAC Cards, tuition checks, textbooks and supplies, room and board, and meal plans.

This innovative approach to teaching SCOM 123, group presentations, is as effective as it is ingenious. But it’s not original with Broderick.

He first got the idea from an event in Athens, Ohio where artists are invited from across the country to construct similar puppets for a four-day parade leading into Halloween.

At first glance, the puppets may seem meaningless, but they prompt both critical and divergent thinking, helping students prepare for the real world.

Critical thinking is essential to successfully solve today’s workplace dilemmas. Divergent thinking is the creative aspect of this combination.

Made famous by Albert Einstein, divergent thinking involves taking a simple concept or object and using imagination to identify new and potential uses.

In Broderick’s class, much like the workplace, his students are given a project with no direction and must come up with a solution, as well as the rationale for their creation and its style, and meaning.

Student grades are based on a portfolio created throughout the entire semester.

Dr. Brodrick with puppets that his students made.

The portfolio contains visual artifacts of everything during the semester: receipts from purchases, pictures taken during the process, sketches of the puppet, text messages within the group, emails, and anything else that was used during the creation of the project.

Broderick then he assesses the quality of the puppet, the inspiration and rationale for the group’s creation, and how well the team can justify their choices and meaning behind the puppet.

Since he does not teach an art class, the craftsmanship of the puppet is not important to Broderick. However, he can tell when a group fails to invest themselves in designing and creating the puppets—and grades accordingly.

Yes, Broderick’s method is abstract, ingenious, and enhances students’ critical thinking skills as they prepare for life after college.

And it starts with puppets.

Do you want to know more about Dr. Broderick’s class and puppet project? Please contact him at broderml@jmu.edu.

February 15, 2017woocw No Comments

Building History: JMU’s First Bateman Teams

By Hope Gallagher (’17)

When JMU students go head-to-head in a national competition, two things happen: great work and great experience.

Before the judges even look at the entries, this makes the prestigious Bateman Case Study Competition a win-win for the JMU Chapter of Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) members.

The Bateman competition is an annual, nationwide campaign that began in 2011. They ask teams of four or five students to create full public relations campaigns through research, strategy development, implementation, and evaluation.

And for the first time in program history, SCOM students are competing. Because one team would be too predictable, two teams from PRSSA are entered in the 2016-2017 competition.

The top three teams receive monetary prizes, and get to pitch their idea in-person to the judges.

The winner’s campaign becomes the inspiration for a real-life campaign by Bateman competition. It’s an incredible opportunity, and not one to be taken lightly.

The competition begins today. Read more Building History: JMU’s First Bateman Teams

February 12, 2015woocw No Comments

Meet the New SCOM Faculty

Beginning in August 2014, the School of Communications was privileged to have four new faculty members join the James Madison University team. Now, with one semester under their belts and another in full swing, they were willing to open up and share a little bit about themselves and their experience so far as a JMU Duke.

Lindsey Harvell: Dr. Harvell was born and raised in Kansas, and went on to receive her undergraduate degree from The University of Kansas in Communication Studies. She then went to Wichita State University, where she completed her master’s degree in Political Communication. She completed her Doctorate in Social Influence from the University of Oklahoma.

Dr. Harvell’s main area of research centers on using existential awareness in creating effective persuasive messaging. As part of the advocacy faculty, she is able to use her research to aid faculty and students in developing effective messaging that utilizes existential awareness as the focus of the communication.

This semester, Dr. Harvell is teaching a graduate quantitative communication research methods course (SCOM 683) in addition to the introduction to communication theory class (SCOM 240/241) for undergrads. When asked about her time here at JMU, she stated, “The transition to JMU has been flawless. Coming to work every day with colleagues and students that I adore is truly a gift.” She loves the atmosphere and the overall happiness she feels coming into work each day.

Yeonsoo Kim: Dr. Kim was born and raised in Seoul, South Korea. She stayed there to complete her bachelor’s and master’s degree in Mass Communication with an emphasis on Journalism at Ewah Women’s University. She then moved to the United States and received her master’s and Ph.D. in Mass Communication with an emphasis on Public Relations at the University of Florida.

In terms of research, Dr. Kim’s key areas involve tactical corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs, effects of CSR communication strategies, and reputation management. Her current work studies the impact of CSR program “fit” for organizations considering their reputation and how to present its purposes to stakeholders.

For this semester, Dr. Kim is teaching survey research methods (SCOM 386), public relations campaigns (SCOM 461) and a variety of other public relations courses. She’s truly enjoyed being at JMU and wrote, “Before joining to JMU, I already had great respect for JMU’s reputation as a leading communications program. So far I’ve enjoyed every single minute here.” She views it as a place for her to grow and dedicate her time over a long period.

Jennifer Mease: Dr. Mease is originally from Charlotte, North Carolina, however she attended Villanova University where she received her bachelors degree. She then went on to Arizona State to complete her masters, and finally completed her Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She taught Texas A&M University and was in the consulting industry before moving to Harrisonburg to teach at JMU.

Dr. Mease educates in the area of organizational communication. Specifically, she studies how social biases can become engrained into various organization structures unknowingly. She also investigates how to change these social biases that occur.

Here at JMU, she currently teaches the introduction to communication theory class (SCOM 240/241) and organization communication (SCOM 350). She has found JMU and living in Harrisonburg to be, “great for raising my family” and enjoys working with the SCOM faculty.

Christi Saindon: Professor Saindon spent most of her life growing up and going to school in Texas. She attended the University of Texas at Arlington for her bachelor’s degree in Oral Communication, and received her masters in Communication Studies from the University of North Texas. She is completing her doctorate at Southern Illinois University in Communication Studies as well.

Professor Saindon has a wide range of interests when it comes to research, and her current research focuses on the autoethnographic and ethnographic investigation of the silent behaviors of women and girls in the classroom. Other areas of interest for her include analysis of mediated messages, communication pedagogy, and fat studies.

This semester, Professor Saindon is teaching fundamentals of human communication (GCOM 123), persuasion (SCOM 341) and communication and gender (SCOM/WMST 348). While only having taught at JMU for a short time, she stated that, “I’m fairly convinced this is the happiest place on earth”, and appreciates the dedication that she’s seen in her students.

Thank you to Dr. Harvell, Dr. Kim, Dr. Mease and Professor Saindon for your willingness to share you experiences thus far at JMU. We wish you the best in your career!

September 30, 2014woocw No Comments

Introducing Difficult Topics to Our Community

Dialogue. Debate. Deliberation. Three words you may think have similar meaning but have significant differences, especially in terms of relevant, ethical topics in our society. 4C: Campus Community Civic Collaborative is an organization that introduces difficult topics such as same sex marriage, mental health, guns and public life, etc. to bring the community together in a welcoming atmosphere where deeper consideration about the topics can occur. The organization at JMU promotes community education and uses communication as a positive influence on the public sphere. These skills were used recently at an event held by 4C last Tuesday.

“We encourage talk about value-laden issues where people tend to think—you can’t solve it,” stated Dr. Lori Britt, assistant professor at SCOM and director of the 4C, “And you can’t really solve it. But what you can do is bring citizens face-to-face with other people that may differ from them so they can talk about why, perhaps find some mutual understanding and potentially some common ground from which to act.” The topics designed by 4C tend to be based on divergent opinions but that truly need to be discussed in society. Sometimes the goal of the discussion is dialogue—being able to truly understand others’ views. In some cases, the goal is deliberation—a careful consideration of which approaches to addressing the issue a community might support.

Dr. Britt facilitating dialogue between the two speakers.

The State and Marriage: Understanding Two Perspectives, held Tuesday, September 23, is one example of an event that 4C and community members hosted to introduce a constructive dialogue for attendees on the topic of same sex marriage. James Parrish, Executive Director of Equality Virginia, and Maggie Gallagher, Senior Fellow at American Principles Project, started the event by explaining their different views on the definition of marriage. Britt facilitated their discussion and worked them through a listening section, which ensured that they understood the opposite speaker’s opinion. As Britt noted, “We are not asking to change your views, but to enlarge your thinking.”

After the speaker dialogue, community members discussed their opinions as well in small group discussions. MaryBeth Fiedler, a senior business major and facilitator of this event, was excited to lead a discussion and encourage people to open their minds to each opinion. “It’s about broadening my horizons as well as trying to help other people broaden their horizons, too,” said Fiedler.

Facilitated groups meet to discuss the topic of same-sex marriage further.

4C hosts many events like this throughout the year. Students, community members and faculty at JMU are the base of the organization. Students gain experience to become trained facilitators through Britt’s class SCOM 447, Facilitating Public and Organizational Engagement Processes. “Students can leave [this class] with a skillset they can use to hold productive conversations in offices, in groups they belong to, etc.,” said Britt, “These are the skills where they can use communication as a positive influence in whatever career or wherever they find themselves.”

4C is an organization created by ICAD and the Fairfeild Center in downtown Harrisonburg to bring the community together to discuss difficult topics. The mission is to enlighten and educate citizens for a deeper understanding of these topics. For more information visit their website or contact the director, Dr. Lori Britt (brittll@jmu.edu) or the 4C Affiliate Faculty member, Dr. Pete Bsumek (bsumekpk@jmu.edu).

April 21, 2014woocw No Comments

SCOM Students Facilitate Community Forum on Access to Health

On Wednesday, April 2, students in Dr. Lori Britt’s course on Facilitating Community Engagement facilitated a public forum in Rose Library.

February 25, 2014woocw No Comments

Is graduate school right for you? Tips from JMU SCOM Faculty members.

Students were encouraged to come to Graduate School Info Sessions hosted by Dr. Bsumeck, the SCOM graduate school, and the JMU PRSSA chapter this past week. Students and faculty were able to openly discuss some questions and concerns about graduate school. The JMU SCOM professors also advised students on how to apply and gave different tips for an easier transition into grad school.

(Left to Right – Dr. Britt, Dr. Carmack, Dr. Woo, Dr. Bsumeck and students during the session)

Some questions that were covered included:

February 12, 2014woocw No Comments

Wondering what comes after graduation? Is graduate school right for you?

SCOM Graduate Program hosts an information session for students who want to know more about graduate school next Tuesday, Feb. 18. Students who are interested can attend one of the two sessions: 12:30 p.m. – 1:45 p.m.or 2:00 p.m. – 3:15 p.m.

According to a recent Georgetown University study, communication graduates with advanced degrees (a masters or PhD) will earn about $10,000 more per year by mid-career than graduates without advanced degrees. http://ncablog.org/2013/06/05/whats-a-comm-major-worth/. Here is an excerpt from the article.

COMM majors who are recent college graduates command median earnings of about $33,000. This is higher than Humanities and Liberal Arts majors ($30K) and equal to Law and Public Policy majors ($33K), but lower than Engineering majors ($54K) and Business majors ($39K). Graduate degree holders in COMM have median earnings of $64,000, ahead of majors in the Arts, Education, Recreation, and Psychology & Social Work.

For COMM, the unemployment rates are 7.8% for recent college graduates, 6.0% for experienced college graduates, and 4.2% for graduate degree holders. Recent college graduates in the Humanities and Liberal Arts face a 9.0% unemployment rate while those in Psychology & Social Work are looking at an 8.8% rate, and those in Social Science are facing a 10.3% unemployment rate. Read more Wondering what comes after graduation? Is graduate school right for you?

November 6, 2013woocw No Comments

Life as a TA

I had the opportunity to meet with two of the six Teaching Assistant’s for SCOM’s new grad program. Jackie Carroll, from Massachusetts with her undergrad degree from The College of William & Mary, and Eric Dirth, from Iowa and graduated from Saint Leo University in Tampa, Florida.

Read on for more about the life of our first TA’s!

For the Students

Gretchen Hansen is one of the Program Support Technicians for The School of Communication Studies. She grew up and went to school in Luray, VA (home of the Luray Caverns), and still currently resides there. She began working at SCOM in February 2003, and just had her 10 year anniversary. It was a great opportunity to sit down with her and ask her for some tips and advice for our SCOM students. To contact Ms. Hansen, please email hansenga@jmu.edu or call (540) 568-6775.

Deadlines

Graduation Application– Due to your adviser October 15^th. Make an appointment with your adviser in advance to go over the application.
Apply for SCOM – November 15^th: Applications are submitted through email scom@jmu.edu

SCOM Minor

Submit application before registering for SCOM 240 & 241 in the Spring.
When you find out your Spring 2014 registration appointment time, email that information to scom@jmu.edu, along with your section choices.
There are six sections each available for the intro classes, 240 and 241. You must choose the same section number for both. (EX: 240.0001 & 241.0001)

Internship Opportunities

Check the SCOM website
Email Dr. Whitfield (whitfits@jmu.edu ) or Dr. Hickerson (hickerca@jmu.edu ) to ask for any internship opportunities
Recruit-a-Duke

Graduating Senior Majors

Register for SCOM 394 now if you are graduating in December, if you are unable to register, contact the SCOM office at (540) 568-6228, or stop in.
Go to Ashby Lab toward the end of the semester and take the assessment tests, but avoid exam week.

Do you have any more questions or comments? Please feel free to comments on this story.

September 27, 2013woocw No Comments

Winning SCOM Teams and Returning Alumni

This week, people in SCOM hosted and participated in many events. Here is the week in review:

SCOM Speech Team

The senior members of the JMU Speech Team traveled to San Marcos, TX to compete in the Hill Country Swing hosted by The University of Texas at Austin and Texas State University. Both days of competition found the team competing against 13 teams from across 5 states including; Rice University, Texas A&M, Doane College, Colorado College, LSU, among others. With only ten events in the tournament the first day’s competition found 7 of the 10 events from JMU in the final rounds of competition and 6 events in finals the second day of competition. The individual results are as follows:

Day 1 (September 21)

Shelby Akins (Sr, SCOM) 6th place Informative Speaking, 4th place Communication Analysis
Zach Healy (Sr, SCOM/SMAD) 3rd place Informative Speaking, 3rd place Poetry Interpretation
Katie Lese (Sr, SCOM) 2nd place Informative Speaking, Champion Prose Interpretation, 4th place Dramatic Interpretation, 2nd Overall Top Speaker

The team finished 2nd Overall Top Team to UT-Austin (a team of 33 members)

Day 2 (September 22)

Shelby Akins Champion Communication Analysis
Zach Healy Champion Prose Interpretation, 3rd place Duo Interpretation
Katie Lese 2nd place Informative Speaking, 3rd place Duo Interpretation, 3rd Dramatic Interpretation

The team finished 4th overall on day two

For the weekend, JMU was recognized as the 2nd Top Team and Katie Lese was recognized as the 2nd Overall Top Speaker, Zach Healy was recognized as the 3rd Top Speaker, and Shelby Akins was recognized as the 10th Top Speaker out of over 130 competitors. If you have any of these amazing students in your classes please thank them for the job they have done representing our program and JMU.

The team next travels to Lynchburg University this weekend to compete in the Liberty University/SNAFU Swing Tournament.

Alumni Visit to Campus

Brian Hrubick ('11, Fleishman-Hillard) and Kara Frank ('12. Adfero Group) speaks at PRSSA meeting on Monday. — Brian Hrubick (’11, Fleishman-Hillard) and Kara Frank (’12. Adfero Group) speaks at PRSSA meeting on Monday.

Brian Hrubik (’11, Fleishman-Hillard) and Kara Frank (’12, Adfero Group) visited the campus on Monday. They had a guest lecture at the SCOM 261, PR Technique I: Written class of Dr. Janell Bauer and spoke with members of PRSSA JMU Chapter at their weekly meeting.

After teaching digital strategies in PR writing at Dr. Bauer’s class, Brian and Kara gave job advice and shared their work experiences as young public relations professionals at the PRSSA meeting.

We always appreciate our alumni coming back to the campus and support SCOM students. Thank you, Brian and Kara!!

Debate Team Contributes for I-Week.

On Tuesday September 24, 2013 the Office of International Programs and Madison Debate Society sponsored a public debate on the topic: Resolved: U.S. warrantless wiretapping has done more harm than good for society.

Please visit the JMU Debate team blog to read more detail and check the video here.

JMU official twitter also recognized this event.

If you have any events or activities of SCOM to share, please send information to Dr. Isaac Woo (woocw@jmu.edu) or Chelsea Legendre (legendcj@dukes.jmu.edu) or Tweet us @JMUSCOM.