By Sara Hardiman (Class of 2017)
JMU classes, particularly communication classes, are great.
But even the best of classes have their limitations.
That’s why a dozen Public Relations students in JMU’s School of Communication Studies packed their bags and went to South Korea last summer.
Sports and International public relations in Korea is one of the newest study abroad programs the School of Communication Studies offers. Read more SCOM’s newest study abroad program: Public Relations in Korea
By Amberly Millis (’16)
Introducing Dr. Lars Kristiansen, another one of the newest faculty members to join SCOM this year. Kristiansen received his undergraduate degree in public relations management from the BI Norwegian Business School, his masters from Illinois State University and worked on his Ph. D. at the University of Missouri. Afterwards he accepted a job position at Monmouth College in Monmouth, Illinois as not only an assistant professor, but the coordinator of the public relations department.
Kristiansen’s expertise is in image restoration and repair strategies. He is interested in the rhetorical aspects of how and what people/companies say manifests into messages and ultimately dictates what they are accused of. Kristiansen’s main interest is to analyze how such individuals and companies subsequently recover or rebuild a tarnished image in terms of ethical or unethical image repair strategies. Kristiansen has invested research on rhetorical and social protests, politics and hate speech. In 2010 Kristiansen published the book, “In Screaming for Change: Articulating a Unifying Philosophy of Punk Rock,” which advances an understanding of punk rock by going beyond description of punk as a musical, political, social and cultural genre of communication. He is currently working on several projects involving craft beer vs. macro beer campaigns (i.e. Budweiser), as well as how image repair plays a part in the political careers of George Bush and Donald Trump. Kristiansen has been at JMU since last August and states that he is very happy with his move to the Shenandoah Valley.
“Working at JMU is not just a job to me, but so much more. I love how strong the sense of community here is,” said Kristiansen, “Everyone is always friendly, willing to help and are so close knit. I love the culture, faculty members and being able to work one-on-one with students. It all starts with the manifestation of simply holding doors open for one another.” Kristiansen believes that JMU is the best of both worlds in terms of being a large, yet small school that is committed to liberal arts learning. Kristiansen is teaching a variety of public relations focused courses at JMU, including SCOM 260, 261, 362 and 460.
“While at JMU, I am going to strive to continue to grow the public relations program alongside my colleagues and make sure to train students for the 21st century in terms of what they need to be able to do in their select careers,” added Kristiansen. Kristiansen challenges all of his students to use language for strategic purposes in terms of analyzing the world around them. He encourages them to read, watch and attempt to understand everything by breaking down the critical problems that surround them in terms of language.
When not teaching, Kristiansen enjoys spending his free time hiking in the valley, reading and playing music. Currently, he is trying to put together a faculty band!
Please give a warm welcome to Dr. Kristiansen!
For five days, our nation’s capital buzzed with over 2,000 professionals and students from across the nation to discuss a shared passion. Each of these individuals came to D.C with hopes to make connections and discuss the profession that drew them together- public relations. On Oct. 10-14, the Public Relations Student Society of America held their annual national conference and allowed professionals and pre-professionals to coalesce and share their zeal for public relations. Read more Intersections: The Meeting Place of Communications and Culture
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)
The team finished 2nd Overall Top Team to UT-Austin (a team of 33 members)
Day 2 (September 22)
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 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.
