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12
Apr 13

SSCA, Day Three

On a break from the conference we bumped into Colonel Sanders:

And that was just about the only break of the bitterly cold day.

The morning started with a “Roundtable Discussion of the 2012 Presidential Election” where the program promised “Panelists will discuss campaign tactics, strategies and outcomes in the general election process of the 2012 U.S. presidential election season.”

Here I was fortunate enough to be invited to sit at a table with immensely talented scholars and talk about the presidential campaign. Even better was that Dr. Larry Powell, my adviser in my master’s program, and a highly influential political pollster, was on the panel. At one point I was looking for a spot to wade in with what I felt was a particularly important point. He said it first, almost word-for-word. That alone would have made my day. But, somewhere around 3 p.m. I entered “What a great day” territory.

I presented awards for the top papers in the political communication division. The Yankee (who was the respondent on this panel) and I won this award last year.

Then I listened in another panel as The Yankee presented our paper “Identity in Twitter’s Hashtag Culture: A Sports Media Consumption Case Study.” Since it got accepted to this conference it was accepted and quickly published in the International Journal of Sport Communication, 5(4). The abstract reads:

This case study, using social identity theory as a framework, examines how sport consumers and producers used different identifiers to engage in conversation during the final games of the 2012 College World Series of baseball. Five major hashtags were noted for each baseball team as primary identifiers; users fit in three main groups and sub-groups. The analysis of tweets revealed five major themes around which the conversations primarily revolved. The study has implications for social identity theory, team identification, as well as broader implications for audience fragmentation and notions of the community of sport.

In the afternoon I was the respondent on a panel full of papers about message framing. The panelists had four interesting papers, one about salience in the New York Times and the Apple Daily in Taiwan in coverage of the Tohoku tsunami, another was about college newspapers framing the H1N1 scare a few years back, another discussed the use of Twitter in the wake of Trayvon Martin’s death and the last one compared how CNN and Al-Jazeera English covered Occupy Oakland.

Respondents wait until the scholar has finished their 12- or 15-minute distillation of their work and then discuss the matters at hand. Different people take different approaches to this. Some try to find a common thread in the collective works and riff on that. Others just ask a question or make a point here or there. I’ve watched people just lecture on about whatever crossed their mind. But when I am presenting a paper I want the respondent to be useful. So I find hard things to critique. I try to ask interesting questions that will help them think of new things they can expand their research. I try to be obnoxiously detailed about it. Be useful.

An interesting thing happened after this panel. All of the researchers lined up to thank me and shake my hand ask me more questions. That’s never happened before. Maybe I did something right.

After that I had a very late lunch, which came all too close to dinner, really. Ordered a burrito at Chipotle, realized how hungry I was and then returned to the conference for the mass communication division’s business meeting, where business was conducted. The Yankee is the secretary of that division and I’m a mostly quiet member. I did second a motion, however.

We had dinner at this place:

Spinelli’s is in a basement. It is long and stone and drywall and linoleum. There are columns keeping the ceiling off your head, and loud speakers keeping the music in your ears. The guy working the counter was an archetype of counterculture straight out of central casting, he said knowing how bizarre that sounds.

This is a pizza place, and so we order Stromboli, which is like a calzone. The menu offered a regular and a large size. I asked about the size and he did the hand gesture: regular, large. The regular looked about like what you’d expect out of a slightly ambitious calzone. When it arrived it looked like a large pizza rolled over onto itself. Just massive. But the brocoli and the spinach and all of the other things inside were delicious. And we sat there for forever laughing about, oh, most everything. About half of the jokes were directed at me, which makes them funnier somehow.

You’d have to be there, I guess. You’d need video and we’ve made a pact that all of that will stay in the private collection.

And since there was no possible way we could still be hungry, but we were all having such a nice time, we found more ice cream.

Here’s one more shot with the Colonel:

Tomorrow: We have three more presentations to take part in. Told you it was a busy conference.

friends / journalism / links / photo / Samford / things to read / Thursday — Comments Off
11
Apr 13

SSCA, Day Two

It rained today. That was fun, walking from my hotel a half-mile in a cold rain, dark as night rain, using a tiny little umbrella. Down there was the Seelbach Hotel, where the Southern States Communication Association’s annual conference will take place. I had to cross a street that allowed for two left lanes to turn, which meant I almost never made it across. I had to time an intersection where, somehow, passing cars had managed to drag the manhole cover out of its home. That seemed dangerous for drivers.

Somehow the side of my suit coat that I kept facing the buildings I walked past was the sleeve that got wet.

I was asked “Is it raining?”

No. I danced under a sprinkler on my way here. Gene Kelly has nothing on me.

We had our early morning Executive Council Meeting, Part II — This Time It’s Personal. Worked through the agenda in about 90 minutes or so, just long enough to dry out.

In the late morning I had the pleasure of taking part in a panel session titled “Tips, Tricks and Techniques: Teaching Media Writing to Today’s Students.” The program describes the panel:

Media writing is no longer a one-size-fits-all endeavor, as we are now training students to work in a variety of platforms, including online and social media. Panelists will share their experiences and adventures in teaching, complete with some tips for those just starting out.

I talked about media critiques and literacy and spelling tests and writing strengths and our upcoming curriculum offerings and all manner of things like that. I don’t think we got very deep into social media, which is a shame, there is a lot to talk about there.

We had lunch at a place called Potbelly Sandwiches. Here’s the stove they have in the middle of the store:

Philo D. Beckwith, by the way, was a stove maker, a philosopher and a mayor. His company, Round Oak, became the Estate of P.D. Beckwith Incorporated sometime after his death, but the company would thrive until just before World War I. The Depression hit them bad, and the company sold out after World War II. They tried to make a comeback in the ’50s, but it was short lived. And while I can’t confirm it because almost every site Wikipedia suggests is no longer live, this stove might be a century old, circa 1915. These days it is just waiting in line for a sandwich.

“Is it raining?”

No. This is just the style back home. We’re counterculture.

I listened in on a panel on the 2012 presidential debates. There were some impressive scholars sitting at that table. The thing that struck me the most was how similar the general ideas were to what we said in this same panel last year during the primaries. Also, there were a lot of references to thing said in the popular media.

Other panels came and went. This was the first day and they were a rush of a blur or, more appropriately, a hectic, moving kaleidoscope of rushing, blurred movement. Our really big blur of paper and panel sessions starts tomorrow, though.

Followed a small group of friends and fellow compatriot scholars to a place called Bluegrass Brewing Company for dinner. I think a concierge suggested it. I had the chicken milanese, mostly for the tomatoes and capers. This worked out well since the tomatoes and capers were the best part of the dish.

We sat in the hotel lobby and told stories for far too long, and so it was another late night, but it was a late night with charming, smart, talented and funny people. There was must hard laughter. We were fortunate to fall into this group three conferences ago now and are fast friends because they talk about the same kind of research, but we also have common schools in our backgrounds. Most importantly they are all just lovely people. There are four Smiths and three or four other people who come in and out of the group and they’re all getting Smith names, too. We plan on taking over things when the conference least expects it.

We imagined this over ice cream, so you can imagine how diabolical our plans are.

And, in addition to last night’s invisible Kenny jokes we also have the “Is it raining” commentary, because everyone else is seemingly staying in the Seelbach. It rained all day. (We’d hoped to sneak in a little bike ride, but no.) Three people asked me about the evidence of precipitation they’d noted on my suit.

My favorite one was the third version: “Is it raining outside?”

No. But in the basement there are cloud bursts and rainbows and thundershowers everywhere.

Things to read: Mobile journalism: It’s not “the web only smaller”:

Mobile media are an increasingly important tool for journalists. They can deliver a new audience if you learn to adapt your content for that audience. If you’re not sold, yet, on why journalists need unique mobile skills consider a few tidbits:

62% of U.S. respondents get news from their phone weekly (Pew Research Center’s, State of the Media 2013)

36% get news from their phone daily (Pew Research Center, State of the Media 2013)

88% of U.S. adults owned a cell phone of some kind as of April 2012, and 55% of these used their phone to go online (Pew Internet and American Life Survey, “Cell Internet Use 2012”)

People with less education and income (some college or less and household incomes less than $30,000) use their cell phones as their primary means of accessing the Internet (Pew Internet and American Life Survey, “Cell Internet Use 2012”)

17% of cell phone owners do most of their online browsing on their phone, rather than a computer or other device. For some, their phone is their only option for online access. (Pew Internet and American Life Survey, “Cell Internet Use 2012”)

No one be surprised this time.

J-Schools, Invest in CAR:

There is an economic argument for this. While journalism jobs are in a general decline, it was made abundantly clear at NICAR’s recent Computer Assisted Reporting conference that the demand for data and interactive journalists outweighs supply; it is essentially “raining jobs.”

Tomorrow: The conference really picks up.

adventures / cycling / iPhone / photo / Samford / Wednesday — Comments Off
10
Apr 13

SSCA, Day One

We managed an early morning ride before heading into the conference this afternoon. Here are a few combined pictures:

We climbed out of the neighborhood, went down the side of the hill and turned into another, older neighborhood. We climbed up some easy little hills and I was thinking The Yankee would decide she didn’t like this route. We hit a four-way stop. Across from us two gentlemen were painting S-T-O-P on the asphalt under gray skies. We turned to the right. The road dropped out and then leveled off and we pedaled and pedaled and pedaled over a long stretch of flat ground until we found that Road Closed sign.

This was, I think, exactly how far the glaciers got during the last ice age. If there were any soil experts around I would have asked them. I’m sure there is some sort of evidence in the earth.

So we turned around and went back through the flat part, paced a post office truck and back up the first of the little hills and breezed through the intersection.

We discovered that the return part of that old neighborhood was an even easier ride going back and then climbed back toward where we started out. It was a short ride, but the air was pleasant and the roads were nice and it was good to be outside.

This was doubly nice since we checked in at our hotel, walked to the nearby conference hotel and committed ourselves to several days of indoors activities.

At the conference: My position this year as program chair of the political communication division requires that I also sit on the Southern States Communication Association’s executive council, so I had the good fortune to take part in that late-afternoon meeting. Felt like a faculty meeting in a lot of ways. People talked, they read, jokes were made, votes were had. Agenda items were dealt with in an executive fashion.

We adjourned and I found The Yankee and we met up with many of our friends. Brian from Texas was there, as were Barry and Melissa from Alabama and then Darrell from Texas, too. We talked down the street to a fairly upscale little restaurant called Quattro. The waiter somehow quickly ascertained that we were in town on business and politely announced he did not care. This was not his first day on the job.

We ordered. I picked the most common thing I could find. When the food came. Well, most of it. Mine did not. I made the international symbol for “I’m hungry too,” which is a pouty face. The waiter says “Oh crap!” He looks down at his pad, which instantly makes you wonder if your order was actually placed. He disappeared and returned with my plate. It was a plate of something. It could have been mine. This was a place with a slightly pretentious menu, so what I ordered might have been this, or perhaps something the next table got.

It was good, either way. No one else had complaints.

And, instantly, the jokes of the conference became “Kenny isn’t here” and “Too bad Kenny couldn’t see this.”

This will be a good joke. I just wish it didn’t happen two hours after we arrived.

Tomorrow the conference begins in earnest. I have another executive council meeting first thing and then a panel session to take part in. There will also be many sessions to hear and elbows to rub. It will be a busy day.

Here, then, are a few more pictures from our morning ride:

Things to read: Why paywalls are scary:

The case for paywalls would seem to be compelling: Stanch the decline in print circulation, get paid for producing valuable local content and tap into a fresh source of sorely needed revenue at a time advertising sales continue to shrink.

All good? Not necessarily. The reason to worry about paywalls is that they severely limit the prospects of developing a wider audience for newspapers at a time publishers need – more than ever – to attract readers among the digitally native generations that represent a growing proportion of the adult population.

Alan Mutter there is always thoughtful reading.

Study: Hyperlocal demand driven by mobile devices:

Demand for hyperlocal content is being driven by increased usage of mobile devices according to a study conducted by the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (Nesta) charitable foundation.

[…]

“Both the reach and the consumption of hyperlocal content has been accelerated by smartphones,” Jon Kingsbury, Nesta’s programme director for creative economy, told Journalism.co.uk.

Stop back by tomorrow. There will be more fun things thing, I’m sure.

adventures / history / photo / Tuesday — Comments Off
9
Apr 13

Travel day

We left later than we wanted to. We did exactly as many miles as we’d like to do on the day. We had a burger on the road, stopped in Birmingham to pick up some banana pudding and managed to get stuck in only one city’s rush hour. It was a day full of travel. Here, then, are some simple pictures.

Just south of the Alabama-Tennessee state line. There is a rocket at the rest area, because this part of the state is full of super smart people, because SPACE.

That is the Saturn 1B, 141 feet of muscle, angry loud power and mid-century sexiness. Team America! Previously you could walk under the engine nozzles, but now that is fenced off. Team Lawsuits, I guess. The 1B was the predecessor of the Saturn V, which took people to the moon. Anyone remember that?

Nashville was the place where we started and stopped in traffic for no discernible reasons whatsoever. Nashville does that to people.

We stopped in Kentucky, because apparently I still need to take breaks to stretch my back and shoulder. Saw this marker. The good people of the great state of Kentucky have too many numbers on this plaque on this rock at a rest stop. I did not see the 2009-present numbers:

Had dinner and spent the evening with the step-dad. We’re up for a conference close by and he let us spend the night. This is my too-tired-to-go-get-my-real-camera shot.

We stayed up too late. That’s going to hurt at the conference tomorrow.

photo / weekend — Comments Off
7
Apr 13

Catching up

That one day a week where pictures that weren’t previously good enough now steal the show. Enjoy.

Nathan Troost, a Samford alum, came back to campus to talk to my students about his company, Lantern Vision. He does great work. You should check it out. He did a great job in the class today. He always does a great job. One of those types, and a very nice guy.

Just some light reading I’m doing:

Wysteria in Opelika:

About a year-and-a-half ago or so I was right about where that car is down the road and had the best moment on my bike. I wasn’t moving especially fast, or perhaps not even especially well, but it felt terribly free. It was, I hope a fraction of la volupte. This picture is from Monday, when I rode out that way again:

My first dogwood blooms of the season. Spring. Finally:

We don’t have a lot of windy roads that go up, so you’ll let me pretend this gentle little thing is a great climb, won’t you? The last three shots are all from my adventure that turned into my first photo essay under the Big Stories section.

Our breakfast on Friday. It was delicious. I want some more now.