so this is mass communication?

What a week - another publication hits the streets.

This article is a part of the mega-collaboration I did with my wonderful colleagues Lance Porter at LSU, Deborah Kim at University of Kentucky & Eunsoeng Kim at Eastern Illinois University. Lance & I were the PR folks while Deborah & Eunseong are on the journalism side of the house.

Chung, D., Kim, E., Trammell, K.D., & Porter, L.V. (2007). Uses and Perceptions of Blogs: A Report on Professional Journalists and Journalism Educators. Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, 62(3), 305-22.

Abstract: As journalism educators prepare their students to succeed professionally, whether professional journalists and educators see eye-to-eye on emerging trends that influence current journalism practice is worth examining. A national online survey of journalism professionals and educators found that professionals use blogs significantly more than educators. Educators had similar views of blogs, but professional journalists’ uses and perceptions of blogs varied depending on type of organization they worked for and occupational position in their news organizations. Educators are quick to catch on to national trends in journalism even though they do not routinely use blogs, as they are trained to assess the impact of critical trends in the discipline.

Another piece from this mega-survey was on blog power & published earlier this year in Public Relations Review.

A collaboration of mine with Dr. Stephen Banning at Bradley University was just published:

Banning, S., & Sweetser, K.D. (2007). “How much do they think it affects them and whom do they believe?: Comparing third-person effect and credibility of blogs and traditional media.” Communication Quarterly, 55(4), 451-466.

Using an experimental design, this study investigated third-person effect and media credibility as a result of media attribution. Specifically, we compared third-person effect across four media sources: personal blogs, media blogs, online news, and print newspaper. Overall, participants exhibited third-person effects equally across the media. Third- person effect regressed with credibility.

Keywords: Attribution Theory; Blogs; Credibility; Internet; New Media; Third-Person Effect

Enjoy!

I’m headed out to NCA in the morning & will be there through Saturday. Any old (or new friends) going should let me know!

I’ll start with the punchline: read this.

Now for the question …

How do you tell 30,000+ university students that they should not come to campus because of an emergency situation?

How does word get around to students to stay away?

These are questions that campuses are asking themselves more and more. In fact, a few weeks ago UGA was asking this question when a bomb threat at the Student Learning Center shut down that mega-popular study complex & classroom building for 2 hours.

Here, the university didn’t use their post-VaTech shooting alert system. They didn’t send text messages to the 37,000+ subscribers. They didn’t post a note on uga.edu. They didn’t call the media. Heck, my students told me that they did not even put a sign on the doors of the SLC to tell students to clear the area because of the bomb threat (beware: 2nd hand info).

Students found out from each other.

Text messaging, Facebook’ing and the other technology-enabled broadcast systems that our students use spread the word around campus. The AP quotes Pew researcher Amanda Lenhart commenting on recent UW-Madison & St. Johns incidents as saying:

“What better way is there to get in contact with people who always carry technology, or are within shouting distance of it?” Lenhart said. “This is a huge development in terms of school security.”

From UW-Madison’s Facebook flier ad to text messages sent so quickly that someone holding down a suspect felt the message arrive when he apprehended the bad guy, I’d say she’s right!

Coincidentally, one of my research methods groups did their semester project on this very topic. They are looking at this idea of official vs. social network notification of crises on campus in their 2×2 factorial design experiment. What did they find? The most credible sources for notifications during an emergency are still the official ones — friends are nice to warn you away, but we still want to hear it from the official channels.

There are tons of social media pressures out there in the world — like those trying to get me to Twitter (I’ve been taking a “nap” according to my last tweet 7 months ago) — but finally I’ve succumbed to adopting another social media technology.

I’m now on del.icio.us.

Basically I’m going to bookmark resources for my students. There are links for my research methods students like the URL to a free trial version of SPSS or academic research bibliographies & lots of articles related to the client my campaigns class will support next semester.

It’s not very interesting unless you’re in my classes, but feel free to check me out at http://del.icio.us/kaye.sweetser .