USF Alumni Journalism Panel

It’s a small world after all; at least when it comes to the field of media and journalism.
USF alumni Jennifer Jolley exemplified this when she and seven other alumni came to speak and share their experiences with appreciative students.
Jolley, the senior member of the group, did not seem surprised when she knew the names of the younger journalists’ mentors.
This seemed to be the emphasis of the entire panel: networking and experience.
The panel as a whole seemed to agree that the most important thing for any of the young journalism students was to get an internship.
Vicky Nguyen, correspondent for NBC11, simply said to the students three consecutive times “get an internship.”
Tuon Lam, who knows something about internships completing five during his time at USF, said students should learn everything they can and getting an internship is the best way to do it.
He also said that at the very least, if you get an internship you can figure out what you do and don’t want to do.
Kent German, CNET cell phone editor, told students “definitely do what you want.” He said students have time during college that is beneficial for doing just that.
The panelists all said that as a journalist, unless you enjoy what you are doing there is no way you can live being a journalist.
The audience, which consisted of mostly students, and numbered to about 60 total, was allowed to ask questions of the panel after they all said what they believed was important in the career of journalism.
The panel was asked bluntly to state how much money they make by Foghorn stringer and journalism student Elyse Martin.
Although they seemed a bit taken aback, a couple said they were expecting it, and said that this is not a business you get into if you are looking for money.
Tiffany Maleshefski, a technical writer and contributor to Eweek.com among other things, told a story saying the moral was that you live and work for the experience, not for the money.
At the end of the discussion, sure enough, one could see the panelists exchanging contact information; networking is a job that never stops, and as long as journalists network with each other, the world will just keep getting smaller.

From Chris Begley's blog here.

(A different account from Nick Minnott next.)

USF Journalism Panel

USF Media Studies Alums Stress the Importance of Self

For some of the alumni of the University of San Francisco Media Studies department, breaking into the journalism world has been a struggle. A number of these alums were back at USF on October 16th to talk about their experiences for the first annual Journalism Alumni Panel.

Toan Lam, a broadcast journalist who is currently working for KRON, stressed the important of building yourself when preparing to enter the journalism field. When asked if he thought that students were compromised by the lack of a journalism major at USF, Lam disagreed. Rather he said that USF is a good school for learning the theories of journalism and the lack of a structured major challengers the student to be more independent.

Lam, who originally wanted to be in print journalism rather than broadcast, had five internships during the four years he spent at USF. When the opportunity to work for the broadcast side appeared, Lam was well prepared from his time at USF.

Panel members and also USF alumni included: Vicky Nguyen, another broadcast journalist from Channel 11 (NBC), Myra Sandova who is a copywriter for the Gap, Tiffany Maleshefsky, a technical writer for eWeek, and Kent German, a cell-phone reviewer from CNET, among others.
The audience included undergraduates in the Media Studies department, who seemed to be overwhelmed by the struggles that some of panelists had experienced on their road to success. There were also several faculty members and alumni in attendance.

From Nicholas Minnott at The Rainy Day Blog.

Led Zeppelin Creates A New Pop Culture With Trance

READ THE FULL POST AT SHAUN BRIDEAU AND MORGAN UNGER'S BLOG POST HERE.


[excerpt] Several production techniques allowed Led Zeppelin to change an era of music through sound. Led Zeppelin created an element of surprise and a new range of loudness within music at this time. The language of light made their music dynamic as quiet, gentile, music erupted into strong forms of collaborative sound during most songs. The eruption of sound within songs was filled with a great deal of ferocity. This sudden shift of sound within individual songs created surprise amongst listers and a feeling of excitment. Erik Davis calls this form of music, "casaic" considered to be violent gestures that shift expectations while allowing something new to happen in the mind of listeners. Their unique quality of range created style.

LISTEN TO THE RECORDING OF THE TALK:



READ MORE AT SHAUN BRIDEAU AND MORGAN UNGER'S BLOG POST HERE.

Women's Empowerment Film Series: The Little Mermaid

Women's Empowerment Film Series

On October 18, 2007 the first Women's Empowerment Film Series Program took place in USF's Phelan Glass Lounge. The program engaged students in Disney films (i.e. viewing) as well as a discussion regarding Disney's use of stereotypical gender role issues. The program was not intended to destroy one's childhood memories/feelings about Disney movies, but rather to recognize that symbolic messages regarding gender existed.


The first meeting, engaged approximately 11 students (the majority were women) in the viewing and discussion of the Disney animated film The Little Mermaid. The film animated 16 year-old mermaid, Ariel's, life under the sea and her wish to become human. Ariel's wish to become and experience humanity overpowered her duty as a mermaid princess. Ariel, constantly, disobeyed her father and friends (Flounder and Sabastein). Ariel let her love of a human, Prince Eric, and her desire to be human overwhelm her to the point in which she contracted her voice away to the evil sea-witch Ursula.




Students viewed the film, watching out for gender issues. Students recognized issues as widely spread throughout many Disney movies (i.e. Pocahontas, Beauty and the Beast, Mulan). Issues that were recognized in The Little Mermaid, regarding women's oppression, were as follows:

• Women viewed as distressed


• Women continuously changed to please a man


• Lack of motherly figures


• "Beauty" is to be skinny


• Women tend to depend on others to survive


• Women are the enemies (i.e. Ursula)


• No diversity

Students also argued that though Disney's films are targeted towards prepubescent viewers who somewhat unaware of these messages, one has to recognize that Disney films are created by adults who are aware of such issues. The women viewers all agreed that Disney movies tend to knock women down as a whole.

The Women's Empowerment Film Series Committee holds viewings and discussions once a month. The next movie viewing and discussion will be held in November.

Posted by Chelsie-Jean Fernandez

Lin + Lam talk

UPCOMING TALK

ABOUT THEIR TALK

For the past seven years, Lin + Lam (Lin plus Lam) has produced interdisciplinary projects that examine the ramifications of the past on the current socio-political moment. They have made work that has looked at immigration, sites of residual trauma, nationalism and national identity, historical memory, and the problems of translation. They will discuss their work, collaborative process and critical strategies.

H. Lan Thao Lam received her MFA from California Institute of the Arts, and was an Assistant Professor at Middle State Tennessee University and faculty of Goddard College, MFA program.

Currently faculty at Vermont College of Fine Arts, Lana Lin holds an MFA from Bard College and has taught at the City College of New York and Massachusetts College of Art.

SCREENING

Departure
48 min. video, 2006
directed by Lin + Lam (Lin plus Lam)

Synopsis:
This video essay looks at the impact of modernization and foreign intervention through different modes of transportation. Shot from the exploratory perspective of a moving car, cyclo, and trains, the video travels through three former colonial Asian cities: Taipei, Shanghai, and Hanoi. The transformation of a road, a bridge, and railways, show
an evolution of different powers.

Five women narrate the interrelated histories of these transforming urban environments in their native languages: Mandarin Chinese, Taiwanese, English, Shanghainese, and Vietnamese.

MORE INFO: www.linpluslam.com

Introduction to New Media

More information forthcoming...

If you're interested, but couldn't enroll, please post a comment with your name and email address, and I'll put you on the waiting list.

Posted by John Kim

Excuse this random test:

Commonwealth Club of San Francisco, Mylene Martin

On October 1st, 2007, I went to the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco on Market Street to attend a lecture named Women who light the dark. This was in honor of the fourth book published by the photojournalist Paola Gianturco. She went over 30 countries and followed the life of 30 women. She made a book with pictures of those women and about the issues those women face. So she told stories to bring those pictures she showed us to life. But she was not the only woman at the lecture. The President of Global Fund for Women, an international grantmaking foundation in favor of women's rights, Kavita N.Ramdas, was also here. She sponsors, as the President of Global Fund for Women, Gianturco's lectures, book signings and other related events. They know each other well and Paola Gianturco is a really active member of the foundation. For the foundation's 20th anniversary, Paola Gianturco decided to give all the royalties to the Global Fund for Women. With 58 million dollars awarded to 3,450 women's groups in 166 countries, Global Fund for Women is the largest organization of its kind. Thanks to all this money, these different groups of men and women are able to ensure that women have their voices heard in decision making, or that they get the recognition that they deserve. They also help the countries in need as for instance in Cameroon where more than a million people were trained to know what to do and not to do when they have AIDS. This lecture was really moving and inspiring as a lot of people from the audience said afterwards. Posted by mylene

From Mylene Martin at:

http://mylene87.blogspot.com/2007/10/women-who-light-dark.html

San Francisco Film: Sean Uyehara

Media Studies Speaker Series – San Francisco Film: Sean Uyehara, Programming Associate at the San Francisco

Thursday, April 19
Time: 6:15 - 9:00pm
Location: ED 110

Curious about the inner workings of one of the country's premier film festivals? Sean Uyehara, Programming Associate at the San Francisco International Film Festival, will be on campus to discuss the idea of public programming and film festivals. Learn how a festival programmer decides which films to screen, and discover strategies for submitting your own work to festivals. Mr Uyehara will screen and discuss selections from this year's festival line-up.

Celebrating its 50th year, the San Francisco International Film Festival presents films from around the globe, special panels, and super parties. The festival runs at various venues throughout the Bay Area from April 26 - May 10, 2007.

Bernadette Barker- Plummer

Join us for the next Media Studies Colloquium:

April 11, 2007
3:30-5:00pm
UC 421 (where?)
presenter :: Bernadette Barker- Plummer, USF Department of Media Studies
title :: Fixing Gender: Transgender Discourses around the Araujo Murder Case
description :: This project is an analysis of the construction of transgender identity in public discourse surrounding the murder of Gwen Araujo and the subsequent trial and sentencing of her killers in California, a process that took place over four years, 2002-2006.

Upcoming talk: Eric Byler

More about the USF Media Studies Colloquia and Speakers Series

PLEASE NOTE CHANGE OF LOCATION TO HARNEY 232

More information about Eric's upcoming talk