University of IllinoisCollege of Media
The Media I, a monthly electronic newsletter of the College of Communications.
VOLUME 4, ISSUE 2
November 7, 2008

 

Illinois Prize given to Ben Bradlee

Benjamin C. Bradlee, executive editor of the Washington Post through more than two decades, during which the paper broke the Watergate scandal and won 18 Pulitzer Prizes, has been awarded the Illinois Prize for Lifetime Achievement in Journalism. The prize was awarded on October 24, 2008, at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. The Illinois Prize honors individuals whose career contributions to public affairs reporting represent the highest and best achievements of American journalism. The recipient is selected by the UI College of Media journalism faculty to honor “work that consistently served as a beacon for other journalists, set the highest standards of excellence in the field, and placed the public good and public awareness before all else.” The Illinois Prize is made possible by support from an anonymous benefactor.
The full press release is available at: http://news.illinois.edu/news/08/1027bradlee.html

 

Advertising Department Hosts Alumnus, Roman Paluta

The Department of Advertising welcomed alumnus Roman Paluta ’79 ADV, MS ’81 ADV, back to campus on October 27-28.  Mr. Paluta is the Chief Marketing Officer, Senior Partner at Carmichael Lynch, Minneapolis.  The Advertising Educational Foundation sponsored his appearance.

During his two-day visit, Mr. Paluta reconnected with the Department of Advertising faculty, presented case studies to the student body, and taught two advertising classes, the freshmen Introduction to Advertising course, andthe graduate Consumer Behavior course.

Mr. Paluta shared his personal experience with the students regarding career paths and expectations of the advertising industry.  After he received his Master of Science Degree in Advertising from the University of Illinois, his first job was with Leo Burnett in Chicago, where he managed brands for clients such as Kellogg and The Maytag Company.  In 1987, he joined Campbell Mithun in Minneapolis, helping to launch several successful new products, while revitalizing established brands, for DowBrands and General Mills.   In 1994, he joined Carmichael Lynch, and was Director of Account Management before assuming the mantel of Chief Marketing Officer.

While offering advice on how to be successful in the industry, he also gave students insight to the strategic planning and creative work his agency produced for Jack Link’s Beef Jerky as well as a case study for Harley-Davidson.  Students received an inside look behind the strategies which gave both brands competitive standing in the product category. Mr. Paluta’s great passion for the brands and the industry resonated to the students, giving them motivation to achieve their career ambitions in the advertising industry.

 

When in Rome . . .
College of Media Students Experience Italian Food and Culture

Twenty College of Media students participated in the Department of Advertising’s summer study abroad experience in Rome, entitled “Global Studies in Culture, Tourism and Consumer Communication: Branding Italian Cuisine.”  This opportunity allowed students to immerse themselves in the Italian culture of food. 

Three Department of Advertising faculty and staff traveled with the students to New York City and Rome, Italy for the experience of a lifetime.  The group left May 12 to spend five days in New York City establishing an understanding of how Italian food in the U.S. is branded and consumed.  In lower Manhattan students learned about restaurant reviewing and consumer opinion research at ZAGAT headquarters.  A tour of the Food Network provided insights about food entertainment and television production, and they were able to see a taping of newcomer Sonny Anderson.  The group visited an Italian import specialty shop at Chelsea Market, dined at quaint authentic Italian restaurants like Frank in the lower Eastside, and experienced the Big Apple’s most famous pizzeria, Lombardi’s. 

Then, it was off to Rome for 21 days.  There the La Escuola de Leonardo Da Vinci and the Gusto Lab (a cooking laboratory), served as their host and home base for morning lectures and afternoon discussions.  Cultural tutors taught students the real side of Rome and Italian cuisine by hosting fieldtrips and evening dinners daily.  Students explored neighborhood cafes, local fresh markets, family owned delis and butcher shops, geleterias, and the best pizza shop on the planet, Pizzarium located just outside the Vatican City walls.  In addition to the fieldtrips, students researched consumer behavior and cultural differences in restaurants throughout Rome to gain insight further into Italian branding and food culture.  Daytrips included exploring a family vineyard and winery and making ricotta cheese at a sheep and cheese agri-tourism farm.

The objective of the course was to interact with industry professionals, local food producers, vendors and consumers to better understand how cuisine is produced, branded and consumed in a variety of cultural and geographic contexts and to develop perspectives on the relationships and cultural connections between people and Italian cuisine in the United States and Italy.  This truly unique experience not only accomplished its goals to the fullest extent to help mold more insightful and capable young media professionals, but also instilled life long appreciation of the way Italian people enjoy food, family, and life.  Students were invited to make a presentation at the Italian American Chamber of Commerce Expo in Chicago in September.  As part of the presentation, students produced a 15-minute presentation, collateral materials, a four-minute film and a web site. These students traveled halfway across the world to discover a different way of doing things and in doing so returned as a close family that learned more about themselves than they could have ever imagined.  To get a closer look of the entire trip visit http://www.media.illinois.edu/rome/rometrip.htm

 

Honors Banquet moved to Fall Semester

This year’s Honors Banquet, which recognized both student and faculty achievement, moved from the spring to the fall in order to include our first freshman class. The event provides a great opportunity to share these honors with family and friends, and several students were delighted to meet their scholarship donors. The event, which took place in the Alice Campbell Alumni Center on September 16, 2008, and included student speakers from each of our degree-granting programs.

 

Alumni Notes

Alumna Named To Bridgestone Americas Board

Christine Karbowiak ’75 JOURN, JD ’78, Vice President, Community and Corporate Relations, Bridgestone Americas Holding, Inc., will be joining the Bridgestone Americas Board of Directors. This appointment marks the first time a woman has been named to serve on a Bridgestone Group Board.

In her current role, Karbowiak oversees a team of professionals focused on government, brand and crisis communications as well as community and environmental outreach and safety education. In addition to her Community and Corporate Relations’ responsibilities, Karbowiak is also chair of the Bridgestone Firestone Trust Fund, the philanthropic arm of Bridgestone Americas.

Karbowiak joined the retail business of Bridgestone/Firestone, Inc. in 1992, as Senior Counsel, Retail Operations, in Rolling Meadows, Ill. In 1993, she was promoted to Assistant General Counsel, Bridgestone/Firestone Retail Operations, and in 1997, General Counsel, Corporate and International, Bridgestone/Firestone, Inc. In 1998,
Karbowiak assumed the role of Divisional Vice President Public Affairs, Bridgestone/Firestone, Inc., and in 2001, Vice President Public Affairs, Bridgestone Americas Holding, Inc. In 2005, Karbowiak was elected Corporate Vice President, Public Affairs, Bridgestone Americas Holding, Inc.

 

Alumnus on Internship with Utah Jazz

Travis Tate ’06 MEDIA STUDIES is in Salt Lake City, Utah, on a 9-month paid internship in communications with the Utah Jazz. The internship is for the entire 2008-09 NBA season.

 

 

Get Connected, Stay Connected
With the ever changing world of media, there are many new ways to stay connected to the College.  Keep us up-to-date with your preferred contact information and share with us your professional accomplishments by emailing us at media@illinoisalumni.org.  If you haven’t done so already, please join Always Illinois, a free virtual community exclusively for Illinois alumni, students, faculty and staff at www.AlwaysIllinois.org.  We even have a College of Media Facebook page at www.facebook.com.  We hope you will link-up with us soon!

The Media I archive

 

Highlighted events

  • College of Media Author Book Signing
    With Lisa Nakamura and Angharad Valdivia
    November 10, 2008, 2:00 – 3:30 p.m.
    Illini Union Bookstore, 807 S. Wright Street, Champaign

  • Digitizing Race: Visual Cultures of the Internet
    By Professor Lisa Nakamura
    Today’s online world is witnessing text-driven interfaces such as e-mail and instant messaging giving way to far more visually intensive and commercially driven media forms that not only reveal but showcase people’s racial, ethnic, and gender identity. This book refers to case studies of popular yet rarely evaluated uses of the Internet such as pregnancy Web sites, instant messaging, and online petitions and quizzes to look at the emergence of race-, ethnic-, and gender-identified visual cultures.

  • Latina/o Communications Studies Today
    By Professor Angharad Valdivia PHD ’91 COMM
    This book brings together contemporary and exciting research within communication and Latina/o studies. Written in a clear, accessible manner and based on original research drawn from a broad range of paradigms - from textual analysis to reception studies and political economy - Latina/o Communication Studies Today provides an invaluable resource and excellent case studies for those already conducting research and teaching in Latina/o communication studies. The media studied include radio, television, cinema, magazines, and newspapers.

  • Ebertfest 2009
    Plans are underway for the 11th annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival. Passes went on sale November 1st. Every year, Roger Ebert  ’64 JOURN comes to Urbana-Champaign, Ill., to host the festival. Roger selects 12-14 important cinematic works that have been “overlooked” by critics, distributors, and general audiences. In addition to film screenings, the festival has a number of academic panel discussions that take place on the UI campus. If you would like to become a sponsor, volunteer, or need additional information, please contact Mary Susan Britt at marsue@illinois.edu  or 217-244-0552. Visit the festival website at: www.ebertfest.com

 

Around the College

  • Journalism Professor earns two grant awards

    Journalism Professor Jay Rosenstein was awarded a $78,000 grant from the Independent Television Service (ITVS) for his newest documentary, THE LORD IS NOT ON TRIAL HERE TODAY.  Included in the grant is an exclusive broadcast license to PBS, which guarantees the program will have a national PBS broadcast when completed.  The ITVS grant was made possible in part by a partnership with WILL-TV. Rosenstein was also awarded a $10,000 grant from the Illinois Humanities Council for the same project.

  • Receives $20,000 grant

    The Academy Foundation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has awarded a $20,000 grant to Roger Ebert’s Film Festival in 2009. Part of The Academy’s mission is to make festival events more accessible to the general public, provide greater access to minority and less visible filmmakers, and help strengthen the connection between the filmmaker and the general public.

  • New Edition by Journalism Professor and Knight Chair Brant Houston

    Brant Houston and Investigative Reporters & Editors Incorporated (IRE) have collaborated to produce The Investigative Reporter’s Handbook 5e, the #1 guide to investigative reporting techniques and puts the world of journalistic sources at the reader’s fingertips. It helps students and professionals hone fundamental news reporting skills like cultivating sources, tracking information, consulting online databases, and interviewing to pursue investigative stories across a variety of beats, including government, education, healthcare, the environment and real estate. In addition to discussing the latest techniques and challenges in the profession, the fifth edition is now thoroughly streamlined, making it easier to locate the resources that investigative reporters need to get the story. This textis useful in advanced journalism courses and by professional journalists at every stage of their careers.

  • Journalism Students compete for Student Silver Dome Awards

    Seven current or former broadcast journalism students are finalists for the Student Silver Dome Awards given out by the Illinois Broadcasters Association. The students are finalists in categories including radio news story, radio sports story, radio newscast, television news story and television sports story. The winners will be announced later this month at the IBA student conference at Illinois State University.

  • Four Advertising Students Awarded Scholarships from the American Advertising Federation’s Mosaic Center on Multiculturalism

    This past week, the American Advertising Federation announced the 2008 Most Promising Minority Student Home Depot Scholarship recipients.  The Scholarships were given to deserving minority students majoring in advertising, marketing, or communications. 
    Four undergraduate Advertising students, Nicole Mitchell, Deanna Moreno, Ashley Newman, and Cynthia Panganiban, from the College of Media, were among the 14 awarded students.  The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign was ranked as the highest awarded university.  The College of Media and the Department of Advertising would like to congratulate these deserving students on their outstanding achievement.


Media I Archive

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The Media I is published monthly for the alumni and friends of the College of Media.
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Dean Ron Yates, publisher
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Ravi Bhatia '11 Broadcast Journalism, interim web coordinator