VOLUME 4, ISSUE 4

February 2009

College of Media Students Participate in Leadership Institute


L to R: Jasmine Ahmed '12 ADV, Trente Blonski '11 ADV, Michelle Chin, Jenny Chan, Maria Chapekis

Several College of Media students participated in the 2009 LeaderShape Institute at Allerton Park and Retreat Center in January. The nationally recognized institute, hosted by the Illinois Leadership Center, is an intensive 6-day workshop focused on developing strong leadership skills.
LeaderShape participants, selected through an application process, learn how to lead with integrity through a variety of fun and educational experiences.

"I came to this convention thinking I would only learn the steps to becoming a better leader," said participant Jasmine Ahmed '12 ADV (pictured at right). "However not only did I leave with excellent leadership tips, but I learned so much about myself that I never knew before. I walked away with a better understanding of myself and those around me."

College of Media Adviser Heather Zike, who served as a LeaderShape facilitator, said the experience is important for students. "LeaderShape helps them become more aware of themselves as leaders, recognize their own integrity and that of others, and understand the importance of teamwork."

Paul Stanton '12 MEDIA STUDIES described his experience as memorable. "It is hard to sum up LeaderShape in one statement," he said. "The best thing I can say about it is you need to experience it if you want to understand the bond that it brings between people. You need to go to it if you are looking to be a leader in your community. The things I took away from it are applicable each day."

For more information about LeaderShape, visit the Illinois Leadership Center online.

Fund Preserves Valuable Materials in Communications Library

In 2003, Otto Coelln '32 JOURN and his wife Marlys established the Otto and Marlys Coelln Fund for Preservation of the University of Illinois Communications Library, the first endowment for the library. Regarded as one of the leading communications collections in the world, the Communications Library has always been concerned with the access and preservation of library materials for future researchers.

Due to the Coelln's generosity, the Communications Library is able to have hundreds of books de-acidified each year. Without this process many of our older books published pre-1970 would disintegrate if they had been printed on non-acid free paper and thousands of items would be lost forever, explained Lisa Romero, associate professor of library administration and Communications Library Head.


De-acidifying books preserves them for use by future students and researchers. Above: de-acidified book rests atop non-preserved book in tatters.

"Our collection is well known throughout the world for its historical significance and is particularly strong in the areas of advertising and telecommunications," Romero said. "This gift is a wonderful contribution that will help preserve and improve access to many items of significance."

Examples include materials from the 1930s and 1940s donated by Wilbur Schramm, who founded communications research as an academic field and helped establish the Institute for Communications Research at Illinois.

Each year a staff member from Preservation Technologies researches the Communications Library collection for books that were printed on non-acid free paper. They then transport the items to Preservation Technologies in Pittsburgh, Penn., where they are de-acidified and then returned to the Communications Library. The process takes only one month and no library staff time or effort is required.

The Coelln Endowment is a gift that will benefit communications researchers for years and years. For more information on the Communications Library, email Lisa Romero; or for other giving opportunities, email Michelle Wellens, assistant dean for advancement.

Advertising Professor Combines Cultural Theory with Hands-on Project


Visiting Assistant Professor of Advertising Michael Giardina

Students of Visiting Assistant Professor of Advertising Michael Giardina's ADV411 "Classic Campaigns" course who expect to find a trip-down-memory-lane look at famous advertising campaigns and their creators are often in for a big surprise.

"This isn't so much a celebration of historically important or popular campaigns," he says, "as it is about unraveling their relationship to the broader social arena, asking questions about the material effects they have had on how we as consumers relate to various brands, construct our identities, or come to understand the world around us."

Giardina is concerned with fostering a critical awareness of the structures, processes, practices, possibilities and challenges of doing advertising within the present context of global uncertainty, of engendering his students to think about their moral and ethical obligations to society as producers of potentially powerful media texts. To do this, he says, he endeavors to present the positive--if empowering and transformative--side of advertising right alongside its more negative cousin: the major concerns surrounding global capitalism.

One example he points to as always grabbing the attention of his students is DeBeers, the diamond conglomerate famous for its "A Diamond is Forever" campaign, which was named by "Advertising Age" as the best advertising slogan of the 20th century.

"It's a paradigm-shifting campaign in the industry, for sure, and it deserves all the focus and attention that it receives," Giardina said, "But if we're going to be talking about the diamond industry, we can't gloss over the history of conflict diamonds in Liberia or Sierra Leone, or issues of Third World poverty more generally, or even the Hollywoodization of the diamond. How we relate to the diamond and what it means or stands for in popular culture is inextricably linked to these often unspoken historical realities."

Students work on semester-long projects that combine the theoretical and methodological rigors of a typical research paper with the practical/hands-on application of a team-oriented project. This serves as a kind of crash-course in working through these kinds of difficult questions in a real-time fashion, says Giardina.

Department Head and Professor of Advertising Jan Slater adds, "This is a terrific way to mesh historical, cultural, and societal contexts of advertising with hands-on application. Michael's interdisciplinary approach is what helps set our students apart in a competitive marketplace."

Not only do student-teams conduct extensive market research, brand audits, and SWOT analyses of a respective brand's advertising campaign history and industry position, they must then translate this research into action, effectively re-branding and re-launching a product line from their chosen brand--complete with print ads and other campaign materials--all the while being sensitive to moral and ethical concerns, social and cultural dynamics, and the arc of history in which their brand is located.

"This isn't just about producing the most technically proficient set of campaign ideas," he concludes. "It's also, and at the same time, about encouraging students to ask questions like: 'what do these ideas mean in the first place,' 'how have they accrued such meaning,' and 'how am I implicated in the meanings they create for my fellow citizens?'"

Giardina has a Ph.D. in kinesiology from the University of Illinois, and his research explores the contradiction between popular culture practices within a societal context. He was recently named Associate Editor of the "Sociology of Sport Journal," the leading scholarly journal in North America for the sociocultural analysis of sport, physical activity, and the body. In addition, he recently served as the Guest Editor of a Special Issue of the journal "Cultural Studies/Critical Methodologies" (volume 8, issue 4, 2008), focusing on the intersection of sport, culture, and politics after 9-11. Read more about Dr. Giardina.

Honors and Awards

Ron Jackson, professor of communications and African American studies and associate dean, was elected to a three-year term as a member of the National Communication Association's Finance Board, a position that directly involves association policy setting and financial advisement to the Executive Director and President of the association.

Stephanie Gomes '09 JOURN earned 8th place in Feature Writing in the 49th annual William Randolph Hearst Foundation's Journalism Awards Program. Founded in 1960, the Hearst Foundation provides support, encouragement, and assistance to journalism education at the college and university level. The program awards scholarships to students for outstanding performance in college level journalism, with matching grants to the students' schools. Read more about the Hearst Awards Program.

Two College of Media students were awarded summer 2009 internships by the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund. Brian Atlas '10 JOURN will intern in Sports Copy at the "St. Paul Pioneer Press" in Minnesota. Colleen Loggins '09 JOURN will intern at the "Kankakee Journal" in copy editing.

Around the College

Faculty and Staff News

Jabari Asim, scholar-in-residence in journalism and African American studies, authored the new book "What Obama Means" (William Morrow). As a cultural critic, Asim looks back to see how a "harmonic convergence" of trends in media and market forces, as well as in the electorate and in black leadership, made the Obama victory possible. Asim, who also wrote "The N Word," takes readers through a reflection on the nation's cultural history that cites the influence of figures such as Bill Cosby, Michael Jackson, Michael Jordan, Sidney Poitier, Prince, Diana Ross, Will Smith, Denzel Washington and Oprah Winfrey, and the fictional President David Palmer of "24" on television. Read entire article from Illinois News Bureau.

The 1991 book "The Last Jew from Wegrow" (New York: Praeger), co-authored by Professor of Journalism Lou Liebevich, is currently featured in an exhibition at the University of Minnesota Holocaust Museum. Photographs from Liebevich's co-author, Holocaust survivor Shraga Feivel Bielawski, are included at the exhibition and in the virtual museum. Bielawski, also known as Phillip Biel, hid from the Nazis with his family for five years during World War II. They built a secret annex in the attic of their store where they lived for a time and later lived in fields and barns. Bielawski died in 2004.


Rosenstein hopes to debut his documentary, "The Lord is Not on Trial Here Today," on PBS in spring 2010.

Jay Rosenstein, associate professor of journalism, resumed editing on his latest documentary, "The Lord is Not on Trial Here Today," with veteran editor Jude Leak of Chicago. The documentary, funded by the Independent Television Service, the Office of the Chancellor of the University of Illinois, and the Illinois Humanities Council, tells the compelling personal story behind one of the most important and landmark First Amendment cases in U.S. Supreme Court history--the case that set the foundation for the separation of church and state in public schools. Rosenstein has targeted spring of 2010 for a national PBS broadcast.

Christian Sandvig, associate professor in the Department of Communication in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Coordinated Science Laboratory in the College of Engineering, has recently joined the faculty in the Institute of Communications Research as Associate Professor of Communications. Sandvig will spend part of the Fall 2009 semester at the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as part of his research on communication technology and infrastructure. Sandvig was also recently named a 2008-2009 fellow of the Illinois Foundry for Innovation in Engineering Education by the College of Engineering. In the classroom, Sandvig engages his students in an innovative look at technology. As part of the final exam in Sandvig's course "Play and Technology," students were asked to propose a new way to play using technology. Students had to pitch and justify their ideas using a multimedia portfolio. The projects were reviewed by distinguished experts in game design, art, and media. Advertising student Franklin Kramer proposed a new operating system for the Nintendo Wii based on an extension of the existing game "Animal Crossing." As Kramer noted about his project, "People have been using gaming as a means of communication for a long time." Judge Cory Ondrejka, SVP of EMI Music and co-founder of Second Life, said of the projects: "I love these ideas--go make them!"

Professor Angharad Valdivia Angharad N. Valdivia, professor of media studies and Latina/o Studies, in collaboration with Ruth Nicole Brown, assistant professor of educational policy studies and gender and women's studies, has been granted a Hewlett Foundation and International Studies Conference Grant for "Global Girl Studies: Media and Pedagogical Approaches," an interdisciplinary conference with scholars from the U.S., Israel, and Germany. The conference will be held on the Urbana campus in May.

Student News

Student Advisory Council Kicks off Spring Semester
The College of Media Student Advisory Council (SAC) represents the student body in bringing concerns and ideas to the College Dean. Chaired by Carlye Wisel '09 JOURN and co-chaired by Brittany Herdman '11 ADV, the SAC is currently working on selecting a speaker for the College of Media Convocation in May. A potential speaker has been contacted, and several others remain exciting prospects. As soon as the speaker is confirmed, SAC will make an announcement to students. In the near future, auditions for a student speaker will be held. Current seniors are encouraged to prepare a summary of their proposed speech for submission to SAC.

Feel free to contact an SAC member with comments or concerns that could help improve the College of Media experience. You can see a complete list of SAC members online, or email SAC Chair Carlye Wisel.

Student Ambassadors Make Connections
College of Media Student Ambassadors is a student-run group that offers students the opportunity to develop leadership skills, build lifelong connections to the University, and network with alumni and friends of the College. Student Ambassadors represent the College at student, alumni, and academic events. Members also serve as hosts for distinguished alumni and prospective students.

Student Ambassadors will host guests and speakers at the 2009 Senior Saturday Career Fair, March 7, and they are working to generate excitement for Roger Ebert's Film Festival (Ebertfest), April 22-26 at the historic Virginia Theatre in Champaign.

Membership is open to all College of Media sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Ambassadors are selected based on their application and a formal interview. Email questions about Student Ambassadors to Whitney Wyckoff.

New Student Organization for College Majors
The College of Media has a new student organization, created by Chelsea Insprucker '12 JOURN. JAMS (Journalism, Advertising, Media Studies Students) of the College of Media, aims to offer all Media students an opportunity to get involved and to bring the media community closer together. Created and run by students for students, JAMS will offer tutoring, panels with professors, internship information, meetings with professionals in various industries, alumni projects, and much, much more! Working with the College's television station's program coordinator, Kate Brickman '07 JOURN, JAMS will create productions to be aired on UI-7. The group is hoping to send its work off to the Big 10 Network after it is aired on UI-7. The College of Media is very excited for this upcoming group. The organization's first meeting was held on Tuesday, January 27, 2009. With a great turnout, JAMS has a bright future ahead of it. Adviser Heather Zike, Office Support Associate Kalee Mourer, and Brickman currently serve as advisers for JAMS. JAMS will meet the first Tuesday of every month, with additional meetings added as needed. Email JAMS officers with any questions or ideas.

Interested in contributing writing or photography for College of Media publications?
Opportunities for budding writers and photographers are available. Email Associate Director for Communications Sarah Dolinar for information.

College of Media in the News

Jan Slater, department head and professor of advertising, recently shared her expertise on Superbowl advertising. The article, picked up by United Press International, ran in several outlets, including Market Watch and Times of the Internet. Read UPI entire article. In addition, Slater was interviewed by the St. Louis Dispatch for "Grading Anheuser-Busch's marketing: Pass or fail," commenting on the benefit of advertising during the Superbowl. Read entire St. Louis Dispatch article.

Upcoming Events

Wednesday, February 18, 7-9:30 p.m., Levis Faculty Center: Journalism Career Night 2009
College of Media graduates offer advice and wisdom to journalism students who are getting ready to enter the job market. Alumnus Don Heimburger '69 JOURN will serve as moderator for a panel discussion on journalism and related careers. Learn more about alumni career experiences and areas of expertise. More information about Journalism Career Night.

February 19, 6:00-8:30 p.m., Chicago: Student/Alumni Interface 2009
Advertising and journalism alumni gather in Chicago with current College of Media students to discuss their careers, answer questions, and offer job advice. The event is free. Food and refreshments will be provided. Event will take place in the University of Illinois College of Fine and Applied Arts I-Space Gallery in Chicago, at 230 West Superior. Learn more and connect with others for carpools by joining the Facebook group "College of Media at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign."

Feb 25, 2009, 2-3 p.m., 126 GSLIS: Community Informatics Initiative: Update on Tribal Digital Village (TDV)
On some rural Indian Reservations near the US/Mexico border in California, it used to be that Internet access wouldn't work when it rained. Providing communication services to rural areas has always been a serious problem in communication policy--one grassroots answer is known as the Tribal Digital Village (TDV). TDV is a longstanding project of the Southern California Tribal Chairmen's Association that uses innovative wireless solar infrastructure to provide high-speed Internet access to some areas that still lack power and reliable roads. Associate Professor of Communications Christian Sandvig, Emily Shaw (Graduate School of Library and Information Science student), and Matt Crain ICR Ph.D. candidate will present an update about the TDV project at the speaker series for the Community Informatics Initiative. More information online at the Community Informatics web site.

March 7, 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m., Gregory Hall: College of Media Senior Saturday Career Day
In today's tough job market, graduating seniors need all the help they can get. College of Media seniors are invited attend the inaugural College of Media Senior Saturday. The all-day seminar will provide seniors with the necessary tools to find employment after college as well as insights into how to make themselves competitive in a very crowded marketplace. Industry expert, Murray Gaylord, Vice President of Marketing from "The New York Times," will discuss the state of the industry, and Brad Karsh, author of "Confessions of a Recruiting Director: The Insider's Guide to Landing Your First Job," will offer essential career advice. College of Media alumni and professionals will talk about jobs and provide resume and portfolio reviews. This event is specially designed for journalism, advertising, and media studies students. By attending this seminar, students will be ready to successfully jumpstart their careers. For information, email Cinda Cornstubble.

Alumni Notes

Notes are sorted by graduation year.

Roger Ebert '64 JOURN was honored with the Directors Guild of America 2009 Honorary Life Member Award for recognition of outstanding creative achievement. "From the blockbuster to the tiny independent film, Roger Ebert has devoted his career to sharing his love of film with generations of moviegoers," said DGA President Michael Apted. "In doing so, he's kept directors on their toes for more than 40 years. I am very pleased to welcome him as an Honorary Life Member of the DGA." Read entire article.

Scott Gendell '79 ADV and Illini Scott Bosley '78 (Applied Health Sciences) have created a new Internet Radio Show "Talking Illini," which is carried on TalkZone.com and broadcasts every Monday from noon to 2 p.m. Listen online at TalkZone.com.

Mert Silbar '57 JOURN is the founder of Merton P. Silbar Public Relations, Inc., a Glenview, Ill., firm now celebrating its 40th anniversary.

Alison Davis Wood '87 Alison Davis Wood '91 JOURN produced a documentary called "Lincoln: Prelude to the Presidency" in honor of the 16th President's Bicentennial. This one hour program premieres nationally on PBS stations in February 2009, including WILL-TV. The program chronicles Lincoln's experiences as a traveling lawyer in central Illinois from 1836 to 1860. Re-enactments and interviews with Lincoln historians such as Doris Kearns Goodwin, Michael Burlingame and Edna Greene Medord demonstrate that his experiences on the muddy streets and dimly lit homes of central Illinois shaped Lincoln for the most powerful office in the country.

Send your Alumni Notes to: media@illinoisalumni.org.

In Memory

Glenn Hanson, former professor of journalism, died peacefully at age 87 at his home from liver cancer on Friday, Dec. 19, 2008, in the Township of Spring Lake, rural Spring Valley. An artist, editor and journalism professor, he retired from the University of Illinois in 1988. He loved to travel with his wife, Dolores. Glenn recorded journeys and his daily life in his diaries and sketchbooks, habits he kept for more than 70 years. He was an avid reader and crossword puzzle enthusiast. Born in Akeley, Minn., on April 10, 1921, he grew up in Wadena, Minn., and his family moved to St. Paul, Minn., when he was 10. He and Dolores Merchant were married in 1950 in Minneapolis. They moved to New York City for several years before returning to the Midwest, where he taught typography at the School of Journalism at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign.

Stay Connected

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Media I Archive

The Media I is published 10 months a year for the alumni, faculty, staff, and friends of the College of Media at the University of Illinois. Your comments, news items, and Alumni Notes are welcome. Please e-mail us at: media@illinoisalumni.org

Publisher: Ron Yates, Dean of the College of Media
Editor: Sarah Dolinar, Associate Director for Communications

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