Create
messages in a variety of media and arenas, critically and creatively
One of my favorite projects during my time at John Carroll was from my Audio Production class. In a group of four, we created an audio documentary on a topic of our choice. My group's project focused on the Carroll Ballers, a group of students at JCU who played basketball with kids at Cleveland's Juvenile Detention Center.
During my time at JCU, I had the opportunity to create messages in various types of media. I was heavily involved in WJCU, John Carroll's FCC-certified college radio station. As the News Director, I made a weekly 2-minute podcast about a local news story. To the left, I included a podcast from late August 2017 about the Cleveland Heights-University Heights school district's decision to sell their school on Coventry Road.
In July 2018, I made a special edition of Heights Now to cover a few incidents from the previous year with John Carroll's Latin American Student Association. LASA experienced a few acts of discrimination so I interviewed the club's former president, Carlos Cruz, and current vice president, Gabie Flores.
In my Advanced Video Production class, we had an assignment to make a 30 second commercial about a product or service. My partner and I advertised the Produce Place Market, a small, family-owned grocery store in Lyndhurst, Ohio.
Present
and/or advocate ideas ethically and effectively for a variety of audiences
One of the highlights of my academic experiences was when I completed an independent study project during my junior year. The two sides of my family come from nearly opposite backgrounds and that fascinates me, so I interviewed them to hear about their life experiences. It was a challenge to present these ideas ethically because they are family members and I had to be unbiased. It was also difficult to present the project effectively because different family members told the same story different ways.
Another project that I really enjoyed was not from the communication department, but I still think that it is worth sharing. While I was enrolled in a U.S. history class, our teacher found unopened letters from World War II between her grandparents while her grandfather was away at war. She let the class read and transcribe them as primary historical documents. Clearly accuracy was crucial, and much of content of the letters was difficult to read and interpret. When presenting historical information objectively, we has to ensure that we transcribed exactly what the letter said.
All senior communication majors had to complete the capstone course to graduate, and we could choose any topic related to communications and media. I chose to do a content analysis of how black people are represented in the media, in particular studying the TV shows The Cosby Show and Blackish. To the left I have included the PowerPoint presentation I gave to my capstone class. The most difficult part of this project was ensuring that I was present all of the relevant information on the topic. My presentation could only be around 15 minutes, but I had over 20 sources to discuss, in addition to my methods, results, and discussion.
I spent a significant amount of time in college at The Carroll News, JCU's student-run newspaper. When the University chose Dr. Michael Johnson as the new president in the spring of 2018, I wrote the article introducing him to the Carroll community. This was a profile piece, I wrote about his background, goals for the University, and the controversy surrounding JCU's decision to choose a layperson as president.
I also wrote a profile for The Carroll News when the Director of WJCU, Mark Krieger, retired. I conducted an interview about his work as a communication professor, his contributions to the radio station, and previous jobs that he held as a mechanical engineer for commercial stations. This piece was challenging because I had to present the background of a communications professional to an audience that likely had many readers who had no interest in or knowledge of the communications field.
Evaluate
messages using critical and ethical analysis
When I took an Interviewing class, we did a field project that had a strong focus on evaluating messages. We had to choose someone who had a job that was similar to a job that we would like to pursue and interview him or her about the job. We also did research about the role of a person with that job and how they would execute their responsibilities. My interviewee, a former broadcast journalist, gave significantly different answers than the literature gave. The comparison and evaluation of the two was interesting.
Analyze
how audiences receive, interpret, and react to messages
In my Media Writing class, we learned how to write a creative brief, which takes the target audience and their reaction to the message into consideration. To the left is a creative brief that another student, Rose Dolan, and I wrote for that class.
To the left I have included my final paper for capstone. Capstone is a class that all senior communication majors must take and we spend the semester working on a project of out choosing, whether that may be a rhetorical analysis, a documentary, or a podcast. I studied how black people are represented in the media and the stereotypes that may be present. In particular, I studied the television sitcoms The Cosby Show and Blackish.