Category: Stories

In April of 2020, the continuation of Coronavirus cases across the world have made a halt in the entertainment industry from theme parks, music festivals, films, TVs, and much more. However, it has been over a year since the pandemic began and new solutions have risen to open up places. Vaccines are now available to people all over the world. This advantage has led entertainment industries to open up a majority of places once again with CDC and WHO guidelines, yet things will not go back the way they used to as more precautions will be held for the safety of everyone. Nonetheless, every live performing artist such as huge celebrities to local entertainers have held aside their performances due to the fact they couldn’t perform live anywhere. Throughout the pandemic, the entertainment and tourism industry has had to adapt in many ways. We interviewed professor Waleed Rashidi from California State University of Fullerton, about how COVID-19 has affected this industry now and for the future. Rashidi emphasizes on the entertainment and tourism industry and teaches about it in his COMM 346 class.

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In the Spring of 2020, universities across the nation emailed college students and professors that spring break would start early because of the nationwide shutdown due to the impending outbreak of COVID-19. Many saw this as an opportunity to catch up on sleep or enjoy the extra time relaxing. Yet, little did they know, this was just the start of a year-long shift from in-person learning to the now normalized virtual online learning experience many faces today. College student’s motivation began to waver as everything was coming to a stop and many have gotten accustomed to what our generation has called this lack of motivation “zoom fatigue”. Zoom fatigue is the burnout, worry, or tiredness associated with the overuse of virtual platforms of communications, with a particular focus on video conferencing. We spoke with Dr. Penchen Phoborisut, an Assistant Professor of Communications at California State University, Fullerton. Dr. Phoborisut has a collective knowledge of what it’s like to work across the screen being a news reporter for CNN World Report with her one of her main areas of research within digital media technology. She provided insight as to how she as a professor has changed her way of learning through COVID-19 and we dive into a closer look as to how “zoom fatigue” has challenged the norms of many students and professors during this complex learning environment.

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Dr. Martina Baldwin is a full-time lecturer in the Department of Cinema Television Arts. She received her B.A. in public relations with a minor in Sociology from the University of Florida and her M.A. in Mass Communications from Cal State Fullerton. She received her Ph.D. in Media Studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 

For our research study, my group and I want to analyze the impact Covid-19 had on college professors. The COVID-19 pandemic is a health crisis the U.S. has been dealing with for over a year. The governor of California initially called for a stay at home order in March of 2020. As a result, a lot of places had to be shut down. Such places were stores, restaurants, bars, churches, community centers, libraries, gyms, amusement parks, schools etc. California State University, Fullerton was called to shut down by the chancellor in March 2020 as well. The shut down of the school initiated an immediate transition to a virtual setting. This was during the middle of the Spring semester where all courses were to quickly be adjusted to virtual mode. This was a very sudden change for the whole institution. Full of uncertainty, faculty, staff and students had to quickly adapt themselves to distance learning. In this interview, Dr. Baldwin discussed with us the ways in which Covid-19 has affected her and her job as a professor. 

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Introduction

Anxiety and stress among college students have sharply increased over the past two decades. This is one of the main reasons our group was so intrigued to find a study based around this idea. Especially with COVID-19, we have seen its effects on college students’ performance in their classes. We found the study titled, “Psychological Impact of COVID-19 on Hispanic/Latinx, Asian, and White USA College Students”, researched and written by Lisa Mori, Kiran Kaur, Maximiliano Gutierrez, Alan Guandique and Eric Cortez. We contacted Dr. Lisa Mori from the Department of Psychology, California State University, Fullerton, for a brief interview. In this Blog post we will discuss the conceptual ideas that we had going into this interview, along with the practical ideas and some dialogue quotes we gained after speaking with Professor Mori.

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Jeffrey Brody is a professor of Communications and a member of the Asian American Studies Program Council at California State University, Fullerton. He teaches advanced writing classes, courses on mass communication and society, and media and diversity. 

Our opening discussion from the interview with Professor Brody consists of questions that would help us understand the teaching experience from a professor’s point of view during a pandemic. 

Professor Brody stated that the most challenging obstacle for him was being able to maintain student interest. He felt it was very hard to gauge their interactions, especially with many blank screens. One way around this resulted in the Zoom breakout rooms. Students would be split into groups and would each have a specific topic to discuss while Professor Brody would visit each room to hear more personal feedback. He felt that in some ways there were many benefits to it that allowed students much more flexibility for those who are also working full-time jobs.

Continue reading “Should college students pay the same price for virtual learning? The Hardships and Controversy of Online Learning” →

The focus of this review of the thesis is presented by the member of California State University Leslie Klukas. She focuses on instructional relationship, Communication, and the effects it has on academic buoyancy. The purpose of the study is founded on the idea as well as the many challenges that undergraduate and graduate students have with the completion of their coursework. Obviously, there are many challenges both on a personal as well as on an academic level that may prove to be setbacks and barriers to success. The focus as well as the major impact in the background of this article is based around looking at the challenges of rigorous academic programs that can make students feel as if they are struggling or able to maintain the same level of success in their coursework. 

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Janelle Gilbert-Darius is a Professor of Psychology, specializing in Industrial Organizational Psychology at California State University, San Bernardino. She is also serving as California State University, San Bernardino’s General Education Director. We asked her a series of questions relating to social activism and its relation to advertising as well as social media’s influence on both. Dr. Gilbert-Darius was well equipped to speak on these matters due to her experience addressing these issues within her Psychology studies. She was able to provide a unique insight into individual’s as well as organization’s behaviors within social and political movements and their relation to marketing.

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Derar Serhan has a Ph.D. in curriculum and Instruction/Educational Technology and is a professor in mathematics at Arizona State University.

Continue reading “The Effects of COVID-19 on Learning” →

For our interview, we spoke to Dr. Meeds, professor of Communications at California State University, Fullerton. Dr. Meeds specializes in research on advertising copy and psycholinguistics. Most of his studies are on the eye-tracking of consumers to gauge the success and impact of advertisements. He conducts his research to measure how copy print persuades consumer behavior. Our primary focus for the interview was to gauge a better understanding of what eye-tracking is and how it can be applied to positively impact consumer behavior. This form of research can be used by communication professionals to craft a more effective advertisement.

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Social media is an incredibly prevalent factor within many individuals’ lives nowadays. So much so, numerous researchers have conducted multiple studies focusing primarily on its effects on users.Dr. Megan Vendemia is fascinated with social media’s impact, as she has focused most of her research emphasizing how it influences individuals and its potential impact on self-identity. Besides her research background, she is also an Assistant Professor in the School of Communications at Chapman University. With Dr. Vendemia’s experience, she became the ideal candidate to interview. Our group mate Angelina Nguyen conducted an amazing interview where they discussed the effects of social media and Dr. Vendemia’s study The effects of engaging in digital photo modifications and receiving favorable comments on women’s selfies shared on social media.

Continue reading “Dr. Vendemia’s Perception on How Social Media and Photo Modification Effects Body Image” →