By Erika Ortiz, Emily Lopez, Stephanie Viramontes, and Cody Sargenti
In an attempt to gain better insight into the world of communications research, we sat down with Dr. Zac Johnson, a professor at California State University, Fullerton who specializes in instructional research and student communication. Johnson has been part of research on student confirmation and the effect having a camera on in a Zoom class has on student learning. Johnson opens up to us about what peaked his interest in this field, what problems are brought into it in a post-COVID era, and how he researches these problems himself.
By Kaleigh Medellin, Miranda Garcia, Ariana Castro, Hannah Ridge
For this assignment, we decided to give our feedback on the interview we had with Dr. Vega. Dr. Vega is a professor at California State University, Fullerton with over 10 years of industry experience. We asked her about women in the advertising industry and her answers left us with a lot to think about. These are our reflections on this interview.
By Andy Acosta, Troy Le, Leanna Nguyen, and Mariah Williams
We were given the chance to ask Cal State Fullerton Communications Professor, Douglas J. Swanson, about his experience conducting his research project World Wide Web Sites and Social Order Within Higher Education Journalism and Mass Communications Programs. Professor Swanson has published numerous book chapters and journal articles and has earned his doctorate at Oklahoma State University. Dr. Swanson focused his research around the content analysis of Websites and how they can establish social order.
ByBrooke McLaughlin, Elizabeth Richards, and Antonio Alfaro
Professor Emily Erickson
For our interview with Professor Emily Erickson we asked her 4 questions relating to her job, past research, current research, and any obstacles she may have had to overcome for her research. We wanted to get the inside scoop to everything were is to know about Comm Law!
Question 1: What research have you done + what are you currently working on?
Emily Erickson teaches communication law here at California State University, Fullerton and after sitting down for an interview with her we discovered just how intense her research experience has been. Since Erickson teaches the law, she also mainly focuses on legal research. Legal research focuses more on looking at previous court opinions and the Supreme Court’s rulings, however, it has also begun to incorporate more social scientific research, which is more like what we have learned about. Erickson further elaborates that you begin legal research with an argument in mind, which is different from social scientific research. That being said she has shared her experience in both types of research and concludes that they may have many differences in the way they are conducted, but with the new adaptation of social scientific practices within legal research, they are able to base their research off more case studies as well as still looking at previous rulings and opinions.
I had the privilege of interviewing Professor Thorson on her research about Social Media Influencers and their impact on advertising and society. Professor Esther Thorson is the Professor of Journalism and Associate Dean for Graduate Studies at Michigan State University. Professor Thorson’s career has combined quantitative research and theory with extensive applied research with advertising, television, and newspaper companies.
I wanted to conduct research on Social Media Influencers, because they are an integral part to marketing and advertising these days. The amount of advertising content we consume from these Social Media Influencers is staggering, as social media companies develop a specific algorithm that caters our interests and these influencers tend to make the message even more effective. Social Media Influencers with all their control and power have a massive impact on our society today, influencing how we think about certain things.
By Samantha Horrocks, Jana Karns, Linh Lam, Julia Mayuga
Saying sorry isn’t always an easy thing to do. Admitting wrongdoing and asking for forgiveness puts us all in an uncomfortable and vulnerable position, but it is a necessary action to reestablish trust, relationships and morality. From a public relations point of view, celebrities, influencers, politicians, governments and companies all must take apologies extremely seriously and strategically when they fall from public favor. In the modern age of media and cancel culture, developing the correct apology strategy for audiences, constituents or customers has become difficult terrain. People can be extremely ruthless when it comes to forgiveness. This is a topic that we believe must be explored more in order to find out what strategies are the most effective while also trying to maintain ethics. To begin our research, we interviewed Professor Cylor Spaulding and discussed his past experience with drafting apologies for corporations.
Dr. Waleed Rashidi, a professor in the Department of Communications.
Dr. Waleed Rashidi is currently a professor in the Department of Communications. He has a Ed.D from the University of La Verne and his research interests include looking into communications programs in higher education and investigating music as a form of mass communication. He is also a faculty advisor to Comm Week and the Entertainment and Tourism Club, as well as the editor in chief of Mean Street Magazine and an editor at the Inland Empire Weekly.
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.
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.
Dr. Martina Baldwin, Professor in the Department of Television Arts at CSUF
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.
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.
The Society for Communications Research 