Five School of Communications students participated in the National Conference on Undergraduate Research April 10-12 at Salisbury University in Salisbury, Md.
According to its Web site, NCUR promotes undergraduateresearch scholarship and creative activity done in partnership with faculty orother mentors as a vital component of higher education.
Stefanie Meyers
Meyers focused her research on cable franchise reform in apresentation titled, “I Want My MTV!: The Use of Anecdotal Evidence in FederalPolicymaking Regarding Cable Television.” She worked with Associate Dean ConnieBook. Meyers said that as telephone companies have entered the market, theyhave been lobbying to change the franchising process so that it could occur onthe state level.
“In doing so they have given a significant amount ofanecdotal and unverifiable evidence against municipalities in the franchisingprocess,” Meyers said, “which was then quoted and used as justification by theFCC to reform the franchising process.”
The Idea: Meyerssaid she had been studying the effect of state franchising in Texas as part ofher class, Broadcasting in the Public Interest, when Book invited her to helpwith some outside research on franchise reform.
The Experience: Meyerssaid the entire research process has been enlightening. She is continuing toexpand her research in the area of franchise reform because she is soenthralled with the topic. But more importantly, her project served her futurecareer goals. Meyers said she plans to attend law school after graduation, soshe can study communications law.
“The more I learn, the more I realize I have so much more tolearn,” Meyers said. “This is exciting for me because it means that there isstill a lot of work to be done.”
Alyse Knorr
Knorr’s research focused on teenpregnancy in Alamance County in a project titled, “The Vocies We Do Not Hear:Teen Pregnancy.” She teamed up with associate professor Janna Anderson duringthe summer, when she began the process as part of a SURE project. Sheestablished community contacts before officially receiving the SURE grant moneyand eventually interviewed mothers ranging in age from 15 to 21 years old.
She ultimately produced a piece oflong non-fiction that ran in the Burlington (N.C.) Times-News and theGreensboro News & Record. She said she wanted the teen mothers to drive herstory, not the statistics.
“If people know about thenumbers,” Knorr said, “That’s all they know about. They don’t know about theday-to-day struggles. (The women) are stuck in a rut, stuck in a cycle ofpoverty and drug abuse. It’s really powerful to meet the faces of the numbers.”
The Idea: The topic piquedher interest in her Global Studies class during the fall semester of herfreshman year, when she learned that the United States had the highest teenpregnancy rate among developed countries in the world.
The following year, Knorr begantutoring at Cummings High School in Burlington, N.C., where she mentored ayoung pregnant student.
“It shocked me,” Knorr said ofseeing a pregnant teenager. “At that point, I wanted to do something more withteen pregnancy.”
The Experience: Knorrsaid she truly enjoyed working closely with a faculty mentor and with the teenmothers themselves. She said her research experience was one she probablywouldn’t have received if she had gone to school somewhere other than Elon.
“The presentation at (NCUR) was really great because it’sthe first time (the research) reached a more national audience,” Knorr said. “Therewere people there from Texas, New England, and they were all really interested.Because it’s a national issue, it’s good to see it could reach that audienceand get such good feedback.”
Erin Barnett
Barnett’s research focused on the worldwide digital divide ina social documentary titled, “The Internet: Bridging the Digital Divide.” Barnettsaid the film is best suited as an educational tool to raise awareness of how unconnecteda number of nations are to the Internet.
“In the Western world,especially,” Barnett said, “we take the Internet for granted. We expect to haveit. As the Internet becomes more and more intertwined with our lives, the restof the world isn’t connected. They’re staying behind. And instead of using theInternet as a tool to help catch up, we’re just sprinting ahead.”
The Idea: Barnett,a San Antonio native, whose only other international travel experience was ajaunt to nearby Mexico, initiated production on the documentary last fallsemester, when she traveled to Athens, Greece, with her mentor, Anderson, forthe Internet Governance Forum. She said the trip gave her a wider worldperspective, which is why she made the film.
Her documentary premiered at this year’s IGF conference inRio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The Experience: Barnettsaid attending NCUR was exciting because it gave her documentary a wideraudience.
“NCUR was a culmination of the work I’ve done over the lastyear,” Barnett said. “Because my research is a documentary, it has no worthuntil it has an audience. NCUR provided me with an audience and, therefore,some worth.”
Krista Naposki
Naposki’s research focused on how newspapers treat race andminority issues in a project titled, “Covert Racism Still Exists in Newspapers:A Study of Local and National Dailies.” A.J. Fletcher Professor of JournalismDavid Copeland served as her mentor. Naposki said her research revealed thatnewspapers aren’t openly racist, but some bad tendencies still do exist.
“At this point, mostnewspapers do not overtly discriminate against minorities,” she said, “butthere seems to be an unnecessary focus when it comes to some topics.”
The Idea: Naposkisaid her research stemmed from a homework assignment she had to do for hersenior capstone class about audience analysis. For the assignment, Naposkistudied newspapers for a week, looking for articles that mentioned race. Shesaid she found “more controversy than we originally intended, so I decided tosee if it was, indeed, a trend.”
The Experience: Naposkisaid her normal research projects consisted of studying others’ research andreporting on their findings. Doing original research was different because shehad to draw her own conclusions. But she said it was a beneficial learningexperience.
“I enjoyed going to NCUR because I discovered new ways topresent my information and new ways to research other topics,” Naposki said. “Italso gave validity to my research because my audience asked useful questionsthat will help me at SURF and in the future. “
Tayler Kent
Kent worked with associate professor Brooke Barnett toproduce a project titled, “Media Coverage of Terrorism.”