Elon contingent prominent at BEA conference

The School of Communications was quite visible at the Broadcast Education Association’s 2018 convention and Festival of Media Arts in Las Vegas.

In addition to Elon student entries collecting three first-place awards in the Festival of Media Arts, the school was instrumental in the convention’s daylong research symposium, titled “The Golden Age of Data: Big Data and Media Analytics,” which was organized by Associate Dean Don Grady, the 2018 research symposium chair. A group of students, led by Bryan Baker, director of multimedia projects, also documented the symposium with video recaps. All told, the student team uploaded more than 30 video clips highlighting sessions and presentations on the school’s YouTube channel.

Elon’s presence at the April 7-10 convention didn’t stop there.

Two members of the Communications Advisory Board were also on hand to share their expertise. Lee Rainie, director of internet and technology research at the Pew Research Center, served as the BEA research symposium keynote speaker, and Jack MacKenzie, executive vice president of PSB Research, moderated an applied data-driven decision making session and presented as second session titled “Who are we talking to?” on audience and data awareness. According to Communications Dean Paul Parsons, Rainie’s keynote drew a standing-room-only crowd.

In total, Elon students and their teams earned five Festival of Media Arts honors, highlighted by national first-place awards in the TV Newscast competition (3 days per week or less) for “Elon Local News,” TV News Magazine competition for “30 Minutes,” and the Interactive Multimedia and Emerging Technologies competition (solo category) for Twenty Something Magazine, which was created by iMedia graduate Kelly Dunville G’17. Group entries from the Interactive Media master’s program and Maroon Sports also received third-place awards.

For a complete listing of the Elon honorees in this year’s Festival of Media Arts, visit the school’s February 2018 news release.

As part of the research symposium, students shared their exploration of several research, analytical and broadcast topics.

Madison MacKenzie ’18 and Assistant Professor Kathleen Stansberry presented their joint research, titled “Equipping the Media Analytics Toolbox: A Study of the Skills Required for Entry and Mid-Level Media Analytics Jobs.” Their findings were shared during a session focusing on teaching traditional media measurement and social media analytics.

In another student-faculty collaboration, Bryan Anderson ’18 shared his research with Associate Professor Qian Xu titled “Winning over Fans: How Sports Teams Use Live-Tweeting to Maximize Engagement.” Their findings were discussed at a session highlighting the use of media analytics to answer meaningful questions, to help drive content creation, and to engage with audiences.     

During the symposium’s student poster session, students and alumni shared their respective research topics. The research titles and participants were:

• “Actions Speak Louder than Words: Incarceration and the Success of Rappers,” by Calvin Mincher, Elon University, and Jane Seidel ’17, The Wall Street Journal
• “Breaking News “Don’t Read the Comments:” Sentiment Analysis of YouTube Political News Comment Threads,” by Drew Scott and Charles Perschau, Elon University
• “How Long Should a TV Show Last?,” Jasper Pike and Bennett Lamanski, Elon University
• “#ThisisWe: A Content Analysis of Live Tweets of This is Us,” by Ansley Hamilton, Caroline Miller and Madeleine Hagy, Elon University
• “Using Analytics to Assess the AltGov vs. Official Government on Twitter,” by Drew Scott, Elon University

Additionally, Scott’s “AltGov vs. Official Government on Twitter” entry captured first place in the student poster top papers competition. Elon’s Rachyl E. Jackson took second for her paper, “Comparing Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes Online Communities: A Natural Language Processing Study,” and Hagy’s paper, “#ThisisWe,” placed third.

Associate Professor Amanda Sturgill, research symposium paper competition chair, oversaw the student poster sessions.

Other Elon students in attendance included Elizabeth Bilka, Reilly Butler, Azzurra Catucci, Lauren Duncan, Rachel Ellis, Emily Harrison, Rachel Kading, Paul LeBlanc, Brooke Wivagg and Jake Young. Butler, Catucci, Ellis, Kading, LeBlanc and Young worked on the convention video team.

Accompanying the students to the Las Vegas conference were 16 communications faculty and staff members, several of whom participated as panelists and presenters. On hand were Communications Dean Paul Parsons, Associate Dean Don Grady, Associate Professors Naeemah Clark, Vic Costello, Dan Haygood, Rich Landesberg, Tom Nelson, and Amanda Sturgill, Assistant Professors Gerald Gibson, Alex Luchsinger, Max Negin, Kathleen Stansberry and Jessalynn Strauss, Director of Multimedia Projects Bryan Baker, Video Producer Mitch Herndon, and Maroon Sports Coordinating Producer Michelle Manzo.

The following list highlights the conference participants and their involvement:

• Tom Nelson moderated a session, titled “Pulling the Plug on Philo T. Farnsworth,” that featured Alex Luchsinger. The group of panelists discussed the debate surrounding the appropriateness of a statue of Philo T. Farnsworth, inventor of television, that stands in the National Statuary Hall in Washington, D.C.
• Vic Costello organized a session, titled “Ensuring Currency of Curriculum and Instruction in an Age of Non-stop Innovation and Industry Uncertainty,” where panelists shared examples of how they innovate and maintain currency in the discipline. Communications Dean Paul Parsons and Costello were two of the three session presenters. Costello, who just completed his second and final two-year term as the District 2 representative on BEA’s board of directors, also moderated BEA’s District 2 meeting. The District 2 region includes Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. Costello remains on the board as the newly elected secretary-treasurer of BEA.
• Naeemah Clark served as a panelist for a session titled “Diversity in Entertainment Media in the Digital Age,” exploring the progress and remaining challenges to reflecting diversity in entertainment media.
• Dan Haygood’s paper, “TeleSports Digest: The Story of American Sports Television’s Original ESPN,” won first place in the History Division’s open paper competition. Haygood also participated in the faculty research-in-progress presentations, highlighting his research titled “Jump Ball: Raycom Sports’ Takeover of the Producing and Broadcasting of Atlantic Coast Conference Basketball and its Impact on US Sports Broadcasting.”
• Jessalynn Strauss moderated a session titled “Teaching Students How to Establish a Professional Social Media Presence.” The panel, which included Kathleen Stansberry, examined the need to provide instruction for broadcast students that will help them establish a professional and engaging social media presence.