When: Saturday, May 4, 2013 at 6pm
Where: LBJSC Ballroom
Current and former staff members of Texas State student media organizations are invited to attend a student media reunion on May 4th.
This is first reunion of its kind at Texas State that includes the University Star and KTSW.
The event will include cocktails, dinner, and a silent auction with proceeds going towards scholarships for the University Star and to establish a scholarship for KTSW.
New KTSW managers and directors for the 2013-14 school year will be introduced and outgoing staff will be recognized as well.
For more details, please contact Linda Allen at 512-245-8052 or la06@txstate.edu. Check out the photo gallery below to see last year's reunion.
At their SXSWi Core Conversation on Tuesday, SJMC alumnae Maira Garcia and Anna Tauzin talked about the importance of personal branding in today's social media driven world. They discussed their personal experiences with finding jobs and some of their favorite networking platforms.
We are very saddened to learn that 1987 AAF presenter and SJMC alumna Kara Meyer passed away on Thursday. Kara was an advertising major at Southwest Texas State University and was a presenter on the 1987 AAF team which set them on the winning path. Kara was an outstanding student, and her professional career began the day she graduated, much of which is detailed below:
DALLAS-Services will be held in Coppell, Texas next week for Kara Casey Meyer, 45, REM Eyewear´s vice president of corporate accounts, who died unexpectedly on Feb. 16.
Meyer, a long-time eyewear executive, was highly regarded within the industry. She was named one of Vision Monday's "Most Influential Women in Optical" in 2005. In her profile,VM noted that Meyer was very proud of her Austin, Texas roots. She majored in journalism at Southwest Texas State (now Texas State University), her interest in communications leading to a student internship at GSD&M where she helped with pitches to clients. She was rewarded with a graduate paid internship at the legendary Chiat Day agency, and in 1988, when she moved to Dallas, Meyer became an account executive for Stern Monroe. She joined Nouveau Eyewear as marketing director in 1994, and was with the company for eight years, eventually becoming vice president of marketing and working with key retail accounts. She joined REM in 2002, as vice president of corporate accounts.
Mike Hundert, REM's CEO, said, "Many of us had the privilege to know Kara very well, to call her our friend. She touched us like no other, guiding us and encouraging us with a steady hand and a Texas-size illuminating smile. We will always admire and be encouraged by her wisdom and determination, her intuition and integrity. Kara was passionate about making everyone happy. And she succeeded. From making her customers successful to lifting the spirits of any of us when we were down, Kara was always there for us, the quintessential professional and the most loyal friend."
Meyer's immediate survivors include her husband, Jay, and two children, Alexis and Christian. There will be a gathering at Restland Coppell Chapel Monday, Feb. 21 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Services will be held at First United Methodist Church in Coppell on Tuesday, Feb. 22 at 2:00 p.m. In lieu of flowers, the family will be establishing a college fund for Alexis and Christian.
REM Eyewear is preparing to celebrate Meyer with a gathering of friends on Thursday, March 17 in New York City, on the eve of Vision Expo East, from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. VMail will post further details as they become available.
Mark your calendars for KTSW's 20th anniversary celebration and birthday party! Ever since April 15, 1992, that joyous day when KTSW 89.9FM first went on air, the radio station has been going strong with great music and campus programming. As such, we're planning to coincide the bash with MR. Fest, KTSW's annual spring concert, to make it as great as possible. The fest usually takes place in late April or early May, but details for the celebration and alumni reunion have yet to be set. Whether you're a former KTSW staff member, current staffer, or just an avid listener, get ready for the big event. More information is forthcoming.
On Thursday, Cassandra Harrison, Tracy Hinson, and Francisco Garcia came to the LBJ Student Center to talk to Ad/PR students about what to expect as a professional in the field. Garcia (2007) is the Media Specialist for the Texas Veterinary Medical Association, managing its website, social media accounts, and writing for its magazine. Harrison (2003) works for Noble Strategic Partners, and has worked in PR previously in New York City and Washington D.C. Hinson has BA and MA (2005) degrees from Texas State, and currently does business development for the White Lion Internet Agency. She is also the Vice President for Communications for the Austin Advertising Federation. The panel was part of Mass Communication Week, as they fielded a variety of questions and gave advice to those just starting off.
Cassandra Harrison and Tracy Hinson talk about what their typical day looks like as Ad/PR professionals.
Cassandra Harrison and Francisco Garcia talk about how they got where they are today as Ad/PR professionals.
Cassandra Harrison, Francisco Garcia, and Tracy Hinson talk about trends in the Ad/PR industry.
There’s an app for that — KTSW. Dan Schumacher reports that listeners can tune into KTSW on iPhone using the Texas State app that was introduced in June. It also works on phones using the Android platform as well, Schumacher says. “The quality of the feed for our streaming and this app was improved substantially earlier this month, so give the app or our streaming at ktsw.net a try,” he added.
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The Fourth Annual SJMC Career Fair was held from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 21 in the LBJ Ballroom. We had some outstanding media organizations attending, including Apple, Balfour, Austin Film Festival, KEYE-TV, KUT Radio, the Lance Armstrong Foundation, SXSW Festival & Conference, T3, and many more.
Kym Fox, SJMC senior lecturer and coordinator of the journalism sequence, was elected as an adviser at large to the national board of directors of the Society of Professional Journalists at the group's national convention in Las Vegas on Oct. 5. Fox is one of only two university faculty members to serve on the SPJ national board.
Fox has been an SPJ member for 30 years, since joining as an undergraduate student at Arizona State University. She came to Texas State after many years working as a newspaper journalist, most recently at the San Antonio Express News, where she was a metro editor. She joined the faculty at Texas State directly from the Express News.
SPJ has more than 8,000 professional and student members. It is also the only professional journalism organization with a tax designation that permits lobbying Congress. One of the current missions of the group is to enact a national shield law to protect the confidential sources of journalists.
SPJ also passed a resolution on Oct. 5 supporting campus media and denouncing attempts to censor media on college campuses.
October finally here, which means the annual Mass Communication Week is rapidly approaching. Starting on Monday, Oct. 25 and lasting until Thursday, Oct. 28, this year’s focus is on sustainability. With speakers from Austin’s location based media company, Gowalla, as well as Evan Smith from The Texas Tribune and Michael Vivio, Publisher of The Austin American Statesman, not to mention a handful of proud alumni, we are getting excited for the fun and informational week ahead of us.
On the roster of returning Bobcats is Jenifer Glenn, owner of Tenant Link, Inc./Let's Party. Glenn, a 1980 graduate from the Public Relations & Advertising sequence. is scheduled to speak on event planning. Owning a business is difficult in most times, and particularly difficult today. Her MC Week presentation will cover how she transitioned from a Texas State University Bobcat into a successful event planning business owner using the skills and knowledge that she gained at Texas State. She will also share the traits she believes will be most important for graduates from the School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
While in previous years Mass Communication Week has been supported by a major theme, this year the conference will be focusing on its own personal branding, bringing awareness to Mass Communication Week as a whole.
For a complete list of speakers and events, check out the Mass Communication Week website. Planning teams are focusing on attendance of events, trying to fill each room and educate our students with knowledge from the field.
According to a survey by the Office of Institutional Research this summer, 89 percent of last year’s SJMC graduates are either employed or continuing their education in graduate school. This means that only 11 percent of our 2009 alumni are seeking employment. And, they overwhelmingly agreed (94 percent) that they were “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with the education they received at Texas State. Eighty-nine percent said the quality of instruction in SJMC was “good” or “very good,” and 80 percent said they would recommend SJMC to others considering college.
In the past, alumni have encouraged the SJMC to add more writing courses and more hands-on courses in design, web, social media, and video topics. Correspondingly, this survey indicated that 71 percent of graduates were “well” or “very well” prepared to apply the tools and technologies of the media professions. In addition, 88 percent said SJMC did a “good” or “very good” job of preparing them to write well. Similar percentages thought they were prepared well to think critically and creatively, work ethically and understand principles of free speech. Alumni also said that the importance of internships should be stressed even more than it already is.
Sixty-two SJMC undergraduate alumni responded to the survey.
Please join us in welcoming four new full-time faculty members to the School of Journalism and Mass Communication:
Emmeline Aguirre (Lecturer, Advertising)
M.A. degree in advertising from UT Austin. B.A. in advertising from Stephen F. Austin State University. She is new to teaching, but has handled advertising and marketing for many different companies and has worked as director of graphics services and art director at ad agencies. Her specialties are copywriting and ad design.
Dr. Lucy Brown (Assistant Professor, Advertising)
Ph.D. and M.A. degrees in advertising from UT Austin. M.S. degree in Communication Design from Pratt Institutute and B.A. degree in Communication Design from the Edna Manley School for Visual and Performing Arts in Jamaica. Dr. Brown taught at UT Austin while a graduate student and previously at the University of the West Indies. She worked for many years doing research and account planning for ad agencies and corporations such as DDB, Synovate and T-mobile.
Elizabeth (Beth) Clark (Lecturer, Journalism)
Elizabeth (Beth) Clark (Lecturer, Journalism) Master’s degree in Journalism from the University of North Texas, B.A. from Knox College, Galesburg, IL. She taught previously at Winston-Salem State University, Texas Woman’s University and the University of North Texas. She has worked as a writer and editor for magazines, newspapers and trade publications. Prior to this full-time appointment, she was teaching in the SJMC as a part-time lecturer.
Dr. Jacie Yang (Assistant Professor, New Media)
She received her Ph.D. in journalism from UT Austin this month. She also has an M.A. in journalism from UTA and a B.A. from National Chengchi University in Taipei, Taiwan. Her teaching areas will be multimedia, online journalism, and related skills courses. Her research interests relate to online news.
This semester the School of Journalism and Mass Communication launched a student chapter of Social Media Club. This is the first student Social Media Club chapter in the state of Texas and just the third worldwide. The purpose of the club is to help students understand how social media can be used in their professional favor.
The club was founded this year by Dara Quackenbush and Cindy Royal, the club’s advisers; B Barnett, President; and Elissa Fontenot, Vice President. All four have been very busy preparing the club’s three meetings this semester, filled with guest speakers and networking opportunities. The club is very proud of the student diversity in its membership so far. The first meeting was packed with all majors and social media expertise levels.
“We are founding this club not as a niche group, but as a learning situation that students from all majors can enjoy,” said Fontenot. “The topics will cover a broad range but will help each student prepare their online personality to be professionally ready for their graduation.”
The first meeting hosted four guest speakers who discussed how to start creating a professional online-personality. Each of the four speakers has been involved with social media for years and knows what is hirable in an online personality.
Most of the panelists spoke of how their involvements with social media provided them many opportunities in their successful careers. Oscar Davila spoke of his opportunities in Social Media Club Austin, the local national chapter.
“It’s always fun because you get to meet people that you want to know,” said Davila.
The fist meeting was a great success and the students seemed excited to come to the next meeting and learn more. October 7th, 2010 will feature John Moore from Brand Autopsy. Moore will be speaking on becoming a “talkable brand” and bringing your online presence the awareness it deserves.
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