Tanya tells her experience of being an aspiring actress in 1998 in Chicago Illinois, a young women who because of the forces around her, helped shape an idea to start a Theatre Company. Her world of work was then controlled by the perceptions of others and their expectations of what she should be and what role she should play as a Latina Actress. Expectations that often judged her culture, her gender, her race and ethnicity. Expectations that didn’t showcase and champion her artistic talents or the life stories she felt were not being told. Instead they judged her – casting call after casting call. These experiences led Tanya to the idea of creating a theatre company.

Through a collaboration that started between Coya Paz and Tanya Saracho that grew into an ensemble of 10 women from diverse Latina/Hispana backgrounds, Teatro Luna in 2000 was born. A theatre company formed through on group of women each sharing stories and experiences, an ecological system of collaboration and cocreation based on sharing. The sharing of stories, from which the group learnt. Creating meaning in who they were, what they were doing and in this, created a voice and the power to share with hundreds of people who came to see their productions, the stories of Latina/Hispana women and their communities.

Why was this collaborative group so important to each of these women and the formation of the organisation that is known as Teatro Luna? Tanya states it very eloquently: “In the group there were no outside forces telling us women could not be funny.” It became a supportive and dynamic collaboration that evolved from the interactions of a group of artistic women, cocreating a creative process, a process formed from discussion, sharing and learning about the stories of others, stories of Latina/Hispana women with the central idea of telling these stories through the medium of Theatre.

Teatro Luna is Chicago’s first and only all-Latina theatre, organized for the purpose of exploring the varied experiences and cultures of Latina/Hispana women, showcasing their creative talents and telling the often political, social and emotional stories of their communities. This is a wonderful and insightful story on how collaboration through the power of stories when shared both within and outside our organisational communities, shared through communication, shapes us. And as I spoke about in my last blog post everything communicates not just the words we use.

Please share this video and the story of Teatro Luna.

Tanya Saracho from Arts Alliance Illinois on Vimeo.

Smiles

Kelly

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The first, the difference between brand and branding. He eloquently alludes to a brand as emergent from conversation, as organic through interactions over time, an image, and it is over time that these interactions shape our image of something – in this case a brand. That brand management is the process by which an emergent brand image is influenced – not controlled, and the role of public, private enterprises in this.

The second, the emergence of brand image. Brands have always been emergent, emergent over time in our minds in how we think, interact with and talk with others about them. However now with growing user-generated social technologies from Facebook to YouTube, Twitter and blogging platforms, a brand is not just emergent in our minds/perceptions or between other of our immediate social circles, but increasingly emergent from a partnership between public-private enterprises and the wider community on a mass scale. A brand is emergent from community conversations, community interactions, a social web of people bought together by their interest and/or action about a brand.

The third, the importance of brand community. This view of a brand emergent from community lends itself much to the the thinking of Albert Muniz and Thomas O’Guinn in their (2001) paper on Brand Community. Wherein a community sharing similar rituals and traditions, history and moral responsibility form a community around a brand, what they term a brand community. A community that regulates and inspires the brands meaning and in this can also harm the brand image.

And lastly, how everything communicates. Everything we do, say, share and cocreate communicates – be it the image of a person, place, organisation, movement, idea or product. These interactions cocreate meaning over time, something not new to social anthropologists interested in media and social research. However, today social and search technologies play an increasing role in their aggregation for search, retrieval and mass sharing.

As everything communicates, and social/search technologies give greater emphasis to the communities of conversations, with this comes new mindsets and digital social literacies. Literacies not just for professionals in organisational communication who attempt to ‘manage’ brand image (and more often than not think they own the brand and thus try to control it), but also the digital social literacies of personal-professional communication across most industries and professions – teachers, artists, politicians, nurses, doctors to name but a few.

In summary, this an interesting example and philosophy of emergent branding through/from community, using the example of Rebranding Greece. Here is the video. Please share.

Smiles

Kelly

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Marleen has just completed her MSc in Strategic Marketing at Cranfield School of Management in the UK and as a Visiting Research Scholar in Digital Media Marketing at Cranfield this year, I had the pleasure of supervising Marleen’s masters thesis. Her skype message read ‘I have good news!’ Well I’d regard her message as great news!

Marleen had just been notified that her thesis had won the ‘Professor Malcolm McDonald Prize for Best Thesis in MSc. in Strategic Marketing’ from Cranfield School of Management. This is a prestigious prize and one that is very well deserved. Not only did Marleen complete an excellent piece of exploratory research, she was also the top student in her year (2009/2010).

Marleen’s thesis was entitled: “Globalisation or Localisation and Pacing in Online Social Networks: The Case of a Leading Cosmetics Brand” in which she explored international brand communiction in Facebook Fan pages.

A testament to her astute research skills, her literary abilities and her keen eye to ask the critical questions, Marleen has gone on to undertake a PhD at the Institute for Marketing & Media at the University of Hamburg, under the supervision of Prof. Henrik Sattler.

A big congratulations to Marleen for her hard work. I am sure we will see great research from her over the coming years. To connect to Marleen, her details are below:

• University of Hamburg Profile
• LinkedIn

Smiles

Kelly

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Over the course of the last few weeks I have met, listened to and discussed differing and also related ideas and approaches to digital media research with the faculty, graduate students and other scholars visiting the School of Communication. Below is a list of individuals whose work I learned about and especially connected with and would like to thank for their time, hospitality and research insight.

School of Communication Faculty

• Eszter Hargittai: My research host, who leads the Web Use Project. Her research focuses on the social and policy implications of information and communication technologies with a particular interest in how digital media may contribute to or alleviate social inequalities. Twitter: @eszter

• Pablo Boczkowski: His research examines the transition from print to digital media, with a focus on the organizational and occupational dynamics of contemporary journalism. His recent book, News at Work follows a couple of news organizations and the evolution in the practices of ‘imitation’ in news journalism. Book: News at Work

• Noshir Contractor: His research investigates factors that lead to the formation, maintenance, and dissolution of dynamically linked social and knowledge networks in communities. Specifically, his research team is developing and testing theories and methods of network science to map, understand and enable more effective networks in a wide variety of contexts. Twitter: @noshir

• Emilee Rader: Her research focuses on understanding social processes that affect this sort of information sharing — people sharing files, blog posts, photos, tags, status updates, tweets, location information — without always being completely aware of who might be out there watching.

• James Webster: His research interests include audience measurement, the behavior of media audiences, and media industries.

• Visiting Faculty: Marc Smith @marc_smith
• Admin: Sharron Shepard and Troy Alexander: Thank you for sorting out all my paperwork and being there to answer my many questions.

School of Communication Graduate Students

• Heather C. Young: Her research focus on television and the impact of new technologies on the role of television in everyday life and society.
• Yu-Li Patrick Hsieh: His research interests include the influences of information technology on social engagement, as well as its effects on social, psychological, and economic well-being. Twitter: @coolpat
• Su-Jung Kim: Her research examine the patterns of news consumption across media platforms and their impact on political knowledge and voting behavior.
• Eden Litt: Her research interests include online social networks, digital inequality, social media skill sets, online self-presentation and other areas related to the social and psychological impact of the Internet.
• Kristin Thomas: Her research interests are focused on issues of credibility, identity, and culture in mediated contexts. Twitter: @kristhomas
• Cassidy Puckett: Her research interests include methodological issues related to the study of digital inequality (i.e., construct and measurement validity), individual and social determinants of technological competency, and the effects of technological competency on social inequality. Twitter: @cassidycody

Medill IMC and Journalism Faculty

• Dan Gruber: His research  focuses on the relationship between firms and the financial media and his teaching centers on corporate communications, public relations, and managing change in dynamic environments. Twitter: @danielagruber

• Dan Gruber runs a class, Leading Digital Media Organisations. They are on twitter so follow the classes tweets on #laomc

• Rich Gordon: He is director of new communities for the Northwestern Media Management Center, where he is responsible for a research initiative focusing on the impact of online communities, including social networks, on journalism and publishing.

• Tom Collinger, Assoc. Dean. IMC. Medill.

• Randy Hlavac Adjunct Prof. of Social Media, Medill.

Media Management Center

• Michael Smith

On a personal note, I’d also like to extend a big thank you to two very special people who made my stay additionally warm and welcome, Janet Remen and Bonnie, who run the B&B ‘Janets Place’ in Evanston. This was my home during the visit, a beautiful home away from home.

Many thanks Eszter and colleagues, and wishes for a very happy time for the holidays!

Smiles

Kelly

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The areas of interest for this role range from the future of business models in news media, a longstanding interest within JOMEC to the challenges and opportunities presented by digital communications in the delivery of public services, political communication and the impact of digital communication technologies on private business. Issues of interest of researchers such as myself in CARBS.

So if you’ve not heard of Professor Ian Hargreaves you can read more about his biography on JOMEC’s website, however the most recent highlights of his career include:

• 2003: Founding non-executive Member of the Board of the Office of Communications (Ofcom).
• 2006: Executive Member of the Ofcom Board, responsible for the regulator’s international activities and its work in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
• 2008: Hee became Director of Strategic Communications at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, reporting to the Foreign Secretary, David Miliband MP.
• 2009: He was seconded part-time to conduct a review of Creative Industries in Wales for the Welsh Assembly Government, becoming known as The Heart of Digital Wales, or the Hargreaves Review.

So a very interesting appointment indeed! Here is a video interview with Prof. Hargreaves about “The Future of Journalism”. I’m curious to pose the question to him about “The Future of Digital Media Literacy in Higher Education.” With evolution comes new learning, new knowledge, new mindsets and a change in behaviour. What then is the universities position on Digital Media Learning and Literacies? By this I mean beyond the technologies … but to mindsets, culture and norms in what we do and how we deliver higher education – be it in Business, Media, Communications, Education or other areas of higher ed.

Food for thought!

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Martin Evans

“A contributor to knowledge”; “a creator of impact”;  ”a giving citizen in the academic research community”: all are most certainly terms that describe Martin Evans. Martin Evans was not just a teacher, or a lecturer. He was also an inspiring research scholar whose research interest and research integrity was grounded first and foremost in making a contribution to knowledge in the fields of Direct and Interactive Marketing, Consumer Behaviour and Marketing Research.

He published over 180 publications, in national and international journals, case studies and reports and 8 books. Many of his works are nationally recognised for their contribution, and their author was a multiple academic prize winner from the Academy of Marketing (AM), the Institute of Direct Marketing (IDM) and the International Conference of Marketing Communications.

Martin also served on the editorial board of some of the UK’s leading national marketing journals: Journal of Marketing Management, Journal of Marketing Communications, Journal of Strategic Marketing, International Journal of Advertising, Journal of Targeting, Measurement and Analysis for Marketing and Journal of Database Marketing and was full editor of the Journal of Consumer Behaviour: An International Review.

His expertise, support and years of research experience contributed to the knowledge and learning of numerous colleagues, co-authors and doctoral students, hundreds of masters students and thousands of undergraduate students, both in and outside the class room, the office and traditional publication channels.

Martin’s research contribution though was not just limited to the academic community. He also engaged actively with the wider business and social community to share and co-create knowledge through research partnerships, committees and informing industry policy and regulation, especially in Direct and Interactive Marketing. He was a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) and Institute of Direct Marketing (IDM) and full members of the Marketing Research Society (MRS), the Federation of Direct and Electronic Marketing (FEDMA) and the Academy of Marketing (AM).

He was an inspiring research scholar, mentor, colleague, teacher and friend.

Dr. Kelly Page
Lecturer in Marketing & Strategy
Cardiff Business School.

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I thought very hard about this question, and reflected on the last 5-8 years of my academic career. I looked at who has inspired me in exploring knowledge, adoption and use of electronic technologies. The works I’ve read and reviewed range from the work of Charles Darwin on Evolutionary Science, the writings of Plato and Sir Francis Bacon on Form and Knowledge, Marshall McLuhan in his media philosophy of the 1960′s,  to more recent work of Innovation Theory by Everett Rogers and Technology Adoption by Fred Davis.

But if I think back to the early days of my research career, as an Honours research student in the mid 1990′s embarking on research about the impact of technology on Marketing philosophy, it would be the work of Prof. Donna Hoffman that really inspired and changed the way I viewed at not just technology, but also the socio-cultural implications/influences of technological developments.

Prof. Donna Hoffman

In the early stages of the research component of my honours degree at Griffith University Australia, I was given a article to read by my Professor of Internet Marketing, Prof. Ed Forrest. Ed was a visiting Academic in Australia from Florida, and established a programme on our schools graduate programme on Internet Marketing and Internet Marketing Research. A programme that for the mid-1990′s was cutting in edge in the critical discussions we had in the classroom about the role of technology in business and wider society. As a research student on the undergraduate programme, I took part in these discussions of Toffler, Media Determinism and Network Complexity.

However the article from these discussions that has remained integral to both my academic and commerical work since that day was an article published by Prof. Donna Hoffman in the highest ranked marketing journal – Journal of Marketing. It was co-authored with Prof. Thomas Novak and was entitled: Marketing in Hypermedia Computer Mediated Environments (HCME’s): Conceptual Foundations. It was this article that raised the critical enquiry in marketing about technology-mediated communications and for me, the acqusition and creation of knowledge about technology – given their complexity in technical design, and situational context of application and use.

Prof. Donna Hoffman award winning and Internationally recognised research set the tone for marketing enquiry into internet marketing and digital media management and as the founder of eLab, an online laboratory for consumer behavior research and the Co-Director of the Sloan Center for Internet Retailing, her work not only informs academic enquiry through publication in top marketing and management journals, but informs policy for commercialization and use of the Internet.

So my pledge for Ada Lovelace Day, is the work and approach to technology science of Prof. Donna Hoffman.

Twitter: @profhoff
Web: Sloan Centre of Internet Retailing

Smiles

Kelly

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