Research Report_Kang_Dobbs

Jay Caspian King, writer of the article “Should Reddit Be Blamed for the Spreading of a Smear”, has written many other things beyond this article; his first major piece of work being his novel, The Dead Do Not Improve. He is currently an editor at a company called Grantland, which is a spin-off from ESPN. He has also written pieces for the New York Times Magazine, Wired, and TheAtlantic.com. He also did some work for a high school friend’s blog called Free Darko while he was waiting for his novel to sell. Though it may seem that Kang has always been successful, he did not start off on the most positive note.

         Kang was born in Seoul, South Korea but moved to the United States when he was just a baby. He mostly grew up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina where he experienced frequent bullying and racism in middle school and high school. His parents also taught him to suppress his emotions, which caused him trouble during his high school years. Kang had struggled with substance abuse along with some gambling problems throughout high school and his early college years. He was even kicked out of Bowdoin College twice for poor behavior and grades before he eventually received his undergraduate degree and started to get things back on track. Kang also states that dealing with his cancer never had a negative impact on his outlook on life.

He became an avid writer when he was quite young. Kang states in an article, “Between the ages of five and fourteen, I wrote every day in a journal. This was my mother’s idea and she hawked over it vigilantly” (2012). Being discriminated against in high school and his struggle with emotions gave him ideas to write in the future. In Y. Peter Kang’s interview with Jay Kang he states, “Kang says he wanted to write a book about Korean American male anger and the idea of growing up in violent households, while at the same time being perceived as emasculated as an Asian American outside the home, and the ‘weird violent mindset’ that can result” (2012). Another topic that he chose to write about was the Virginia Tech. shootings because Kang thinks that it defined his generation of Korean Americans (Kang, 2012). His first novel, The Dead Do Not Improve, was mainly about these topics, which he was passionate about. While waiting for his book to take off, Kang’s love of sports had influenced him to attempt to get in contact with some sports blogs to see if he could do some work for them. Some of Kang’s friends even tried to inspire him to become a sportswriter, but Kang’s dream had always been to become a novelist (Kang, 2012). After the first copy of his book had finally sold, he was then contacted by Grantland to be an editor for their company.

Kang’s writing style is very unique. It is clear that he has had no training in journalistic style, but intrigues readers in different ways. Y. Kang writes, “…but his writing had razor-sharp insights, personal anecdotes people could identify with, as well as humorous hipster references, which is ultimately what set him apart from the thousands of wannabe writers floating around in the blogosphere” (2012). Kang’s credibility is self-explanatory. He has written pieces for many different major publications and even had a small faithful group following him when he was a mere sports blogger, and he is currently an editor for a big company.  

Word count: 584

References:

Kang, Y. Peter. (August 6, 2012) Do or Die. KoreAm, August 2012 issue. Retrieved from: http://iamkoream.com/august-issue-jay-caspian-kang-explores-korean-american-male-anger-in-         new-novel/

Novelist Jay Caspian King on Journaling. (2012). Read it Forward. Retrieved from: http://www.readitforward.com/jay-caspian-kang-on-journaling/

Research Report_Chozick_Rosenberg

Amy Chozick

            Amy Chozick is a staff reporter for the New York Times. Chozick’s claim to fame came in 2007 when she started writing extensively about Hilary Clinton’s campaign, along with the rest of her family. In 2011, she joined the New York Times and began covering corporate media. She has covered everything from terminal snooping at Bloomberg, to phone hacking at News Corporation. Her piece on Jimmy Wales appeared on the front page of The New York Times Magazine.

            Amy began her career by coming to New York with nothing, and just hoping that her newspaper clippings from the Daily Texan would attract the attention of more prominent publications. She was picked up by The Wall Street Journal where she was the foreign correspondent in Tokyo—there she was able to develop a strong beat covering everything from local car shows, to popular restaurants. She has also worked behind the scenes of Hollywood, doing in depth research on both studio executives and movie sets. Amy has had a very well rounded career.

            Today, Amy Chozick is still sticking to what she knows. She does not appear to have any other work with affiliated organizations, instead she publishes strictly for the Times. Her most recent pieces include: “Clintons Rebuild Bond with Blacks”, “Danica Patrick on Racing Cars and Building Brands”, “Signs of Change in New Mission at Bloomberg” & “Murdoch Divorce said to be almost final”. All of these pieces reflect the work she has done in the past, and we can see that there is a strong influence on politics, corporations, and even car shows (her work in Tokyo). So why is Chozick covering a man like Jimmy Wales?

            Chozick did a lot of work throughout 2012 covering the battles between Silicon Valley and Hollywood concerning “SOPA”—an act to stop online piracy. This act would give the federal government more power to infringe on copyrights, which people on Wikipedia believed to be a huge threat. Jimmy Wales protested SOPA by making Wikipedia go dark—the grassroots that emerged after Wikipedia made this opposition against the legislation caused the act to be abandoned. Chozick had been doing lots of work on Hilary Clinton at the time when she met Wales at the families Global Initiative in New York. Chozick was originally supposed to do a piece surrounding the blackout of Wikipedia, and how it influenced the end of SOPA. She was intrigued though when she saw that Wales had moved to London and was engaged to Garvey—she instead shifted the stories focus to a profile on Wales specifically.

            Chozick’s expertise and qualifications seem to carry over into her article. She has received many comments on the piece, most of which appear to be positive. Some mention that the article focuses too much on Wales’s financial situation, but overall readers seem to validate the importance of an ad free space and the importance of Wales’s contributions to the internet.

Word Count: 488

References

- Nolan, R. (2013, July 1). Behind the cover story: Amy chozick on the "benevolent dictator" of wikipedia .The New York Times. Retrieved from http://6thfloor.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/01/behind-the-cover-story-amy-chozick-on-the-benevolent-dictator-of-wikipedia/?_r=0

- Chozick, A. (n.d.). Amy chozick: Journalist. Retrieved from http://www.amychozick.com/

Research Reports_Carey_Mann

James W. Carey

This piece of work by James W. Carey, gives us a look into two forms of communication.  The first form of communication is called transmission view.  This view of communication deals with giving large amounts of news to an audience and not giving much background and digging deeper into the story.  The other form of communication is called the ritual view of communication.  This form of communication is “more like attending a mass: a situation in which nothing new is learned but in which a particular view of the world is portrayed and confirmed.” (Carey, pg. 8)  Carey is credited with inventing and coming up with the term ritual view of communication. Now we have a background of what Carey discussed, lets learn more about Carey.

James William Carey was born in Providence Rhode Island on Sept. 7, 1934. When he was little he was diagnosed with a rare heart disease that had a huge risk of being fatal. This caused his mother to not let him attend school. James was not allowed to go to school and interact with his friends.  He spent his days reading books and talking to older adults in his neighborhood. He finally got to go to school and went on to the University of Rhode Island where he majored in Marketing and Advertising.  After getting his doctorate from the University of Illinois he said “(I) concentrated on "a field yet to be invented, the economics of communications." (Martin , 2006)   After graduation he ended up teaching at the University of Illinois in the college of communication and worked his way all the way up to being the dean of the college of communication. He also worked at Columbia University and died at the age of 71 in 2006.

It is also important to look at what type of media and where this article is published.  It is an essay from a book of essays published by Carey called Communication as Culture: Essays on Media and Society.  This book was published in 1989 and discusses more than just the facts of communication.  It reveals topics and ideas that have never been discussed before this time.  “Though you may not know his name, Jim’s ideas about communication as culture, journalism as conversation, his reading of journalism history, and many other insights in his writings and speeches have inspired and influenced some of the most important ideas in the media culture today. He anticipated the rise of citizen media, inspired public journalism, and changed modern press criticism.” ("Remembering james carey," 2006) This piece of work by him may not be very famous or well know but it has played a huge part of what we know about media and communications today.

A theme that is seen a in a great amount of Carey’s writings, is that people study communication in order to better understand the world around them. This theme can be seen clearly in the reading, A Cultural Approach to Communication.  Carey argues for the ritual form of communication, which is about more than just getting information but understanding and using that information to help others out.  This piece of work was very influential in changing and shaping the landscape of communications and the media.

 Word Count 534

Reference

Carey, J. W. (1975). A cultural approach to communication. Communication 2(2), 1-22.

Martin , D. (2006, 05 26). James w. carey, teacher of journalists, dies at 71. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/26/nyregion/26carey.html?_r=0

Remembering james carey. (2006, 05 26). Retrieved from http://www.journalism.org/2006/05/26/remembering-james-carey/

Research report_Lemann_Kuelbs

Sarah Kuelbs

J201

Research Report

11/4/13

Word Count:  495

                The Word Lab by Nicholas Lemann discusses the way politicians gather and use buzz words to appeal to their audiences.  These phrases commonly used by politicians are often created in “word labs”, in which words are put together in order to create the most positive or negative reactions from voters (depending on which way a politician would like to persuade them).  These types of word labs have been conducted by Frank Luntz, a Republican pollster.  In the focus group labs, many people have definite associations with certain words associated with the government.   From these words, phrases used by politicians can be developed.

                The author of this article is Nicholas Lemann.  He was born and raised in New Orleans and then went to Harvard University.  He was the Dean of Journalism at the Columbia University.  He has written several books, one of which has won an award.  Because of his deep involvement in journalism, it is probable that he is genuinely interested in these focus group word labs, to bring light to the public on what is behind the words of politicians.   He presented this article in an unbiased way which did not lean to the left or the right or portray one party as a more effective user of word labs.

                The New Yorker is typically a magazine that is read almost equally by all age groups and slightly more women read it than men.  The income of the readers is high-middle class, with the average household income at about 110,000.  The New Yorker is also known to write critiques on politics, so it is not surprising that this type of article is in this magazine.  Therefore, the readers of this article, which 40% of are professionals, are likely college educated and interested in how politics affect their lives.  As the author said, “It becomes impossible to listen to prominent politicians speak without being aware of how much of what you’re hearing is Word Lab product.” 

                Overall, I think that the author of this article has found a creative way to research these types of focus groups.  The New Yorker sponsored one of Luntz’s focus groups, so Lemann was there see for himself how they operate.  He published the results, as well as interviewed other sources to compare the work of Lemann.  One of the people he interviewed was Robert K. Merton, the creator of focus groups.  Merton thought that Luntz’s focus groups were not run in the way focus groups were originally created.  This provides context for the readers to create a full story.  By doing this, Luntz has created a transparent article on what is behind the words politicians say, which can create a more educated population of voters. 

References

Circulation demographics. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.condenast.com/brands/new-yorker/media-kit/print

Lemann, N. (2000, October 16 & 23). The word lab: the mad science behind what the candidates say. The New Yorker, 100-109.

Nicholas lemann. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.journalism.columbia.edu/profile/50

Research Report__ Nisbet/Scheufele__ Jacobsen

In the wake of the recent government shutdown, the gridlock between liberals and conservatives is now more apparent than ever. The struggle is no longer between Democrat and Republican, but good versus evil and right versus wrong.  This article, written in 2012 before the presidential election of that year, foreshadowed the furlough by highlighting the prevalence of polarization in our country’s political views. The authors argue that both liberals and conservatives are losing the moderates of their parties, but that liberals cannot approach their campaigning in that way if they want to succeed. Even though I disagree with some components of the argument in this piece, it remains overall credible through its accuracy and objectivity.

The authors of this article, Matthew Nisbet and Dietram Scheufele, are both long-time scholars and professors in their fields of communication and public affairs. They each have an extensive resume, with multiple degrees from Ivy League universities (Scholars of Harvard, p. 1). Because of their backgrounds, the authors had the extensive knowledge necessary to execute this piece. However, as we learned from class in the case of journalist Jonah Lehrer, sometimes a fancy education and high-profile connections do not directly translate to credibility. But in this particular case, Nisbet and Scheufele seem to have done their research given the quality of the work and extensive reference list, not to mention that their article has been cited for other scholarly works as well (Gaziano, p. 124). The motivations for this piece appear to be straightforward, also. Both authors have been highly merited professors for many years in their respected fields. Their chosen career path is to educate individuals, and it follows that they want to further their knowledge base and academic reputation.

When analyzing an article, it’s also important to look at where it’s published. The Breakthrough Institute is an organization focused on modernizing environmentalism (The Breakthrough Institute p. 1). Their mission is to be a progressive think tank for research to transition society’s use of fossil fuels to clean and sustainable energy sources. While they criticize the idea of political parties and claim to be neutral and unaffiliated, strong environmentalism is traditionally associated with liberalism, and that is where I assume most of their readership comes from. That is also who I think this article targets. However, for the most part, I believe the authors hide their political affiliations well and remain objective throughout their article.  Only after research could I determine this slight bias due to the publication and their backgrounds. They successfully sustain the mission of The Breakthrough Institute as a non-partisan organization.

As I previously stated, I disagree with some points this article makes; however, that does not take away from the credibility of the article because the authors’ promote accuracy and objectivity throughout the piece. While the article itself focuses on liberalism and seems to target a mostly liberal audience, the author’s political affiliation remains unclear.  Overall, I believe the reader can be confident in the content of this article no matter the political affiliation.

Word Count: 504

References

Dietram A. Scheufele. (n.d.). Dietram A. Scheufele. Retrieved from http://scholar.harvard.edu/scheufele

Matthew C. Nisbet. (n.d.). BIO SKETCH. Retrieved from http://scholar.harvard.edu/matthewnisbet/biocv

Nisbet, M., & Scheufele, D. (n.d.). THE POLARIZATION PARADOX. The Breakthrough Institute. Retrieved from http://thebreakthrough.org/journal/issue-3/the-polarization-paradox/

Our Mission. (n.d.). The Breakthrough Institute -. Retrieved from http://thebreakthrough.org/about/mission/ 

Research Report_Maher_Rykoskey

Luke Rykoskey
Section 310
Research Report

            The article Racial Stereotypes in Children’s Television Commercials goes into much analysis on the marketing effect that advertisements have in regards to the use of ethnic groups as major roles, amount of interaction and appearance rate.  This research was conducted and presented due to children’s susceptibility of trusting what is seen on television as reality.  The article wanted to further advance some previous studies done on the subject and relate them to the national and local population percentage of ethnic groups that should be represented in advertising to children but in fact isn’t.

            The study was piloted by 4 professors of varying backgrounds and expertise.  First, Jill K. Maher, Ph.D., is currently a professor of marketing at Robert Morris University.   She has taught a variety of classes at MRU and other respectable universities for the past 18 years.  Her expertise as seen by the long list of publications she has presented is very expansive but focuses on advertising to children consumers. Next to contribute to the article was, Dr. Kenneth C. Herbst who is an Associate Professor of Marketing at Wake Forest University.  His expertise to the subject consists of branding and trust effects in advertising in addition to affect and cognition in consumer decision making which all directly relate to the consequences described in the article.  Third to donate was Nancy M. Childs, Ph.D. a food marketing professor at Saint Joseph’s University.  Her discipline focuses on the food industry but extends to the obesity challenge including marketing to children and has huge list of publications and even extends advice to the White House.  Lastly, Seth Finn, a communication professor at Robert Morris University.  Obtaining a Ph.D. from Stanford University, his expertise focuses on communication and information systems.

            The publication that this research was presented in was the Journal of Advertising Research (JAR). This speaks a lot to the reason this article was published as the goal of the journal is to advance marketing professional’s knowledge and provide the research behind many new ideas and benefits to the field of communication and media.  The audience as stated by JAR is marketing specialists of all levels and branches of the field.

            Since the aim of the article was merely to educate others, and had an approach to the subject that was undoubtedly accurate, there weren’t any direct responses.  However, quite a few other respectable publications have used the research represented in this article to further other studies.  The authors don't have any motivation as professors other than to educate which sheds more positive light on the article.  Overall this article should be regarded as a provocative subject that provides marketers with a factual baseline to further advance marketing techniques and increase effectiveness.

Works Cited

Maher, J.K., Herbst, K.C., Childs, N.M., & Finn, S. (2008). Racial stereotypes in children’s television commercials. Journal of Advertising Research, 48(1), pp. 80-93.

(2013). About JAR. Journal of Advertising Research. Retrieved from http://www.journalofadvertisingresearch.com/About/About.asp

All personal background obtained from professor profiles on the school websites