FEATURE STORIES
2024
New Courses for Spring 2024
January 14 • There's a number of Special Topics courses being offered in Spring 2024, including Environmental Media Creation, Drone Videography, Post-Production, and FAA Remote Pilot Test Prep, Polling and Public Opinion, Television Studies, Short-Form Nonfiction Production, Television Studies, Israeli Film, Social Media Strategies, and MediaLab 1 & 2. Details here.
2023
Adjunct Faculty Featured Guest at New York Comic Con
October 1 • Adjunct Faculty Aurora Dominguez will be a featured guest at New York Comic Con in October. Aurora teaches PR, Strategic Communication, and journalism courses.
About Comic Con she writes: “Being a moderator and interviewing authors live is something, that as a journalist and communicator, I enjoy doing. For New York Comic Con, I’ve been attending for many of the past years, especially for its literary component. As a guest, speaker and moderator this year, I’ll be discussing the impact of strong characters and their lessons in fantasy novels in one panel with two authors, one of Middle Grade books and the second of Young Adult novels. In the second panel that I’m moderating and being a part of the discussion, me and four authors will speak about the impact of TikTok and the term and hashtag #booktok and how novels, many YA romance novels, have found themselves promoted through the social media app.”
“To me, as a journalist, professor and educator, I feel like speaking about and promoting the importance of reading, of diverse novels and how communication and social media impact the way we get access to books, is important. Also, we live in a time when these apps spark literary discussions that we might not have had in years before.”
“As a reviewer for Booklist and contributor to the literary site Book Trib, I love New York Comic Con — I’m so honored to have been invited this year, as I’ve been invited before, but as a panelist and guest. The creative community of artists, cosplayers, readers and gaming enthusiasts that attend the con, as well as authors, publishing houses, and celebrities make this a unique event that draws in thousands to New York City from all over. It’s an honor to be there this year.”
SCMS Celebrates its 50th Anniversary with its Founder, Dr. Voncile Smith
February 21 • To our alumni and current students, join us in celebrating the visit of Dr. Voncile Smith who founded the School of Communication and Multimedia Studies 50 years ago in 1972. We have also planned a special surprise for her!
Watch SCMS celebrate its 50th anniversary in February with its founder, Dr. Voncile Smith
2022
What I learned from Careers in Communication & Media Week
October 3 • This year marks the 50th Anniversary of Communication at FAU. In an effort to make the degrees we offer even more relevant and valuable, the School of Communication and Multimedia Studies, hosted its first Careers in Communication and Media Week.
Eighteen of our incredible alumni spoke to over 120 of our current students who were interested in preparing for careers in areas such as public relations, human resources and talent acquisition, media, and sport communication.
This was a great opportunity for our students to learn from our alumni and ask them questions.
“Learning about the various ways we can make ourselves more attractive to prospective employers in the communications field, was both enlightening and informative. After hearing from the different panelists I was able to narrow my focus on potential opportunities that can give me an edge in a competitive job market,” said Rachel Stern who is a junior majoring in Communication Studies with a minor in Public Relations.
“I learned numerous tips to give me an edge in my career, have set new goals, and have learned what alumni are capable of with an FAU education,” wrote Mary Rasura who is a junior majoring in Multimedia Journalism with a minor in Computer Science.
Careers in Communication & Media 2022
September 19 • The School of Communication and Media Studies is hosting careers week from Monday, Sept. 19th through Friday, Sept. 23rd.
In a series of online events, students can hear from and interact with FAU alumni from various backgrounds- HR and talent acquisition, public relations, news, and sports media, and television.
Speaking Center Continues Growth, Celebrates First Anniversary
May 11 • The Speaking Center, created by the School of Communication and Multimedia Studies (SCMS), is an initiative dedicated to supporting students, faculty, and staff who want to hone their speaking skills for any event.
As the Center recently marked its one-year anniversary in February, we spoke to The Speaking Center's director, Dr. Linday Harroff, to provide us with a quick one-year recap, and unsurprisingly, the Center has many achievements to share. “We have seen an exponential increase in the number of students who have been coming to visit us,” said Dr. Lindsay Harroff, an assistant professor in the SCMS. A team of eight consultants works with speakers to help them with a range of concerns for academic and professional purposes.
The Center continues to lead workshops, partnering with academic units and individual professors. Consultants from The Speaking Center have helped students from the Graduate College prepare for the Three-Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition. The Center has also partnered with the Department of Biological Sciences and led a workshop teaching graduate students how to translate their research to the general audience.
Dr. Harroff also shared the news that the Center is soon to experience a technology facelift using a tech fee grant it was awarded recently. For those who are interested in learning more about the Center, Dr. Harroff suggests that you follow them on social media and stay updated on upcoming events or workshops.
Story by Palak Barmaiya
Flamingo Film Festival Calls for Submissions
March 25 • The 9th Annual Flamingo Film festival is now accepting submissions. After continuing virtually for two years, this year’s festival will be screened both in-person and online. Students can submit their films via Freeway until Monday, April 11th.
Organized by Associate Professor Shane Eason and his students, the Flamingo Film Festival is open to students internationally, and showcases short films. Anyone who is a current university/college student or a recent graduate, is eligible to submit. The submission fee is $5. Information on submission rules and terms, notifications, and award categories can be found http://filmfreeway.com/FlamingoFilmFest.
The Flamingo Film Festival is tentatively scheduled for Saturday, April 23rd, at FAU's MetroLab at the downtown FTL campus and online via Twitch.
For latest festival news and updates, follow FFF on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter.
Dr. McFerguson Kicks off Black History Month with Panel, Wins Grant
February 1 • School of Communication and Multimedia Studies faculty Dr. Marquese McFerguson recently led a panel discussion in partnership with NSU Art Museum on Community Voices: Art and the African Diaspora.
The panel featured Edouard Duval-Carrie and Morel Doucet, who study African diaspora art. The virtual discussion consisted of journal editors, university press editors, and senior award-winning scholars of color within the discipline of Communication Studies, and was intended for junior faculty members (yet to receive tenure) and graduate students who identify as people of color. The panel also explored topics surrounding research methodologies, developing strategies, writing advice for academic purposes, and others.
The panel was funded by the National Communication Association - Advancing the Discipline Grant. The same grant will be used to fund another panel discussion to be led by Dr. McFerguson.
Adding to his list of recent achievements, an essay by Dr. McFerguson has been selected to be published in the Community Literacy Journal. Titled Higher Hussle: Nipsey Hussle’s Post Hip Hop Literacies, the essay mines popular music and media coverage of Nipsey Hussle to describe his artistry and advocacy anchored by his articulation of an African American diasporic identity, his ambivalence as an independent rapper within a mainstream music industry, and his leverage of Black capital in his Crenshaw community.
More Black History Month Events Here.
Newmark Journalism School hosts information session at SCMS
January 9 • The Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at City University of New York (CUNY) recently organized an information session at SCMS.
The online information session was joined by the associate director of admissions at CUNY, Jeanette Tavarez. Also present was SCMS alum Max Maldonado (Multimedia Journalism, ’20).
Inspired by one such information session in 2018, Maldonado applied for the graduate program at CUNY after graduating in 2020. He got accepted into the program in fall 2020 and currently lives in New York City.
Maldonado recently shared his experience at CUNY in an interview with FAU’s South Florida Journal, a podcast produced by the students of SCMS (under the supervision of Dr. Kevin Petrich). He talked about his reporting experience at the Community District 9, located in the Bronx.
“They put you in a community district for your entire time that you are at CUNY,” said Maldonado, “…(you can) do really hyper local reporting and gain a lot of contacts within a certain area, … to really just ground yourself into the community.”
More information about the journalism graduate program at CUNY can be found here.
You can hear the complete interview of Max Maldonado at South Florida Journal here.
(Photo, In Conversation podcast production team (Summer 2019): Back row from left, Max Maldonado, Senior Producer; Dr. Kevin Petrich, Executive Producer; Luke Finamore; Dean Dr. Michael Horswell. Front row from left, Amber Kelley, Diana Campos, and Yasmeen Van Arkel. All students are now alumni.)
2021
Using Medium to Publish Student Work
November 2 • Journalism professors are encouraging their students to use digital publishing platforms and one such professor in the department is SCMS Senior Instructor Ilene Prusher. She is also a journalist and has been published in TIME Magazine, NBC News Think, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and others.
“I have been using Medium in the last few years as a way to give my students a platform for stories that they worked on in class,” says Prusher. She noticed that other journalism professors were using the publishing platform for their courses, pushing the students “to really bump up their game and get the article ready for publication.”
“I find that sometimes students will think, well, this is just an assignment for class, but if they know that the expectation is actually no, we're going to report it, fact check, edit it, publish it, format it and send it out into the world, it really is . . . a whole other level of responsibility . . . to the story, to your sources, to being accurate,” adds Prusher. The assignment is not only helping students to produce journalistic articles but also helping them build their portfolios.
Prusher elaborated that some of her students "have gone on to use those links, to the stories, to add to their portfolios, to get internships and jobs, you know, while they're getting towards the end of their academic career.”
The latest student publication edited and supervised by Prusher, Pandemic Portraits , includes a collection of profile feature stories done by students on people whose lives were impacted by the pandemic. From healthcare professionals to small business owners, entrepreneurs, teachers, and others, students chose people from all backgrounds for their stories.
Prusher serves as an editor to other SCMS student publications on Medium such as Global Vibe , The Sunshine Report , and Immigration Nation .
FAU Celebrates Constitution Week
September 9 • Join the Florida Atlantic University community in a series of events from September 13th to September 21st that celebrate the importance of the U.S. Constitution. This wide-ranging series of events includes:
Discussion of the Judicial Branch and Exercising Your Right to Vote
The series starts with a Zoom virtual event—a panel discussion on The Judicial Branch and Exercising Your Right to Vote with Judges Cymonie Rowe and Daliah Weiss (15th Judicial Circuit of Florida), and Judge Melanie G. May (4th District Court of Appeal of Florida) on Monday, Sept. 13th.
The Right to Vote and The Constitution
The Robert J. Bailyn Symposium on The First Amendment presents a lecture by Astead Herndon, National Political Reporter for The New York Times on The Right to Vote and The Constitution. Astead is an incredibly accomplished and dynamic young journalist. You've probably read his work in The Times or seen him as a guest on CNN. OLLI Auditorium, Tuesday Sept. 14th from 2-3pm.
The Rise of the Constitution
Declare and decorate your own Constitution while exploring the rise of the U.S. Constitution. The event on Tuesday, Sept. 14th, 1:30 - 2 PM, is free and open to all students.
Movie Night: National Treasure
Enjoy a free movie night watching the film National Treasure at the Oasis Lounge, on the Davie Campus Student Union, Friday, Sept.19th, 4 - 6:30 PM. For more information, email ncarte10@thaipastapdx.com.
Individual Freedoms vs Collective Responsibility: A Debate Over America’s Future
On Tuesday, Sept. 21tst from 12 pm to 1 PM at the Social Science Building Rotunda on the Boa Campus, join this event, hosted by Breezeway Dialogues: Diverse Viewpoints Through Civil Discourse on Individual Freedoms vs Collective Responsibility: A Debate Over America’s Future. Listen to panelists Dr. Allan Barsky, Professor of Social Science, and Dr. Nicole Morse, Assistant Professor in the School of Communication and Multimedia Studies, as they discuss topics such as gun control, election laws, and COVID vaccines. The event is free and open to FAU students, faculty, and staff.
Constitution Week events at FAU are sponsored by the Jack Miller Forum. Other departments supporting the events include the Diversity Platform, Division of Student Affairs and Enrollment Management, FAU Deptartment of Political Science, School of Communication and Multimedia Studies, and Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.
Due to the surge in COVID-19 cases, all participants, regardless of vaccination status, are expected to wear masks while indoors in any FAU facilities. Anyone exhibiting flu-like symptoms will be asked to leave the venue to support the safety and protection of the university community.
Digital Culture: A new IFP course teaches everything digital, from AI to digital art
April 13 • Starting Fall 2021, the School of Communication and Multimedia Studies will be offering a new IFP course titled DIG 2202- Digital Culture.
The course surveys digital culture and the technologies that make it possible. Students will learn about a wide array of elements of digital culture, including the politics of AI, digital consumption, surveillance tech, hacker and gamer culture, and the possibilities of digital art.
Digital Culture will be taught by Dr. Andrea Miller of the SCMS, who has a background in feminist, digital media, and science and technology studies.
Dr. Miller says that the class will show students ways to think deeply about the technologies in their everyday lives, from smartphones to social media to streaming and gaming platforms.
“I think students in my classes are often surprised to learn how messy technological systems really are and that the ideas behind them are often not as new as people imagine,” they say.
They are interested in how technologies reproduce or intensify different forms of social inequality, particularly for technologies used in warfare and policing.
The three-credit class is scheduled every Monday and Wednesday from 4 pm to 5:20 pm. Students will receive three of the six credit hours for the Foundations of Society & Human Behavior requirement.