School of Communications seniors receive awards for their writing

Seniors Danielle Renda and Jacklyn Izzo have won the university’s “Writing Across the Curriculum” award for exemplary writing in the field of communications. Journalism major Danielle Renda took first prize for her research paper on text messaging and the sizable role it plays in romantic relationships among American teens and young adults. Jacklyn Izzo won honorable mention for her research project on the use of social media during emergencies and crisis situations, for which she conducted original reporting using Hurricane Sandy as her case study.

Both projects were written as part of Prof. Joshua Braun’s introductory graduate course, ICM 501 Theories of Interactive Media. The students are part of the ICM five-year program, which allows undergraduates to start work on a masters degree in Interactive Media while still in their senior year of college, giving them the opportunity to earn the masters within a year of graduation. Renda’s and Izzo’s work will be published on Quinnipiac University’s Writing Across the Curriculum website, and the first place winner will be awarded a cash prize.

Notes on the Recent Governing Algorithms Conference

by Josh Braun
Assistant Professor of Film, Video, and Interactive Media

The Internet, and much of our media landscape today, is full of suggestions: search results constructed from our keywords, movies recommended based on our personal tastes, books purchased by customers like us, news stories we might like to read, Facebook users who may be our friends, Twitter users we might wish to follow, ads for products based on our search histories and online activity, trending discussions, and restaurants in our area. These computed recommendations have become part of the wallpaper of our media culture. The software that produces them is invariably a chunk of code called an “algorithm.”

Last week, I had the pleasure of attending “Governing Algorithms,” a two day conference on algorithms in Manhattan. The event, which was sponsored by Intel and convened by researchers in NYU’s Department of Media, Culture, and Communication, was a meeting of scholars studying algorithms from different communication and social science perspectives.

One thing that became apparent at the meeting was that the definition of the term “algorithm” isn’t always clear cut. While people popularly associate the term algorithm with computer code, the idea of algorithms predates computers by at least twelve hundred years. In its most basic form, an algorithm is simply a set of logical instructions intended to solve a problem that will produce a different answer depending on the conditions it’s given. “If it’s raining, take your umbrella; otherwise, leave it at home,” is an example of a simple algorithm. It’s a set of instructions that produces a different result depending on whether or not it’s raining.

When these sorts of instructions are formalized in computer code, they can do things like show us recommendations. For example, Facebook’s friend suggestions are, in all likelihood, produced by a more nuanced version of some basic algorithm along the lines of “if two people on the site are unconnected, but share five or more friends, suggest to both users that they may wish to friend one another.”

These sorts of “if this, then that” statements are pervasive. Computer algorithms go into processes and areas as diverse as high-frequency stock market trading (“If X stock has trended downward by Y% over the last minute, sell Z shares”), computerized surveillance (“If something that looks like a person on the surveillance camera is moving through airport security in the wrong direction, sound an alert”), the safety systems on new cars (“If the driver presses the gas pedal and the brake pedal simultaneously, respond only to the brake”), and generating your credit score (“If person has missed X payments in Y months and owes greater than Z, penalize them.”).

In the world of media specifically, algorithms are big business. Many simple algorithms determine the basic behaviors of things like webpages and mobile apps (e.g., “If the user is logged in, display her email; otherwise don’t.”). But conference attendees were generally interested in more involved applications of algorithms. For example, like the mass media that went before, many of our online media are advertising-supported. As developer Claudia Perlich discussed at the conference, in the 50 milliseconds it takes your browser to load a webpage, there’s an instantaneous and fully automated auction going on between advertisers whose algorithms have determined that, based on what they know of your recent searches or browsing history, you might be receptive to a client’s ad. Billions of these auctions occur daily, helping to support the media we consume and interact with, as well as to determine which products and services become visible to us.

Likewise, algorithms play key roles in many types of online media. Social networks are more likely to achieve or maintain success if they can identify and connect you with other users you know or find interesting. Online film and television distributors like Netflix find that using algorithms to help users locate movies they like within the company’s existing catalog is often a cheaper way of raising customer satisfaction than acquiring new titles. News sites whose automated suggestions get itinerant visitors to read an extra story can generate more ad revenue. And retailers who can successfully suggest new books to avid readers will boost their bottom line.

It’s understandable, then, that we see algorithms everywhere, and why companies, software developers, and computer scientists have invested so heavily in learning how to build successful ones. As algorithms have become ubiquitous, they’ve also garnered the attention of communication researchers and social scientists, but there’s been relatively little organized conversation between these folks. A major purpose of the “Governing Algorithms” conference was to convene this community of scholars for a series of productive conversations about how best to grapple with the role that algorithms play in commerce, in politics, and in our everyday lives. A few of the interesting themes and questions raised by speakers and panelists included the following.

Scott Pelley receives Fred Friendly First Amendment Award

Lee Kamlet
Dean of the School of Communications

Today, the School of Communications is proud to present the Fred Friendly First Amendment Award to Scott Pelly, the anchor and managing editor of The CBS Evening News, and a correspondent for 60 Minutes.

Friendly was a CBS News pioneer, helping to establish it as a vital force in broadcast journalism.  He was a producer for Edward R. Murrow.  As The New York Times wrote in an obituary on Friendly, the two men “virtually invented the news documentary on television, pioneering such techniques as the use of original film clips, live, unrehearsed interviews, and the use of field producers who supervised reporting on location.”

As a producer, and later as president of CBS News, Fred Friendly set the standard by which broadcast journalists are judged even today.

This is the twentieth anniversary of the Fred Friendly First Amendment Award, and it is fitting that we present it to Scott Pelley.

One of the favorite devices that many television news producers use to tell a story is something called a match frame.  Even those of you who don’t work in television have seen it.  The idea is to take a single frame of video that captures a person or place from the past, and match that to a person or place as they appear today.  The idea is to compare how much has changed, and how much is the same.

So I hope you will indulge me in a bit of what I’ll call “linguistic match framing.”  I recently read articles about Fred Friendly and his career at CBS News, which began more than 50 years ago.   Look at some of the phrases I found:

• A towering figure
• A purposeful air about him
• Restless intellect, curiosity, and desire to stimulate debate
• A force of personality
• A man of enormous energy and commitment.
• Forceful defender of the first amendment

All of those things said about Fred Friendly unquestionably match what can be said about Scott Pelley.

When I mentioned to a colleague that I was going to recommend Scott for this award, my colleague said,  “He’s a great choice.  The body of his work exceeds that of anyone who has ever been in broadcast journalism.”

Indeed, it could easily take me 60 minutes to list his accomplishments.  He began his journalism career at the age of 15 as a copyboy at the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal newspaper.   His broadcasting career began at KSEL-TV in Lubbock, Texas in 1975, followed by stints at KXAS-TV in Fort Worth and WFAA-TV in Dallas.   Scott joined CBS News as a reporter based in New York in 1989, before returning to Dallas as the CBS News correspondent there.  He became the network’s chief White House correspondent in 1997.

Two years later, he joined 60 Minutes II and became a 60 Minutes correspondent in 2004.  As CBS News has pointed out, since joining 60 Minutes, half of the awards won by the broadcast have been for stories reported by Scott Pelley, including an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Silver Baton, three George Foster Peabody awards, 20 national Emmy awards, five Edward R. Murrow awards, a George Polk and a Loeb award, as well as honors from the Society of Professional Journalists, Investigative Reporters and Editors and the Writers Guild of America. Twenty-one of those awards have been earned for his work over the past five years on 60 Minutes.

Since taking the anchor and managing editor chair of The CBS Evening News in May, 2011, he has taken the broadcast back to its roots.  The audience has responded, and the numbers continue to grow.  Clearly he is doing something right.

Be it war, politics, terrorism, the economy, the Gulf oil spill, presidential politics;  in the 24 years since Scott joined CBS News, he has filed so many stories for the network, that it might prove to be easier to name the stories he hasn’t covered.

It is altogether fitting that as the Quinnipiac School of Communications presents the 20^th annual Fred Friendly Award, we present it to an individual who has carried on the tradition of excellence, which Fred Friendly helped establish at CBS News more than a half-century ago.

SoC Faculty / Staff Honored with Regional Emmy Nominations

Professor Becky Abbott and former School of Communications Professional-in-Residence Tim Malloy have been nominated for a 2013 Boston/New England Regional Emmy Award for their documentary, “Aeromedical.”   The two co-directed the film, which tells the story of the life-and-death struggle that takes place every week in the skies above Europe on Aeromedical evacuation missions, and shows the history of these life-saving flights.  The documentary was filmed on location in Afghanistan, Landstuhl, Germany, and the U.S.   The film, which is nominated in the Informational/Instructional category, can be seen in its entirety here.

“Justice is a Black Woman: The Life & Work of Constance Baker Motley” has been nominated in the Historical/Cultural Program/Special category.  Michael Calia, the director of the Ed McMahon Mass Communications Center, was the producer/director.

“Bobcats Unleashed,” has been nominated in the Sports One-Time Special category.  Pete Sumby, the associate director of the McMahon Center, was the producer/director.  Michael Schleif, the media production specialist in the McMahon Center, was in charge of graphics and animation.

The winners will be announced at a dinner in Boston on June 1.

Quad News and Zach Russo Get National Mark of Excellence Awards

By Karin Schwanbeck

Quad News, the independent, student-run online publication, was awarded first place in the national Mark of Excellence awards competition by The Society of Professional Journalists.  The announcement was made today.

Quad News was designated the national winner in the online news reporting (medium) category for its submission, “Hurricane Sandy Coverage.”

Quad News won first place in the 2012 Mark of Excellence awards competition at the Region 1 conference April 13, 2013.  Several School of Communications students are on the Quad News staff including Editor-in-Chief Max Baldwin and Interactive Media Managing Editor Noah Golden.  The Senior Managing Editor is Danielle Susi, a political science/creative writing double major.

Zachary Russo, a broadcast journalism major, was designated a national finalist in the television news photography category for his submission “Hurricane Sandy Damage.”   He was a first place winner in the Region 1 competition as well.

National MOE award judges select a national winner and up to two finalists in each category based on the first place winners from each of the 12 regions nationwide.

Russo and Quad News will be acknowledged at the Excellence in Journalism 2013 Conference, Aug. 24-26, in Anaheim, Calif.

Dean Catrino gives career development presentation at cooperative education conference

Joseph M. Catrino, Assistant Dean of Career Development in the School of Communications presented “Social Media and Career Development: Secrets to Success” on April 15th at the Cooperative Education and Internship Association (CEIA) Annual Conference in Orlando, Florida.

The presentation instructed career development/advising professionals and internship coordinators on how to help students, colleagues and friends optimize social media in their searches for jobs and internships, as well as how to build their personal brands and professional marketing materials. The presentation also examined how professionals can leverage analytics and trends across different social media platforms.

SoC alumnus named chair of Hartford young professionals organization

Ray Hernandez (‘04) has been named the chair of the Hartford Young Professionals and Entrepreneurs (HYPE) organization. Hernandez, who is a member of the School of Communications Advisory Board, is the manager for external communications at Pratt & Whitney.

According to its website, “HYPE’s mission is to help young professionals become better engaged in community life, expand professional and social opportunities and become ambassadors for the Hartford Region.”

“In the process, we endeavor to position the Hartford Region as an attractive area for diverse young professionals and entrepreneurs to live, work and play.”

See Ray and hear more about HYPE here.