Eleven things I learned, observed or otherwise realized while at AEJMC this week

[Denver]  I've spent this week attending the annual conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC).  As its name suggests, this is a gathering of those who are professors or graduate students in university journalism and mass communication programs.  Members are primarily from North America but there is some international participation as well.

The conference is packed with presentations, panel discussions, plenaries and poster sessions.  I attended many of them and don't plan on recapping any of those here.  Instead, I offer some thoughts about stuff I noticed -- or was reminded of -- during the week.

1. This conference program is the nerdy academic newbie version of shiny jingling keys. There were too many things I wanted to attend, and several of them made me want to rethink my core research focus based on how cool, interesting or otherwise impressive the were.  Focus.  I need to hold my focus.
2. Graduate students, for the most part, have no money.  I'm lucky, as a "returning" student that I am not cash-strapped like most of my peers.  I admire their determination and ability to get through their degree programs within their limited means.  I am also pretty damn impressed with my friends' abilities to locate cheap beer specials, free food and other incredible deals.  But I'd rather not have to split up a dinner check with 15 grad students again anytime soon.  Too much analysis.
3. Andrew Breitbart seemed to be the go-to person whenever anyone was looking for an example of someone who had no ethical foundation, no journalistic credentials, or was simply an example of the dark side of citizen journalism.  So he's got that going for him.
4. It's surprising, but I gather not all that uncommon, for some of the presentations, especially by graduate students, to be very sparsely attended.  Often those in the audience are co-authors or others from presenters' institutions.  That's not a terrible thing, but it did suck that in one presentation I went to, the discussant no-showed with no explanation.  One real value in presenting at a conference is feedback, and that's the primary role of discussants.  The guy who blew off my friends is a jerk.  Just sayin'.
5. Every time I watched the presentation of statistical information, I felt like I didnt know shit about statistics.  I get the general points, but the machinations behind the numbers scare the crap out of me.
6. I'm a scholarly fanboi.  And that's really nerdy.  But I was really excited to meet Patrick Plaisance and listen to Cliff Christians while at a media ethics panel discussion.  I've read their work and think very highly of them.  I tried not to go all Chris Farley.
7. Among academic disciplines, the study of journalism and mass communication is a very young science.  And a lot of our brethren in the hard sciences and the established social sciences don't always take us very seriously.  We continue to work on changing that.  Reaching outside our own discipline is a necessary path for greater levels of acceptance and respect.
8. Along those lines, I was really surprised that AEJMC is just now getting around to forming a Political Communication interest group.  Meanwhile, there are whole formal divisions for newspaper, magazine, PR, advertising, and radio/TV.  It seems AEJMC is far more anchored to professional areas than theoretical and content-categorical ones.  We may want to rethink that.
9. For people who use high tech equipment all the time, we sure seem to have trouble getting it to work for presentations.  You'd think standard stuff like projectors would be a lot more Mac friendly too.  Wise up, Epson and you other projector manufacturers!
10. I really empathize with people who have serious presentation anxiety issues.  My years making client presentations, as well as my experience in improvisational theater, have helped me more than I give them credit for.
11. Based on a lot of the presentations I saw, one would think that the only two social networks even out there are Facebook and Twitter. 

All in all, I am really glad I came to AEJMC.  But I am really happy that I am only a two-hour flight away from getting home.

Comments

[Jonathan Groves]

Nice summary of the proceedings. I can't believe a discussant wouldn't show; that's unconscionable (and highly unusual).

Don't be afraid of statistics. Give it time, and it'll come. The best overview is "Using Multivariate Statistics" by Barbara Tabachnick and Linda Fidell (http://www.amazon.com/Using-Multivariate-Statistics-Barbara-Tabachnick/dp/0205459382/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_1) -- it helped me tremendously.

Welcome to the world of academia. As a recent immigrant from professional journalism, I find it an interesting, rewarding world.

[Dave Wilcox]

Thanks for the suggestion. I'm taking a quant methods class this coming semester and I may add the book to my library.