My Choice – Amber Theinert
I hate my choice options. The open-endedness of such a blog makes it difficult to decide what to do. I could write about my research, but sometimes I bore of that topic (since I am so immersed in it on a relatively frequent basis). So, I think I will contribute to this blog by writing a mini survival guide to getting a Masters degree while working full-time and being a full-time mom. As much research as I’ve done in sports public relations, I definitely know much more about this topic then anything else.
1. Find a job that will work with you and understand your school commitments.
This is actually quite difficult, as I soon found out. First, I moved backed to Oklahoma as there were no schools within close proximity to where I lived in Texas that offered my degree. Then the job I moved for that promised complete understanding no longer understood after a year. Luckily, I finally fell into a job that seems to get it (although there are still issues at times).
2. Have a strong support system in place.
Having family that gets it and an awesome spouse that is willing to spend a lot of lonely nights with two children under the age of three seems like it would be impossible to find. However, a simple conversation explaining all the crazy time commitments can go a long way to save a marriage. Also, knowing that if your spouse has to work late that you have other family willing to take care of the kiddos while you are in school is of the utmost importance.
3. Although you have no time, be ready to make time.
This is the hardest thing for me to do. I still find myself doing a lot of things last minute (like this blog), but time is really difficult to make and often times I need the deadline to kick things into high gear. Luckily, I’ve always worked my best under pressure. I’ve learned quite a bit about time management by getting my Masters degree that I never learned while getting my Bachelors degree.
4. Getting a Bachelors degree is very different than a Masters degree.
This is good knowledge for every student taking this step. The whole undergraduate process is geared toward practical knowledge, training you to get a job upon graduation. However, graduate school requires more thinking, asks that you learn more about the why rather than the how of it all. So, all studying skills that were effective for a BA are almost completely ineffective for an MA.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Life After the M.A.
Life After the M.A. by Josh Rogers
Since I still have about a year left to go in this program it doesn't seem like there ever will be a life after graduation.
But, this year has gone by pretty quickly. What will be nice is that after this semester I will feel that I'm more in control of my course of study since I'll have most of my required courses behind me- Statistics, Theory, Research Methods, and Qualitative Research-I'll miss you.
One of the advantages of working on a thesis is reading the literature that is related to the specific topic one is studying. I'm not certain that writing a thesis about advergames will directly contribute to finding a job in a year. I am certain that since I'll have a pretty thorough understanding of advertising, social Internet use, and a pretty good idea of why people want to spend their free time puttering around playing a sponsored game like this one. This game will take awhile but you get to play pinball and jump a car.
After I graduate I've given some thought about working for the Chickasaw Nation. I attended a retention event hosted by the Chickasaws on campus last night. In addition to getting a small bag full of exam week swag (post-it notes, popcorn, hot cocoa, a scantron sheet) they also had a recruiter on hand as well. She explained that the Chickasaws are now becoming more sophisticated in tracking Chickasaw students who are on scholarship and checking to see if there are any possible job positions for newly graduated Chickasaws. The Rogers family has decided to stick around OK for a while so this might be a possibility. I used to belong to Rotary and would also hang around and volunteer at film festivals every so often so getting some free time back in my life would be great.
I am still thinking about trying to help out my sister-in-law's skateboard shop. I think that there website does not represent their brick and mortar operation or open up their business to new customers outside of the San Diego area. This website is pretty sparse and is not very interactive. There was an attempt a few months ago to start a mailing list but that sort of fell through. No Facebook, no Myspace, no updated features or social aspects to the website. The news is old and there is no sense of stickiness to the site that would make kids interested in skateboarding want to visit or spend time with the site. I am taking the interactive media course that is offered this summer so maybe I'll find out if such an undertaking would even be possible for me to start.
I am not sure that I would want to continue on to a PhD. I work with a few Doctoral candidates and those guys seem pretty stressed out all the time. Maybe if I take another ten years off of school I'll decide to go back to school again.
Since I still have about a year left to go in this program it doesn't seem like there ever will be a life after graduation.
But, this year has gone by pretty quickly. What will be nice is that after this semester I will feel that I'm more in control of my course of study since I'll have most of my required courses behind me- Statistics, Theory, Research Methods, and Qualitative Research-I'll miss you.
One of the advantages of working on a thesis is reading the literature that is related to the specific topic one is studying. I'm not certain that writing a thesis about advergames will directly contribute to finding a job in a year. I am certain that since I'll have a pretty thorough understanding of advertising, social Internet use, and a pretty good idea of why people want to spend their free time puttering around playing a sponsored game like this one. This game will take awhile but you get to play pinball and jump a car.
After I graduate I've given some thought about working for the Chickasaw Nation. I attended a retention event hosted by the Chickasaws on campus last night. In addition to getting a small bag full of exam week swag (post-it notes, popcorn, hot cocoa, a scantron sheet) they also had a recruiter on hand as well. She explained that the Chickasaws are now becoming more sophisticated in tracking Chickasaw students who are on scholarship and checking to see if there are any possible job positions for newly graduated Chickasaws. The Rogers family has decided to stick around OK for a while so this might be a possibility. I used to belong to Rotary and would also hang around and volunteer at film festivals every so often so getting some free time back in my life would be great.
I am still thinking about trying to help out my sister-in-law's skateboard shop. I think that there website does not represent their brick and mortar operation or open up their business to new customers outside of the San Diego area. This website is pretty sparse and is not very interactive. There was an attempt a few months ago to start a mailing list but that sort of fell through. No Facebook, no Myspace, no updated features or social aspects to the website. The news is old and there is no sense of stickiness to the site that would make kids interested in skateboarding want to visit or spend time with the site. I am taking the interactive media course that is offered this summer so maybe I'll find out if such an undertaking would even be possible for me to start.
I am not sure that I would want to continue on to a PhD. I work with a few Doctoral candidates and those guys seem pretty stressed out all the time. Maybe if I take another ten years off of school I'll decide to go back to school again.
Life After My Project
Life After My Project – Amber Theinert
Is there life after working on a project and graduating with a Masters degree from OU? But of course! If not, then there would be absolutely no reason to be here.
While we as a class will take very different paths after our graduation, some off to get the coveted Doctoral and some (including myself) hope that this final project will land us the job of our dreams, or at least on that path to said job.
I find myself in very different circumstances then most graduate students. I’m a working professional, going to school part-time while holding down a full-time job as the Event Manager at the Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism in downtown Oklahoma City. I’ve got two beautiful children (one born during the summer between my 1st and 2nd year of grad school) that always want my nose out of the books and paying more attention to them. I’ve come back to school so I can not only better my own life, but insure that my family is always taken care of.
So what is my life after school? I imagine it won’t be much different then now, other than a lot less stress. I will continue working full-time, although I hope to change my career field and work in sports administration (more specifically, sports public relations). I find this field so intriguing, and an area that I feel I can really make an impact in as a woman. I’d like to work in the collegiate athletic atmosphere, but with the Sonics franchise moving to Oklahoma City I feel like a really wonderful opportunity is presenting itself to me. I just have to keep my ears open for the job postings.
My ultimate goal from the beginning was two-fold; (1) get a Masters degree that will get me a great job I love; and (2) get said degree before my own children start school. After 2 years in the program and looking forward to the last year, I truly believe now that the goal is achievable.
Will I contribute to the overall body of knowledge? I guess. Will my project make radical changes in the world of sports public relations? Probably not. Will I ensure that I have a solid project that will be impressive to any employer? Absolutely. And as long as that great job can pay me enough to afford these crazy gas prices, I will be very happy!
Is there life after working on a project and graduating with a Masters degree from OU? But of course! If not, then there would be absolutely no reason to be here.
While we as a class will take very different paths after our graduation, some off to get the coveted Doctoral and some (including myself) hope that this final project will land us the job of our dreams, or at least on that path to said job.
I find myself in very different circumstances then most graduate students. I’m a working professional, going to school part-time while holding down a full-time job as the Event Manager at the Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism in downtown Oklahoma City. I’ve got two beautiful children (one born during the summer between my 1st and 2nd year of grad school) that always want my nose out of the books and paying more attention to them. I’ve come back to school so I can not only better my own life, but insure that my family is always taken care of.
So what is my life after school? I imagine it won’t be much different then now, other than a lot less stress. I will continue working full-time, although I hope to change my career field and work in sports administration (more specifically, sports public relations). I find this field so intriguing, and an area that I feel I can really make an impact in as a woman. I’d like to work in the collegiate athletic atmosphere, but with the Sonics franchise moving to Oklahoma City I feel like a really wonderful opportunity is presenting itself to me. I just have to keep my ears open for the job postings.
My ultimate goal from the beginning was two-fold; (1) get a Masters degree that will get me a great job I love; and (2) get said degree before my own children start school. After 2 years in the program and looking forward to the last year, I truly believe now that the goal is achievable.
Will I contribute to the overall body of knowledge? I guess. Will my project make radical changes in the world of sports public relations? Probably not. Will I ensure that I have a solid project that will be impressive to any employer? Absolutely. And as long as that great job can pay me enough to afford these crazy gas prices, I will be very happy!
Final Post, My Choice
Taylor Newcomb
I figure we need the project because we all want a nice paying job. A job in which we neither do this or that. Those jobs don't seem fun. This degree would then allow use to get that nice paying job because of the capitalists we all are. Yea, capitalism! The project allows us to show our worth and our need to those who can give us those good jobs. I don't know about you, but I'd rather get a job based on my project and skills rather than because some government policy told them to give me a job. The project just gives us that little bit extra in which to move forward with our lives and our careers, no matter how much of a pain in the arse it is.
As for the need for classes, we need to learn how to do stuff before we do it. In going to my preferred field, it would be possible to get some PR job based on my journalism experience, but I would prefer to know what I am doing before I start doing it. I am sure all of y'all feel the same way. The classes give us the knowledge from which to build on (that link is my particular knowledge I am taking, but to each their own). I am not a fan of just starting something new without knowing what I am doing, which is why I came back to college so many times to begin with (3rd degree is the charm).
Finally, we need this higher degree because that is the way the world is going. We can't get good jobs anymore on a B.A. or B.S. degree anymore. I've tried. I ended up at a shoddy newspaper with a horrible boss who didn't know how to manage people. Every job I look at that would be a good career has that little disclaimer which states that a Master's degree is either preferred or very much liked. It's not much fun, but c'est la vie. It seems to be only inevitable that Ph.D's become the required or preferred degree. When that happens, I will not being going back to college. Somebody needs to flip those burgers.
There is my topic of choice, my final post. I am not sure if I actually added to anyone's knowledge but it may be something that we needed to know. It's not fun having to stay at school, but I want a good job and I am sure y'all do to, so here we are making assignment posts on a blog so that we can get that great grade that will help us just a little more in getting that job.
Useful Research ~ by Jaimie T.
As you all know, my thesis examines the gatekeeping practices of ethnic minorities in television newsrooms. My paper hopes to influence television newsroom practices via newsroom managers and producers. I think this paper will be very important especially considering all that each of the minority journalism groups (NABJ, NAHJ, AAJA, NAJA)and do to promote equal treatment and presentation in the journalism field.
Minority groups have been treated unfairly for so long in many different aspects of media... from the big screen, to the TV screen, stereotypes have prevailed in the images of minorities on the news.
If any of you get a chance, read Color of Ratings by Av Westin. The article can be found through the Communication and Mass Media Complete database within the library's website. This article chronicles the disparities minorities face at the hands of newsroom managers. It tells of reporters with good, solid stories with minority characters, asked to go back into the field and find a white family to focus their stories on. It's really sad, but true in this field.
Furthermore, women should have a more active role and voice in news stories. Women tend to look like authoritative sources by their positions in newscasts, but are actually silenced through news stories.
My paper and research hopes to influence people who make a difference in how minorities are portrayed in media and to inspire those who can't to speak up. Please read these two letters from two minority journalist organizations: NABJ to Newsroom Leaders: You Must Do Better and Make diversity a curriculum core. This article can also be found through the Communication and Mass Media Complete database.
Minority groups have been treated unfairly for so long in many different aspects of media... from the big screen, to the TV screen, stereotypes have prevailed in the images of minorities on the news.
If any of you get a chance, read Color of Ratings by Av Westin. The article can be found through the Communication and Mass Media Complete database within the library's website. This article chronicles the disparities minorities face at the hands of newsroom managers. It tells of reporters with good, solid stories with minority characters, asked to go back into the field and find a white family to focus their stories on. It's really sad, but true in this field.
Furthermore, women should have a more active role and voice in news stories. Women tend to look like authoritative sources by their positions in newscasts, but are actually silenced through news stories.
My paper and research hopes to influence people who make a difference in how minorities are portrayed in media and to inspire those who can't to speak up. Please read these two letters from two minority journalist organizations: NABJ to Newsroom Leaders: You Must Do Better and Make diversity a curriculum core. This article can also be found through the Communication and Mass Media Complete database.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Life after a Thesis/Project
Life after Completing a Thesis/Project
Leslie Cermak
When I first read this month’s post subject, I immediately thought the answer to whether there was life after the completion of a thesis was “of course!” While my answer may not have changed much upon further reflection, I think I’ll be more conflicted when my time as a graduate student comes to an end.
I have spent several semesters fretting over finding the right topic, the right research, the right committee, etc. I have also taken classes that I never thought I would take when I first became a graduate student (Quantitative Methods comes to mind). As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’m the first person in my mother’s and father’s families to consider a master’s degree, so this entire process was new to me. I never realized how much of graduate school was centered on the thesis.
Although this has been good, it’s also been a little frustrating in that much of what I have learned will not apply to a job of copy editing. Some classes have been solely to prepare for my thesis. I sometimes wonder if after spending so much time on a project of such importance if I will ask “Now what?” when it is all over. In these times, I have to remember the main reasons I returned to school: 1: to get a job outside of teaching English, and 2: to pursue a doctoral degree at OU one day.
That being said, if I do decide to return for my doctorate, the topic I have chosen (about studying undergraduate’s perceptions of journalism) will be relevant. If I can revise my thesis appropriately, I would like to submit either some of my findings or the study itself to journals such as Journalism & Mass Communication Educator or Journal of Mass Media Ethics. I am also considering submitting works to conferences for AEJMC or SPJ.
Furthermore, after I intern as a copy editor this summer at The Oklahoman, I hope to find a job in the print media. As many of these companies often hire college graduates, I think the research from my study can help explain attitudes of those transitioning from students to employees. I’d like to not necessarily influence (as the blog topic says) but contribute to these two realms -- the professional and scholarly. In short, it will be difficult considering my life after the thesis if I must leave behind the novice researcher that I’ve become. Preparing papers for submissions to conferences and journals may be a good way for me to make this transition.
Finally, (though I’m not adding this for a clichéd, sentimental ending), the audience I most want to influence is my family. I have spent so many hours working on my education these past two years that I have seen less and less of my mother, sister, and husband. We are very close, and I want them to know that time I spent away from them was worthwhile. I want to be able to show them what I have accomplished in the last two years and maybe encourage them to push their own limits and pursue things they wouldn’t ordinarily try.
Leslie Cermak
When I first read this month’s post subject, I immediately thought the answer to whether there was life after the completion of a thesis was “of course!” While my answer may not have changed much upon further reflection, I think I’ll be more conflicted when my time as a graduate student comes to an end.
I have spent several semesters fretting over finding the right topic, the right research, the right committee, etc. I have also taken classes that I never thought I would take when I first became a graduate student (Quantitative Methods comes to mind). As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’m the first person in my mother’s and father’s families to consider a master’s degree, so this entire process was new to me. I never realized how much of graduate school was centered on the thesis.
Although this has been good, it’s also been a little frustrating in that much of what I have learned will not apply to a job of copy editing. Some classes have been solely to prepare for my thesis. I sometimes wonder if after spending so much time on a project of such importance if I will ask “Now what?” when it is all over. In these times, I have to remember the main reasons I returned to school: 1: to get a job outside of teaching English, and 2: to pursue a doctoral degree at OU one day.
That being said, if I do decide to return for my doctorate, the topic I have chosen (about studying undergraduate’s perceptions of journalism) will be relevant. If I can revise my thesis appropriately, I would like to submit either some of my findings or the study itself to journals such as Journalism & Mass Communication Educator or Journal of Mass Media Ethics. I am also considering submitting works to conferences for AEJMC or SPJ.
Furthermore, after I intern as a copy editor this summer at The Oklahoman, I hope to find a job in the print media. As many of these companies often hire college graduates, I think the research from my study can help explain attitudes of those transitioning from students to employees. I’d like to not necessarily influence (as the blog topic says) but contribute to these two realms -- the professional and scholarly. In short, it will be difficult considering my life after the thesis if I must leave behind the novice researcher that I’ve become. Preparing papers for submissions to conferences and journals may be a good way for me to make this transition.
Finally, (though I’m not adding this for a clichéd, sentimental ending), the audience I most want to influence is my family. I have spent so many hours working on my education these past two years that I have seen less and less of my mother, sister, and husband. We are very close, and I want them to know that time I spent away from them was worthwhile. I want to be able to show them what I have accomplished in the last two years and maybe encourage them to push their own limits and pursue things they wouldn’t ordinarily try.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Reading books can be fun
Reading books can be fun--by deb wallevand
This blog title reminds me of something from my Saturday morning cartoon days with an owl saying "Hey kids books are fun!" That statement and well this whole blog will just confirm how much of a nerd I am.
I would not say that reading is my most favorite thing to do in school, much less in my free time. I have always liked school though, but I prefer television and other visual forms of entertainment. I tend to laugh when people talk about reading for fun (sorry mom!). It just seemed like an oxymoron. However, these last two weeks I found a couple of centerpieces for my research. And yes, reading these two books was fun.
Media, Sports & Society, edited by Lawrence Wenner, provides a foundation for research on the communication of sports. Contributors of this book examined the theoretical, cultural and historical issues, as well as the production of media sports programming, its content and its audience. Individual chapters focus on the Super Bowl, sports violence and sex typing. I really enjoyed reading about how the symbiotic relationship between sports and the mass media in American society. One author wrote, "Media attention fans the flames of interest in sport and increased interest in sport warrants further media attention." This is the chicken or the egg argument that I'm sure I will face in my professional career.
Women, Media and Sport: Challenging Gender Values, edited by Pamela Creedon, adds to the breadth of my research both from a cultural and media perspective. I found this volume of work
incredibly interesting because I'm interested in the history of women's sports and particularly in gender issues as related to varying media will find this volume informative. My favorite chapter from this book provided a complete historical account of women in American sports journalism. I loved reading about women sportswriters during WWII and about the struggles and sexism these pioneers faced in locker rooms. I learned about the impressive careers of Mary Bostwick, Nellie Bly, Margaret Goss, Betty Cuniberti, and Melissa Ludtke. I loved reading about it, but it totally pissed me off too.
While reading these two books I thought a lot about how I could improve my own research about television coverage and women's sports. I think my biggest discovery was that I need to include a few different theories. More specifically I'm going to start combining, media effects, gatekeeping, and feminism. In past research papers I've talked about gatekeeping (framing theory) or some feminist theory, but I totally ignored media effects. In hindsight, I'm a bit of an idiot to completely leave out media effects. Often times I think I probably implied that the sports audience was passive.
This semester I learned not to shy away from books because they were books. In fact, by actually reading a couple books I found two essential centerpieces for my master's work. Furthermore, I think I'll actually purchase these books and read them more thoroughly this summer. Yeah, I'm a nerd and I guess I like to read.
This blog title reminds me of something from my Saturday morning cartoon days with an owl saying "Hey kids books are fun!" That statement and well this whole blog will just confirm how much of a nerd I am.
I would not say that reading is my most favorite thing to do in school, much less in my free time. I have always liked school though, but I prefer television and other visual forms of entertainment. I tend to laugh when people talk about reading for fun (sorry mom!). It just seemed like an oxymoron. However, these last two weeks I found a couple of centerpieces for my research. And yes, reading these two books was fun.
Media, Sports & Society, edited by Lawrence Wenner, provides a foundation for research on the communication of sports. Contributors of this book examined the theoretical, cultural and historical issues, as well as the production of media sports programming, its content and its audience. Individual chapters focus on the Super Bowl, sports violence and sex typing. I really enjoyed reading about how the symbiotic relationship between sports and the mass media in American society. One author wrote, "Media attention fans the flames of interest in sport and increased interest in sport warrants further media attention." This is the chicken or the egg argument that I'm sure I will face in my professional career.
Women, Media and Sport: Challenging Gender Values, edited by Pamela Creedon, adds to the breadth of my research both from a cultural and media perspective. I found this volume of work
incredibly interesting because I'm interested in the history of women's sports and particularly in gender issues as related to varying media will find this volume informative. My favorite chapter from this book provided a complete historical account of women in American sports journalism. I loved reading about women sportswriters during WWII and about the struggles and sexism these pioneers faced in locker rooms. I learned about the impressive careers of Mary Bostwick, Nellie Bly, Margaret Goss, Betty Cuniberti, and Melissa Ludtke. I loved reading about it, but it totally pissed me off too.
While reading these two books I thought a lot about how I could improve my own research about television coverage and women's sports. I think my biggest discovery was that I need to include a few different theories. More specifically I'm going to start combining, media effects, gatekeeping, and feminism. In past research papers I've talked about gatekeeping (framing theory) or some feminist theory, but I totally ignored media effects. In hindsight, I'm a bit of an idiot to completely leave out media effects. Often times I think I probably implied that the sports audience was passive.
This semester I learned not to shy away from books because they were books. In fact, by actually reading a couple books I found two essential centerpieces for my master's work. Furthermore, I think I'll actually purchase these books and read them more thoroughly this summer. Yeah, I'm a nerd and I guess I like to read.
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