11.       Publications

A. Monographs/Books

  1. Sturgis, I. (2010). Are traditional media dead? Can journalism survive in the digital world? New York, NY: International Debate Education Association.
  2. Langmia, K; Tia, T.; O’Brien, P.; Sturgis, I. (Eds.) (2013). Social media Pedagogy and practice. University Press of America: Rowman and Littlefield Ltd (Lexington Books: Lanham, Maryland). https://rowman.com/isbn/9780761861959

B. Chapters in Books

3. Sturgis, I. and Shurn, T. (2013). Teaching Computational Literacy Through Game Design. Social Media Pedagogy and Practice. University Press of America (Lexington Books: Lanham, Maryland)

C. Invited Chapters/Textbook

4. Sturgis, I. (2012). Writing for the web. Media writing for strategic communications. New York: Great River Technologies.
(Username: isturgis@howard.edu/Password: h47w49y Click arrow to view)
5. Sturgis, I. (2012). Gathering information. Media writing for strategic communications. New York: Great River Technologies.

D. Refereed Journal Articles

6. Sturgis, I. (2012). Mobile Money for the Unbanked. Journal of New Communications Research. Accepted for Publication. Publication date: Winter 2014.

7. Lamb, Y. R., Sturgis, I., & Fancher, C. (2008). Teaching converged media through news coverage of the 2008 U.S. presidential election and inauguration. (20 ed., Vol. 1, pp. 91-102). New Delhi: Asia Pacific Media Educator. Retrieved from http://ro.uow.edu.au/apme/vol1/iss20/9

E. Reference

Invited:

Encyclopedia of Social Media and Politics. 3 articles

8. Sturgis, I. (2013). Social Media Optimization. In Encyclopedia of Social Media and Politics  (accepted). Thousand Oaks, CA 91320: CQ Press

9. Sturgis, I. (2013). Color of Change. In Encyclopedia of Social Media and Politics  (accepted). Thousand Oaks, CA 91320: CQ Press

10. Sturgis, I. (2013). Legacy Media/Old Media. In Encyclopedia of Social Media and Politics  (accepted). Thousand Oaks, CA 91320: CQ Press

This comprehensive encyclopedia will be marketed to academic and public libraries as a print and digital product available to students via the library’s electronic services.

F. Book Review

11. Sturgis, I. (2010, February/March). Review: (Link to review) Be the media Quill and scroll.

 

G. Creative Works (Major Publication)

Special Audience/Client

12. Bermuda, Social Media Training for Department of Communication and Information, 2010Link to PDF (A large file that takes a few seconds to download). Developed social media training for government communications staff. I worked with Dr. Rochelle Ford to develop a three-day workshop session to train the Bermuda Department of Communication and Information (DCI) to effectively enhance communication, networking and citizen engagement with a focus on best practices.

Conferences
13. Social Media Technology Conference and Workshop, Howard University, 2012; Bowie, 2013. A co-chair of planning committee to develop programming for annual conference.

Creative Works
Website Research/Development
Publication No. 14.

Development of membership site for Interactive Editing Course utilizing gaming and social media techniques.

http://copy-editing.ingridsturgis.com/

Website Research/Development/Representative Samples
Publications No. 15, 16, 17

Publication No.15. Special Audience/HeartandSoul.com

Website Research/Development/Representative Samples
Publication No. 16
Creative work. Development of community website: Fully-Connected.com

http://www.fully-connected.com/

Website Research/Development/Representative Samples”Publication No. 17: Special Audience/Client: Soul of America

www.Soulofamerica.com

Publication No. 18, Collection of creative works
Research and Reporting on New Media

Collection of General articles:

12. Appraisal of Publications  (Complete for each publication) 

Candidate’s Statement

Publication No. 1

Creative Production: Editor of scholarly or professional publication

Are Traditional Media DeadTitle: Are Traditional Media Dead? Can Journalism Survive in the Digital World?

Editor: Ingrid Sturgis

Publisher: International Debate Education Association (IDEA), 2012

(Hard copy included)

Scope: Exemplary research activity: Service as editor of a scholarly or professional publication.

Role: I served as editor for this important collection, an in-depth examination of one of the most pressing issues today—the sustainability of newspapers—a bedrock of democracy—and other traditional media. I wrote the substantial analytical introduction, the section summaries with in-depth endnotes following each chapter, as well as the discussion questions for debate in each section, which incorporates detailed background and source materials. I also negotiated the permissions fees associated with the15 articles included in the book.

Synopsis: Are Traditional Media Dead? investigates this question, exploring the problems facing traditional media, the media’s response to these challenges, and evaluating whether the responses might prove successful. It accomplishes this through a series of articles from academic journals, opinion surveys, government reports and popular print media. Serving the growing interest in debate worldwide, and published by International Debate Education Association, the leading provider of debate education, the collection is geared toward college or high school debate teams in North America and Europe. The book serves to advance the Howard University’s mission to increase academic excellence and improve critical thinking skills as well as to address critical issues, increase tolerance and enhance cultural exchange. The book is part of the IDEA Sourcebooks on Contemporary Controversies, which publishes 15 such books a year, and works with schools and universities, debate organizations and community groups and partners with foundations, NGOs, businesses, and governments involved in debate education. The book will be incorporated into the new Digital Media Literacy course that I developed for Fall 2013. It is being proposed for use by the debate team in the School of Communications.

Impact: In the 21st century, the Internet has made publishers of anyone with a laptop or mobile phone. In response, many observers have said that traditional media – newspapers, radio, television, cable TV, magazines, and other print publications – are in a death spiral if not already dead. However, the jury is still out on how deeply new technologies are rewriting our future. Though these articles have been previously published, Are Traditional Media Dead give them new relevancy, incorporating them into a single document that readers can use to understand fully the pressures facing the media today, including technological evolution, reader habits, issues of accountability and market forces. With this definitive volume, student debaters and other interested readers can cut through the din to read the work of influential thinkers from each side of the debate. The international audience for the book includes libraries, students, debate coaches and other news consumers. The first printing was 1,000 copies and sales of 250 to 300 are expected per year. The book also contributes to greater public knowledge about the state of the media.

Candidate’s Statement

Publication No. 2

Editor of scholarly or professional publication

Title: Social Media Pedagogy and Practice.

Editors: Kehbuma Langmia, Tia Tyree, Peggy O’Brien, Ingrid Sturgis

Role: As an editor, I solicited writers for the book, guided writers, read and edited articles as well as wrote the preface for the book.

Publisher: University Press of America, a Rowman and Littlefield Ltd. (Lexington Books: Lanham, Maryland (On Press) 

Synopsis:  There has been explosive growth in the use of social media technology over the past decade. Although many faculty members have readily adopted the technology for personal and professional use, others remain wary of the academic benefits of the new technologies.

As social media continue to influence all areas of our lives, it is important to examine and debate not only the use of various tools in different contexts, but analyze how they change the way students, academics, business owners, and governments make use of them. In recent years, educators have sought to harness the intellectual power and curiosity to develop the first wave of social media courses.

In order to synthesize their findings about what was being taught nationally and internationally, faculty at Bowie State University and Howard University conducted the first annual Social Media Technology Conference and Workshop in 2011 They convened scholars, professionals, and other experts in the area of social media to share their perspectives on the technical, ethical, economic, legal, political, and cultural implications of social media use. Buoyed by the outgrowth of interest in this area of research, the conference has grown into its third year. It is propelled by a growing cadre of researchers among HBCUs and other institutions seeking to develop an agenda in an area of phenomenal growth and emerging importance. This book is an outgrowth of the research done by the participants of the conference.

Application of Theory: It is critical to find the proper balance of technology, pedagogy, and content to develop college-level courses in communications. Social Media Pedagogy and Practice seeks to enlighten educators, scholars, and practitioners about social media and provide them with the knowledge to create and effectively utilize social media in different contexts. It is anchored on the premise that information could immediately be incorporated into curricula to identify and build skills needed for students going into journalism, public relations, integrated marketing, and other communications fields. It focuses how social media are used in educational settings and how social media are affecting and altering pedagogical thought. It provides opportunities for academics and scholars to incorporate social media practices into the learning environment that could potentially enhance learning objectives. The purpose of this book is not only to explore how social media are being studied and taught within academic settings, but also how social media are being used to shape communities and influence world events.

Impact/Recognition:

Social media ubiquity has begun to invade our professional, personal, public and private lives. It is essential to conduct timely examination of how of social media impacts identity. With an emphasis on underrepresented groups in the communications industries, Social Media Pedagogy and Practice brings diverse voices to the discussion of social media and its implications for society, education, business and entertainment. This book builds on my international reputation as a social media expert and as an important voice in helping others to navigate the cutting edge of digital social culture. As young people consume more social media content than mainstream communities do, they will need to develop the critical-thinking skills to analyze message quality, credibility and point of view, as well as to understand the social, cultural and ethical issues that accompany the use of digital technology in communications. With so few diverse voices emerging from the discourse, it is significant that as a faculty member at Howard University, I can count myself among the leading researchers and practitioners in this important area of scholarly inquiry.

Candidate’s Statement

High Research Activity

Publication No. 3 Invited article

Title:  Teaching Computational Literacy Through Game Design

Publisher: University Press of America, Rowman and Littlefield Ltd (Lexington Books: Lanham, Maryland

Role: Authors: Ingrid Sturgis and Todd Shurn

Contribution: I developed the course on which this article is based, which was made possible through a National Science Foundation grant. The course was offered as a directed study in the School of Communications and as an elective in the School of Engineering. The initial collaboration has spurred other interdisciplinary partnerships, for example, the Game Design Course for non-CS students in the Fall 2013 semester led by a Google employee and offered by the Computer Science Department. This article reflects original and substantial research, scholarship and analysis about the use of games to encourage student engagement, to employ collaborative expertise theory in interdisciplinary collaboration and brings STEM into the communications classroom. It also addresses critical issues about serving underrepresented groups.

This article describes the News Games course, which explores the emergence of games and their implication for journalism. Computing has permeated and transformed our lives. For the purpose of this project, the article describes how communications students collaborated with computer science students to develop a game to teach Associated Press style in Copy Editing courses.

No prior knowledge of game design or programming is assumed. No prior knowledge of Associated Press style is required. This course is an intermediate option or elective in the for communications majors.

Synopsis: In today’s technologically networked world, it’s imperative for everyone to become technologically literate. For journalists, this means not only mastering new news-gathering skills such as research, interviewing, reporting and writing, but also learning to develop computer programs and applications that scrape public records databases, designing interfaces to make that information accessible, and creating data visualizations of complex public policy issues (Diakopoulos, 2010).  The digital revolution has brought transformational change to the media, disrupting traditional methods of reporting, distribution and news presentation. It has led to an environment where anyone can be a publisher, and where the barrier to entry for those publishers has greatly diminished.

It also has led to more focus on “computational journalism,” which, according to scholars and practitioners, involves the application of techniques from the disciplines of science, technology, engineering and math, combined with social sciences and traditional journalistic practices of information gathering, sense-making, communication and dissemination of news and information to create a new journalist for the 21st century (Anderson, 2011). It is aimed at understanding and exploring the technological advances in journalism by studying current topics and applying new tools that focus on such areas as news aggregation, data visualization, human collaboration or crowdsourcing, mobile computing and data gathering.

Considering the trends in media, journalism students can benefit immensely from the logical thought patterns of computer science and also to better understand computer science’s impact in the world today. Today, instructors must define what is meant by digital literacy, computational fluency and computational thinking and they must enable those outcomes from students.

Impact/Recognition

This article explores the challenge of developing an interdisciplinary collaboration between students in two courses that seek to help develop positive attitudes about computational thinking and programming among non-computer science students. The project also sought to give computer science students an opportunity to develop their creativity and entrepreneurial skills by going beyond their traditional computational thinking.

The course was also intended to encourage students from both courses to develop collaborative, problem-solving and leadership skills, necessary in today’s matrixed work environments. Both instructors taught separate game design courses that allowed them an opportunity to collaborate across disciplines, to learn from one another as well as to explore computational ideas as a means to develop cross-disciplinary areas of research. The course also was intended in a minor way to address the need for students in journalism programs at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to become comfortable in a STEM environment as part of an effort to foster critical thinking skills.

The research is intended ultimately to foster interdisciplinary collaboration between Journalism and Computer Science to help infuse the campus with computational expertise. The project ties in with the collaborative effort by Arts & Science, Mass Communications and Engineering faculty to develop a cutting-edge Howard University interactive media and gaming undergraduate curriculum, professional certificate training program and innovative research center for the study of interactive media and gaming.

Application of theory: Cooperative Expertise

Cooperative Expertise is a collaborative teaching model that derives from the Distributive Expertise approach in which faculty and students from different course can find benefits in sharing expertise and experiences with faculty and students from other courses. In Distributed Expertise, faculty potentially come from different fields and may have different levels of expertise.

Gaming techniques that enhance engagement in the classroom is burgeoning area of research. In addition, I have engaged in other interactive collaborations with Dr. Todd Shurn in Computer Science. The one result of a brainstorming session was that Dr. Shurn’s student, Ade Heyward, created an geolocation app called The Howard Hookup for his senior project. The app allows students to meet one another based on their proximity and likes and dislikes. http://www.howardhookup.com. In addition, two communications students – one a journalism major, another a public relations minor, participated in the Hackathon and came in second place for an app that takes leftovers and creates a recipe for a meal.

Candidate’s Statement

Publication No. 4 and 5

Publication No. 4:  Creative Work: Invited Chapters/Textbook

Title: Media writing for strategic communications

Author: Felecia Ross, Linda Florence Cunningham, Ingrid Sturgis

 Published by: Great River Technologies

http://osu.grtep.com/index.cfm/mediawriting/page (Username: isturgis@howard.edu/Password: h47w49y; click arrow to view)

Contribution: I contributed the chapter “Writing for the Web” to this e-book on strategic communications published by Great River Technologies, an educational technology solutions company that specializes in providing instructional technology consulting. It offers a web-based publishing system that integrates text, multi-media, interactive exercises, testing functionalities, student self-assessments, and external resources.

Synopsis: Media Writing for Strategic Communicators! (Username: isturgis@howard.edu/Password: h47w49y) is an ebook to guide students through the different aspects of writing that strategic communicators are likely to encounter. The publication includes guidelines on the writing process, style, hard and soft news stories, public relations writing, crisis communications, information gathering, writing for the web, communicating in our pluralistic society, as well as using online media forms. With ebooks encompassing the greatest number of books being produced today, it is essential to develop an understanding of how best to create textbooks that are available in new formats.

In addition to chapter content, the e-book offers instructors exercises, mechanics, a diversity toolbox and additional resources that they can incorporate into a course or use as a course. The exercises are designed to help students understand and apply the information from each chapter. Instructors may provide additional and/or different exercises based on class needs. The Mechanics tab provides links to websites that provide guidelines on grammar. The Diversity Toolbox provides links to style guides and organizations representing the interests of diverse and under represented groups. The Additional Resources tab contains links to organizations useful for strategic communicators.

Contribution: “Writing for the Web” focuses on evolving research on how best to create content for the variety of platforms available for content creators and readers today. With so many blogs and self-published websites, public relations practitioners and journalists find it more difficult to get their message heard in traditional media. The chapter includes how to prioritize a message online so that it is accurate, complete, efficient and precise. It includes information about how people consume text in print and online as well as best practice in formatting text, setting length, organizing material and engaging readers.

Candidate’s Statement

Publication No. 5: Invited Chapters/Textbook

 Title: Media writing for strategic communications

http://osu.grtep.com/index.cfm/mediawriting/page/welcome

Author: Ingrid Sturgis

Contribution: Conducted research and wrote chapter on gathering information for online textbook. I contributed the chapter “Gathering Information” to this e-book on strategic communications published by Great River Technologies.

This section offers a primer on the research process to help readers conduct efficient and effective research as well as to develop analytical and critical thinking skills. Developing an efficient research technique is made much more complex in this Information Age, in which has seen an explosion of information on the Internet. The “democratization of distribution,” a termed coined by Om Malik of GigaOm.com, a technology blog, has resulted in a torrent of information. The reader is faced with so much data that it is difficult to know where to start and even tougher to know when to stop. It’s even more difficult to discern the reliability of the information uncovered. The sheer volume of information available today has turned research on its ear. Gone are the days when most researchers go to the brick-and-mortar library to look through reference books and the stacks for information on a project. Now everyone must consult the vast cyberspace to gather data. Sources once uncovered after hours spent poring over the Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature or trying to understand the Dewey Decimal System of the old card catalog, now may take only a few hours on the web. The challenge is that information on the Internet appears and just as quickly disappears into the digital ether. Thanks to bloggers and small business sites fueled by new technology that allows anyone to easily publish on the Internet, as of 2006, 100 million websites were on the Web, according to Netcraft (http://news.netcraft.com), an Internet monitoring company.

 Candidate’s Statement

Publication No. 6

Refereed Journal Article

Title: Mobile Money for the Unbanked

Fellowship

Survey

Proposal

Author(s) Sturgis, I.

Publisher: Journal of New Communications Research, Anticipated 2014

Contribution:

“Mobile Money for the Unbanked” contributes to the research on the use of mobile technology by blacks. In the United States, African-Americans have leapfrogged from the desktop computer to using mobile phones as powerful tiny computers from which they get their news, information and entertainment. There are 292 million people using mobile phones in the United States and mobile use is expected to exceed PC Internet access. In addition, mobile phones significantly outnumber ATMs, giving cell phone operators a greater reach than banks. Mobile transactions are estimated to exceed $1 trillion by 2015. Mobile money has revolutionized local economies in countries in Africa and Asia. In these countries low-income, semi-literate rural communities with few banks or other financial institutions have found alternative methods to buy and sell goods, as well as send remittances using inexpensive, low-tech cell phones.

My exploratory research has several related goals. First, it seeks to determine the likelihood that low-income African Americans without bank accounts would adopt mobile money technology.  Second, it will also investigate the phenomenon of technology adoption and the potential for mobile banking to transfer to the United States from similar technology being used in Africa and India.

This research also will expand the literature on communications technology scholarship in several ways. First, it will add to the body of information about factors that contribute to the adoption of new technologies by African Americans. Second, it will build information about how new communications technology might contribute to local entrepreneurship, which is associated with models of sustainable development. This information is potentially useful to policy makers and funding sources concerned with developing the means to lift people out of poverty. Third, the study also will investigate the technology’s implications for journalism, specifically whether it can be used as a means to monetize content and to develop new news delivery platforms by placing news and information within mobile money applications.

Candidate’s Statement

Publication No. 7

Refereed Journal Article

Title: Teaching converged media through news coverage of the 2008 US Presidential election and inauguration, Available at: http://ro.uow.edu.au/apme/vol1/iss20/9

Author(s) Lamb, Y.R.; Sturgis, I.; and Fancher, C.B.

[gview file=”http://ingridsturgis.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Teaching-converged-media-through-news-coverage-of-the-2008-US-Pre.pdf”]

Publisher: Asia Pacific Media Educator (2009)

Role: I helped to conceive, develop and execute the coverage plan for the 2008 presidential election and 2009 inauguration. I co-authored this research paper with journalism faculty members listed here.

Scope: I arrived on Howard University’s campus during a propitious period. The media were changing – convergence was the buzzword then. The country was in a recession. The first black man was about to be elected to president and Howard University’s Department of Journalism was in a unique position to become more than just a witness to history. I came to campus with the understanding that we were going to field the largest newsroom in the country to cover the historic election.  As a result of my new media background, I knew that students could no longer be solely print or broadcast journalists. Changes in the industry meant that they would produce content for a converged or multimedia world. Joe Landsberger defines convergence: “As a communications phenomenon and controversy, convergence refers to the merging, as well as the repurposing, of content to fit (simultaneously) into broadcast, newsprint, Internet, and even multimedia applications and delivery systems under a common corporate identity” (2004, p. 6).

Impact/Recognition

This article focuses on the 2008 US presidential election and the inauguration in January 2009 It explains the experiential-teaching approach of the Howard University journalism faculty. Journalism students were excused from classes on Election Day and again on Jan. 20, 2009, to cover the inauguration. More than 200 students blanketed the region, in addition to those who returned to their hometowns to vote and add a national dimension to the project, including real-time coverage of President-elect Barack Obama’s victory speech in Chicago.

With changes in technology, the consumption and production of journalistic content has profound impact on how journalism is practiced and taught (Quinn, 2001, p. 85).

The technological revolution in media challenges educators to rethink what and how they teach in favor of “flexible, integrated and innovative media courses and curricula” that incorporate “broad-based, cross-media, integrative models” (Blanchard and Christ, 1993).

The coverage of the presidential election would be the best opportunity to emphasize this change and to illustrate the importance of hands-on, on-the-ground instruction. Although this generation of millennials is considered on made up of digital natives. The millennials use media more for entertainment than for professional purposes. The challenge for teachers is to guide them to the best professional use of the technology to improve critical thinking skills and career opportunities. In the election and inauguration project, we treated the students not as students but as professional journalists. This approach has allowed faculty to focus on the enduring principles of quality journalism that include commitment to truth, accuracy, fairness, effective writing and the highest ethical behavior.

It has also required an ongoing seamless integration of practical experience and classroom instruction, and although the election provided some unique opportunities, it represented a milestone on an evolutionary path that seeks to advance students’ capabilities at least one step ahead of what will at all times be required of them after graduation. In covering the election and inauguration, students were required to think critically, work collaboratively and engage creatively in entrepreneurial and innovative problem solving. Of vital importance was the engagement of the faculty as “coaches.” Demanding professors were transformed into mentors with equally demanding, if not higher, standards for performance. For some students, the experience provided the first insight into what professors mean when they refer to “real world” experience.

Like their counterparts at other leading colleges and universities, professors at Howard believe they must prepare their students to face a challenging workplace shaped by rapid advances in media technology, exacerbated by economic pressures made worse by global recession, and by shifting news-consumption patterns. Even as economic pressures escalate, print publications and broadcasting outlets have expanded their engagement with the Internet. In doing so, they are demanding more complex skill sets from existing and potential employees. Our project also sparked similar efforts for the re-election and our work was part of a collaborative effort with New York University and Boston University.

https://www.rebelmouse.com/inaugurationjstudents2013/httphowarduniversityelectionpr-99166872.html

Candidate’s Statement

Publications No 8, 9, 10

Publication No 8

High Research Activity

Encyclopedia Entry:

Title: Color of Change.

Publisher:  Encyclopedia of Social Media and Politics. Invited. Accepted

Role: Contributor

Scope: According to the publisher, this comprehensive encyclopedia will be marketed to academic and public libraries as a print and digital product available via the libraries’ electronic services. The Encyclopedia of Social Media and Politics will explore how the ubiquity of social media is altering politics in the United States and around the world. Its scope encompasses the disruptive impact of new technologies and evolving social networks that are changing long-held patterns in American politics. It also covers the transformations that social media use is rendering on political campaigns, political candidates and their supporters. This two-volume A-to-Z encyclopedia set will serve as a resource for students and researchers interested in the important changes taking place that will affect political races, policies, governments and citizens as social networking mutates through society in the United States and in selected countries or regions.
Contribution:

I suggested to the publishers that ColorofChange.org, a grassroots political-action organization, should be added to its list of social media entries. As I reviewed the list of topics to be included in the encyclopedia, I found a lack of diversity in subject matter. I realized this influential group, which is now rivaling the NAACP for members, should be included among the important topics. The editor agreed to include it.

California activists James Rucker and Van Jones founded the ColorofChange.org in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans. The organization’s stated goals are threefold: to make government more responsive to the concerns of African Americans, to amplify and strengthen their political voices as well as to bring about political and social change. The organization took advantage of a perceived vacuum in black political leadership to take on a variety of issues. It focuses on such concerns as racial disparities in education, the criminal-justice system and in health care, as well as the growing gaps in economic resources, voter intimidation, police brutality and media accountability.

Color of Change, a civil-rights movement for the social media age seeks to move beyond traditional methods of organizing. The organization appears to have tapped into a narrowing of the digital divide as access to cell phones fill the technology gap between haves and have-nots.

Candidate’s Statement

High Research Activity

Publication No. 9

Title: Social Media Optimization

Scope: The article “Social Media Optimization (SMO),” researches how the strategic use of interactive web-based and mobile technologies can make information highly visible and easily disseminated across social networking sites. Social media are revolutionizing and galvanizing politics in the United States and around the world. New social media is rapidly displacing old modes and methods of political communication from elites to the masses (top down) and from the masses to elites (bottom up). Activists also are building new movements and protests using social media to alter mainstream political agendas. Politicians and candidates are joining the fray, now using social media to maintain their visibility to constituencies and build support. One of the new essentials for campaign professionals is articulation of the candidate’s “social media strategy.” SMO focuses on Web 2.0 technologies, which encompass a combination of user-generated content on wikis and blogs, social news and social bookmarking to re-use, remix and re-purpose content with the intention to generate viral publicity, or become widely circulated.

________________________________

 Candidate’s Statement

High Research Activity

Publication No. 10

Title: Legacy Media/Old Media.

Publisher: Encyclopedia of Social Media and Politics.

This article builds on my work in Are Traditional Media Dead?, which examines how old media are being challenged by the technological changes in communications. Today, the media are considered informally as a fourth branch of society (along with the president, Congress, and courts), with a history that has been intertwined with politics since the founding of the United States. Legacy media, or old media, are defined as newspapers, radio, television, magazines and books. Some experts would also include movie and music studios as well as the advertising industry.

The daily newspaper began to face competition when radio became popular in the 1920s and, later, television in the 1950s. The spread of radio coincided with the political fortune of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the 1930s. He used it as his bully pulpit to rally a nation battered by the Great Depression. The four-term president used the new technology to conduct nearly 1,000 fireside chats. Roosevelt’s relationship with the press was so close that, even though many news editors were aware of his physical limitations and health problems, they never reported on his infirmities.

Candidate’s Statement

Publication No. 11

Creative Work: Book Review (Link to review)

Title: Be the Media 

Writer: Ingrid Sturgis

Publisher: Quill and Scroll, Society of Professional Journalists

Contribution: With the rise of blogs, Web 2.0 tools like Facebook and Twitter, and the declining authority of the traditional press, anyone who thinks she or he may have something to say can find a platform to say it. In fact, new media gurus like to say society is entering a period in which anyone can be the media. However, without the mass media, the dilemma for these mini-media moguls is a little like that philosophical question: If a tree falls in a forest and no one hears, does it make a sound? To that end, this review reveals how David Mathison answers the riddle with “Be the Media: How to Create and Accelerate Your Message … Your Way” (Natural E Creative: 2009). It is a comprehensive do-it-yourself guide to self-publishing across platforms, tooting your own horn and cultivating your “1,000 true friends” who will buy whatever you are selling. The book offers best practices and practical advice for anyone who wants to master the brave new world of publishing, broadcasting and the Internet.

Candidate’s Statement

Publication No. 12

Creative Work: Development of three-day social media workshop for Bermuda government.

In June 2010, I worked with Dr. Rochelle Ford to develop a three-day workshop session to train the Bermuda Department of Communication and Information (DCI) to enhance communication, networking and citizen engagement with a focus on best practices. Bermuda is important as an international banking center with one of the highest GDPs and one of the strongest telecommunications infrastructures in North American. It is influenced by Britain and United States because of its proximity off the coast of North Carolina. Its currency is structured on the U.S. dollar. My focus was to help the DCI develop a strategy to use social media to improve communications to its publics. Among the issues the department wanted to address was to learn to create a more transparent government without jeopardizing security, to gauge citizen support for issues, offer opportunities for individuals with disabilities to participate in e-government, to engage young people drawn to new media. Other concerns the department was looking to address:

    • To develop proactively public awareness of government activities.
    • To provide a media, printing and public relations advisory service to all government departments.
    • Build and maintain mutually beneficial relationships between Bermuda and its publics.

The workshop also helped the Department develop strategies to integrate social media strategy into internal and external communication practices, including social media (i.e. blogging, podcasting, wikis, etc.) strategy to drive performance-based communications. The use of Facebook, Google, YouTube and Twitter are the norm in how individuals communicate with one another as well as how governments communicate with their publics. Countries like the United States and Britain have developed initiatives to make government more available for its publics through use of websites. Government 2.0 or Gov 2.0 is an extension of that concept.

Other Objectives included:

  • Increase awareness of new communication techniques and media to disseminate governmental messages and encourage interaction between government and its citizens. Ex.: How social media can be vital during an emergency, such as an earthquake or fire.
  • Communicate more effectively and efficiently through the use of social media (blogs, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn), podcasts, Real Simple Syndication feeds (RSS), video and much more.
  • Provide hands-on training to develop content for the Web, blogs, mobile and social media.
  • Develop employee policies and guidelines for internal and external social media usage.
    Powerpoint presentation
    Preparation background

Candidate’s Statement

Publication No. 13

Social Media Technology Conference & Workshop, 2012, 2013

http://socialmediatechnologyconference.com/

Hosted by Bowie State University and Howard University, the objective of this two-day conference is to bring together experts in social media and online social networks from the academic, business and public sectors to share ideas on the best practices of social media. The conference offers researchers an opportunity to present and debate their ideas, and provide attendees with the opportunity to build academic and professional contacts, develop a research agenda around cutting-edge technology and to learn about latest research from a multidisciplinary perspective.

The event convenes practitioners, scholars and doctoral students who can share examples, cases, theories and analysis of social media. It combines panel discussions, poster sessions, roundtables and hands-on workshops designed to provide scholars and practitioners with the knowledge to create and effectively utilize social media in different contexts. As social media continue to influence all areas of our lives, it is important to examine and debate not only the use of various social media tools in different contexts, but also how they change the manner in which individuals, academics, business owners and the government use this medium.

Role: As a co-chair, I developed procedures to receive and distribute submitted conference papers and panel discussion proposals through a conference administration system.

I developed conference website. Read submitted articles, maintained contact with faculty and student attendees. I developed conference calendar system. In addition, I invited keynote speaker Jan Schaeffer, executive director of J-Lab at American University.

http://socialmediatechnologyconference.com/

http://socialmediatechnologyconfer2012.sched.org/

Candidate’s Statement

Publication No. 14.

Development of membership website for Interactive Editing Course utilizing gaming and social media techniques.

http://copy-editing.ingridsturgis.com/
I have been working to develop a social media platform to be used in a copy editing class (It can be easily adapted for any course.) to test theories about the use of social media, gaming techniques and student engagement. Use of a Google form catalogues student efforts and captures them in a spreadsheet. Created to be self-directed, successful students can earn badges and experience points for course accomplishments. The badges correspond to grades and additional points can be earned upon carrying out an assignment. Students who complete the assignments would receive badges that certify their “coach” or “mentor” status to other students who may seek their help in learning to improve their copy-editing skills.

Achievements

Course activities form

Candidate’s Statement

Website Research/Development/Consultation Representative Samples

Publications No. 15, 16, 17

Publication No. 15. Special Audience/Client: HeartandSoul.com

www.heartandsoul.com

I served as a consulting web strategist for Heart & Soul magazine to redevelop and re-launch the website for the black women’s health magazine onto a new platform with more interactive features. I set up Twitter and Facebook accounts as well as Google Analytics for search-optimization purposes as well as to measure the website’s audience and its traffic. I edited digital content for the Web, e-newsletter, e-blasts, mobile devices and/or other means. The goal for the site was to mirror our goal for the magazine.

OBJECTIVES:

To serve as consulting project manager for the development of the Web site for Heart & Soul magazine, HeartandSoul.com. The website would help broaden the magazine’s mission to bring to its readers information that will help them become more healthy, wealthy and wise. HeartandSoul.com will create a lifestyle website that offers meaningful, culturally relevant information for the unique, underserved needs of Black women, with sensible solutions for living well in today’s world. The HeartandSoul.com users will be able to connect with a community of like-minded, intelligent, tech-savvy readers.

Goals:

  • Promote Heart & Soul magazine as a leading resource for health, personal finance and better living for African-American women
  • Increase traffic and readers
  • Improve search engine optimization:
  • Reduce or eliminate flash on homepage and subsequent pages
  • Use keywords and metadata in code
  • Improved key word search function
  • Incorporate use of syndication (RSS feed) to increase dissemination of web updates.

As a result of my efforts, site traffic doubled over two years from 3,500 to 6,000 page views. In addition, I implemented Facebook and Twitter accounts for the site, which also expanded the brand to a new audience.

Candidate’s Statement

Publication No. 16

Creative work. Development of community website

Fully-Connected.com

Concept document

Elevator pitch

Mission: Fully-Connected.com offers a new vision in digital media that combines interactive journalism and social networking to connect native-born and foreign-born blacks in America, as well as the Diaspora. We help members of this vibrant and rapidly growing audience connect the dots and take a proactive approach in breaking down cultural silos, erasing stereotypes and shaping coverage. The project has the distinction of being selected for an entrepreneurship bootcamp by a panel of technology, journalism and business experts (document). 

Concept: With a focus on mobile, location technology and apps, Fully-Connected.com will deliver a playlist of real-time news via handheld devices.  The goal is to enlighten, empower and entertain our audience by providing strong community and content in a technologically rich and engaging environment. Another goal is to train student journalists and citizens who want to tell multimedia stories about their communities and global roots. It would also serve as an entrepreneurial venture for students to learn how to run a news website.

The Market: Our audience includes highly educated readers with high incomes. However, mainstream news outlets have often ignored them and lost their trust. We expect to attract at least 10 percent of the market (4 million visitors each month). Here are a few facts:

  • The 2010 U.S. Census identified 42 million blacks in the United States, an increase of 15.4 percent from the year 2000. A significant driver of this growth is immigration.
  • The number of foreign-born blacks in the United States has mushroomed from 125,000 in 1960 to 2.8 million in 2005.
  • Black buying power is expected to reach $1.2 trillion by 2013; African immigrants alone spend $50 billion.
  • Among immigrants who are 25 and up, 38 percent of Africans had a bachelor’s or higher degrees compared to 27 percent of the foreign-born of all races, according to the Population Research Bureau.
  • Immigrants make up more than a quarter of black populations in New York, Boston and Miami with a significant presence in Minneapolis; Lewiston, Maine; and Greensboro, N.C.

Publication No. 17: Special Audience/Client: Soul of America

www.Soulofamerica.com

I worked with publisher of this 16-year-old travel website to increase page views. By incorporating basic photo galleries and regularly updated content, SoulOfAmerica.com was able to increase page views to a record high of 3,000,000, an increase of 300 percent. Considered a standard measure of web traffic, a page view indicates a visitor has viewed one page on the site

I also encourage the publisher Thomas Dorsey to use social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Plus. He has said that my efforts helped to make sure that next generation of Soul of America has stronger visitor comments capability and helped make Soul of America a four-time Black Web Award winner. Soul of America is a pioneer publisher of black travel information in the United States and abroad. Still to be tackled is the development of a social media optimization plan to increase engagement on multiple platforms. It would demonstrate the value of increased interaction with website audience by using popular social media features. And it would allow the site to meet its users wherever they may be.

Candidate’s Statement

Publication No. 18: Conference Papers

 Shurn, T., & Sturgis, I. (2013, April). Experiences teaching collaboration for game innovation to computer science students. Paper delivered at the 2013 symposium on computing at minority institutions, Association of Computer and Information Science/Engineering Departments at Minority Institutions (ADMI). Link to program.
Paper presented

Sturgis, I. (2013, August). Panel Session: AEJMC/Knight Bridge Grants: Bringing the Knight News challenge into JMC classrooms. Using Ushahidi and Mobile Media Toolkit to train new generation of black press.

Ingrid at Distributed Expertise Colloquium at Villanova University
Ingrid at Distributed Expertise Colloquium at Villanova University

Sturgis, I. (2013, June). CPATH Expertise Colloquium. Presentation: Use of gaming techniques, social media and badging to create a quiz based on the Associated Press Stylebook. Villanova, Pa.
Project summary

Sturgis, I. (2011, September). Tia Tyree (Co-Chair). The nuts and bolts of creating and using social media. Presentation delivered at Bowie State University and Howard University. Social media technology conference and workshop. Retrieved from http://socialmediatechnologyconference.com.

Publication No. 19, Collection of creative works

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