Communications Arts

Mission Integration through Service Learning: Developing Men and Women for others through Advertising Education

Gennadi Gevorgyan, PhD
Mission Academy

Following the completion of the mission academy, I have begun integrating the insights I have uncovered into the content and structure of the classes I teach. I began this process with revising one of the upper-level advertising courses that communication students take in their final semester at Xavier University- Senior Seminar in Advertising Campaigns (COMM 439). A 3-credit senior-level course, Advertising Campaigns focuses on teaching students how to build full-fledged communication campaigns, from a strategy level concept development all the way to the production and media placement of advertisements. In this class, students work in teams, which function as mini advertising agencies. Consequently, while some students get involved in market analysis and audience research, others engage in media planning, strategy development, advertising production, and account management. Throughout this class, students work with real clients helping them develop and execute communication campaigns.

The learning objectives of COMM 439 involve:

• Developing creative skills
• Advancing media production skills
• Mastering (market/consumer) data analysis principles
• Getting hands-on experience in implementing communication campaigns

While the first three objectives can be adequately accomplished within a traditional classroom setting, the completion of the fourth objective requires an environment where students can work on "real" projects with actual clients trying to advance their businesses and organizations. In this environment, students would not only apply their theoretical skills and gain practical experience, but also realize the traceable results and far-reaching implications of their academic and professional undertakings.

In the past, most of the clients for COMM 439 consisted of local businesses and corporate entities. Based on the revised curriculum, future clients will be community partners comprised primarily of local nonprofit organizations with limited resources and staff. As a result, students will be able to concentrate on causes, which go beyond the traditional realm of advertising education, focused primarily on teaching students how to foster commercial benefits through branding, marketing, and sales. While the latter is certainly an important element of advertising curricula, I believe our students need and want to do more with their education. Furthermore, for this type of community partners, our students' contributions would be particularly noticeable and consequential. In addition, working with limited resources would enable students to think creatively and "outside the box".

I strongly believe throughout participation in this course, students will not only hone their advertising skills and get valuable practical experience, but also put into action the fundamentals of Xavier's Ignatian mission by assisting a nonprofit community partner in its contributions to positive social change. Below is the outline of the revised COMM 439:

• Overview of conceptual frameworks and models in advertising (extensively covered in lower-level courses
• Formation of student groups to function as (mini) advertising agencies
• Identification and introduction of community partners to student groups
• Analysis of community partners' communication problems and advertising goals
• Inter-group competition for advertising accounts
• Completion of advertising campaigns
• Assistance to community partners in implementing the campaigns

Throughout the course, students will be evaluated with exams, in-class assignments, and the quality of their advertising campaigns. Assessment of student learning will be done in collaboration with community partners. The following are some of the criteria that will be used to assess the community engagement component of the class:

• Exposure of students to the day-to-day operations of nonprofit work
• Interaction of students on the organization's advertising needs and goals
• Engagement of students into project-oriented assignments
• Involvement of students into organizational meetings and team work

At the end of the course, I will explore possibilities for future collaborations with the community partner as well as for the community partner's engagement in student placement.

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Encouraging eloquentia perfecta and ethical reflection:
Incorporating Jesuit principles into communication arts writing assignments

Wendy Maxian, PhD
Mentor: Christian End, PhD (Psychology)

The goal of this project was to encourage eloquentia perfecta among students in introductory communication arts classes by implementing assignments guided by Jesuit values. An important part of being an effective communicator is being a clear, concise writer. Student communicators at Xavier are also directed by five Jesuit principles: reflection, discernment, solidarity and kinship, service rooted in justice and love, and mission. The current project is an attempt to incorporate these values into writing assignments in introductory classes.

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Teaching to the Mission: Incorporating the Examen into Ethical Decision Making in a Professional Context

Gwyneth Mellinger, PhD, Communication Arts
Mentor: Trudelle Thomas, PhD, English

All public relations and advertising majors are required to take COMM 477 Strategic Communication Ethics and Society, a course in which students contemplate the ethical responsibilities of being persuasive communicators. In PR and advertising, communication has an agenda, usually in service of a client or employer. Though PR and advertising professionals are obligated to communicate truthfully, there are times when a client or employer's self-interest creates ethical conflicts for the professionals they employ. For that reason, we devote a semester to exploring ethical principles that will guide future professionals in ethical decision making and to discussing the professional values and loyalties that influence choices in this work.

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Turning Discernment Inward

Dr. Jessalynn Strauss, Ph.D.
Mentor: Dr. Rashmi Assudani, Ph.D. (Management)

Miscommunications occur frequently in our complex, multi-media world. One of the important functions of a public relations practitioner is to identify potential for miscommunication and attempt to address and rectify what can be a very detrimental situation. As an educator of future PR practitioners, I spend a great deal of time training students to recognize these mistakes in communication, analyze and research them, and figure out how to rectify them.

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Carrying out the Jesuit mission in Comm 101: Developing students of "Competence, Conscience and Compassion."

Jennifer Jervis Tighe, M.A.
Mentor: Cecile Walsh, MSN, RN, CNS (Nursing)

In every course offered at Xavier, faculty strive to incorporate the principles of Jesuit Education. The Ignatian Mentoring Program offers a guided opportunity for faculty to dialogue about just how these principles fit in a concrete way in course curriculums. The following application is an outgrowth of that dialogue.

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Discernment: Debate and the Process of Attitude Change Persuasion (Comm 264)

Thomas Wagner, Ph.D.
Mentor: Margaret King, Ph.D. (Nursing)

Connecting Jesuit principles to persuasion

My teaching goal was to help students recognize the link between Jesuit principles and the theories covered in my persuasion class. Persuasion is attitude change and the Jesuit practice of discernment can contribute to the way people make this change. In the persuasion course, we learn: what attitudes are, how they form, how they change, theories of attitude change, and the practical application of these theories through debate. The debate assignment in this course was an excellent opportunity for the students to examine how discernment is part of the process of their attitude change.

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Reflecting on the Mission of Social Justice in the Research Process

Andrew Zolides, Ph.D.

Mentor: Martin Madar, Ph.D. (Theology)

Course of Application: Comm 489 – Digital Media Senior Seminar

This capstone course for the Digital Media Major is meant as an opportunity for students to generate new, personal projects that utilize the skills and knowledge they have acquired in the rest of their courses. The projects produced demonstrate what students have learned and what they are capable of with a degree in Digital Media. Specifically, students craft projects exemplifying their ability to analyze artifacts, research issues, and produce content all relating to the general field of Digital Media.

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Student Reflections

CS
March 24, 2006

As a product of a Catholic education, I have been taught that there are right choices and wrong ones. If I looked hard enough at any situation, I would find the good and the evil. As I got older, I began to see gray in the decisions that faced me. As a result of the steroid debate in class, I now see gray, where I once saw black and white.

The negative side of the debate maintained that steroids should not be legalized. They argued about the safety of steroids: they are dangerous, can cause organ damage, cancer and tumors. They also stressed a love of the game and how young people would feel the need to start using steroids at a young age to be able to compete in the pros. Perhaps the negative side's most telling argument was that a supposed "82 percent" of fans think that steroid usage should be eliminated. All of these points were very well-described. The affirmative side, which argued for the legalization of steroids, argued that these very fans that claimed to wish away steroid usage do not come to games to watch mediocre plays: they want home runs, big touchdowns and slam dunks. I believe the affirmative position's most influential argument was when they compared the use of steroids to the use of alcohol and tobacco. These two drugs which are just as harmful, if not more so than steroids, are perfectly legal. So why not legalize steroids?

It was at this point that I really began to consider why steroids are not legal. If people argue it is for the health of the players, then why are tobacco and alcohol legal? Athletes consume plenty of these two elements and no one seems to care. If it is the athlete's health we are worried about, then why just their health? What about the millions of other innocent Americans who suffer as a result of legal drugs? The affirmative side raised the point that it is the athletes' free will to determine whether or not they want to consume such drugs. If certain players were not comfortable using steroids, they would not have to take them. This argument was very effective, and made me realize that I have a problem with why certain drugs are legal and some illegal when all appear to be just as harmful.

Therefore, I believe that the debate on steroid usage changed my opinion of one from an absolute "NO" for legalization of steroids to a "maybe". After all, if you are going to make other drugs that are just as harmful to the American public (not just sports figures) legal, then why stop there? If safety is going to be used as an argument, then all drugs need to be illegal, because they can all harm our bodies and our "love of the game". This debate effectively raised the issue of discernment for me. I feel that there is not a morally right answer in this case, and I can now see the benefits of both sides. As a result, I find myself deep in the familiar gray matter, instead of my previous black and white.

JR
March 22, 2006

All of the debates brought up relevant arguments and reasoning to back their position, which allowed me to think about these issues in ways I never had when forming my initial attitude. Out of all of the debates, the steroids debate forced me to critically analyze and call into question the attitude I held prior to hearing the affirmative and negative arguments. Listening to the affirmative arguments, many of the issues that were brought up had merit and were ones I had never considered before. Some of the most persuasive arguments in favor of legalizing steroids were the legalization of other drugs such as tobacco and alcohol, which are arguably just as harmful to people as steroids. It was stressed that steroids are not going to make someone without any talent or skill one of the greatest players, but is simply a means of enhancing the natural talent of an athlete or individual. Prior to hearing this debate, my attitude was completely in support of banning the use of steroids, but, after listening to the arguments of the affirmative side, I begin to consider the reasons for possible legalization.

The negative also had arguments that deserved merit and supported my attitude going into the debate. The arguments that helped strengthen my existing attitude were: steroid use with younger athletes and the current legalization for medical purposes. The issue of fairness was one of the arguments I used to oppose the use of steroids, especially in athletics, but the affirmative was able to respond with a counterargument that was just as credible in defending that it leveled the playing field which makes things fairer. Although I don't think I would completely side with the legalization of steroids, my attitude is weaker and less absolute in condemning their use. The arguments of both sides caused me to reevaluate my position on the issue of steroids. I now can see the merit of both arguments, instead of standing firmly in opposition to their use for any reason other than for certain medical purposes. My attitude was based purely on the little bits of information I had heard, which usually stressed the negative aspects of steroids use causing me to adopt that position. I had never weighed the pros and cons of the issue in depth, which may have been why I was so influenced by the affirmatives arguments in support of their legalization that were new to me. Their use of comparative arguments by the affirmative, such as the use of plastic surgery and other personal enhancement techniques used in society, made it difficult to discern between which side of the debate was right or wrong.

Discernment is defined as "the act or process of exhibiting keen insight and good judgment." After hearing this debate, it is much harder to discern which position is better or holds more merit. It is not a question of one being right or wrong, but rather, a matter of one holding more personal value than the other. If I had to discern between the two opposing arguments and form an attitude based on what I thought was important, I would have to stay with my initial opposing attitude towards steroid use. Although I see merit in the arguments presented in support of legalizing steroids, I also value the very nature of sports and heroism that it creates in our society. The legalization of enhancement drugs would undermine and threaten the very nature of sports and competition that is so important.

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