thestoryofjory.com

I have been remiss in my blogging duties.  Since returning from the Rally to Restore Sanity, life has been quite busy.

I was asked a few weeks ago to present my thesis research on media literacy for the School of Media and Strategic Communications’ Colloquium series. I presented for about half an hour, then did a few minutes of question-and-answer with the faculty.  The experience wasn’t nearly as stressful as I thought it might be, and the discussion with my colleagues was interesting as well.  I’m posting my presentation here via SlideShare in case you’re interested in discussing it with me as well!

Some of my friends and family have been asking what exactly my thesis was about.  To answer that question, I’m posting the abstract I wrote for my paper.  An abstract is simply a 100-150 word summary of a research paper, designed to help other people get a quick understanding of what the research found and whether it is useful for their own research studies.

Burson, J. K. (2010). Measuring media literacy among collegiate journalism students. Proquest Thesis & Disstertations. p. 98.

Scope and Method of Study: The purpose of this study was to measure and compare media literacy knowledge structure scores and attitudes among collegiate journalism students with those of non-journalism students.  The study utilized quantitative data analysis.  Data were collected using an online survey as well as convenience sampling methods.

Findings and Conclusions:  The study found that collegiate journalism students scored higher on the media literacy survey than non-journalism students, but that overall media literacy knowledge among the sample was low. Scores and attitudes of journalism students and students in journalism-related majors were also compared.  The findings suggest that journalism majors may use the media for more specific purposes than students in other majors.  A potential third-person effect was identified among journalism students when comparing scores on the media literacy survey with attitudes about media literacy.  Potter’s (2004) cognitive theory of media literacy was utilized to provide explanation of the findings.

I heard it takes awhile for papers to officially be published, so a few months from now Proquest should have my paper available online through your local library.  If you want a copy in the meantime (yeah, right!) just email me!

If you hadn’t already heard via Twitter, Facebook, or screams of joy loud enough to cover three counties, I successfully defended my thesis!

You, my dear friends, have been absolutely crucial to me, and I wanted to again say how much I appreciate your support, kind words, and funny text messages while I’ve been working on this.  I’ve felt down and out many times during this journey, but you guys always knew how to pep me right back up. It’s an amazing feeling to have finished a project that’s been two years in the making, and now you never again have to ask how my thesis is coming along!!

Now that the thesis is done, I feel comfortable making a new big announcement – I’ve been hired to teach at Oklahoma State University for the Fall and Spring semesters.  The course is MC 2023 Electronic Communication, and I have 4 sections of the class.  I’ll be teaching the terminology and fundamentals of creating content for the web, as well as getting the students started on their online portfolios and blogging. I don’t think I could be any more excited about this opportunity and I can’t wait for school to start! (Never thought I’d say that again, haha.)

Later, I’ll post an abstract of my thesis along with any information I have about where you can read it, if you like.  Anyway, I think academic writing makes great bedtime reading material!