This I Believe

I worry sometimes that I’m becoming too cynical about the world. I don’t know if it’s a matter of upbringing or just the nature of being a millennial, but I’ve always kind of relished in the thought of “damning the man.” I’m not talking about raging against every indiscriminate male I meet or sleeping in Zuccotti Park as a middle finger to the 1 percent. I have a hard time trusting people when I can’t distinguish their motives. I assume they have motives. And it’s exhausting. Sometimes I see the scowl lines on my forehead from scrunching my brow over something I don’t quite believe, and I wonder if it would be easier to just let things go. Maybe I’d sleep more. Maybe I’d smile more. However, I do believe it’s necessary to be skeptical, rather than cynical.

Skepticism, to me, is a matter of who you are and why you’re doing it. It’s about that nagging tug you feel in your chest that’s just begging you to ask the question and the challenge to decipher the answer you’re given. It’s wonderful and terrifying.

Over the summer I spent in D.C., working for a wire service, I thought it would be appropriate to read the autobiography of longtime White House correspondent Helen Thomas. What I found was a woman who spent her whole life as a skeptic, but an endearing, sensitive skeptic. Thomas said the key her success as a journalist was that there was no topic that did not garner a question. There was no topic that shouldn’t be questioned.

I admit I find it irritating when people stop asking questions. The face-value acceptance of information is the Achilles heel of our society. We’d rather accept what we agree with than question our own beliefs. I get it’s difficult. It’s uncomfortable. It’s sometimes confrontational. But I believe in being a skeptic because it’s always worth asking why.

            

Young professor sees eye-tracking the future of USD's CoMPARE lab

One thing Assistant Professor Brandon Nutting has done that most 30 year olds haven't: stuck electrodes to people's heads.

Nutting is one of two faculty members from the Media & Journalism department that began the Communication, Media Psychology and Related Effects research (CoMPARE) lab more than two years ago.

The program, which includes at least nine undergraduate, graduate and doctoral student volunteers, works on multiple projects to collect physiological responses to media by the placement of censors on a person to determine involuntary measurements.

“The hope is to bring in more money to the department so we can keep building our facilities and the graduate program,” he said.

Nutting was initially recruited as a doctoral student from Texas Tech to join Associate Professor Miglena Sternadori at USD to initiate the media lab. Only about nine universities in the nation offer such a program.

"It had to take something special to get me to move to Texas," he said. 













Funding for the lab's equipment began with support from the Media & Journalism department and South Dakota Public Radio. The lab is self-sustaining now that it is set-up, said Nutting. New supplies will not be needed for the next two years, but the next major purchase for the researchers could be eye-tracking equipment.

Nutting said he hopes that as the lab grows, so will the number of regional and national contracts that the university will join. A recent lab contract includes a project with the South Dakota Comprehensive Cancer Control Program that would work to create a comprehensive website to increase the number of people who pursue clinical trials for cancer. 


Here's a look at what other programs around the country are doing:


Texas Tech University: The physiological measurement lab is an experimental laboratory for 

measuring psychophysiological responses to media messages, such as television commercials, video games or Internet applications. The Center for Communication Research (CCR) houses state-of-the art technology for studying all facets of audience response to media messages — video, audio, online, commercial, informational and more. The center contains more than 6,000 square feet of research labs and provides research services to those both within and beyond the Texas Tech community.


Stanford University: The Stanford Psychophysiology Laboratory is a research laboratory designed for the study of emotion and emotion regulation. Some recent studies includes a project that works to understand the physiological, behavioral and experiential consequences of important emotion regulation strategies such as expressive suppression, cognitive reappraisal, and rumination. There is also work being done to design a way to teach sixth- and seventh-graders a growth mindset of emotion regulation and give them emotion regulation strategies, with the goal of improving academic performance. 


University of Washington: The Psychophysiology and Behavioral Systems Lab (PBS LAB) at the University of Washington conducts state-of-the-art research into the etiology, course and treatment of development with the media. Recent research has focused on eye-tracking technology and using these results for several national contracts it has with ad agencies around the country. 

University of Missouri-Columbia: The PRIME (Psychological Research on Information and Media Effects) Lab is both a research and teaching laboratory devoted to the study of how different features of media affect the way people think, feel, and act. They conduct theory-driven, empirical research using psychophysiology and other behavioral science methods. One of their two main projects is monitoring the emotional responses to common online activities. Participants in the experiment use Facebook, Amazon.com and CNN.com. Heart rate, skin conductance and facial electromyography data were recorded and synchronized with a video record of each participants' activities. The goal of this study is to explore the motivation of different content changes online.


Pennsylvania State University:  The Media Effects Research Laboratory has two main wings. There is the Traditional Media wing, which examines the effects of television, film entertainment and video games. The other group is the New Media Wing, which examines the effects of online media and communications technology.

Check out a tour of USD's psychology-physiology lab below.

How to build a D-Days parade float

Members of the Cross Media Council at the University of South Dakota decided to create a parade float for Dakota Days. The video below captures the highs and lows of taking on such a project.

The year without its namesake: Al Neuharth Award 2014

Peter Prichard, former editor of USA Today, was awarded the 2014 Al Neuharth Award for Excellence in the Media. The Oct. 9 ceremony was the first to be held at the University of South Dakota since the death of media leader and USD graduate Al Neuharth. 

"It's a great honor to get the Neuharth Award. Al was a great innovator and great newspaper man. There are a lot of great people that got this award," Prichard said. "I don't really think I deserved it but I'm honored – humbled."

Prichard served as president of the Newseum and Freedom Forum until January 2009, and currently is chair of the Newseum board of trustees. He was editor of USA Today, the nation’s largest-circulation newspaper, from 1988 to 1995, longer than any other editor in the newspaper's history. 

During his tenure, USA Today won several national journalism awards, and its circulation increased from 1.4 million to 2.3 million — surpassing the Wall Street Journal.

Prichard joined the likes of Walter Cronkite, Tom Brokaw and Katie Couric by receiving the honor. He was presented the award at an evening presentation, but was part of a panel discussion on politics and journalism earlier in the afternoon. 

The panel included Carson Walker, Associated Press news editor for the Dakotas; Gene Policinski, chief operating officer of the Newseum Institute; Chad Newswander, associate professor of political science at USD; and Prichard. 

Prichard said journalism does not seem as appealing for young people to get into because of statistics that read that only 40 percent of Americans believe the media is trustworthy and unbiased. 

"I would like to see more complete stories with more attention to fairness, with more thorough reporting and less opinion-driven journalism," he said. "We have all this great technology, it makes it possible really for almost anyone to be a journalist and get a story our there instantly. But a lot of it is not really very good, and often not fair, and sometimes not even true. I'd like to see higher standards."

Policinski would later host the award ceremony and said Prichard provided signal leadership at the nation’s first national newspaper and at the Newseum, the museum of news in Washington, D.C. that was started by Al Neuharth. 

“Peter added immensely to the success of each, and continues to help the Newseum be responsive to the continued changes in how news is gathered and reported,” Policinski said. 

Peter Prichard starts acceptance speech with remembering USD alum Al Neuharth. #MCOM325 pic.twitter.com/DjwG3EOBX7
— MiC (@IvesCard) October 9, 2014

Jan Neuharth, adult daughter of the late media mogul, introduced Prichard during the evening ceremony. The last person to receive the Al Neuharth Award for Excellence in the Media was Gwen Ifill, who received the 2013 recognition in June while working for PBS Newshour in Washington, D.C.

Prichard credited Al Neuharth with the major highlights of his career, but also spoke about the future of the industry. 

"It's the best of times and the worst of times. We have more access to news and information than ever, but part of the problem is that newspapers have been so damaged by the economic troubles that they don't have the reporting staffs to do the work that they used to do. That's a problem for readers and possibly for democracy," he said.

Obama on ISIS threat: Eradicate the cancer

What to do about the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria?

President Barack Obama is trying to answer this query and addressed the nation Sept. 10 in a televised speech with his solution - a major military campaign to eliminate the threat of ISIS. 

Obama said he will authorize American airstrikes in Syria and deploy 475 more military advisers to Iraq.

The 14-minute address from the State Floor of the White House included the president calling for a global coalition to "eradicate the cancer" that is the terrorist organization.

“We will hunt down terrorists who threaten our country, wherever they are,” Obama said. “That means I will not hesitate to take action against ISIL in Syria, as well as Iraq."

Just two weeks ago, the president was facing criticism for remarks that there was no plan in place to ward of ISIS, according to The New York Times. This new initiative by the White House would include more American training and arming of Syrian rebels, which would require Congress' support. 

Even a divided House of Representatives is on the same page about the threat of this terrorist organization. Members voted Sept. 17 to back the president's plan to spend nearly $500 million to supply the Free Syrian Army, reported the Huffington Post. 

A week earlier, reactions in Congress to the president's address was mixed. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., supported the plan, and said in a statement that Obama "got some key things right."

But Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., who is the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the president is "exercising poor judgment by not explicitly seeking an authorization from Congress where consensus can be reached around a substantive plan of action and support can be built for an operation that he has described will take several years." 

Some members are alarmed at the prospect of returning back to Iraq after a seven-year war, but Obama said during his evening address that he was not repeating the mistakes of his predecessor, George W. Bush.

The last time the U.S. had an active combat presence in Iraq, around 4,500 American troops were killed and 32,000 were injured. Iraqi civilian casualties estimates range from 100,000 to 600,000. 

U.S. troops were officially pulled out of Iraq in 2011. Obama announced plans in May to withdraw American troops out of Afghanistan by the end of 2016, but there has no comment made by the White House if this will be altered with the looming ISIS threat. 

There is no evidence to believe that ISIS will attack the U.S., Obama said, but the rise of violence has sparked outrage and action from the international community. The terrorist group, which is considered a splinter sect of al-Qaeda, is known for committing mass killings in north and west Iraq. 

Map of ISIS control in Iraq and Syria (The New York Times)

Recent beheadings of American and British citizens held hostage by ISIS has prompted more immediate response from the U.S. government. Militants posted videos of the killings and threatened more destruction in the coming weeks. 

Airstrikes in Syria to target the organization could still be weeks away, Obama said. 

“What we can do is systematically roll back the organization, shrink the territory where they’re operating, decimate its ranks, cut off its sources of support in terms of funding and equipment, and have the threat methodically and relentlessly reduced,” he said.

(Photo from the Associated Press)

I coulda been a contender

Nobody quite understands how pleasant it is to dress up in Victorian wear, drink afternoon tea and pose dramatically for three hours in the English countryside until given the opportunity. 

This is random. There is absolutely no reason why I posted this photo other than it makes me feel like Jane Austen but with civil liberties - like the right to vote and inherit things.

So, this is my blog. Yep. This is it...I mean, you don't have to stay long. Seriously, it's fine. No pressure. Just...ah...you know...do you.

Oh, so you stayed. Great! I was going to judge you hardcore for disparaging my only worthwhile creative outlet, but let's just start anew. 

This blog did not start of my fruition. College breeds assessment, assessment breeds homework, homework leads to me blogging at 3 in the morning because I can't sleep. 

But I'm going to blog of my own free will - plus do a few required blogs for class - because I need a way other than cleaning my apartment to avoid finishing homework. 

Here are a few expectations you can have for my posts:

1. Inconceivable. You've made it this far in my post. No. 1: Expect pop culture references. Like "we're going to need a bigger boat" cause I got too many movie quotes bouncing around. 

2. News? Yes, sometimes, kind of...a little. It's my "I've done three journalism internships" obligation to know something. 

3. Tina Fey. Why? Why not. I want to go to there. 

4. Other innocuous observations from trying to shield my Iowa elitist attitude surrounded by people who incorrectly pronounce coyote and Italy.  

Sorry, not many expectations. But welcome. Stick around and maybe I'll remember to update this thing.