tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-130222052024-03-07T15:17:58.351-05:00The Audio ProfThis is my Brain on Media.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger272125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13022205.post-89627193690509588552009-02-12T11:11:00.001-05:002009-02-12T11:13:30.511-05:00Revisiting NATPE–Ben Silverman on Change Part 1To me, the title of this posting seems almost ironic. Last semester…which really was only about 4 short months ago…we were discussing NBC’s Ben Silverman in my <a href="http://www.theaudioprof.com/teaching/T344/" target="_blank">Electronic Media Programming class</a>. But, the discussion at that time focused on the irreverent way he was doing his job as head of programming for the peacock network. And, the lack of hits he had been able to score during his first year. We listened to this podcast from <a href="http://www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/tb/tb080922which_way_silverman_" target="_blank">KCRW’s The Business </a>where the prediction seemed to be that Silverman’s job wouldn’t last the calendar year of 2008.<a href="http://www.ariemanuel.networdpressm=200805/"></a><br />But, at NATPE 2009 Silverman was being honored with a <a href="http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/162507-The_Sixth_Annual_Brandon_Tartikoff_Legacy_Award_Winners.php" target="_self">Brandon Tartikoff Legacy Award</a>.<br />Ben Silverman–Posterboy for Change.<br />And he has brought about a ton of change at NBC. Green lighting shows to production without seeing a pilot, having major sponsors buy into financing a production based only on the weight of the actor associated with a show (i.e., Ford on the now-canceled Christian Slater show...)<br /><br />This post continues on my new blog site. Visit it here and set your bookmarks.<br /><a href="http://theaudioprof.com/blog/">The Audioprof Blog</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13022205.post-60687180969459144282009-01-26T09:57:00.001-05:002009-01-26T09:58:15.946-05:00Favorite of ALL TIME!?!–not that there’s anything wrong with that<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">In my last blog posting I shared some of the results from a questionnaire that I gave approximately 100 students in the two undergraduate courses I’m teaching this semester.<span style=""> </span>I usually like to start off a semester with such a data-collecting tool because every year I get further and further away from the demographic<span style=""> </span>and psychographics of my students that I need to ask them what they heck they like and how they spend their time.<span style=""> </span>One of the things I always ask are their favorite TV shows right now.<span style=""> </span>[<a href="http://theaudioprof.com/blog/index.php/2009/01/what-the-kids-are-watching/">Find out the top 3 by reading the last post</a>].</span></p> <span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">I also ask them what their favorite TV show is of all time.<span style=""> </span>This is the first time that I every really tallied the results in any systematic way but I can’t say I’m surprised by the winner.<br /><br />Read the rest of the entry at <a href="http://theaudioprof.com/blog/index.php/2009/01/favorite-of-all-time-not-that-theres-anything-wrong-with-that/">MY NEW BLOG LOCATION</a><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13022205.post-21661738870986571992009-01-15T08:32:00.001-05:002009-01-15T08:32:47.824-05:00What the Kids are Watching<p>Every semester one of the ways I begin my undergraduate courses is by giving them a little questionnaire asking a variety of things…why you took the course, what you want to do in five years…in ten.</p> <p>And, since I know that the older I get the the less likely I am to watch the same type of television that my students do, I always ask them about their favorite TV shows. I always ask:</p> <ol><li>What is your favorite TV show right now?</li><li>What is your favorite TV show <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">of all time</span>?</li></ol> <p>Usually, this is just something that I flip through after I get them…this time I actually did a quick (and by no means extremely precise) tally. And so, without further ado…here are the most reported favorite shows right now:</p><p><br /></p><p>READ MORE AT MY <a href="http://theaudioprof.com/blog/index.php/2009/01/what-the-kids-are-watching/">NEW BLOG SITE</a>: <br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13022205.post-11417101185896436192009-01-13T08:31:00.000-05:002009-01-13T08:32:51.907-05:00Some steps to college successI have grumbled lately about how much time Wordpress was taking to learn. That brough out a number of kind souls from my immediate community who offered to help. Special thanks to <a href="http://www.blog.markwbell.com/?page_id=22" mce_href="http://www.blog.markwbell.com/?page_id=22">Mark W. Bell</a> who came to my rescue and gave me some good design help andwas willing to spend a couple hours just talking with me about The Audio Prof Blog and what my goals were. I'm hoping to find more time...from this point on...to write some things that cross my mind about media--what's happening in the industry and what's happening in your brain as you pay attention to it. Of course, some of my posts will inevitably be about teaching since that's what I spend much of my time doing here at IU. And, this semester particularly since I'm teaching 3 courses rather than the typical 2:<br /><a href="http://www.theaudioprof.com/teaching/T340/" mce_href="http://www.theaudioprof.com/teaching/T340/">Electronic Media AdvertisingElectronic Media Sales</a>, and<a href="http://www.theaudioprof.com/teaching/T552/" mce_href="http://www.theaudioprof.com/teaching/T552/">Cognitive Approaches to Media</a><br />The first two listed are undergraduate courses. The Sales course held its first meeting yesterday (at 8am, ugh). And that got me to think about what advice I would give to any undergrad student about how to get the most out of the university experience...or at least the experiences in my classes. Here we go:<br /><br />To Read More...go to my new blog site: <a href="http://www.theaudioprof.com/blog/">The Audio Prof Blog</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13022205.post-57823470527385265032009-01-04T12:31:00.003-05:002009-01-04T13:31:27.369-05:00Ugly? Maybe. Common? Yes. Functional? DEFINITELY!A few days ago <a href="http://theaudioprof.blogspot.com/2008/12/change-makes-me-antsy.html">I blogged about considering switching from Blogger to WordPress </a>to publish my blog. It was prompted by some blog envy of my friend Sam Bradley, author of <a href="http://www.commcognition.com/blog/">Communication and Cognition</a>. Sam has really tutored himself on the craft of finding, creating, and keeping an audience in the online community. Sam switched to <a href="http://www.wordpress.org/">WordPress</a>. Lots of the "serious bloggers" that I know use WordPress. I'm serious, right?<br /><br />I was encouraged when I received more comments from that blog post teasing about a switch to WordPress than I have in a long time. Now, we're not talking tons of comments here...but lately any comment as proof that people are visiting this page is better than none. Most of the comments pushed me in the direction of using WordPress. "It tells the world you're serious about blogging," one person said. "<a href="http://www.blogger.com/">Blogger</a> is so boring and predictable in its design elements," another chimed in.<br /><br />So, I tried WordPress. I installed WP 2.7 on my host and started reading the program's online documentation. Trouble was...that documentation seemed to apply to an earlier version of the program...as the Dashboard I was staring at was quite different than what they described. No problem...I'm a fairly intelligent person so I figured that I could poke around until I figured it out.<br /><br />I haven't been more frustrated with something in MONTHS.<br /><br />I'm all for the open-source concept! I love the fact that people all over the world are trying to make the program better--more widgets, better graphically, etc.--and sharing their knowledge with dopes like me without any sort of profit motive. My understanding was that I just needed to find a template that I like and install it. No problem. First trouble...there are SO MANY to choose from! I spent several hours obsessively poking through beautiful templates of all types. <em>Finally</em> found one that I liked. It was this one:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.skinpress.com/demo/">WordPress Theme Notepad Second</a><br /><br />How clean. How professional looking. My little picture could be there to the right, with a blurb about my research next to it...replacing the "Lorem ipsum dolor" stuff.<br />And Tag Clouds! I love Tag Clouds. That's the one, I thought. Downloaded it, transferred it to my host. Selected it and viola:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.theaudioprof.com/blog/">Rob's sloppy page</a>.<br /><br />Could I find how to upload my picture. No way! Could I figure out how to replace the "Lorem ipsum, et al.?" Must be in the <em>About Me</em> thing on the dashboard, right? I mean, it says "About" right there, doesn't it?<br /><br />Nope. That resulted in another line appearing somewhere. (Honestly, I edited the statement in "about me" prior to publishing this blog...)<br /><br />I wrestled with that darn page for an entire afternoon. No luck. Feeling clueless, I decided that it just wasn't the time for me to work on migrating to WordPress.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Cool heads prevailed the next morning, with a fresh set of eyes after a good night's sleep.<br />"Come on, you should be able to figure this out!" I gave myself a pep talk over a cup (or two) of coffee. "Maybe you just chose too complex of a template."<br /><br />That's it, start slowly. Ease yourself into this open source stuff. Remember, open source, where the information about how to do it is all out there...free...for the user!<br /><br />So, I tried another template. Honestly, I think I've blocked out the actual name due to the trauma experienced after spending THREE HOURS just trying to figure out how to change the font color for the postings from orange (orange?!? I just don't get aesthetics I guess...how about a nice black color for my simple prose).<br /><br />I did start learning stuff...thanks to the power of Google. [Google, who btw, provides me with the free...that free both monetarily AND stress-free...blog host I've been using for 3 years]. I Googled and learned how to change the font size on the menu of my page. I learned what a "hover" was...and how to change that font size. Even learned <em>where</em> to change the font color on my menu. But, the fact that it was in hex didn't help me one bit...do all these people using WordPress know the hex color wheel by heart? Oh my gosh, I am outta touch.<br /><br />But, after copying and pasting figures like #FFF062G (or whatever!) from one place to another, I <em>did </em>change the text of my menu text from one hue to another. You'd think that would at least help me approach the problem of changing the font color in my posting itself. I mean, this is a simple template. It doesn't even have a place for me to put a picture of myself for cripes sake!<br /><br />Nope. Couldn't find it. After another 45 minutes...lots of grumbling...and having my family members leave the house...I finally gave up.<br /><br />Blogger.<br />My blog is blue. It's blue because I clicked a button saying "make it blue."<br />It's two columns. That's all I can get. Too bad.<br />But, when I'm ready to blog...it's here for me.<br />Functionality. I'll take it.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13022205.post-64324126005635102082008-12-29T20:17:00.005-05:002009-01-01T19:59:47.368-05:00Change makes me antsySo, yesterday I called your attention to the <a href="http://www.commcognition.com/blog/">Communication & Cognition </a>blog, now in its new form. Sam Bradley, the C&C blog author, and I have been emailing back and forth as I pick his brain about his recent transition to using <a href="http://wordpress.org/">WordPress</a> to publish his blog rather than blogger.<br /><br />I have known about WordPress for sometime now.<br />My first introduction to it was through friends of our family who publish <a href="http://www.blogschmog.net/">blogschmog</a>.<br />But I have been reluctant to switch to it because...well, I don't much like change. I like things to work. And even when it's not working <em>exactly </em>right...I have to get pretty darn displeased in order to make a switch. Now, when it comes to "designing" my own pages for <a href="http://www.theaudioprof.com/">my website </a>and my <a href="http://www.theaudioprof.com/teaching/s105/">teaching pages</a>, I don't need much more than <a href="http://tryit.adobe.com/us/cs4/dreamweaver/index.html?sdid=EFOYD">Dreamweaver</a>--a program that I have been using and pleased with for about 7 years.<br /><br />But when it comes to how the blog looks here on blogger...I'm getting tired of it and can't quite make it look better or lay it out better using this program.<br /><br />So, now I'm thinking about switching too. But that means change.<br />I've got to download WordPress and see if it's as easy as folks say to learn.<br />Usually, flexible (which I can tell WordPress is) doesn't equal easy.<br />Plus, I will need to make changes to my web host, too...as it can't support WordPress under my current plan.<br /><br />But, compare the look of my blog to that of Communication & Cognition or Blogschmog, or any of those in the <a href="http://wordpress.org/showcase/">WP showcase page</a>, and it's no contest.<br /><br />But change makes my stomach churn.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13022205.post-79212901516073507392008-12-28T17:30:00.010-05:002008-12-28T20:34:16.609-05:00Congratulations to two IU T'comm Alumni<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtLBwOp4UoV2ic4YTYGvycJmToz4mqS09tkCFdEd1x4Ohl23rMdWV_9IsfAIWHyqjWCay9nJzBpOY9OMYvm2uR9ruIp138D7I6ED_RGASBzWJchiQmlPa2N1IurkK-tOiV66Te/s1600-h/IMG_1246.jpg"></a><div>Yes, Yes, Yes, it's been more than one month since my last posting.</div><div><br />I have no real excuse...other than perhaps trying to wrap up a busy semester <em>and</em> get all the loose ends tied up before going away on my first true vacation in almost 15 years. </div><div><br /><br /></div><div></div><div>And, you'll realize why I didn't blog from vacation when you see what else I had to stare at besides a computer screen:</div><div><br /></div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5284974710403543362" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmhmhEP1OW1KLc63iRgS7Vlf_-MPaqZe5JqnOqz5M9xG4nv9T9pa1ENp497gUgnlHdLZ_J2tt0c3iFqWCmYviPFHc-nrHbE6o_2QKihPQ8HkpDDg2o4fF3LtxR4dnuTREC7ytV/s320/IMG_1247.jpg" border="0" /><br /><div></div>This was the view from my lounge chair at <a href="http://www.secretsresorts.com/capri/">Secrets Capri</a>. My wife and I celebrated ny sucessful tenure decision and (more importantly) our 15th wedding anniversary with a vacation without kids. My mother-in-law came to watch ours...and Secrets is an adult resort which allowed for lots of relaxation.<br /><br />But, now I'm back and trying to be recommitted to periodic postings on The Audioprof blog.<br /><br />And, we'll start back at it with one of the primary reasons I started this blog: to brag on Indiana University's <a href="http://www.indiana.edu/~telecom/index.shtml">Dept. of Telecommunications</a>...its students, faculty, and alumni.<br /><br /><br />Today, a rousing hooray to two alumni. First, IU PhD. Sam Bradley. If memory serves, Sam was initially inspired by The Audioprof blog three years ago and launched his Communication & Cognition blog. But recently, he has really taken it to the next level with incredibly relevant content and a brand new design. You should really check it out if you never have. And, if you were a regular visitor note the new address for the <a href="http://www.commcognition.com/blog/">Communication & Cognition Blog</a>.<br /><br />And secondly, I am tremendously impressed by IU Telecom alum Brad Holtz. Brad is the Program Director of <a href="http://www.wttsfm.com/">WTTS-FM</a>. It is an Album Adult Alternative (AAA) station located in Bloomington but broadcasting into the Indianapolis market. I have know what a great PD Brad is from the two class visits he's made to my <a href="http://www.theaudioprof.com/teaching/t344/">T344 course</a>. I blogged about one of them<a href="http://theaudioprof.blogspot.com/2007/11/great-alumni-bring-knowledge-to-current.html"> here</a>.<br /><br />But, now he's been nationally recognized by a trade magazine, <a href="http://www.fmqb.com/">FMQB</a>.<br />Holtz has been selected as this year's Program Director of the Year for the AAA format!<br />See the award announcement on this page at <a href="http://www.fmqb.com/article.asp?id=1045016">FMQB (scroll to the bottom).</a><br /><br />Congrats to you both, thanks for doing IU-T'comm proud!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13022205.post-35593321115658718922008-11-25T11:38:00.002-05:002008-11-25T11:47:02.988-05:00Mommy, it's Saturday, can we watch an infomercialThose of you who are like me can remember how much you liked Saturdays...what my kids now affectionately refer to as one of the "stay at home days."<br /><br />One of the great things about Saturdays was flopping down in front of morning cartoons while eating Honey Comb cereal right outta the box.<br /><br />Those days are over.<br />Financial woes are partly to blame, as are cable networks like Cartoon Network...but here's a story about Fox's decision to scrap Saturday morning cartoons for...<a href="http://www.variety.com/VR1117996360.html">infomercials.</a><br /><br />Of course...this will grab headlines (like the title of my posting...only read by many more people). But, in reality, this may in fact result in better kids programming on Saturday mornings on Fox affiliates.<br /><br />If you read the whole Variety article I link to above, you'll see that local affils are trying to find places to air their required E/I (educational/informational) programming. Saturday mornings used to be out because the network had that time all programmed nationally. Now, it seems the affils will be able to at least opt out of airing the informercials in favor of their own E/I fare.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13022205.post-69651562112910365512008-11-14T20:45:00.002-05:002008-11-14T20:50:22.556-05:00Updates to Publication Web PageI've been busy as heck lately...working on getting papers assigned to reviewers for the Information Systems division of ICA has been a good portion of the time.<br /><br />But, I've also had some good news lately.<br /><br />Two new research publications have come out recently, and another one accepted for publication...but it won't come out until December, 2009!<br /><br />Find out more about them on my <a href="http://www.theaudioprof.com/publications.html">publications page</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13022205.post-21865187131982888272008-10-20T20:33:00.003-04:002009-01-01T19:46:40.477-05:00IU Blogs!Although I've known about it for awhile, I haven't posted about it here on the blog.<br /><br />The College of Arts and Sciences has a page that highlights <a href="http://www.indiana.edu/~college/blogs.shtml">faculty blogs</a>...and yes, more than half of them are faculty from the <a href="http://www.indiana.edu/~telecom/">Dept. of Telecommunications</a>!<br /><br />I was reminded of this today because Indiana University has now started a special feature called <a href="http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/9058.html">Scholar Blogs</a>. It launched last week, and every year will feature a new crop of a dozen undergrads writing about their experiences on the Bloomington campus.<br /><br />Be sure to visit the <a href="http://scholarships.indiana.edu/spotlight.html">Scholar Blogs </a>page.<br /><br />Oh, and yes, in case you're wondering, one of the first scholar bloggers is a <a href="http://blogs.oem.indiana.edu/scholarships/index.php/author/jacob">Jacob Sherry</a>...a Telecomm major!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13022205.post-55990350656977822692008-10-13T19:21:00.003-04:002008-10-13T20:26:12.722-04:00ICR alumni's research garners interest from NewsweekCongratulations to James Angelini, a professor at University of Delaware, who was recently interviewed by <a href="http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/stumper/archive/2008/10/10/expertinent-the-biology-of-negative-advertising.aspx">Newsweek magazine </a>about a recent publication he co-authored in Journal of Advertising.<br /><br />You can read Angelini's impressions of the whole thing on his <a href="http://commandgenderspot.blogspot.com/2008/10/first-time-interview.html">Blog: The Comm & Gender Spot</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13022205.post-82404140666550384112008-10-10T17:02:00.004-04:002008-10-11T20:53:06.996-04:00International Visitors to the ICRAnother exciting day in the ICR. I'm just back from my favorite conference, <a href="http://www.sprweb.org/">SPR</a>. Sorry to not have blogged from there, just so busy seeing extremely interesting research! In fact, I told my colleague, <a href="http://journalism.missouri.edu/faculty/paul-bolls.html">Paul Bolls</a>, that I was leaving with terrific ideas...and 11 articles that I just HAVE to read!<br /><br />The conference was held in Austin TX, which I didn't find very interesting. But, the day afterwards I visited my aunt & uncle who live in San Antonio. Here's proof...a picture of me in front of a closed Alamo!<br /><div><div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5256022425327838130" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi83dZSmeq4MWvTXxOZaMGel2oZEhWcgyQpS3K8aObOLvv9cxjCl4F5UwgpdNoAbZoLpsKbwR4enDfOLLsDKsEjG5BCGxzyzWt4N160A6mse-LIdV1IkSlJW2mSuh3t5Nfl01XD/s320/Photo_100508_006%5B1%5D.JPG" border="0" /><br />So, now I'm back and happy to have a weekend that is pretty lazy to allow me to catch up on stuff. This past week, though, we were fortunate enough to be visited by a group of 5 professors from National Chengchi University in Taiwan. They are interested in designing a research facility and wanted to see what the ICR was all about. So, with the help of several graduate students, <a href="http://www.indiana.edu/~telecom/faculty/lang.html">Annie Lang</a>, <a href="http://www.indiana.edu/~telecom/faculty/gantz.html">Walt Gantz</a>, <a href="http://theaudioprof.blogspot.com/2007/03/departmenticr-open-house.html">Sharon Mayell (the ICR Lab Manager)</a> and I showed:</div><br /><br /><div>Dr.Wei Wen, Chung, Dean of Communication College<br />Dr. Herng, Su, Chair of Journalism Dept.<br />Dr. Shang Ren, Kwan, Chair of Radio & TV Dept.<br />Dr. Tsai Yen, Li, Chair of Information Science Dept.<br />Dr. Pao Fang, Chang, Associate Professor of Journalism Dept.<br /></div><br /><br /><div>some of the types of studies that we can do in the facility.</div><br /><div></div><br /><div>Here's Sungkyoung Lee talking about one of the studies:</div><br /><br /><div></div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5256055849362565138" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiISl1kaOLiEr9iuCp6X7IvEh3DhHpRDifV1pIrCg1D8N9wsv-_4zkBIe4TmKK6fwaG1F4AdaB4lEe_Sf_VYOFw5xMr6CnS9JtnqNyREFItz19DcN9rTL7nWyvtAjjoxta0jHFB/s320/lab1.jgp.JPG" border="0" /><br /><br /><div>And Annie explaining the importance of understanding context when interpreting psychophysiological measures:<img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5256056292554789426" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFQ94IyYsrVQ7T0Rsy6dB1ONonSOeautwePw_uyk6_QQZIeLLYXGcSBoYexbPpBFjr7sHvihESU8Fws7b66BZAHN5wZxwVu6zzX4sbcKy2KcZVubaPeRG99yOXN1jlRYolj3LW/s320/lab2.JPG" border="0" /></div></div><br /><p> </p><p>It was a very pleasant visit and I was very proud to show off the ICR.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13022205.post-30544086931316570472008-09-20T22:15:00.003-04:002009-01-01T19:45:01.082-05:00Short Film Shows the Power of the Right WordsMany thanks to former student Jennifer Robinson, now of the <a href="http://www.itri.tv/">Interactive Television Research Institute </a>in her native Australia, for passing on this short film that shows the impact that good marketing can have.<br /><br />It's less then 6 minutes long...<br /><br />Give it a look.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.adnstream.tv/video/nilSqaMboM/HISTORIA-DE-UN-LETRERO-THE-STORY-OF-A-SIGN">The Story of a Sign</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13022205.post-24014867869530746332008-09-19T21:01:00.003-04:002008-09-19T21:55:04.996-04:00Visit to Ohio State SuccessfulIt's been 10 days since I've updated. Sorry. Busy time.<br /><div>Today, in fact, I was a part of a terrific panel as our <a href="http://www.indiana.edu/~telecom/t600.html">Department's Colloquium Series</a>. </div><br /><div>Maybe more on that later.</div><br /><div> </div><div>But I wanted to share a little story.</div><br /><div>Ten years ago or so I was an Assistant Professor at University of Alabama in the <a href="http://www.tcf.ua.edu/">Telecommunication and Film Department</a>. And, in order to continue my work I needed to get a physiology lab up and running. I had inherited all the equipment...it was in a storage room but I wasn't sure how to get it functional.</div><br /><div>In our our lab use a program called VPM, written by a <a href="http://www.psy.uab.edu/cook.htm">Professor Ed Cook at UAB</a> to collect our physiology data. Because he was so geographically close to me in Tuscaloosa, I asked him to come down and consult with me. He was gracious enough to agree and soon the Media and Psychophysiology Lab was functional. I'll never forget his kindness.</div><br /><div></div><div>And I remembered him fondly when <a href="http://www.comm.ohio-state.edu/People/Faculty/ZhengJoyceWang.aspx">Zheng Wang </a>--an IU Telecomm. PhD. who is now at Ohio State--asked me if I would come and help her set up her lab in Columbus. She, too had inherited some equipment that were in somewhat a state of storage.</div><br /><div></div><div>So, last weekend I went to visit her in Columbus and had a great time. Here I am with Brutus the OSU mascot...which is a nut as far as I can tell...but here he is dressed up as an astronaut.</div><div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5247913971863141554" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid4ktJZEZAHXRzQWKG0FKe0yRfPiBtcpxKMoscXhvvulQf6sSb7slhlk3hCIaGXz-CH1BiHIEolKyjr12WWgYo9RQHqGEja2SjFH0Qc_LkvVwsGxc9KrujOTm6tnkttJRp5jga/s400/Photo_091108_011.jpg" border="0" /></div><div>And later in the weekend I was able to find my way into the OSU stadium which I understand is called "The Horseshoe." Apparently there was a big game that weekened between OSU and USC...but it was an way game as you can tell by the "crowd" around me.</div><div> </div><div> </div><div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5247913970672340802" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge5AWC1UXoHmJnIF8_obH7PdN83hqVWUzjrS5aggkMgW-hL5JZIXWie0xqx2Yc4i7pNfPNJlBnKXXb1O26KllY2HjG_UfGpXXIKq_m17PBZdIBBtN9eXaKiZZTYmC7Q9fknJo-/s400/Photo_091208_013.jpg" border="0" /></div><div> </div><div>And, most importantly, I'm glad to report that the Wang Lab is now all ready to collect data.</div><div>Go Zheng!<img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5247913972823892082" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5igRDlA-ILb7AKUQIeru3d2xWaIdefHYM9BZIFRzEFmVWyiZwCNYRcIuTFioVklGt1iHlsfg2IOtTyprtB_FfMinFEX8AVhZFn5dltfij1K5JA8q90ZeEdPs5kpvuLVqAa4Wa/s400/Photo_091208_002.jpg" border="0" /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13022205.post-63834777578684545772008-09-09T15:26:00.003-04:002008-09-09T15:28:09.995-04:00Radio continues to try to be...relevant? Helpful?And honestly, this may indeed help out.<br /><br />Here's a story from Radio & Records:<br /><br /><br />--><br />Originally Posted On Sep 8, 2008 5:05 PM ET<br />Song Tagging Technology Comes To FM Radio<br /><br />By Mike Stern<br /><br />A group of nine broadcast companies have announced their commitment to providing electronic data that will enable consumers to tag songs they hear on FM radio for immediate purchase bringing the music discovery and purchase processes closer together than ever. The first device to make use of this data will be the Microsoft Zune as part of a new set of features for the MP3 player.<br /><br />Stations operated by Beasley, Bonneville, CBS Radio, Citadel, Clear Channel Radio, Cox Radio, Emmis, Entercom and Greater Media will be broadcasting the song tags enabling consumers to purchase music heard on over 450 radio stations across the country at the outset with more rolling out soon.<br /><br />The impetus to pursue this idea came from radio broadcasters. "We approached Microsoft about this," says executive vice president of distribution development for Clear Channel Radio Jeff Littlejohn who was deeply involved in the project. "But it didn't take much selling."<br />The technology uses song "tags," unique identifiers for each individual song that are encrypted and sent over an FM radio signal. Consumers with devices that can capture the identifier can either immediately purchase the song via digital download or save the information for purchase later. With the Microsoft’s Zune having an integrated FM tuner and wireless connectivity, the purchase can be essentially immediate if the user is in a Wi-Fi hot spot.<br /><br />"It's a great way to make a simple radio really interactive," says Littlejohn. "Radio has been interactive through Web sites for a long time, but radio itself has not been interactive before. The idea of linking music discovery in just a couple of clicks to actual purchase is revolutionary."<br />A recent Microsoft study showed that 61% of respondents say radio is their primary source for discovering new music. “Radio is one of the primary ways people discover new music, which is why we have built an FM tuner into every Zune portable media player,” said Chris Stephenson, general manager of Global Marketing for Zune at Microsoft. “The leadership of these radio broadcasters has played an integral role in enabling millions of Zune users to tag and purchase songs directly from FM radio.”<br /><br />While Microsoft will be the first to utilize the technology, it is not restricted. "This is able to be more than just Clear Channel, more than just HD Radio, more than just Apple or Microsoft," says Littlejohn. "It is a way for the entire industry to enable interactive music purchasing." He continues, "It can go beyond music as well. There are other things that could be tagged. It could also go beyond MP3 players. It's not a large leap to see FM radios starting to make their way into cell phones which are connected and would enable instant purchasing."<br />The technology, which uses RDS coding, is similar to that being used for HD Radio tagging which has been heavily promoted recently. The difference is in the wireless connectivity which allows FM tagging to be used without needing a cabled internet of any sort while HD tagging works with a docking station.<br /><br />"From a radio broadcaster's standpoint this gives listeners a reason to come to my radio station and a reason to come back to my radio station," says Littlejohn. "It gives them an interactive feature they haven't previously had."Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13022205.post-41145313692476044152008-09-02T06:39:00.007-04:002008-09-02T07:14:44.994-04:00Orienting to Volume Changes--More IFS data!!!Classes start for the Fall Semester tomorrow...well, today for those on a Tuesday/Thursday teaching schedule. And, I've spent the past few days getting syllabi ready for the coming term. One of the fortunate things is that I'm teaching "This is your Brain on Media,", the class I taught for IFS, again this semster as an S105 seminar. I was therefore able to keep what worked during IFS and revise what didn't.<br /><br /><br />As you may suspect if you've been following this blog lately, one thing that did work well was the student experiments. And, it's time to report on another one.<br /><br /><br />This was the second "Attention Group." They were interested in abrupt changes in volume in media and whether such a change would result in the automatic allocation of cognitive resources to processing the message. This is a phenomenon known as <a href="http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O87-orientingresponse.html">the orienting response</a>. At first, the group seemed intent upon testing this in movie clips...but they had trouble finding examples...even though they were "sure they had seen them"!<br /><br />In the end, music was what they selected (which The Audio Prof did not discourage!). The found four songs where the music was very quiet for an extended time and then got very loud. Furthermore, two of the songs were familar (<em><a href="http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O87-orientingresponse.html">Ironic</a></em> from Alanis Morrisette and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TILCIRspO0"><em>Bring Me to Life</em> </a>from Evanescence) and two of them were unfamiliar local bands that one of the students knew.<br /><br /><br />The students collected heart rate data during the songs presentations, which were played in random order to 4 other students. Then, they identified the points in each song where the volume change occurred. Here's what they found:<br /><br /><br /><p></p><br /><br /><p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5241379341520565650" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPcRRIAtVDpJpSXvMrShGqzuZvlxpsHL5SSUDDRfrSJAmkrNIR4A33l9J5sx4pP5Vtak8UV05d3kb242JVnOgCgxnop_Y-dYLCXzbF9fJM8KC5s5akZoJ2gZaYA4e6eGyjbXzm/s400/attention+music.jpg" border="0" /><br /></p>Now an orienting response is identified with a momentary deceleration in heart rate. And, this graph shows changes from the point at which the volume change occurred (the place where both lines are at "0" on the left side of the figure). And, you see that heart rate went down for both types of songs...so, they oriented to the volume changes just like the students thought would happen. Plus, they wondered whether familiarity with the song would have an impact. And, it seems that it did...the orienting responses were larger if the subject didn't know the song. Makes sense, right?<br /><br />Congratulations to "Attention Group, Music" members:<br /><br />David Benmen, Michelle Feder, Eliot Suitor-Feld, and Alexandra WojtalUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13022205.post-20148447287901008412008-08-24T15:37:00.004-04:002008-08-24T17:01:41.280-04:00A look at some IFS data<p>I'm sure I have said this at least once over the last three weeks, but IFS is extremely intensive. Not only for the students, but also for the professors. At church this morning I saw two other professors who are in the program, and all three of us are exhausted. I don't know whether to feel discouraged or uplifted that the other two professors have done IFS before...and are still wiped out!<br /></p><p>My family has gone off on this hot and muggy Indiana afternoon to go swimming at a friend's pool. I decided to stay home, somewhat because I wanted to get a blog posting up, but also because I'm just tired.</p><br /><p>Looking back on the three-week experience, I am amazed <em>at</em> how far the students and I were able to get. Over the course of 15 days, four different student groups were able to generate their own original research hypotheses, identify the independent and dependent variables in them, find examples of media stimuli to satisfy the different levels of the independent variable, collect physiology data as dependent variables, analyze that data and present it to the class!!</p><br /><p>Over the next few blog postings I've like to give you a sense of the very interesting questions and results they generated. The first week was devoted to questions about attention to media. In the ICR we primarily use heart rate as an indication of attention/cognitive effort. The first group to collect data wondered whether people would pay different amounts of attention to television stories depending upon whether they were exposed to audio-video presentations, video-only presentations, or audio-only presentations. Those of you familiar with this type of media research, will find this question to be highly influenced by the reading the students did in the Reeves & Nass book entitled <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Media-Equation-Computers-Television-Lecture/dp/1575860538/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1219611596&sr=8-1">The Media Equation</a>. </em>Of course, as an instructor, this made me ecstatic because it meant they were actually reading the textbook!</p><br /><br /><p>So, the members of "attention group lizard" found segments of video online from the National Geographic Channel (that's where they got their name) and manipulated them to meet the different levels of their independent variable. And although, like all the data I'll present from IFS, they only had time to run three or four of their classmates through the experiment, here's what they found:</p><br /><br /><p></p><p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5238188540886438418" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis8ThUl0KTVxs8BNvcEN0QxxXlJE8A46xBlBMIgxoVCJOKbfgktWq_S53oI3bZD94W1FsrsV7FFyrI4jhvl-zNOwDoaaEjt0RUJwjea7dTgQbj1zYLFuc1NNp7Z8wLW1TKTq-n/s400/attentionlizard.jpg" border="0" />It's obvious that most of the differentiation is in the early part of each message, which appears on the left-hand side of the graph. Substantially lower heart rate (indicating more attention) occurs during the "monkey" video clip. In this video clip there was <em>only</em> video in the students concluded that subjects paid more attention early on during that portion of the stimulus presentation because we are quite unpracticed at processing television shows without any sort of audio. Helping them to reach this conclusion, was the fact that the least amount of attention was paid during the clip that contains both audio and video -- the same way we are so accustomed to watching television.</p><p>Congratulations to the members of this group:<br /><br />Andrew Platkin · Jeremy Rytych · Adam Siemer · Tommy Scott · Logan Gants</p><p>and best of luck during your time here at IU!</p><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13022205.post-85330533593348943282008-08-19T10:04:00.003-04:002008-08-19T10:30:24.053-04:00Quick bit of Audio NewsI'm in the middle of adminstering the second unit exam to the IFS class. I can't <em>believe</em> how hard these guys have been working, and how much ground we've covered in 10 days! <br /><br />I'll be posting some of the (quite impressive) data that the research groups collected during their lab days over the next few posts.<br /><br />But, for now, I thought I'd pass on a story of a big radio conglomerate--one that often gets bad press as the evil empire--doing good.<br /><br />Story (thanks to <em>Media Week</em>): Clear Channel creates <a href="http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/content_display/news/local-broadcast/e3i4c1e510d6bb05d0d0418f6a732b65d3c">The Pink Channel</a>.<br /><br />Here's the XM page for <a href="http://www.xmradio.com/onxm/channelpage.xmc?ch=24">The Pink Channel</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/content_display/news/local-broadcast/e3i4c1e510d6bb05d0d0418f6a732b65d3c"></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13022205.post-80453238728901181182008-08-12T09:40:00.005-04:002008-08-12T10:16:39.294-04:00This is your Brain on the Lilly LibraryOne of the things that the Intensive Freshmen Seminars are designed to do is introduce the new freshmen to wonderful opportunities and facilities here on the <a href="http://www.iub.edu/">IUB</a> campus. For lack of a better word, we take FIELD TRIPS. Now, sometimes these fit nicely with the content of the course. My colleague, Andrew Weaver, is teaching an IFS course on <a href="http://ifs.indiana.edu/index.php?nodeID=displayCourse&courseID=63">Human Agression</a>. He was able to send his students to the <a href="http://www.iub.edu/~iuam/iuam_home.php">IU Art Museum </a>and ask them to look for examples of violent or agressive behavior represented in art. Great idea! <div><div><br /><br /><div>Other times, the field trips are only tangentially connected. But, they still seem encouraged by the IFS. For <a href="http://ifs.indiana.edu/index.php?nodeID=displayCourse&courseID=59">my course</a>, some of the connections seemed a stretch...I sent them to the art musuem, and I suppose art is a medium...</div><br /><div>But, yesterday, we visited the <a href="http://www.indiana.edu/~liblilly/index.php">Lilly Library</a>...a special collections library that I'm sad to say I hadn't yet visited in my 10 years in Bloomington. It was fabulous! And, the students had an engaging time. Check this out:</div><br /><br /><br /><div></div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5233628458711851970" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggyxJ7frm3fyP_HSgchzpFlbwaipWqH50mN0NQq-Krv2Is4lOCVEARtXP5du3WS2LTi4uNgszHbPRSX4SNMQCr4k5k90GRiy8P40x15dnaeLCq4RVCSOIz1JFjGirVnZB29m-9/s320/Photo_081108_002.jpg" border="0" /><br /><br /><br /><div>Here's Brittany and student Jeremy looking at a sample of the library's collection of miniature books.</div><br /><br /><div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5233628460904594546" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5cEvIIrXAxlCtml36iVLL3AVAvAl5PcRzZFt23nk9Wm8WR-CC9mzKqP4n3EwPF6xHymk6aOPxah7KvGMXP3qbYYZqECL14Jjk5HNP97qA4cK5vyqQmBYnY3qwqQfffB0pvRwB/s320/Photo_081108_003.jpg" border="0" /></div></div><br /><br /><p>Sam takes a picture of one of the worlds only <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutenberg_Bible#Existing_copies_of_the_Gutenberg_Bible">Gutenberg Bibles</a>. <img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5233628471109176898" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR9SgOZ5FjGXxe6UATOGSMcBKDn5OWd5qkpMwRrg32Y4sGOkPbdfM6897FAljZOtJ93JxAFt6EOkJDJbF0tqS8ImJoE48jDTFzdOsecTWVN7VonIjKBkSQz85X5n-Ye9yro85K/s320/Photo_081108_004.jpg" border="0" /></p><br /><br /><p>My IFS intern Jeremy looks at an Audobon painting.</p><br /><br /><p>One of the biggest "hits" of the visit was the <a href="http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/slocum/">Jerry Slocum Mechanical Puzzle Collection</a>. Here are Stephanie, Adam, Michael and Meg stretching their brains in different ways.<br /></p><p align="left"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5233630389141557362" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 292px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 220px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" height="174" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikSXoeh2YDzTvLJ7G6Hsl9O3n2TLDvzCjyK-zT8BO3QVtlEobZ6r237wxd1uEA4BnJx63VopLJ2uirqjvA-N1kqI0Gzuvep3UM2zAbRySj4GPPPgjWZdseOTeQNnF3AptZx69F/s320/Photo_081108_010.jpg" width="214" border="0" /></p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5233630385200599362" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdwvPulPnQGS-uVqOcFv-dK94wRJLR9D7EbBkX9KYcfF-EvMEfZPEUYPMfqVJtRhLYWxbdZ_k4phkeQlVBq-F_0_TCJ32F-NYu67nOfRp7tntR6idZ4RaoO65chL9025gXpmWp/s320/Photo_081108_006.jpg" border="0" /></div><br /><p> </p><p> </p><p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5233631423417333586" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOiAI8W1pkyWWwcuTX0sH1UfEo-oBrRs0o5ITZ51A4iJXcMxbFxcLvLNlGVSGFeVXBZ-oxU8EmMxyupYAhLUtj8Uat_Fq8qb3rWMooNxPkaJMBrWLvDXehxrVE0ru7ikHxrtuq/s320/Photo_081108_008.jpg" border="0" />And finally, here's Ross holding one of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ford">John Ford's </a>Oscar statues! After all, Ford won 4 of them...more than any other director...so I guess he could donate at least one, 'eh?</p><p>Ross is interested in becoming a Telecommunications major...and so I told him there is a fair chance that this won't be the last Oscar gold he'll hold <img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5233631425430085778" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSb5pUZ_MzWnOmmSOh6SpNymxyKO0mAUOc-YeGtsm-Qsi0U4rQg-jlLvnW4x3pdoMMmd9xvJjO17XZWj6iXyeip4O9T7h0bdrrYyH7EXeD7w_L8mIthb47UUUqTvmBSAiulYer/s320/Photo_081108_011.jpg" border="0" /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13022205.post-22829608575680715212008-08-09T19:20:00.006-04:002008-08-09T20:03:20.703-04:00First week of IFS is in the booksIt's been a wonderful week in <a href="http://www.theaudioprof.com/teaching/s105/">S105</a> as me and a group of 18 freshmen have embarked on exploring how the human brain interacts with mediated messages as psychological stimuli rather than just genres of entertainment.<br /><br />I've been amazed at how far the group has come in a short time. They are exhausted and slightly overwhelmed at the speed with which we've covered stuff. And, frankly, so am I. That's why they are called <a href="http://ifs.indiana.edu/index.php">INTENSIVE Fresmen Seminars</a>, I suppose.<br /><br />But, in five short days we've been able to have two different groups (my <em>attention groups) </em>come up with separate hypotheses concerning what causes us to pay different amounts of attention to media. Plus, we have been in the ICR lab collecting data to test those hypotheses. Interestingly, one of the hypotheses focused on television and the other on audio-only media (music).<br /><br />Here's a few pictures of some of them in the lab yesterday.<br /><br /><br />Eliot making sure Brittany is comfortable getting ready to have her heart rate measured.<br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5232666910518618930" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv0BPHGZVJvSNoMvmFM1gEtk7L1o1KdWpzcUFUeoFd838jNeuBxgpbEPwcGSDUmMuel7NnMnZYcshItEvZ4dahlPplsn3VNe6tIR9WZX9KtWMzv1J85R2o49FetyUfVNUYPVs8/s320/DSCF0119.JPG" border="0" /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzXQBbHNLDW-QMeY3JMbquDwPOOtl4X737DyY-ap4W-72Q_DldCnncqhrrSjRi9iY4NrRIGdYbeVQZt3nVhPl82fSkKK4HmByUdrNxjv32XYDanVWkJ-O3402LSV4fErcuxRUI/s1600-h/DSCF0119.JPG"><br /><p></a></p>Eliot again (I think, with his back to us) and Alex (watching the EKG on the computer monitor) discuss the heart rate data being collected with my IFS intern Jeremy.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPhCOsp2sXE1EmEmMC_PJ1FKokoVoL_f-GLGeaS2yvgkHZ5Mha9ez54ojlFRY78OXojpHiVM0fBcb8sQGmEcVoCbj7Ju101af11UCfJLm_cKDkhBbkPgz9nivs1DbF5B7UYXO8/s1600-h/DSCF0121.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5232664012084622674" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPhCOsp2sXE1EmEmMC_PJ1FKokoVoL_f-GLGeaS2yvgkHZ5Mha9ez54ojlFRY78OXojpHiVM0fBcb8sQGmEcVoCbj7Ju101af11UCfJLm_cKDkhBbkPgz9nivs1DbF5B7UYXO8/s320/DSCF0121.JPG" border="0" /></a><br />In Lab A, Tommy kept meticulous notes about the four subjects his group collected data from...plus had a great sense of humor about it all that helped those being "hooked up" relax.<br /><br /><br /><br /><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-oM1Z0Yx0gFNC3DrzgAVZtxGTdWxUOFn1y9CET5AUBlXoQzz2A6zFMnDWAO58IplO5InPLiiDaygu3_dm0uurufd-0DBzZvtxXETy4BMG8YUSJ5HwiikjwYTorUlSJbuO2_IT/s1600-h/DSCF0123.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5232664015286970770" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-oM1Z0Yx0gFNC3DrzgAVZtxGTdWxUOFn1y9CET5AUBlXoQzz2A6zFMnDWAO58IplO5InPLiiDaygu3_dm0uurufd-0DBzZvtxXETy4BMG8YUSJ5HwiikjwYTorUlSJbuO2_IT/s320/DSCF0123.JPG" border="0" /></a> </p><br /><p>Tommy's group has already been able to analyze their data, and found some pretty interesting results. I won't spoil the story now...they haven't presented it to the other students yet, but be checking back.</p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13022205.post-62348030614088943262008-08-03T21:16:00.003-04:002009-01-01T19:47:07.348-05:00Meet the ParentsSo, yesterday evening the <a href="http://ifs.indiana.edu/">IFS</a> summer started.<br /><br />In an introdutory meeting with my 18 students...AND (at least some of) THEIR PARENTS.<br />I have to admit what I admitted to them...that this meeting made me somewhat nervous. Likely because I'm not used to having two different ages of "audience."<br /><br />But, it turned out to be a blast. Great group of people. Some came from rather far away--Memphis TN, Long Island, Memphis. But, many were from the Indiana/Illinois/Missouri area. All excited and nervous and tired (it was a very hot day for them to have been moving in).<br /><br />And now, tomorrow, it all starts for real. Three hour class from 9-noon.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13022205.post-3164325484449052972008-07-25T09:32:00.003-04:002008-07-25T09:36:28.955-04:00And then There Was OneToday, as expected for several days, the final vote was cast by the FCC signing off on the merger between XM and Sirius, the two satellite radio services.<br /><br />You can read a story about the swing vote <a href="http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6581542.html?display=Breaking+News&referral=SUPP&nid=2228">here.</a><br /><br /> Those of you who, like me, are subscribers to one of the current services may be interested in what the two companies promised the FCC they will provide in exchange for merger approval.<br /><a href="http://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/retrieve.cgi?native_or_pdf=pdf&id_document=6520029738">Read the conditions </a>that were provided by the companies earlier in the summer and approved virtually unchanged today (at least, that's what the B&C story says).<br /><br /><br />We'll see if it's too good to be true or if the wording is vague enough that consumers get the short end of it.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13022205.post-52845075697333153132008-07-22T08:53:00.003-04:002008-07-22T10:43:36.721-04:00Whoa! Did you See That?!!!?That's what I heard in 2004 during the SuperBowl Halftime show. I was at the home of a colleague, who was (is) a big Philadelphia Eagles fan and therefore hosting at Superbowl party. Not being a fan of Janet Jackson or Justin Timberlake, I was using the halftime as a way to go into the other room and sample the great guacamole that someone brought.<br /><br />That's when "it" happened. The famous <a href="http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/04/us_sport_us_sport0s_2004_in_pictures/img/2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/04/us_sport_us_sport0s_2004_in_pictures/html/2.stm&h=300&w=300&sz=18&hl=en&start=3&sig2=LjPgl9xywDaUX2dsqHtpUA&um=1&tbnid=vwaIm04kgWP52M:&tbnh=116&tbnw=116&ei=K9mFSJilKYeOigGewYHbAw&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dwardrobe%2Bmalfunction%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-us%26sa%3DN">wardrobe malfunction </a>. An event which sent the industry into a tailspin of wondering to what extent stations were responsible for the contents of live events. And an FCC fine of CBS-owned stations led to a creative chilling effect and had an indirect impact on Network/Affiliate relations...something we discuss in <a href="http://www.theaudioprof.com/teaching/T344/">T344</a>.<br /><br />Yesterday, that fine was thrown out by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6580012.html?display=Breaking+News&referral=SUPP&nid=2228">Read all about it</a><br /><br />And, today, the FCC responds saying they didn't think it was arbitrary.<br /><a href="http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6580115.html">Read the response from the FCC Chairman Martin.</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13022205.post-9595030288352511382008-07-18T16:55:00.003-04:002008-07-18T16:59:26.430-04:00This is your brain on media now onlineI have 90% finished the syllabus for S105--The Intensive Freshmen Seminar Version. It's now <a href="http://www.theaudioprof.com/teaching/S105/">online</a>.<br /><br />Took me a while to wrap my head around how to fill 3-hours of class time. There's NO WAY I was going to fill it all with lecture. Students would shoot me! But, with field trips and demonstrations and such, I'm really looking forward to it. <br /><br />Of course, there's still a lot to do to prepare for in the remaining 2 weeks.<br /><br />Spent the last half of the afternoon in the ICR with a couple of grad students. We're trying to figure out how to measure eye movements so we can use it as a basic eyetracker for those interested in such studies.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13022205.post-80167847130732413812008-07-16T13:30:00.002-04:002008-07-16T13:42:13.900-04:00It's Hotter Outside than it is in Radio SalesWhen the economy is bad, people cut back. I know, because at $4.19 a gallon, gas is too expensive for me to use to drive to the local Panerra to have lunch with a friend. I rode my bike. Yup, it's 90 degrees out with 90% humidity. Yup, I was a sweaty mess when I arrived, and had to bring another shirt. But, it's part of cutting back when times are tough.<br /><br />Businesses cut back too, and one of the first places to feel the ax is advertising and marketing. Radio is feeling the pinch to an even greater extent than forecasters thought.<br /><br />According to a <a href="http://www.rab.com/public/pr/revenue_detail.cfm?id=103">new study</a> by the Radio Advertising Bureau, local advertising sales was off 10% in June compared to last year. National radio plummeted 13%. Of course, much of this is an indication of radio advertising being perceived as less efficient than other forms. Posting of actual ratings performance for advertisers to actually evaluate (something which radio has never done) may help confidence in the future. But, for now, buyers aren't buying.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0