2012 STUDENT Winners BEA Festival of Media Arts
Student Video Competition
Music Video 1st Place: Jake Brusha, Loyola University Chicago Rome Has Fallen-Point Place

Student Documentary Competition
3rd Place: Kayla N. Branch, Loyola University Chicago; Young Nun

I’m Kamil Zawadzki, an alum of Loyola’s School of Communication, Class of 2010. Since my graduation in May of that year, it’s been pretty interesting, to say the least. Like some of you that may be reading this, I majored in journalism, a field that so many people say is in its death throes.

Yet, nearly two years after finishing my undergrad studies, I am at work, practicing this field and keeping it alive and well. The twist is, I’m no longer in the place that was my hometown for more than a decade – Chicago.

I live in Garden City, a small town of about 30,000 in southwestern Kansas. I work at the local paper, The Garden City Telegram, and serve as the Web Editor, which entails shooting and producing video pieces to go along with print stories to be posted up on our website.

Now, let me say that even at my graduation ceremony, if someone had told me I would within a year be living and working in Kansas, I would’ve said they are out of their minds. I could never! And yet, here I am, and doing pretty well. Though I have written only a few articles here and there in my year working at The Telegram, I have on average filed two to three videos per week. Comparing my first few to my most recent pieces, I have seen improvements, while taking note of what else I might need to work on to get better yet. Additionally, I am part of the daily news process including deciding on the story budget, copyediting and laying out pages. After a year of doing this, not only am I a triple-threat – able to write, edit and design on deadline, produce video packages and manage web content – but I find myself still as in love with journalism as I was back in college.

And that, I believe, is thanks in part to the place of work I’ve landed in as my first job in the field: Small Town, USA. This is where journalism is still important, and it’s where a person fresh out of college can thrive – if nothing else, get some clips, multimedia pieces and learn the ropes before moving on to bigger or better.
I’m not here to say that I’m making a six-figure salary, and quite frankly I don’t know if I ever will – that’s a bridge I’ll cross whenever I have a chance to get to it. And it’s not an easy thing to literally pick up your life, stuff it into a car, and take off for parts unknown, in a completely different part of the country.

But sometimes, that’s what you have to do. Few people, if any, will be fortunate enough to start at CNN, the Chicago Tribune or any such big-market brand right out of college. In fact, many news outlets in Chicago require some years of experience to even apply for a position.

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try – you just might get it! But be realistic as you begin prowling for jobs in this field (or any field, for that matter). Sometimes, even internships or years working at the college paper don’t count in these top-level markets.

Be willing to move to the smaller locale. Because much as some feature ledes might have you believe, these “sleepy hamlets” are not always so sleepy – indeed, it is in small towns like Garden City, Kansas that you can find remarkable stories that may exist but are often lost in the hustle and bustle of the big city.
In my year living and working here, I have had the pleasure and honor of helping people share some amazing stories from their lives. From the tale of a woman who grew up with lions literally in her house to a mother grieving for a lost son, to pulling together a breaking news story on a fire threatening a neighboring town and covering a local election, I’ve pretty much done it all. And just the other day, I was surrounded by about 50 bison amidst breathtaking landscapes, as part of a multimedia package for our weekend feature.
These small towns are where some of the most precious gems, and most exciting news, are often hidden by outsider misconceptions. But journalists must be curious. It is our job to find these stories and give a voice to people who have simply never been asked about their lives before.

You might not land in a big metropolis, and might end up following the path I and many before me have taken to start small and work your way up. But that first year or so on the job, especially in a smaller community, will not only shape you as a journalist, but will determine whether you sink or swim. If you can make it out in the smaller towns, you’ll be able to make it in the next step up, and you’ll be a better journalist for it.

Good luck,
Kamil Zawadzki

A Question of Habit provokes audience to view women religious in a different way

By: Ashley Mastervich, SOC Website Reporter

When we hear the word Nun, what do we think of?  That question was posed to a crowd by Mary Ann Ahern, a NBC Chicago reporter October 5, 2011 at the Affinia Hotel.  The occaision was a screening of Professor Bren A.O. Murphy’s documentary, A Question of Habit.

With Susan Sarandon as its narrator, A Question of Habit examines the differences between the images of Catholic nuns that exist in U.S. popular culture and the actual lives of women religious both historical and current.

Murphy is a faculty member in the School of Communication and Women’s Studies/ Gender Studies in the College of Art and Sciences at Loyola. Since being a faculty member of the Communication Studies since 1984, Murphy has been the department chair for Communication, Associate Dean for the College of Arts and Sciences, Chair of Faculty Council, Director of Women’s Studies and interim Graduate director for Women’s Studies.

A reception took place at the hotel before the showing of Murphy’s documentary where students, faculty and alumni from Loyola were able to partake in this event. Several nuns from the Benedictine Sisters of Chicago also came in support of Murphy’s thought-provoking documentary.

Murphy explained that her documentary took approximately three years to complete. She also said that her inspiration for this documentary developed when she was standing at a rack of greeting cards and these cards were covered with nuns.

“Once you start looking [for women religious in popular culture], they are everywhere,” stated Murphy.

From this observation, Murphy wanted to make sense of why the U.S. seemed to be the only nation to portray women religious in this way.

The documentary’s website also cites, “Over 30 women religious, cultural critics, historians and artists were interviewed including: Sr. Helen Prejean (Dead Man Walking), Tom Fontana (Oz, Homicide), Robert Orsi (Madonna of 115th Street).”

A standing ovation from the audience commenced the end of this screening, which then allowed Ahern to ask Murphy several questions about the process of making this full- length film.

One member from the audience asked Murphy what next steps she would take to show this documentary to a wider audience.

Murphy said she was looking for a distributor and that her documentary is on the “film festival circuit.” She also informed the audience she has been invited by other universities such as Purdue University, Texas A&M University and the University of San Francisco.

By Bob Vail, SOC Website Reporter

February, 2011—Dr. Adrienne Massanari is an avid gamer in her personal life and has used her passion for video games, and her role as a female gamer, to explore how women are treated in these virtual spaces. 

 Massanari, Assistant Professor—New and Digital Media, presented her research ‘‘Fit some Fit in’: Games, Gender, and the Wii as part of the School of Communication’s Faculty Speaker Series: Notes from the Field on Feb. 9 in the Terry Center on Water Tower Campus. In her study Massanari, looked at how the Nintendo Wii (as a system and the way it was marketed) stereotyped women into the role of gamer with a purpose rather than a gamer for fun, rather than a gamer for fun. 

“Games have always been a lowest common denominator when it comes to gender issues,” she said.  ‘What’s interesting is women play games in spite of there being a hostile space they’re entering into.”

“People go into Xbox 360 and if they identify as female, they are suddenly the target of everyone else’s rage and they all come after them.  They are either absent totally, seen as targets, or given overly sexualized avatars to look at.” 

“Fit some Fit in” traces the lineage of women in gaming, as game characters and the view of women as gamers.  It began with Laura Croft in the popular game Tomb Raider.  Croft was a win/lose character; she was the first kick-ass female lead character, but she also had an impossible physical figure that angered feminists.

The opportunities for female gamers are incredibly restricted.  Imagine Babies for the Nintendo DS requires the player help grandma cook and clean then entertain and change babies.  Nintendo publishes a magazine titled “Girl Gamer” where everything is pink.  On the other end of the spectrum is a group called the “Frag Dolls” who are clad in tattoos and are hyper-sexualized.  

When the Wii was introduced, it was marketed as “a design for everyone,” insinuating that it wasn’t for only the hardcore gamers, but it was also for casual gamers and women.   

Massanari was first drawn to the Wii Fit by the advertisements.  In the U.S., the Wii Fit is marketed to women as an exercising tool.  The women in the ads lead inanely busy lives, with the only slow down being when they get to briefly use the Wii Fit.  

“Part of this is reflecting a lot of people’s experience in their life,” Massanari said, “but it is also suggesting the only way you’re allowed to do this for yourself is because you’re doing all these other things.”

“[The ads are saying] You can’t take any pleasure in actually playing a game on the Wii or a mini-game in the Wii Fit, because you have to be working out.  It is about the work, it is about achieving.”

 This is much different from the Wii commercials in other countries, where women are actually playing games, having fun, and playing with other people. 

 As far as how to fix gaming to reflect more of what women want, Massanari has some suggestions.  Top of the list were more women game designers and more ethnographic research done by the game companies.  But the biggest was tearing down the perceived wall between male and female gamers.

 “There’s not this binary of what men like and what women like,” she said.  “Women like competition too, women like destroying things too.  It depends on the situation.”

 “All of us are craving more interesting stories beyond Grand Theft Auto and every sort of incarnation of it, beyond just the single player games, beyond the same genres that we’ve seen.”