Study Abroad: Journalism and Social Media London

It’s been awhile since my last post. The summer was amazing. We traveled to Chicago to visit family and I presented my latest research [Trust and authenticity: Race and its effects on audience perceptions of news information from broadcast news and anchors] at the Association of Education in Journalism and Mass Communication [AEJMC] in Minneapolis, MN at the beginning of August. I was able to take the boys with me and we had a blast. Minneapolis is a beautiful city and it was really important for my boys to see me present at a national conference.

Well the semester has started and I am currently working on taking my next  class to London in Summer 2017. This time around I only have 8 days to work with instead the 10 days I had previously. So some major cuts are in order.

Unfortunately, due to time restrictions...I’ll have to drop the Windsor Castle, Bath and Stonehenge tour from the cultural tour. In addition, BBC no longer provides group tours due to possible safety concerns for the journalists that work there. I’m thinking about switching out the BBC for the offices of Twitter and/or Vice. I still have a bit of time to make some connections.

Met with Benita, my site coordinator, and we are in the initially planning stages of CTAT 279: Journalism and Social Media in London 2017. Instead of 10 days, I’ll have to cut down the program to 7 days. This is a bit of challenge because I’ll have to cut out a few cultural stops. Working on the itinerary now and also trying to figure out how to replace the BBC.

Since the BBC is no longer offering tours to the public...I have a pretty big media hole to fill. Some major contenders are Twitter, Buzzfeed, and Vice. These were all suggestions via the London School of Communication as many of their students go on to work for one of these organizations.

Here’s a few pics of and from my hotel. We stayed at The Generator Hostel by the Russel Square stop. While the students were not too pleased with the small living quarters and communal bathrooms, it was a cheaper alternative to help keep costs down.

High tea in style. We stopped over at the Saatchi Gallery for refreshments at their cafe. It was a bit on the pricey end for finger sandwiches and tea, but it was a fun cultural experience. Scones with clotted creme and jam is still best breakfast ever. 

One of my favorite pictures. This is from Shakespeare’s Globe Theater in London. I took the group to see Midsummer Night’s Dream. It was a wild show that including gender switching, crazy costumes and a Bollywood twist. It was amazing. While it was tough to stand for 3 hours, being a groundling was an awesome experience.