Day one of the Southern States Communication Association conference. Hereafter you might read a lot about research projects and really smart people. I make a cameo as well. If it isn't your idea of a good time, well, then, you're lost anyway.

Walked downstairs from my hotel room -- we never stay in the hotel where the conference is taking place as that is cost prohibitive, fortunately we have a classmate who helped find a huge deal at a Hilton 10 miles away -- to see The Yankee's parents. Since this is all taking place in Norfolk they drove down to visit her for the weekend. We had the delicious continental breakfast (I'm not sure what continent finds muffins and bananas a breakfast, but hotels love that place) and then headed over to the downtown Marriott for the actual conference.

After registration -- where the conference happily extracts more of your money despite the amount of money you've already paid to be a member -- we headed into our first panel of the weekend. The Yankee was presenting a paper she co-authored with Our Friend Andrew, who's been mentioned here before, two other classmates and a professor. Her's was the last presentation.

First was a presentation by Dr. Roy Schartzman titled "Der Kampf and the War on Terror: Metaphorically Framing Symbolic Combat." He was comparing the build up of Nazi-Germany to George Bush in what seemed, at times, a strained metaphor. He offered Germany's framing of 1930s posturing for annexed land as comparable to the post 9/11 framing of the U.S. government. With the exceptions that Hitler needing war because Nazi-spending alone would kill the economy, the sitting in the European woods waiting to be backed down by France and the U.K. and having not been attacked prior to his rearming in violation of international treaty, yeah, I suppose I could see his point. He argued that Germany's rhetoric inevitably led to blitzkrieg. He argued that President Bush's posturing inevitably led to Afghanistan and Iraq. Czechoslovakia and Poland were much the same, to Schartzman, as Afghanistan and Iraq. Germany, after all, did not act alone. The Soviets and Slovaks were right alongside. That entire United Nations resolution, preemptive ideals of the Bush doctrine stuff was no different.

I'm no foreign policy expert, but it would seem that the two are most similar in that it is hard for a sovereign state to fight an idea. Nazi Germany was troubled by inflation, poor World War I treaties, racism and a madman. The U.S. found itself fighting the more zealous aspects of a religion in a place with no prominent military actors. Thankfully high-minded ideals, like not committing genocide, have separated the two nation's approach to power. This is why Schwartzman focused only on the kinder, gentler 1933-1939 Germany. You'd think that line would be drawn at Kristallnacht, but alas.

The next presenter was Dr. Eugenie Almeida who presented "Five Years of U.S. News Coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict." This was an interesting study on language use in the coverage of prominent newspapers and their coverage of that region. Her study follows what you might expect: the words most often used are full of dire situations, violence, danger and heartbreak. Sometimes research must tease out those things that are obvious. While intuitively you would have considered this no surprise, Almeida made a few compelling finds.

After that the University of Arkansas was represented by a host of master's students, one of whom presented a very nice paper titled "Characteristics of Political Blogs: What Contributes to the Popularity of One versus Another?" While deliberately avoiding ads they touched on every aspect possible here except inbound links. This study might also seem intuitive to closer observers of popular websites, but it serves as a rigorous validation of what we've been guessing all this time. You'll find the answers out there, in fact if you're interested in this stuff you've known it for some time. Now you may now that the finest scholarship available in northwest Arkansas has proved your hunches correct.

The Yankee completed this particular panel with "Are the News-Makers Listening? A Study of the Role Web Site Metrics Play in Newsroom Practices and Decision-Making." Despite an admitted problem with the title, this paper has fascinated me as I've been listening in to their work on the subject. They submitted surveys to every paper in the country, receiving replies from (I believe) about 30 percent of them. The editors were asked whether they were putting to use the often contextually rich web site metrics toward news selection of the papers. Most, they found, aren't.

The problem, in my view, is that newsrooms see the web site and the newspaper as different entities. There's not much of an argument made that a web site visitor and a newspaper reader want the same material. Newspapers can get feedback on occasion from focus groups, letters, interaction and eye-tracking tests, but web sites can provide real time data on how people are coming in, where they are landing, what motivated the visit, where they go, how much time they spend in a particular section and so on. This information is scarcely considered for the paper, where traditional news values hold true and there's the undying fear of ever changing anything on the funny pages.

If papers were driven by a website's data of the bourgeoisie it'd look a lot different. At least in the funny pages. They might look like the Bluffton Today.

Anyway. The Yankee did a great job. You might not be able to tell from the low volume, but she's telling us here that the size of the newspaper seems to be reflective of their use of web metrics.

After lunch across the street from the hotel at the conveniently located Schlotsky's, the Yankee made her second presentation of the day. This was in a panel grouping the top student papers from the conference. The first presenter was "Identity Construction of and by Women of Color in XXL's 'Eye Candy' Feature." It was a presentation of letters to the editor of that august magazine that would have made the skin melt off the face of any feminist. I'm still not sure what theory he was considering here, but he had a subject that could make most people uncomfortable, so at least he had that going for him.

The Yankee presented "Type Up and Speak Out: Does the Internet Restrict the Spiral of Silence?" She stood for this one, giving a nice lecture on things I've heard about for months and again in the car, but it is a good presentation and it appeals to the heart of communication theorists because it takes an interesting theory and bends it into the Internet's construct.

The third panelist was also an Alabama student presenting on "The Role of Self-categorization Theory in Mass Media" and she did a great job. Later in the conference one of these three papers will be honored with a prestigious award. Should it come to one of the Alabama students I would not be surprised. I'll let you know Saturday.

I went to an afternoon panel for no other reason than the chair was a professor of mine at Auburn -- he didn't remember me -- and because of the paper titles. How can you go wrong with selections like:

The Changing World of Presidential Communication: Sarah Palin's Construction of Style at the Republican National Convention

Beyond Pseudoscience: Rhetorical Resources of Nazi Anti-Semitism

Simulating the Civil War

Vicente Fox's Inaugural Address: A Comparative Analysis between the Generic Characteristics of the United States and Mexico

After that, there was this:



Up first was Dr. Lynne Webb from Arkansas, who presented research she and some of her students had conducted on the web sites of presidential candidates in the 2008 election. I listened closely, very interested in their findings and afraid she was going to say everything intended for my presentation.

Our Friend Skye, an Alabama classmate, presented a paper on "Entertainment Media and 'Backstage' Event Framing: How 24 Defines Torture." There was a fascinating survey he put forth about the certitude of distaste Americans have toward torture. Jack Bauer may capture our adventuresome spirit on Monday night, but it seems that we draw the line at torture. Unless, as Jack Bauer often says, there's the imminent threat and this poor, soon-to-be-tortured specimen is the one lead we have to save the day. It was a strong paper and won a top paper award, deservedly so.

Up next was my presentation of a study The Yankee and I conducted last fall. It was similar to Webb's, where she spent her time talking about campaign web sites, I talked about the candidates' MySpace pages. We'd been looking for a correlation of elements on the MySpace sites and longevity within the campaign. We found that the number of friends corresponded in that way, but the research disproved our other hypotheses.

Since I was trying to not cover the same ground Webb covered which trimmed my time down a tiny bit, and since a fourth presenter no-showed we had plenty of time for a conversation. It was, for a change, a crowded room of scholars and between us we had a very interesting conversation about Internet implications on political campaigns.

I was able to reference (thank you phone with Internet!) today's story on Google advertising in New York's special election:

From late Sunday night through noon yesterday, ads for Democratic contender Scott Murphy blanketed Web pages viewed by residents of the district, which encompasses Saratoga Springs, Lake Placid, Glens Falls, and Oneonta. The tactic tested by the Murphy campaign involves serving up ads on behalf of one advertiser on most or all of the Google content network pages generated within a short period within a specific geographic area, in this case New York's 20th congressional district and some surrounding areas to catch local commuters at work.

[...]

The Murphy campaign expected to hit the district's 650,000 residents who visited a site in Google’s AdSense network with around 12.5 million display ad impressions during the 36-hour period before noon Tuesday. "I assume the GOP had some Google ads going, just not at the level we were at during the 36-hour period before noon Tuesday," said de Villis.

This conversation got everyone interested as we began to guess at the future of online campaigns, discussed how the culture is evolving from a generational aspect towards the Internet and on and on and on.

Dr. Gary Copeland, my advisory committee chairman, was sitting in the room. To his right sat Dr. Robert E. Denton Jr. Copeland introduced me to Denton which, when you consider his work, was an especially nice treat for the political communication enthusiast.

Standing there talking about the presentation from Arkansas, Our Friend Skye's connections to the LSU political communication studies and our work at home, Dr. Copeland came up with a plan to pool resources in what would make for an impressive database on gubernatorial campaigning. I'm excited about any big possibility, of course, but that was only the beginning of his brainstorming for the night. We stood around and talked about ideas for this and that and, ultimately, Dr. Copeland took six of us out to eat at Snappers. (I had the salmon wrap, pretty tasty).

Our table was likely the most overeducated the place had ever seen. I counted 17 degrees (and still three more in progress) between the seven of us. Also at the table were two other professors who studied with Copeland at Alabama. I only mention all of this because it always amazes me how these smart people let me hang out with them.

They'll have to put up with me through the weekend, as the convention continues on tomorrow. There will be less comm theory written here, though. Can't give you too much fun that closely together. Tomorrow is actually a slow day at the conference so there will likely be some exciting diversions for you here. What's in store? You'll have to come back to find out.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

None of what follows is an April Fools' Joke. This announcement is a public service as I don't want to slow down the Internet with rampant speculation.

The new edition of The Samford Crimson is on newsstands now. There's news of the campus' first living-learning community scheduled to open next fall.

On the bottom floor, a visiting Spanish professor from Spain will reside to encourage an entirely Spanish-speaking floor. The top two floors will house women interested in a distinctive experience while living with several international students and other women with a similar passion for international studies.

Though particularly unique, this residence hall will follow the same guidelines as any other in Beeson Woods. That means paralleled visitation hours and the same quiet hours.

Interesting idea, that. There's also a fashion show for charity and news on Samford's new lacrosse club teams.

A video report from Imagicon is also a highlight on the site. They're doing nice video. I -- the overzealous, enthusiastic adviser type -- only want to see more.

So that's the news from campus. Before that this morning was an 18-mile bike ride. After spending the morning on campus there was all day and all night in the car. I spoke with the web editor of The Whit, the Rowan University paper. They've done something we'll do soon with their product, so I was hoping for a few tips and a heads up. The call was disconnected three times, despite being in the middle of downtown at the time. I also dropped a y'all in the conversation. It occurred to me later that Emily Kostic probably thought I was calling from a third world country.

Somewhere in east Alabama I spoke with my grandmother. She had surgery on her knee this morning. She was walking around this afternoon. Remarkable.

In Georgia, this was the view.

Gorgeous day. Perfect for driving through half of my state, a third of Georgia, the entire length of Carolinas, both south and north, and seven-eighths of Virginia. This is a long drive. About 11 hours.

The Yankee and I broke up the trip with a stop at South of the Border. I'd never heard of the place, never even heard of it. The Yankee, though, had seen the place once before, with her mother on a college visit. Says Roadside America:

South Of The Border is a unique amalgam of Dixie and Old Mexico. At first you wonder what all this Mexican stuff is doing in South Carolina, thousands of miles from its natural habitat. But in a remarkably short time you'll accept SOB as a neon yellow and pink Tijuana, with the added benefit that its inhabitants speak English and its water is safe to drink.

The lovable mascot of the place is pedro, a grinning mustachioed caricature topped with an outsized sombrero. It is pedro who speaks from the billboards. It is pedro who straddles the SOB entrance, 97 feet tall, "the largest freestanding sign east of the Mississippi." You can drive between his legs.

Once parked by "The Big Fella," a visitor can venture into Mexico Shop East -- West being across the street -- and pick up any one of figuratively millions of souvenirs. Quantity rules, with, for example, eight types of backscratchers and twenty-two types of coffee mugs. Rifle through bins of address books and shot glasses. "Bins" is no exaggeration, as the fourteen different gift stores are all packed with thousands of each type of gewgaw and doodad.

The neon is heavenly. We arrive in the last fleeting moments of day down, the sky going from blue to grey to black as I stood and gawked at the signs and the sheer audacity of the gauche scene laid out before me. This says nothing of the motor lodge, which I desperately want to inspect. If I must ever spend the night within 50 miles of here -- and that could only be for a pine tree conference since there is nothing around this awesome explosion of freeway tourist trap Americana -- I will be staying at Pedro's motor lodge. It has a pleasure dome. Whatever that is.

Here's the story of the origin's of the place, again from Roadside America:

As with other great accidental discoveries like X-rays and penicillin, it took a man of vision to realize SOB's vast potential. That man was Alan Schafer, who began his rise to roadside immortality in 1950 with a simple beer stand. When building supplies began being delivered to "Schafer Project: South Of The [North Carolina] Border," a neon light went on in his head. He began to import Mexican souvenirs, and on one such trip arranged for two Mexican boys to come to America and work for him. As Schafer said, "Somebody began calling them 'Pedro' and 'Pancho,' and since it fit into the theme, we began calling them both 'Pedro.'" Today, all SOB workers, regardless of race, creed or color, are called pedro.

The menu at the Mexican (what else?) restaurant said they've served 112 million people since the 1950s. I have doubts about that, but who cares. Also, who cares if the Mexican restaurant has 86ed the rice. The restaurant's upholstery is in the style of Holstein cattle. Many transgressions can be forgiven over such kitsch.

Here's your view from the interstate. Of course you've been tantalized by random signs about the place for an hour. After that sort of brain washing, and hours of mindless humming from the tires, you have to stop in and check out that 22-story sombrero. You can ride up to the top in an all-glass elevator to see ... miles of forest. Seriously, there is nothing around.

After that delightful diversion we continued following the GPS into Norfolk. We prefer Karen, the Australian guide. She says the word "recalculating" in an odd way. And she must say that word a lot when I'm driving. I like thinking of celebrity voices the GPS could use and my favorite idea of the day was Edith Bunker. I also decided that the last 15 miles of using a GPS, particularly after a long trip, is the most painful experience one can endure in an unwrecked vehicle.

And that's been the day. Safely into Norfolk for an academic conference that starts bright and early tomorrow. We're presenting papers and I'll have all the details here. And that's no April Fools' Day joke.

# posted by Kenny