Current Students at the Texas Tech University College of Mass Communications

At Texas Tech University, there are several really incredible resources completely devoted to helping Texas Tech graduates meet and learn about employers looking to higher college graduates. Texas Tech wants to help students in every way possible to start a career as soon as they graduate. To do this they have an annual career fair with hundreds of employers from around the country that are eager to gather and simply meet and interact with college students. Just in the past few years, the University has opened an entire Career Center dedicated to assisting you in discovering what type of career might be best for you as well as help connecting you with employers within that career interest.

Within the College of Mass Communication, they also have numerous resources to help you decide what you might be interested in doing as a career as well as resources to help connect you with interested employers in that specific field. Marijane Wernsman, the director of The Career Center works specifically with mass communication students to help them compile their resume or portfolio and decide what they might be interested in doing as a career. She also works very closely with several businesses around the South Plains as well as around the country to help connect students with internships or employment opportunities within the mass communication field.

Another great opportunity within the College of Mass Communications is to attend the annual career fairs where employers within the mass communications industry gather to meet students who might be interested or have a talent within their field. They take time out of their day to come and meet new students that might work well in their business and they are very eager to hire interested students.

In my years at Texas Tech, I have had a great time, you start getting to know your professors and become more of a friend than just a student to them. It requires a great amount of hard work, but it definitely pays off in the end. I remember in a summer course on Special Topics of The Blockbusters, which was 2 hours a day for 5 days a week, we learned the reasons behind many film styles and methods. We would watch 1 film a week and completely break it down and analyze it to gain a greater understanding behind everything it took to create and distribute a film from casting, writing, shooting, marketing, editing, to even theater distribution and DVD sales. It was a very interesting course and it would consist a lot of times of just class discussion and interaction. The interesting thing behind it was that so many of us within that class had developed and brought to the table a completely different set of interests and skills that we could sit and just trade thoughts for the entire 2 hours and learn everything from each other. We would have friendly debates over certain topics and gain a greater understanding of each other’s perspective. Dr. Peaslee, the professor of the course, would get so interested and intrigued by our own thoughts and opinions that he himself learned a significant amount from us just based on our discussions. It is an in credible course and I would highly recommend it regardless of your career interest within Mass Communications.

Tags: Dr. Peaslee, Marijane Wenrsman, www.depts.ttu.edu/masscom, The Texas Tech University Career Center,

Keywords: Careers, Career Fair, The Blockbusters, Career Center

New Students in Texas Tech Universities' College of Mass Communication

As a new student at Texas Tech University, there are many new things to explore and connect with. It is the start of a new phase in your life and there are so many things happening so quickly around you. Things can be a little hectic for the first little bit as you get used to these new routines and expectations, however there is one thing that should not be made difficult and confusing. Choosing the right courses is one thing that should be made easy for you to ensure that you take classes that interest you as well as classes that follow your degree plan to make certain that you can graduate on time. Whether you are interested in Journalism, Advertising, Electronic Media, or Public Relations, there is a plethora of different options available within each one. The degree plans for each major require many specific mass communications courses, however, there are also several elective courses that can be taken based on your interest in specific topics. Classes within each degree plan range from the history of mass communications, theories, research methods, creative design, public speaking, mass communication law, photography, video production, creative writing, and a variety of special topics.

An excellent way to view student feedback and class grade results of professors is to visit Pick-A-Pof, a place where students express their opinions and grades from classes broken down by professor. This gives you somewhat of an idea how difficult a course may be and if it might be and area of interest.

The advisors within the College of Mass Communications are excellent and know every detail behind each graduation plan as well as the teaching styles of every professor. They would love for you to stop by so they can get to know you a little to ensure that they can pair you up with courses and professors that will suit your every need.

During my first year at Texas Tech University I thought I could get away with not talking with the advisors and just learn from other students to decide what was best for me on my own. I thought I was doing everything perfectly; I took all of my basic courses and soon began diving into Mass Comm. courses. I did not realize that I was getting ahead of myself and I ended up waiting until my senior year to take a few Intro to Mass Communications courses, which threw me off significantly simply because many courses have preceding courses as prerequisites. I was stuck taking summer school to catch up on what I missed. I then realized that I should probably talk to my advisors to figure out some of these problems and the best way to get back on track. Needless to say, I would highly recommend sitting down and simply discussing your interests and goals with the Mass Comm. Advisors to ensure that you stay on schedule and are getting everything possible out of your time at Texas Tech University. It should be fun and enjoyable, it is much easier to learn and gain an understanding on things when you take courses that you are interested in. Be sure to check out the plenty of resources available on the Mass Communications website, they will definitely make things a little easier on you.

Tags: Mass Communications Advisors, www.depts.ttu.edu/masscom, www.pickaprof.com

Keywords: Texas Tech College of Mass Communications, Advising, Courses, Journalism, Advertising, Public Relations, Electronic Media, New Students, Pick-A-Prof

Future Students of Texas Tech University College of Mass Communications

In today’s society, the mass media is rapidly expanding and they are able to reach more people today than ever before. With technological advancements such as the Internet, cable, satellite, radio, mobile devices, as well as a variety of different social media platforms, the media is finding more and more ways to not only distribute information with its audience, but also communicate with its audience. For this form of media communications to be successful, it requires more and more skilled and knowledgeable communications experts.

At the College of Mass Communications at Texas Tech University, they make it possible for students to easily deploy into this ever-expanding industry to incorporate their ideas and enhance the qualities of this mass media culture. The College of Mass Communications Hall of Fame is a testament to the professional qualities that the College instills into their students. The College employs very qualified experts from every field from Public Relations, Journalism, Electronic Media, and Advertising; many who have dedicated their lives to the research and advancement of media as well as many that have professionally worked in the industry for most of their lives and have learned the tools of the trade first hand. These professors and faculty members have assembled many advisory committees who currently professionally work in these fields to help ensure that they are completely up to date on every current trend that develops. The College of Mass Communications at Texas Tech University certainly has something to offer you no matter what area of communications might interest you.

To explore what courses and major might best suit your interest and skills there is a group of excellent advisers who know the details of every course and could help you determine the best route to suit your individual needs.

As an incoming freshman, the College of Mass Communications appealed to me because I had video production experience and I wanted to explore the field of television production and work in sports broadcasting. Texas Tech had a good reputation in their College of Mass Communications and they had an incredible amount of resources and equipment, from a Mac editing and visual design lab to a podcasting studio, to even a collection of top of the line cameras you could rent out to create a project. I had worked in video production for a few years editing video and shooting commercials, so I felt as if college would be just a repeat of what I already had learned. Little did I know that the courses I was about to begin taking would break Mass Communications down to the minutest detail from the history of how things were developed, to how radio and television work, and how people respond to different aspects of the media. I was completely taken aback at how knowledgeable I was not and how much I still had to learn. After nearly 4 years of studying in the College of Mass Communications, I have developed a knowledge set of a completely different side of the mass media that I had no idea existed. This understanding has completely expanded my horizon and made me so much more aware of how things in the mass media work, function together, and relate as a whole.

Tags: Texas Tech University Mass Communication Advisors, www.depts.ttu.edu/masscom

Keywords: Texas Tech College of Mass Communications, Advising, Prospective Students, Media

Guest Speaker from Texas Tech Social Media

Today we had a guest speaker (Lisa) today who works for Texas Tech in the social media marketing department. She discussed several things that I think really opened people's eyes to how difficult it is to be successful in the social media from an organizations perspective. I think people have a skewed perspective of how easy and effective social media is... and it is in certain areas and instances, however for an organization using it as a marketing and branding tool, it can be extremely difficult. Everyone hears about those videos on YouTube that change the world and impacts entire corporations. For example, the "United Breaks Guitars" YouTube Video that was posted by a band on July 6, 2009 and by July 15, 2009 had reached 3 million views. For a mass media perspective if every variable lines up perfectly a video such as that "United Breaks Guitars" video, it could explode in popularity. There are so many social media users that this appears to happen extremely often and be extremely easy to accomplish, however there are entire departments that work for certain organizations that dedicate their full attention to their social media presence, and it turns out, it is extremely difficult to keep up and maintain a positive and effective branding and communications presence.

It was very interesting to hear from Lisa today about her job and how hard they work to maintain all of Texas Tech's social medias and the struggles they encounter.

Social Media and Business

We talked in class last time about a few businesses that have slowly integrated social media into their business strategy through mediums like Facebook, Twitter, text messaging, etc. Businesses provide discounts, free products, and news about specials through the mass use of a social media. This I believe for the next several years will be very successful as people of all ages are dipping their feet into social media and looking around. It is ingenious for businesses like Freebirds to send out a mass text or twitter for a free burrito or drink. They are really establishing themselves with the generation that surrounds themselves with technology and social devices, which will continue to bring popularity to them through word of mouth and just the overall branding that they are displaying. These businesses are "cool" and in tune with their market.

Facebook and Parents

We talked in class last week about how the demographics of Facebook have changed over the years and how now more than 2/3 of the Facebook users were out of college and the 18-24 age range. Also that more than 70% of Facebook users are located out of the United States.

My mom has become addicted to Facebook as well and spends lots of time catching up with older friends or playing all kinds of Facebook games with them. She also can see every single thing that happens on my Facebook, which is pretty annoying, but I don't spend a lot of time on there so there isn't much she can see, however what does annoy me is that she does use Facebook alot to talk to my girlfriend and her mom.

Car

The car seems to be working better now that I got the transmission fluid and the works flushed out. It should at least hold me off for a little longer, I was planning on buying a new truck soon anyways, so we'll see how that goes.