Communication and Media News

A newsletter of the Communication and Media Department at Loyola University Maryland.

In the Communication and Media Department, we had another semester of engaged learning and collaboration among students and between faculty and students.

For so many reasons, the fall of 2024 was special. With support from an Advisory Board member (Peter Blair, 03), the Loyola College of Arts and Sciences, the Career Center and the Student Government, our department was able to organize an impactful field trip to The New York Times. The Greyhound newspaper team and students in multiple journalism courses offered live coverage of Election Day on November 5. Our senior capstone professors continued to partner with professionals and a multinational company to provide our students with a meaningful and career-oriented learning experience.

Moreover, our inaugural Advisory Board members began to engage with our students through speaking in classrooms, holding one-on-one mentoring sessions, and identifying new internship and scholarship opportunities.

With this, I invite you to check out the happenings in the Communication and Media department included in this newsletter, and stay tuned for the January newsletter for spring events.

by Masudul Biswas, Ph.D., Professor & Chair

Communication and Media Department

Memoir Everywhere I Look by Ona Gritz earned three “Book of the Year” awards from Storytrade, Pencraft, and Readers Choice, while Growth by Karen DeBonis was honored in the the Book Excellence Awards. Self-Destruction was a finalist in Foreword Indies Awards. Mike Fiorito’s For All We Know is a finalist for the Chanticleer Book Awards.

25 Books Slated for 2025 Publication

Apprentice House Press will release 25 titles in 2025, with students currently designing books and prepping promotion plans. Releases span a diversity of genres, from memoir to sci-fi, creative non-fiction to short story collections.

New York, New York Times! Students in the Journalism Capstone and from The Greyhound staff traveled to New York City to visit The New York Times on November 14, courtesy of an invitation from Peter Blair ’03. Peter heads up the Flexible Editing Desk for the newspaper and serves on the Department of Communication and Media Advisory Board. He gave students a tour of the Times newsroom and hosted a conversation with other New York Times staff including Elizabeth Young ’12, a senior communications manager for the company.

Professors Jenny Glick and April Newton joined the students, along with the Rizzo Career Center’s Eileen Hiebler.

The Greyhound News staff and students in multiple Journalism courses reported all day for Election Day 2024 on November 5. Students did original reporting for The Greyhound News, publishing 30 stories and live interviews throughout the day.

Stories included student concerns about the economy, first-time voting experiences, a Loyola student who is also an elected official in his hometown, and an interview with candidate Zeke Cohen who learned a few hours later that won his bid for election as Baltimore City Council president.

Approximately 60 students participated in the newsroom throughout the day and set a record for single day coverage for The Greyhound.

This year, Diageo, a multinational beverage company challenged our Advertising Capstone students with a pitch on their exclusive brand, Johnnie Walker Blue Label Scotch Whiskey.

On December 17, capstone students successfully delivered a pitch for this international clients as they plan to relaunch this product targeting a widely diverse audience of 21–45-year-old male and female consumers.

(Source: Loyola News): Fourteen Loyola seniors, representing two senior capstone courses, launched a two-pronged national public health campaign to support children who have pacemakers.

The Pediatric Pacemaker Project (The PPP) features an informative website (pediatricpacemakerproject.org) along with a strategic awareness campaign that aims to unite dispersed resources and information for patients, parents, and caregivers, including teachers.

Prof. Tania Rossa-Moreno's PR Capstone class partnered with Prof. Jonathan Lillie's Digital Media Capstone class this semester (Fall 2024) to launch this public health campaign.

Seniors in the Journalism Capstone showed off weeks of reporting when they shared drafts of their final projects with journalism professionals and department faculty on December 5.

The Journalism specialization seniors got feedback from Baltimore reporters Jason Newton (WBAL) and Aaron Henkin (formerly of WYPR), and Baltimore Fishbowl editor in chief David Nitkin.

The students did reporting on vacant homes and buildings in Baltimore so Tammy Hawley, Chief of Strategic Communication for the city’s Department of Housing and Community Development, was on hand to offer some final fact-checking assistance and help with details related to policy.

Communication and Media faculty Mas Biswas, Sara Magee, Jenny Glick, and Tim Tooten, and Loyola University Maryland Director of University Communication (and former journalist) Rita Buettner also weighed in to help the students strengthen their reporting and writing.

Prof. April Newton taught this senior capstone course this fall.

Tianna Lee is the first student ambassador for the Communication and Media Department. Tianna (Class of 2026) is majoring in communication and media with specializations in digital media and journalism. Her passion and current interests are graphic design and animation.

Recently, Tianna helped the university's Human Resources to create a series of employee engagement videos.

Communication and Media junior Erin Altenbach will begin a paid, remote internship in social media at KCSA, a strategic Communication and public relations firm based in New York City, in the upcoming spring semester.

Prof. Katie Wollman’s multimedia storytelling student Fiona Galang created an audio profile on WLOY manager John Devecka. Click on this link to listen to audio profile on WLOY manager John Devecka

Communication and Media Professor, Dr. Amy Becker is a nationally-known political communication scholar. In fall, Dr. Becker was interviewed by three newspapers -- national and local -- for her expert opinions on national election and politics. Please check out the stories below for which Dr. Becker was interviewed:

• Addressing Youth Voting One Concert at a Time (The Baltimore Banner)
  
• Inviting Roast Comedian to a Political Rally is Certainly a Choice (The Sun Diego Tribune)
• Harris voters are anxious about the election. Here’s how four are coping (The Washington Post)

Dr. Tim Tooten was recently inducted into the 2024 (Silver Circle) Hall of Fame on October 19th by The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

The Silver Circle recognizes those professionals who have devoted more than 25 years in their career of broadcasting and for their outstanding contributions to the National Capital Chesapeake Bay television community

Dr. Tooten began his teaching career at Loyola in 1999 as a visiting professor teaching broadcast writing. He would later teach media training and media presence and performance.

Alexandra Astrinisky, '24, joined the Don Bosco Rey High School as Marketing and Communication Coordinator in November.

Alexandra shared how her undergraduate education in communication and marketing at Loyola has been invaluable in her transition from a budding undergraduate to a full-time professional. She said, “In my opinion, one of the Communication program’s greatest strengths lies in its variety of offerings and holistic approach. The professors in both the Marketing and Communication departments have equipped me with the tools I need to succeed—whether in graphic design, web development, social media marketing, or user/customer experience (UX/CXM).”

Haley Cisewski, Greycomm President, had the opportunity to sit down and interview President Terrence M. Sawyer. Check out the full interview. In case the above video does not play, click here to watch the interview.

On Thursday Nov 14th, WLOY once again hosted 20 high school students from the Choice Program for a college day. The students, of varying grades, from Baltimore public high schools. The students learned about WLOY, streaming and producing radio and audio content, podcasting and even created station IDs for WLOY with our student staff. WLOY has hosted Choice Program visits for more than 12 years. Learn about the Choice Program.

Loyola Maryland's PRSSA leadership organized a tour of Mission, a creative marketing agency, in Baltimore city on Nov. 21, 2024. Attendees also included communication honor society Lambda Pi Eta and The Greyhound newspaper students. Loyola alumni -- Alexa Santiago (’16, Marketing & Analytics Strategist) and Karsyn Jimenez (’20, Marketing & Analytics Strategist) -- who work at the Mission interacted with the students during this agency visit.

Please email your news or updates to communication@loyola.edu

Fall 2024 Newsletter (November, Issue 2)

Spring 2024 Newsletter (May, Issue 1)