Campus On The Common

As divisive as today’s political dialogue seems, it’s nothing new. Ethics and politics have been at odds throughout human history. In this episode, Peter Loge ’87—a communications consultant, professor, and ethicist—discusses the relationship between politics and ethics, and what we can do to improve it.

Other questions we explore with Peter...

• What are the qualities of ethical communication?

• If it’s inherently more persuasive, why does unethical communication in politics prevail?

• How does today's political discourse compare to other points in U.S. history?

• Who is better at predicting political outcomes—political insiders or drunken monkeys?

• And most importantly, what can we do to foster ethical political communication?

ABOUT OUR GUEST...

Peter Loge is a professor of media and public affairs at George Washington University, where he leads the Project on Ethics in Political Communication. Loge has led and advised a range of campaigns and organizations, put the first member of Congress on the internet, lobbied for “America’s Funniest Home Videos” and served as a senior policy advisor for health care in the House of Representatives during the debate over the Affordable Care Act.

His eclectic career also includes a solo-show of his sculpture in a Washington, D.C. gallery, appearances as a political satirist on NPR and his book Soccer Thinking for Management Success: Lessons for Organizations from the World’s Game debuted as the #1 Sports Industry new release on Amazon in the summer of 2018.

Prior to joining the full-time faculty at the GWU School of Media and Public Affairs, Loge served as a senior advisor to the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration in the Obama administration, a presidential appointment. In this role, he developed and helped lead the strategic communication efforts for some of the top White House and FDA health priorities including the Cancer Moonshot, the Precision Medicine Initiative and combating the opioid crisis.

From 2013 – 2015, he was the first vice president for external relations at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) where his portfolio included congressional relations, intergovernmental affairs, communications, development and the Global Peacebuilding Center. He was also part of the organization’s senior management team and the interim liaison to the USIP board.

What do movie producers, music executives, fashion designers, and product innovators have in common? How do you cultivate creativity and turn artistic insight into a business opportunity?

We explore these questions and more with Wes Jackson, Director of the Business of Creative Enterprise Program at Emerson College.

Other questions we explore with Wes...

• How can out-of-the-box thinkers work with established frameworks?

• How can we apply convergent problem solving?

• What is the role of empathy in a successful business?

• How do we develop creativity as a tool?

ABOUT OUR GUEST...

Wes has over 20 years experience as an entrepreneur and innovator in the music business. His career began producing concerts for Nas, The Roots, The Dave Matthews Band, The Fugees, and A Tribe Called Quest. He then went on to start his own promotions company, Seven Heads Entertainment and helped launch the careers of Yasiin Bey (Mos Def), Talib Kweli, El-P (Run The Jewels), Common and others.

Under Wes' leadership Seven Heads then expanded into a boutique independent record label and management company. Music from the Seven Heads Roster was included HBO's "The Wire", the film "Brown Sugar" and scored the theme to the "The Boondocks".

In 2005 Wes founded the Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival with the mission to create a world class event to honor Hip-Hop music and culture. The Festival has hosted a range of amazing talent including: Jay-Z, Kanye West, and Kendrick Lamar.

In 2006 Wes created The Bodega Agency which produces the Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival as well as serve as a multifaceted media company.

Wes has taught at the City University of New York and has consulted for Jazz At Lincoln Center, MTV, Grammy Camp and VH1.

A member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. Wes is a proud father of three beautiful kids with his wife and business partner, Ebonie.

In her research, Communication Studies Professor Sharifa Simon-Roberts discovered a phenomenally high rate of Netflix consumption among Gen-Z African Americans. But when did this begin, and why? More importantly, what does this tell us about streaming media and our sense of community? Sharifa shares her discoveries and theories in this episode.

ABOUT OUR GUEST...

Sharifa Simon-Roberts hails from Trinidad and Tobago and brings her unique perspective to teaching and to her research. Her work centers on television, new communication technologies, and culture, with specific reference to groups traditionally underrepresented in the media — and society as a whole. With media being an omnipresent force in society, one of Sharifa’s goals is to empower students to be critical consumers of media and conscientious creators of content.

Sharifa designed an activity to increase media literacy among undergraduate students, which was published in Growing Through Communication: Releasing the Speaking Dynamic in You. She also co-authored a chapter in Journalism, Gender and Power. Her second co-authored chapter is due to be published later this year in Media, Myth and Millennials: Critical Perspectives on Race and Culture.

Learning a new language can be hard. As a college student, how do you go about the process of adapting to a new language and culture? What resources are available and how to do you deal with all the nuances, metaphors, and slang of spoken English in a classroom environment? Hear from Emerson College English Language Coordinator/Lecturer Jeremy Heflin about the process of adapting to a new language and culture.

ABOUT OUR GUEST...

Nearly a decade ago, Heflin was brought into Emerson College to coordinate building English language learning (ELL) courses, unify elements of support for non-native English students, and professional development for instructors and staff. For Heflin, he says, it’s been a thrilling experience engaging students, building institutional and global partner collaboration between staff and faculty, and an honor to bridge cultural and educational perspectives amongst such amazing people, and have been particularly honored and proud to spearhead an relationship between Native American leaders, educators, artists, performers, and people with the Emerson community.

Heflin has always been drawn to culture; art, folk tales, history, the food. The path of my career has moved me always in circles around how to understand the cultures and people around me; photography, journalism, public affairs, historical research, and teaching. As a young man, he traveled far and wide with the US military as a photojournalist and public affairs specialist and never really stopped traveling, studying, and teaching. It’s in his blood, saturated in what he thinks is the heart of all humankind; cultural context. "It defines us and makes us curious about any part of our world. My years of education and experience are what I bring to a classroom, department, institution, community; to breath life into the languages we use to describe, define and advance," he explains.

How do marketers use technology to send the right message to the right person at the right time in a personalized yet massive scale?

Why is it that when we click on some web content, we generally start receiving more related content through different mediums and channels?

In this episode of Campus on the Common, we talk with Emerson College Adjunct Professor Randy Harrison about Marketing Automation, what it is, what it does and why it’s important for next-generation marketers.

ABOUT OUR GUEST...

Harrison started on his journey to make products "easy-to-buy" when it became clear to him that he loved connecting people to creativity on the cutting edge. Out of necessity ROI, value and revenue generation have always been his raison d'être.

This is because he cuts his teeth promoting concerts featuring artists like classical composer Philip Glass at the beginning, dancer Twyla Tharp, jazz genius Ornette Coleman and more, with the unforgiving box office and ticket sales serving as the metric of success, or failure. Somehow he got good at filling seats and selling out the house.

He even co-produced Frank Sinatra, which was an education unto itself.

As a marketing consultant, he's an "architect,' a designer of strategy and solutions, specializing in the often overlooked task of positioning to address the fundamental questions of "how are you different?", and "why should we care?"by identifying competitive advantage(s) and exploiting "compelling reasons to buy" that attract and engage customers and prospects.

This path has offered Harrison many interesting opportunities to help companies create value in a wide variety of industries, from Tech and Digital to Textbooks with almost it seems, everything in between.

Some examples. One personal best was consulting for an IT Services firm where Harrison repositioned their e-Business offerings and mounted campaigns that drove $1billion in new sales and another $1billion in old, all in 18-months. Other results haven't been too shabby either, most recently guiding a staffing business from $0 to $35million in annual revenue.

Currently, Harrison is both a marketing consultant and an educator, having served on the Faculty of Marketing Communication at Emerson College since the Fall of 2002.

As a professor, he constantly seeks to create and enable applied learning experiences that empower today's students to invent their futures with the tool-based competencies and the strategic know-how to use them, as well as collaboration in high performing co-elevating teams.

All in the era of one-to-one marketing fostered by digital disruption and transformation, where all of us are literally writing the rules and inventing the future on the fly. FUN!

Some Specialties:

Higher Ed, Self-Serve Education, Skill Up, Marketing Education, Experiential Learning, Integrated Marketing Communications, Marketing Strategy, Marketing Consulting, Digital Marketing, HubSpot, HubSpot Academy, Salesforce, Trailhead, Inbound Marketing, Content Marketing, One-to-One Marketing, Competitive Advantage, GAP, CAP, Shareholder Value, Differentiation, Sales Enablement...

Consumer behavior research examines all aspects of purchasing behavior – from pre-purchase activities through to post-purchase consumption, evaluation and purchase decision activities.

In this episode of Campus on the Common, we speak with Dr. Naa Amponsah Dodoo, about Consumer Behaviour Research and its implications for marketers and advertisers and product managers.

ABOUT OUR GUEST...

Dr. Naa Amponsah Dodoo's research revolves around her fascination with evolving new media technologies, its role in digital and social media environments, and subsequent influence on consumer psychology and behavior in offline and online realms. Primarily, she explores the effects of individual traits and contextual aspects of digital communication on persuasion.

Alejandra St Guillen has led a life in service both inside and outside of government. She has served as a public school teacher, an activist, and ran the Mayor of Boston’s Office of Immigrant Advancement. She is now trying to serve in a new way and is a candidate for one of Boston’s City Councilors at Large positions.

In this episode of Campus on the Common, we talk with Alexandra St. Guillen about the role of the Boston City Council, the state of the City of Boston's public education system, the City's immigration services, as well as how individuals can get involved.

ABOUT OUR GUEST...

St. Guillen began her career as a public school teacher in New York City and Boston and has served as the Director of ¿Oiste?, Latino Civic & Political Organization where she promoted economic justice and electoral reform public policy initiatives directly impacting communities of color statewide. St. Guillen most recently served as the Director of the City of Boston's Office for Immigrant Advancement, where her work included initiatives like the Greater Boston Immigrant Defense Fund. St. Guillen holds a B.A. in Economics and African-American Studies from Wesleyan University and a M.Ed from City College. She currently resides in West Roxbury with her wife, Josiane, and their 3 year old son, Jose Alejandro.

Specializing in public relations and sports communications, Communication Studies faculty member, Maria Scott, offers insight on PR strategy and its organizational impact.

When used correctly, Public relations can make or break an organization.

While everyone seems to know the term public relations, not everyone understands what it means. It's evolved into much more than sending the right messages to the right people at the right time, it's also about relationships, narrative, strategy, tactics and logistics.

So what is Public Relations? How is it different than marketing or advertising and what are the key attributes that will make a public relations expert truly effective?

In this episode, we’ll talk with Dr. Maria Scott. Dr. Scott is a professor at Emerson College’s School of Communication she is also a public relations practitioner with decades of experiences working with iconic brands such as NASCAR, ESPN, the National Football League, the National hockey league, the PGA as well as a host of non-profits and small business.

ABOUT OUR GUEST...

Maria Scott teaches Public Relations and Sports Communication courses in both the undergraduate and graduate programs. Dr. Scott comes with more than 10 years of teaching experience and more than 20 years of experience as a journalist and Public Relations professional. Her career as a sports journalist started with the Tampa Tribune before she moved to the Philadelphia area and the Journal Register Company. Dr. Scott transitioned into Public Relations working for the Tampa Bay Super Bowl XXXV Task Force before moving to the ESPN where she was the publicity and community relations specialist for all ESPN event properties such as the X Games, Winter X Games, ESPY Awards…etc.

Dr. Scott moved from Los Angeles to South Florida where she managed Public Relations for the Miami Open (formerly Sony Ericsson Open or NASDAQ-100) and then moved to the South Florida Super Bowl XLI Host Committee. In 2007, Dr. Scott opened her own consulting firm while teaching full-time. Scott has assisted with events and publicity for: Michael Irvin’s PlayMaker Charities and Foundations, Battle of the Beauties, Sports Employment Inc., Dwight Stephenson Foundation and the National Salute to America’s Heroes presented by Hyundai.

In 2017, Scott transitioned and opened a small business with a partner forming Elles Wesgate, Inc. In her role as a professor at the University of Miami, Dr. Scott has designed programs in New York and abroad in Scotland and has developed relationships with organizations such as: Comic Cure, Hard Rock Energy, NASCAR, NFL, NHL, PGA Tour, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and many local non-profit and small businesses.

Since joining the Emerson College family, Dr. Scott has worked with Emerson Launch and Voice @ Emerson as well as her students to create and launch Voicelets on the Amazon Alexa platform as a voice component to the curriculum. Additionally, in Fall 2018 she became the Emerson College Chapter Public Relations Student Society of America Chapter Faculty Advisory. In Spring 2019, she also added on serving as the Emerson Dance Company Faculty Advisor.

Water, we all need it but do we have a right to it? Dr. Nejem Raheem, discusses the role of communications in contending with the complexity of water rights.

ABOUT OUR GUEST...

Nejem Raheem brings over 15 years of experience as an environmental economist to Emerson. His expertise is in economic analysis of natural resource and environmental issues, focusing on ecosystem services and traditional or indigenous economies. In addition to Emerson, he has taught economics at Kinship Conservation Fellows and the University of New Mexico. He is currently working on a project with scientists from the USGS, the Nature Conservancy, and the Wildlife Conservation Society to examine the effects of long term drought on human communities.

In addition to regular presentations at US conferences, he has presented his research at a conference on irrigation, landscape, and culture in Valencia, Spain. He has published in peer-reviewed journals such as WIRESWater, the International Journal of the Commons, Marine Policy, and the Social Science Journal.

How does the brain of a liberal vs a brain of a conservative react to the same message? In this episode, we'll talk with Dr. Ruth Grossman about your brain on politics.

ABOUT OUR GUEST...

Dr. Grossman's research is focused on various aspects of face-to-face communication in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). She is specifically interested in how children with ASD integrate and produce verbal and nonverbal information, such as facial expressions and prosody. Dr. Grossman's work has been published in several refereed journals, including Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry; Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research; Journal of Nonverbal Behavior; and Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Dr. Grossman teaches graduate and undergraduate classes on subjects ranging from autism to neuro-anatomy and neurogenic disorders. She is always happy to involve students in her research.