“…Anything less than six hours—hurts women more than it does men” – Thanks, CNN!

I just had to use that quote from an article I read on cnn.com yesterday. You might be wondering why I started off this post with a quote from an article on heart health. Well, February is Heart Month in America. One of the things our hearts and brains need to function better is sleep. I have been taking Luminosity’s training exercises for the past 12 days and it’s been interesting to see how much better I’ve gotten as the days go by (most of those days).

My score on the first day of training was not great. I blame that on the medium being new to me. My speed, identification and retention of elements spiked up after that and I was on a continuous rise for days after that. However, three days ago, my sleep patterns changed. I slept late and woke up early. My Brain Performance Index stalled for the first time. Today, I even got less sleep, I feel grumpy, and I’m rocking a slight headache. My BPI dipped by 15 points L

On the good days, I noticed that I was paying attention to more than one thing because of the games Luminosity offered me. I would look out for birds and letters shown on different parts of the screen at the same time. I got to solve math problems given to me in raindrops that went down on my screen in seconds, and I also had to memorize patterns and repeat what I had seen on the screen.

I can therefore state that the daily use of activities offered by Luminosity helped me, and could help many other users memorize important facts, increase task speed and accuracy and solve problems. One of the instances when those activities might not help might involve sleep deprivation. Maybe someone needs to find out if a sleep-deprived woman’s cognitive processes slow down more than it does in a sleep-deprived male.

And so in honor of American Heart Month, y’all get some sleep!

Reference

Christensen, J. (2014, February 13). Women: 5 ways to protect your heart. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/13/health/women-heart-health/index.html?sr=fb021314womanhearthealth2p

Don't judge- It's all about perception!

I find myself doing this so often. Heck, I recently went out of my way at my local grocery store to have a second and long look at an interesting outfit I saw on some unknown lady. I stare. But usually, I don’t get caught. If I did, I might keep my curiosity to myself, but I think I have mastered the art of staring.

Just yesterday, I went to the Green Mountain coffee shop on UNT’s main campus. I bought my favorite beverage, a caramel macchiato and moved away from the shop. The sitting area just next to it was lightly occupied. About seven students, mostly male were seated there. Some studying, others discussing with friends. I found a seat far away from everyone else and took out a book and pen. At first it looked like I was writing, then reading, but all I was doing was drawing circles in anticipation of the staring match I was about to begin.

Then I found my muse. She had interesting hair like I sometimes do. It was dyed green (I usually stick with red). I think I chose her because she had dared to look different from everyone else. And so I looked at her face, my pen in my mouth for a long time as she toyed with her phone. She did not look up for a while. I stared some more. And then the moment I dreaded happened. She lifted her head and caught me watching. My reflex action was to turn my face.

The Name of the Game I Now Play

Happy New Year everyone! Where I come from (Cameroon) it's not too late to say  "happy new year" if you haven't communicated with someone since the first of the year. Considering that it's been over two years since I posted anything, Happy New Year again my friends! :)
This time around I am back to blogging because of my cognitive science class (sigh). Just kidding. I must admit that it is hard for me to put my thoughts together in a blog post. Persistence is however the name of the game I now play.
I look forward to an exciting semester of classwork and blogging.
Peace!
Jenny

Three down, one more to go!

I can hardly believe that I am almost completing my third semester here at the University of North Texas. I have one more semester to go before moving to next destination. Fall 2011 has not been the easiest semester to survive. Having to deal with an increased work load and the loss of a dear friend has left me feeling very tired. I once questioned if I was learning anything this semester, but I now know that I did.

I took three classes this semester and so I thought I should share what I learned from each of those classes. Hopefully, that could enlighten someone else.

Media Ethics

Media organizations have policies which govern them. There are also state and Federal laws which protect the audience from certain of the media’s actions. There are however so many things the media could do that would harm the audience, irrespective of the laws and guidelines. I have learned to consider the feelings of stakeholders in the execution of my duties. Having the power to publish something or hide it it does not mean that I must use it. I have to minimize harm at all times.

Seminar in Public Relations

Public relations is all about relationships. Technology has made it easier for people to connect these days. Once you make those relationships, maintain them, they always come in handy.

Writing a communications plan for this class has also been an eye-opener. I am not likely to forget the lessons we had on the importance of planning and research in the process of producing a communications plan. Those lessons are relevant for everything else I could do in my career.

Research Methods II

The great quantitative research class terrified me long before I signed up for the class. This is probably the most intense and challenging class I have ever taken. It is also one of the most rewarding classes I have ever taken. Noticing how much of the course material I could understand, I feel like a winner. I learned that journalists and PR professionals use statistics in their professions. This class was therefore not a plan by the school to frustrate me, but a necessity.

With only a week left before this semester rounds up, I can confidently say that it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Merry Christmas everyone!

Meet Eric Nadel, Broadcaster & PRO for the Texas Rangers

Eric Nadel has been the radio sports announcer for the Texas Rangers for 33 years. He is sharp, smart, funny and to some very important people. Eric is still in disbelief that the Rangers didn’t win the World Series this year.

Eric has known what he wanted to be in life from a very early age; get paid to announce baseball games. Upon graduating from Brown University, Eric held a few jobs including one with a minor league hockey team for six years.

Eric doesn’t have a degree in journalism, but he knows about being ethical in his broadcasts. He doesn’t have a degree in public relations, but he’s charged with portraying the Rangers in a positive light.

Here are a few things Eric shared with my media ethics class this past Wednesday: his first duty is to the audience, and also to the team. After all, who signs his paychecks? Eric says his job is not to release breaking news to the public, but he may talk about information that has already been published.

 He mentioned the 2009 incident involving Josh Hamilton as one instance where he had to think both about the audience and the team’s image. Eric says he learned that pictures of a half-naked Hamilton in a strip club were released on a website prior to a game. He had to decide whether or not to mention the incident in his broadcast and how often he was going to refer to it. He is fortunate to have a boss who is a public relations professional, and saw the importance of being honest with the crowd about the Hamilton affair.  Eric did what he thought was best for both the audience and the team, and led his presentation with details from Hamilton’s press conference. He told the truth, but didn’t repeat it.

·         Be aware of what is happening at your organization or in the news

·         Seek to know the truth from a firsthand source if possible

·         Verify with your boss if they want that information release, and build an argument for your position if your boss disagrees with you

·         Tell the truth, once people are aware of the truth, not mentioning it makes you look shady

·         Remember you don’t have to be repetitive once you’ve told the truth.

Make no mistakes; while Nadel may seem to you like a spin master for the Rangers, he says he is sometimes critical of them. He remembers his first years on the job when he was less likely to criticize the team. Not only was he new at a job he wanted to keep, but he had a personal relationship with many of the payers who were about his age. Now he is older than all the players, and only maintains a cordial and impersonal relationship with them, something which enables him to criticize them when necessary. At the end of the day, it always helps to be independent from your sources if you want to remain a fair and unbiased source of information. Eric Nadel shows us that there is a way to associate with your sources, yet tell the truth about them.

Do and tell: Why social media isn’t always appropriate

  

This semester I get to draw up my very first communications plan for an organization, and I decided to draw one up for an organization that I have a great deal of respect for, the Hospice Center in Richardson. This plan’s main objective is to seek ways of creating awareness of the center, and increase volunteer participation. Needless to say that I immediately thought to myself: “social media is going to play the trick.” I assumed that social media would be the most effective tool available, to show the good people of Dallas and elsewhere, what the people at the Hospice Center do. So I mentioned that as a tactic in my draft communications plan.

It is so easy to fall into the same trap I fell into, by thinking that social media is the only tool, or the best tool available to market an organization’s image. Yes, social media is everywhere and reaches every continent on earth. Yes, almost everyone uses some social media technology and yes, schools now offer classes centered on social media. I even took one of those classes here at the Mayborn School of Journalism, and it saved me from my ignorance of Twitter, Blogging, LinkedIn and lots of other cool social media networks.

By now everybody should have figured out that the social media idea was not a good idea for the Hospice Center, which offers support for people whose life expectancy is measured in weeks or months. I admit I was shocked when Sandy Heitz, the volunteer coordinator at the center told me that social media was not an option for them. I just thought they were being old-fashioned. Anyway, here is the main reason why they have taken that stance: the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) prohibits the disclosure of patient information without the patient’s consent. Think of a dying patient, and a grieving family, and ask yourself how many people would grant you that consent. Also think of those consuming social media content, and ask yourself how many of those people would be willing to share the painful details of a private individual’s final days.

The bottom line is this, social media is not appropriate for every business. It is important for people to evaluate the nature of businesses, and look at the laws that govern the operation of that business before jumping to social media as a solution. Also, keep in mind that social media activity is a perfect example of “do and tell.” Social media users expect regular updates on an organization’s activity, and the Hospice Center just can’t do that for the most part. While the Hospice Center is a medical facility, I am in no way saying that hospitals or other medical facilities cannot have a social media presence. The Hospice Center just deals more specifically with a more sensitive and private issue.

Learning PR from a politician…

I can’t believe it’s already November, 2011 has really gone by so fast. So many things happened this week which led us into the 11^th month of the year. Monday especially, seemed like the most news-filled day ever. First, there was Halloween that fell on Monday, and then the 7 billionth baby was born on Monday, and don’t forget Kim Kardashian filed for divorce after 76 days of married life. Monday’s most exciting news in my opinion was however Herman Cain’s reaction to the accusations of sexual harassment by two women. Except if you’ve been living under a hole, you’ve probably heard that the Cain, the GOP candidate vying for President Obama’s job has been accused of inappropriate behavior by two, actually 3 former female employees of the National Restaurant Association. What interests me in this case is how he reacted to the accusations, and how he could have better handled it.

Let me get into some history here. In 1992, USA Today called Arthur Ashe, asking him if he had AIDS.  Ashe refused to comment on the issue, but was told by the reporters that they would pursue the issue despite his stance. Remember how AIDS was regarded in the early 90s? I do. Those who had the disease were stigmatized, people avoided them, and many people viewed he disease as a curse. Also, most people thought its victims were responsible for acquiring the disease because it was a sexually transmissible disease.

 There are certain similarities between Ashe’s and Cain’s stories. First of all, both men were public figures when approached by the media with accusations levied against them. Cain is a former business executive, and a presidential hopeful; Ashe was the first black player ever selected to the United States Davis Cup team and the only black man to ever win the singles title at Wimbledon, the US Open, or Australian Open. While Cain was given a specific number of days by Politico to comment on the allegations made by the two ladies, Ashe was warned by USA Today that their investigation on the issue will continue.

Ashe’s handling of the situation was however remarkable, contrary to Cain’s. The day after Ashe received the call from USA Today, he summoned a press conference, where he revealed to the world that he had contracted HIV in 1983 through a blood transfusion. Ashe beat the press to their game, exposed a problem with the health care system, and even caused many to question USA Today’s motives for causing him so much distress. Cain on the other hand did nothing but raise more suspicions on his innocence. Based on his handling of the accusations, I learned the following things:

• o   Don’t lie. Isn’t that such a simple and obvious rule? Even the Bible advices people not to lie, and judging from Cain’s situation this week, not lying actually saves you a great deal of trouble. Remember Anthony Weiner? 
• 
  
• o   Don’t issue contradictory statements. George Romney’s withdrew from the presidential race in the 1960s because he changed his stance on the Vietnam War, saying he had been brainwashed into supporting the war by US military and diplomatic officials in Vietnam. When you take a position on an issue, stick to it, lest people think you are inconsistent.
• o   Don’t ignore the media on matters of such magnitude. That just fuels their suspicions that you are hiding something.
• o   Don’t yell at reporters when the story doesn't die down, you infuriate some people and stop looking like a potential president.
• o   Hire a PR person who can teach you all these things
• o   Most importantly, if you are aware that there are skeletons in your closet, draw up a strategy that you will use in tackling the issue if that skeleton is ever exposed.

There is always something PR professionals and students can learn from the campaign trail; Cain’s predicament has been a real learning experience.