Jason Yu Visits JMComm 2012
Jason Yu from the SIUE department of Mass Communications spent December third through fourth in Singapore attending and presenting at the Annual International Conference on Journalism and Mass Communications (JMComm).
With around 100 attendees JMComm is a relatively small international communications conference covering a wide variety of topics. The theme for the 2012 conference was, “At the Crossroads of Communication, Journalism, Media, Corporate and Social Responsibility,” looking at how new technological developments have allowed for great advances in journalism while simultaneously creating ethical concerns. With representatives from over thirty countries the highly international nature of the conference was one of the main draws for Yu as was the small size.
“Because of the small size participants were very engaged,” Yu shared, “I would love to participate again next year.”
Yu’s presentation titled, “The Impact of Emotions on Consumer Engagement and Word-of-Mouth on Social Networking Sites: A Case Study of Facebook Brand Pages,” looks at how a social network user’s emotional reaction to a company’s post can affect the level of interaction the user is likely to take. In short if they find a company’s message appealing then they are more likely to share or comment on the message than they are to a message the don’t feel strongly about. Yu felt the study was a necessary step in social network research because of the lack existing empirical studies dealing with the psychological effects of brand marketing in social media.
Before returning to the United States Yu made a stop over in China to work on arrangements for next summer’s international advertising study abroad program (MC471) the first ever study abroad program offered by the Department of Mass Communications. Yu will teach this course next May through June along with Tom Lavallee from the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature. Applications for the course are due January 11 by 4:30pm.
Filed Under: Foreign Languages & Lit • Mass Communications
