Two Days of Protest Against Four Days of Furlough at Lakehead University

[A version of this post was published in the December-January edition of the MUFA Newsletter] On December 20-21, I went to Lakehead University in Thunder Bay as representative of MUFA to participate in a protest against the Lakehead administration’s decision to put faculty and staff on a four-day furlough to save money. The protest was …

CLIR Workshop in Washington DC

From December 14-16, I had the distinct pleasure of traveling, with McMaster’s Chief Librarian, Jeff Trzeciak, to Washington D.C. for the annual workshop of the Council on Library and Information Resources. It was an amazingly good workshop, held in the Cosmos Club, in D.C. – a club whose members are all somehow linked to science, …

Communication Studies and Multimedia Christmas Party 2009!

Tonight was the CSMM Christmas Party, organised by the Communication Studies and Multimedia Students Society. It was a great time. The students booked a room in 1280, McMaster’s newly-renovated undergraduate student pub, which used to be called Quarters. At first, there was a little noise, as just beside us, the Social Sciences students were having …

Guest lecture today from Don Smith of the Canada Revenue Agency.

Don Smith, Director of Operations, Public Affairs Division at the Canada Revenue Agency dropped by our CMST 4n03: New Analysis, Theory and Practice class to deliver a guest lecture and lead a discussion about working for the federal government. He presented his M.A. thesis which was a content analysis of compliance messaging for the CRA …

Breakdancing in the McMaster Student Centre

Yesterday, I stayed late, writing in my office. I had a manuscript to finish for submission to a journal. It was an interesting piece about how Barack Obama uses time words to create a link between past and present in his speeches. I had a quick dinner and glass of merlot with a friend at …

Some advice for college and university students

[This piece was originally posted as a note on Facebook on Saturday, September 12, 2009 at 15:24 and republished on the Talent Egg Career Incubator on September 15, 2009] The three or four years you will spend at college or university should be some of the best years of your life. You have a rare …

Guest lecture from Andrew Laing of Cormex Research at McMaster

My 4th-year News Analysis class had a special treat today. We had a guest lecturer – Dr Andrew Laing, president of Cormex Research. Cormex Research is Canada’s leading media content measurement and analysis firm. Here’s an example of the sort of work Cormex does. Andrew is a unique and admirable person. He took time out …

Ontario must invest in higher education.

When I began teaching at McMaster University on July 1, 2001, I had a pretty unique experience as a new professor. I was the first person hired into the Communication Studies Program at McMaster University. The program was so new that it didn’t even exist. In fact, the program only officially took existence with our …

Canadians deserve evidence-based politics

It is about time that political communication caught up to medicine by applying modern standards of evidence to its practices. The practice of medicine has been revolutionised over the last 20 years by the emergence of evidence-based diagnosis and treatment. The idea behind evidence-based medicine is that doctors should apply the findings of scientific research …

My first MCM student defends his thesis.

Today was a truly a happy day. I woke up early and met my thesis student in the Master of Communication Management program, an executive MBA program offered by the DeGroote School of Management at McMaster University, in which I am an adjunct faculty member. We rehearsed a little and drove into McMaster for the …