nicholas matthews
I am a Ph.D. student in the Telecommunications department at Indiana University. My primary research interests are video games and interactivity. Specifically, I’m interested in realism, morality, body image, and social context. I am currently studying how video game realism influences social comparison and how games may alter people’s moral foundations.
I have industry experience in both advertising and digital design. The former comes from my work in selling and designing ads for newspapers. My work designing and maintaining websites constitutes the latter.
Want to know more? Check the links above and feel free to contact me for additional information or if you want to throw down online :)
why dr_niz?
Apparently, I’m always in too much of a rush when printing my name. I connect the dot of the “i” and the top of the “c” in Nic and thus, a handful of people began calling me niz. It stuck as a pen name for my creative work and developed into dr_niz for online gaming to sound more intimidating. Hey, when you play competitively, you need all the help you can get! Regardless of my prior reasons, it’s wonderfully coincidental that my current aspirations in seeking a Ph.D. may legitimize my game handle.
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David Weaver & Lars Willnat
Are U.S. journalists really that different? A comparative look at the norms and values of journalists around the world
IU Journalism professors David Weaver and Lars Willnat presented findings from their soon-to-be-released book, The Global Journalist in the 21st Century, for IU Telecom’s T600 Proseminar. The presentation provided information gleaned from a massive survey of nearly 29,000 journalists from around 40 countries. The survey covered topics on demographics, perceived roles of journalists, and ethics surrounding journalistic methods. In sum, David and Lars found that U.S. journalists are notably different from journalists around the world. Compared to international averages, they are more likely to be older, male, married, and college educated. US journalists are more likely to endorse the occupation’s watchdog role and emphasize quick reporting. Finally, they are more likely to condone badgering sources, using personal documents, and undercover employment to find stories.
Interestingly, the findings don’t reveal if countries are becoming more divergent or similar along the aforementioned topics. However, most countries endorse quick reporting and objectivity and believe that protecting sources’ identities is an important ethical boundary.
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Proseminar – Huub Evers
Huub Evers
Media accountability and transparency in Europe: First results of a comparative study
On this Friday the 13th, Huub Evers from Fontys University of Applied Sciences shared his trans-European research project, which is part of mediaACT. One of the primary goals of his research was to evaluate the strength of accountability and self-regulation that occurs in journalism on and offline. I found his information on online accountability most interesting. He described that contemporary online journalism often asks journalists to maintain professional profiles, provide links to sources, and be sensitive to consumer’s feedback via social media such as Twitter and Facebook. However, in surveying 1,732 journalists, Huub found that they tend to be ambivalent about accountability instruments (e.g., press councils) and they believe that consumer criticisms are largely misinformed due to their lack of expertise.
Huub’s research that began in January 2010 will continue until the Summer of 2013. The final goal is to submit policy suggestions to the European Union aimed to strengthen self and press regulation.
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Proseminar – Gunn Sara Enli
Gunn Sara Enli
Social Media and Election Campaigns
In a uncommon, long-format presentation, Gunn Enli from the Department of Media and Communication at the University of Olso shared her preliminary analyses surrounding twitter and the upcoming 2012 US election. Specifically, her research team investigated what characterizes the dynamics between social media and mainstream media in political agenda-setting, and how this dynamic impacts the relationship between national and global public spheres.
Gunn justifies her research suggesting that social media changes the nature of political communication and is a new area for power negotiations and agenda-setting. Her findings imply that twitter is now used by all candidates but the typical user is a young, republican. Moreover, rather than using social media to interact with others, politicians tweet to broadcast favorable messages or attacks on rivals. Interestingly, Gunn’s team also found that journalists act as gatekeepers of information on twitter, as they only follow and popularize the political elites.
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