A blog and #clarkclass--staying up-to-date

#clarkclass blog--http://clarkclassUCO.blogspot.com

By @Okieprof on twitter

Staying up to date in this business--journalism or professing--has always been a challenge, but perhaps never more than now with such rapid change in technology, culture and more.
So it is that my UCO Twitter for Journalists/Media class, hashtagged #clarkclass, has now has taken on a life of its own, in its fourth or fifth intersession incarnation. And this year, I started a blog for the class to post assignments and speaker comments.
I started the class in response to professional journalists advising us they all used twitter. Not knowing anything about it, I bought one of those "Dummnies" books, and figured to give it a try.
What I have discovered has been astounding, as "twitter" changes, with more and more articles and research happening every day, affecting not just journalism, but life and many other businesses--along with other social media.
The class fills quickly to 24, because it's "trendy," but also because it covers only 10 days, and there's no high-priced textbook.
The reputation has spread, because I bring in talented professionals from different fields. I have music majors, business majors, technology majors, plus advertising, PR, broadcasting and standard journalism students.
Bringing in these speakers helps keep me up-to-date and enthused with new learning and discovery, and I learn with the students--which is the best kind of education. A colleague complimented me the other day for being "an old dog who can learn new tricks." Woof!
If you'd care to follow along, with the amazing comments from my speakers, they on the class blog, #clarkclassUCO  http://clarkclassUCO.blogspot.com. After each speaker we "debrief" and each students gives a comment. They're listed. 
The class is also rejuvenating...this is the most fun I've had teaching in a long time.

Booth is a Verb, Epilogue--redux

From 2009

"Can you write about a dead person?" asked a student in The Clark's feature writing class in January, 2009.

"No." The Clark rolled his eyes. The assignment was a profile, and the question came from an older student, with baseball cap on backwards, tattoos stretched over his arms. "How can you interview them?" he sarcastically asked.

Then, for some reason, The Clark also asked, "Who?"

"Bob Illidge."

The Clark is rarely without words, but this was one of them.

Finally, he asked "Why?"

"He's the reason I'm back in school and an advertising major," said the student.

The Clark warned him it would be very hard for The Clark to grade, and that he'd be extra hard on the grading. The student didn't blink, but smiled, accepting the challenge. "It's been almost four years since he died, and I'd like to do it."

Then The Clark starting spouting off stories and people to contact and some of the story of The Booth, much to the delight of the rest of the class, thankful to have him off on a tangent.

The student, completed the story, and it was printed that spring in The Vista.

Here it is:

By Justin Neely

“There was just something there that was special,” Elizabeth Illidge recalls. “People just liked him.”

            Robert J. Illidge, former UCO advertising professor, had an impact on individuals that continues today four years after his death. For those who knew him, thoughts of this gravelly voiced, grey haired man with a beard to match, make people smile and jump at the opportunity to talk about him.

            “He would bring life to the teachings he would deliver,” said Steven Schwartz, UCO alum and advertising major. Other returning advertising majors say that Illidge was the reason they chose advertising as a major and career.

            A breach of contract as the chairperson of Journalism at Wichita State led Illidge to UCO in 1992 at age 61.  His wife, Elizabeth, believed her husband’s age would make it difficult for him to find a job and was a factor during the hiring process at UCO.

            Dr. Terry Clark, professor and chairman of the Journalism Department of UCO, saw otherwise. “Bob had the experience that we valued,” Clark said. “His advertising and teaching experience were who we needed, not just a Ph.D.”

            This new position would require Illidge to drive 300 miles every week while his home and his wife of 39 years, better known to him as his “bride” or “sweet pea,” stayed in Wichita.            

            As a teacher, Illidge had a reputation for being strict and unforgiving, based on his three decades of advertising experience. Those who only heard of him, somehow feared him. As for the students he taught, many will tell you he played a strong role in why they’re in advertising today.

            “He really wanted students to succeed and learn,” said Elizabeth Illidge.

            At the beginning of every semester, Illidge would make one rule clear. Come to class and do not come late. As a result, if a student was late then they were also absent.             
   Illidge had little tolerance for lazy students who didn’t work and even less tolerance for those who were late. Schwartz remembers Illidge talking about a time when he was late for a presentation and was fired. Illidge knew the real world would not accept such behaviors.

            Schwartz became well aware of his seriousness. After being late one too many times to class, he was asked to leave and received an F for the semester. Schwartz apologized and retook Illidge the following semester.

            Today, Schwartz is the Director of Operations for Visual Image Advertising in Oklahoma City. He appreciates Illidge not only for his wisdom but also for his unique mannerisms, engaging personality and “little life lessons”.           

            When people speak of Illidge, one word comes up every time. Humor.           

            Jill Kelsey, professor and department intern coordinator, remembers Illidge using his dry sense of humor, excellent storytelling, and off the wall expressions to uplift and make anybody laugh.

            “He put his unique stamp on everything,” Kelsey said. For Illidge, it wasn’t just about unexpected life changes; it was about the “vicissitudes and vagaries of life” as he put it.

            “He was exactly who he was…life was fun for him,” said Terry Clark.

            Illidge’s humor was just a small part of who he was. For some, the impact he had on others came from his endearing personality, the respect he gave others, and the fact he never took himself too seriously. For others, it was his sense of perspective, honesty, and intelligence. However, for most it was all of the above and much more.

            Some of UCO journalism professors’ favorite memories of Illidge took place at the “the booth.” The booth was just that, at Bennigans Restaurant in Edmond, now Old Chicago. It’s a place Illidge and Clark would occasionally unwind in the afternoon, share stories, and play a few hands of a card game known as cribbage. Within time, the booth became a magnet,  a place for all UCO journalism faculty to unwind and share a few laughs.

            “The booth was the release of the day,” said Jill Kelsey. “It was collegiality at its best.”

            Illidge retired from UCO and teaching in 2004 after a 15-year-long battle with leukemia including three painful years of shingles, a disease caused by the reactivation of the chickenpox virus.

            “He never complained or felt sorry for himself,” said Clark. According to Mrs. Illidge, had it not been for Clark’s persistence to keep Illidge at UCO and encouragement, Illidge would have retired a few years earlier.

            “Keeping busy was a godsend,” said Elizabeth. Illidge would have three farewell parties prior to retirement. 

            During Illidge’s final weeks, his impact on others would prevail more than ever. UCO faculty he barely knew offered their sick leave to him.

            “Correspondence, letters, phone calls, and flowers from students was amazing,” said Elizabeth.

            Robert J. Illidge died at the age of 74 on April 1, 2005 in his hometown of Wichita. 

            Perhaps a big part of who Illidge was came from his own passions and values. His wife and five children came first and foremost. Illidge was a man of faith and valued loyalty and professionalism. Throughout his career, he remained passionate about advertising, teaching, and cared a great deal for young people.

            Illidge, born September 15, 1930, served time as a staff sergeant in the Korean War prior to receiving his Bachelor’s in Journalism in 1958 from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He later went on to work for several adverting agencies in the Kansas City and Wichita area as well as fulfilling his passion of teaching at numerous universities. He received his master’s in 1984 from Wichita State where he later became the chairperson for seven years.

            On his free time, he enjoyed listening to jazz music while hoping to emulate his jazz idols, Dave Brubeck and George Shearing, on his own piano.

            “Music was a big part of who is was,” said Mrs. Illidge. Illidge was also known to be a devoted Notre Dame and Missouri fan and was a “respectable golfer” as his wife put it.

            Today, while the original booth doesn’t exist, when UCO mass communication faculty get together in a new booth they always toast Bob Illidge. “Many departments have legends, Bob’s exceeded that,” said Clark. 

Interlude--The Illidge Rap

From September, 2009

Flashback, Written by The Clark for his retirement ten years ago:

Rap for Illidge
Illidge is the ad man
Bob’s gonna retire man
Illidge makes us sad man
Goin’ down to the wire man
Illidge is so bad man
Cause he’s the ad man
UH huh, uh huh, uh huh!

It’s no fad man,
Illidge is the ad man
Don’t make’m mad man.
Show up on time man
So this will rhyme man
Cause he’s the ad man
Uh huh, uh huh, uh huh!

Illidge is rad man,
His school’s Notre Dame’s man
Ad Hall of fame man
Don’t be a fool man
Illidge is so cool man
Cause he’s the ad man
Uh huh, uh huh, uh huh.

It’s the Illidge decade man
Won’t ever fade man
UCO’s been the place man
Where Illidge set the pace man
We’ll miss his face man
Cause he’s the ad man
Uh huh, uh huh, uh huh!

He’s got a Kansas pad man
Illidge gonna be missed man
Don’t be pissed man
Bob’s been feared man
It ain’t the beard man
Cause Illidge is the ad man.
Uh huh, uh huh, uh huh.

When we heard that Illidge
Was going back to his village
Just want to Loot and Pillage,
Don’t want to play no cribbage
Cause the ad man is Illidge

Don’t be a sap man
Lissen to the rap man
Illidge is the ad man.
Un huh, uh huh, uh huh.

Illidge is the aaaaaad maaaaan. Uh Huh!

Booth love story saddens, chapter 6 redux

From August, 2009
 
A gospel story full of "higher" education's injustice

Chapter 6

"Yea, though much of this tale is enlivened with levity and laughter, and will continue to be, the circumstances of The Illidge coming to UCO, and his presence there enriching students and faculty, were blemished with injustices that would anger his colleagues and mystify anyone not drugged by the inanity of so-called 'higher education.' This is a melancholy tale that is difficult to relate for the scribe, The Clark, so readers should be suspect of his detachment and aware of his anger, but not his heart and his truthfulness.

"The Illidge, after more than three decades of successful advertising experience, completed his master’s degree at The Wichita State University, and became chair of the Elliott School of Journalism there. Even though he 'only' had a master’s degree from the institution, the faculty elected him to lead them, because of his excellence teaching and skill and experience in media. Assured by his superiors that he was secure, even without research into meaningless subjects and publications in arcane 'academic' journals that nobody could or would read, he continued. 

 "does the symbol of a forked tongue come to mind?"

"But administrators' words are like America’s treaties with Indians…does the symbol of a forked tongue cometh to mind? So with a change in administration, The Illidge found himself, at age 60, out of a job, because he didn’t have a 'terminal' degree to add to the academic status of said so-called institution of higher learning. What The Illidge did have, was a terminal degree of a different sort, a long-term form of Leukemia.

"He sent out about 100 resumes, seeking a teaching position, and though they would deny it, no one called because of his age—except one. It was then, in the early 1990s, that The Clark called, from a university journalism program two and a half-hours south of The Illidge’s comfortable Wichita home. What The Clark and his faculty knew was that they needed an advertising professor who knew hands-on advertising. A doctoral degree was useless if the holder had no experience in the area he was teaching, or at least so his faculty believed, despite protestations by their administration.

"inferior universities are ... great pretenders"

"Unfortunately, The Clark could only get The Illidge hired at the low level of lecturer, instead of as associate professor as he would be ordained at any 'real' university. But lower level inferior universities are, perforce, great pretenders when it comes to trying to delude themselves that they are equal to their superiors. Hence they add more and more academic nonsense to their rules and regulations, and anyone without a' terminal degree' cannot be accorded the status they deserve. This myopia is particularly damaging to journalism programs, where experience in the fields in which you teach is worth more than a mere academic degree. The Clark was trying to build an advertising program beneficial to students, not academics, and his faculty agreed. The Illidge was grateful for the job, but the low ranking and pay was grievous to him till his death, and still is to The Clark, who now is almost inured to academic nonsense.

"Thus The Illidge came to UCO, and his demanding standards soon lifted the advertising program to new heights, and led to the discovery of The Booth. There were more tears to follow."

To be continued…

Twittering star and former student

@clarkclass #clarkclass

Speaker to my Twitter for Journalists class today was Sheri Guyse, @MyJRNY, marketing director for Good Egg Dining, and so much more. We watched Good Egg's video, and referred to Sheri's Blog, Really Most Sincerely, ahead of time.

"This class  so transcends twitter, it's about life" 

The class got the ultimate compliment, in my book, from one student after Sheri left today. he said "This class so transcends twitter, it's about life." 
So what did she talk about? Her journey, personally and professionally. About the booming cultural life in Oklahoma City. About travel. About food. About music. About the avant garde way Good Egg uses twitter and social media to open new restaurants and in daily operation, advertising, PR and marketing.
In our debriefing after she left, several students mentioned how much she inspired them with her off the cuff remarks, honesty and advice about twitter and more. I am so fortunate to have so many great former students.
You can see some of the students tweets during her comments at @okieprof, search #clarkclass.
Here are some student comments during our debriefing, notes take by Lacey Rhodes.

    •    Be a good person, and keep the content clean.
    •    There is nothing at all that you cannot do.
    •    Keep your relationship statuses offline.
    •    “Fear is this weird thing that our brain does that serves absolutely no purpose.”
    •    Use twitter to tell a story
    •    Both speakers we’ve had said to be a good speaker and always keep learning.
    •    Be curious about things outside the box.
    •    Create a personal relationship with your customers or the people who follow you, follow them!
    •    Don’t wait around for the job to be posted but sometimes create your own!
    •    Don’t stay in the digital; there is life happening too.
    •    There is no such thing as a work-life balance because your work is your life. Have a passion for your work.
    •    She would only hire a friend or an intern that she knew on twitter. Align yourself with people that will help you strategically.
    •    It’s not all strategic but sometimes it happens accidentally.
    •    Take advantage of all the classes you can take while you are in school.
    •    Be well-rounded. It really helps you in this field. You can do journalism, advertising and all of it.
    •    Be inquisitive and ask for help when you need it.
    •    Don’t settle for being average.
    •    “Twitter is a drug of choice”
    •    “Live in the flow and then people will fall into your stream."
    •    She created her own position so she has full control of her job now.
    •    She encouraged us to do anything we want. Failure isn’t bad for you. It is a step towards success.
    •    If there is something you don’t like, then don’t do it. If you really hate your job then quit. Move on to something better.
    •    Fear is a weird trick our brain tries to play, we need to ignore fear because it is useless.
    •    Her attention span is dwindling because of social media.

My favorite quotes:

• "Take the classes you want to take."
• "Fear serves no purpose."
• "The holy gospel of social media is that you have to always want to learn."
• "Read fiction. The storytelling will help you."

All a-twitter about journalism and more

By @okieprof

(A version of this appeared in the Oklahoma Press Association Publisher last month as part of my monthly column, Clark's Critique.)

“You need a ‘Batman belt’ to be a journalist,” Dave Rhea of the Journal Record, the daily business newspaper,  told my students this year.

Even though the context was my new “Twitter for Journalists” class, he was specifically talking about journalists having a lot of different skills, not just about technology. They need to be versatile, able to get the story out in several ways.

I think that’s true of anyone out looking for a job and career these days.

He describes twitter as part of the “disruptive technology” that has changed almost all industries in the past few years, but none more so than journalism.

Geezers like myself may scoff at twitter and other social media in all areas, and almost everyone overlooks  that journalism has always been a child of technology.  I’ve had to try to educate myself on this new-fangled stuff, especially since working journalists like Dave and others, advised us academics that our students need to be adept at it.

In teaching the class—two weeks of six hours a day, with all sorts of majors in it, I’ve relied on bringing in professionals in all fields, and we have learned much.

I’ll admit, as someone near the end of a career, I don’t need or use twitter much  other than to promote by blog, but I’m convinced  anyone involved in journalism and communication needs to know about it. So what follows are some brief—in keeping with the briefness of twitter—pointers from my speakers.

·       Almost every major news story in the past few years has been broken on twitter.

·       Twitter has become almost a new wire service.

·       It’s especially valuable in local news, if you have a strong list of followers who can keep you updated.

·       It’s a fast way to get news, but you always need to verify

·       Rather than harm writing, it ought to help it, by making you value every word.

·       It’s more a conversation than Facebook. Facebook has a longer “shelf life.”

·       Twitter is the New Age paper boy.

·       Don’t write anything on twitter, or your blog, you wouldn’t want your grandmother to read.

·       There is nothing off the record with a room full of people, and twitter.

·        Media isn’t dying, just the old profit margins.

·       Having 140 characters is no excuse for being incomplete.

·       With twitter you have an entire network of sources to choose from.

·       Someone always knows someone who is the source I need.

·       Twitter works best in breaking news when mainstream media can’t yet assemble all the facts.

·       It can be a living, breathing tip sheet for facts, sources and story ideas.

·       Social media blurs the lines between personal and professional.

·       Twitter is not ruining journalism.

·       It’s still about content.

·       Twitter is like any other tool. Do something useful, and it’s useful.

In addition to Dave @jdavereha, my other guest speakers include Mike Sherman @MikeSherman, sports editor for The Oklahoman; freelancer and former community journalist Heide Brandes @HeideWrite; broadcast veteran and UCO colleague Desiree Hill @dezhill; Good Egg media guru Sheri Guyse @MyJrny; and HR maven Jessica  Merrill @blogging4jobs. Follow us all, if you wish. I’d be glad to reciprocate. Merrill has written a book that is invaluable, Tweet This—twitter for business.

Four more items.

 There are many tutorials on twitter on YouTube if you need advice. I also use Twitter for Dummies.

The Oklahoman’s sports headlines are an example of successful tweeting. Sherman has a huge list of fans who tweet him suggestions for headlines on games. The Oke takes them, edits and revises, but it is reader interaction and citizen journalism at its best.

In advertising and PR, twitter is essential . Guyse noted that the last several restaurants opened by Good Egg spent not one dollar in advertising for successful openings. It was all social media that brought in crowds.

All the speakers said they wouldn’t hire people who couldn’t use twitter professionally. 

Lessons from out the "cat box," and a rap

Sophie and Snoops

Cats teach you a lot of things "unfeline," and as we've adopted two in the past couple of months, I'm discovering new metaphors for life, thanks to Snoops and Sophie. They're really my first cats, others having belonged to my children when they were growing up or Susan. The kids' cats seemed to meet untimely deaths, and Susan's died over the past two years, and while I was sort of tangential, they were never mine. I have been a dog person up until just a few years ago.
This new intimacy of having cats rather than dogs has introduced me to their habits, and while they're fun and cute and interesting and adoptive in their own ways, some of the main lessons have come from
... cleaning out the "cat box."
So far, these are indoor cats, not that I'm opposed to bi-habitual cats--in fact, I prefer that, as I do with dogs, but I've been outvoted. (If you're married, you understand)
Which makes the "cat box" a matter of daily worship, of bowing down to it with the appropriate genuflections of holding your nose, or your squeamishness.
These young cats are very active, bowel-wise, which surprises me because I'm very familiar with being more bowel-active as I age.

The cat box

Which means the "cat box" has to be emptied twice a day. Susan and I are supposed to split it, and we usually do. Hold your temptation to write a headline. I can outdo you since there are so many key words you can play off of, starting with poop, litter, sift, shit, couples, dump...the list goes on.
But that is not the purpose of this erudite exercise in evacuation. 
We use a box with a cover, in  the laundry room, which adds new meaning to the need for fabric softener, and the aroma of clean clothes. Susan insists in kitty litter that is fragrance free...yeah right.

We use a small sized spade-shovel with slots in it to drag through the kitty litter and scoop up the clotted colon processed remains, while the rest of the "kitty litter" sifts back into the "cat box." The awful offal--I love that play on words--goes into a plastic sack for disposal. It is literally, full of ... .
My thoughts while bowing over the "cat box," sifting through the poop....
I think first of all of my work and experiences that has qualified me to clean out the "cat box."

•  I continually sift through statements from politicians, national, state and local, separating their poop from where it is amply deposited, noting that it's always presented positively, but still smells;
• I am continually showered by TV weather people with their bloated language, seeking to find just the pertinent news:
• I'm continually dumped on by TV cable channels with their self promotion and egos and protestations of being "fair and balanced." Poop is not fair and balanced, and it comes in all sizes, regardless of source, though some are more excremental than others;
• I'm continually sniffing at TV and Internet advertising with their intrusive special effects odor --having sold advertising, I know how to shovel such stuff.
• I'm continually barraged with PR poop in higher education, with its slogans and acronyms and flavors of the month, knowing that the messages are runny, without much substance;
• I was continually soaked as department chair for years with edicts from on high for forms, new reports, some administrator's latest brainchild project, more cookie-cutter paperwork. None of it ever sifted through to help students and better teaching.
• I 'm also continually having to sift through Politically Correct language from my government, interest groups, and more. Don't believe me? Why do we call it "kitty litter"?

Susan calls cleaning out the "cat box" as "farm chores." But at least when you're doing that, you know what you're doing, and it'll prevent a mess in the near future.
So do the cats. Go to the "cat box," and they sit nearby, waiting for you to finish so they can enjoy the freshness.
The cats and Susan are calling. My only rule is that I don't do it just before eating. I'm headed back to the "cat box."


Cat box blues rap
I don't know about youse
I got the cat box blues
Plenty of poop
to fit in the scoop
Sounds like life
I ain't being trite
I ain't bitter
I hate kitty litter
Sophie and Snoops
Lots of poops
It's just the pits
with lots of shits
I know what I knows
Hold your nose.

(Note--if you have other lessons from the cat box, comment below, I'll be glad to add them)

Tornadoes and twitter

Tornadoes take a terrible toll, physically and emotionally, more than can be measured. It is not enough to say there will be billions of dollars of damage. You can't put a price tag on the suffering, the shock, the trauma, the grief, the misery.
This week's tragedy in Oklahoma is only hinted at in photographs and videos. I've refrained from writing because I didn't think there was anything relevant or meaningful to say. Everyone has stories, everyone knows someone affected.
This is also the week that my twitter for journalists intersession class meets for two weeks, of intensive study. Much of the topic of the conversations in class with these 24 students has centered on the tornadoes this week. We've had speakers in, trying to emphasize the professional uses of the social media, but as one speaker said yesterday, my former student and media person for the Good Egg Restaurant group Sherry Guyse, @MyJRNY, the line between professional and personal blurs in social media.
One speaker, another former student, Heide Brandes, @HeideWrite, can't make it today because she's "stringing,"--freelancing for the Wall Street Journal--covering the funerals in Moore. That gig was set up in part through twitter.
Other speakers have been Mike Sherman, sports editor for The Oklahoman, @MikeSherman; Dave Rhea, managing editor and digital media guru for The Journal Record, @jdaverhea; Desiree Hill, broadcast professor, @DezHill; and Jessical Miller-Merrill, HR maven, @blogging4jobs.
Traditional journalists, like me, sometimes have trouble with the significance of twitter's 140-count messaging, but we've learned it's essential in so many ways in journalism, PR, advertising, and more in the professional communications world.
The tornadoes have added a grim illustration of practicality to the class. More on both later, but I'm asking class members to comment today, one thing they've learned about this infectious social media, twitter.