With overwhelming attention surrounding the football program at Penn State, every tweet, wall post and blog comment brings more and more Internet traffic to the school and community.  In a society that completely thrives and relies on Internet access, acquiring information has never been easier or faster.  Along with the ability to supply millions with information via Twitter, Facebook or other social media sites, comes the responsibility to maintain an ethical mindset when sharing information.

Joe Paterno, the recently released Penn State head football coach who served for 42 years, passed away at 9:25 am this past Sunday. On Saturday night, several hours before Paterno’s death, Onward State, a student-run news organization, reported through a tweet that the community icon had passed. The Onward State managing editor, Devon Edwards claims the tweet was based on an email hoax and has since resigned.

It is shocking that a student organization (which presumably is more focused than professional organizations on performing tasks “by the book”) that is tied to an institution which has been so heavily shrouded in controversy recently, would fail to perform such a basic and necessary task as confirming information, especially when dealing with such an emotionally charged topic as the passing of Joe Paterno. Unfortunately, this is just the latest occurrence in what seems to be an ongoing problem with many forms of media.

Managing Editor of Onward State’s Apology

Anyone who has been tuned into ESPN recently knows that Joe Paterno, “JoePa”, was the football coach at Penn State for 42 years, starting in 1966.  In the wake of a child abuse scandal centered around Jerry Sandusky, Penn State’s former assistant coach, Paterno was fired this past November. He was the face of Penn State and his brand was ultimately tarnished due to the scandal. Some are concerned that his tainted brand will overshadow his lifelong legacy. Sadly, Joe Paterno passed away on January 22^nd due to his battle with lung cancer making it impossible to mend his stained brand.

The media has been criticized for how they handled the situation regarding Joe Paterno; some even question if the media’s involvement aided in tarnishing his brand. The question is not whether the media has a legal right to report whatever they find newsworthy because the First Amendment guarantees that they do. The issue is how media managers should employ that freedom in their own decisions about what is ethical and professionally responsible. Some may view that the media took their interrogations too far by harassing Paterno at his home and accusing him of allegations before they even knew the whole story.

“The media jumped to the conclusion that Paterno was trying to cover up the scandal when it broke out.  Because his name is so iconic, linking his name to the scandal would attract more viewers on their websites as opposed to Sandusky… more has been written about Joe Paterno’s involvement than Sandusky in the media.” – Chris Moore, Penn State University Senior  

Is it ethical for the media to do whatever it takes to get the story out first even if it damages a man’s reputation beyond repair? On another note, people have a right to know what is going on in today’s world, so is doing whatever it takes to get the news as bad as it seems? Some argue that the media is just doing their job and presenting breaking news to the public. It was already too late for his reputation when the news came out that Paterno had told superiors about the issue in 2002. According to the Penn State Board of Trustees, their reasoning for terminating Paterno was partially based on his failing to uphold a moral responsibility to report allegations made in 2002 against Sandusky to authorities outside the university.

There is no question that Paterno let the victims, their families, and the university down by not pressing the issue with the police after he approached his superiors. In our opinion, Joe Paterno deserves to be remembered for who he was as a coach and as an individual; not as a man who was in over his head dealing with the worst scandal in his university’s history.

Kelsey Bendig, Brian Burch, Brooke Keller, Andrea Blanton

The truth is, this blog and the billions of other blogs and content on the Internet would not exist with these bills in place.  Musicians, artists, designers, and various creative types rely on blogs to showcase their content to people they could never reach before.

Simply featuring a product in a blog post can bring loads of traffic to brand’s site, for free! Getting featured on a popular blog is great for small businesses with tiny advertising budgets.  In fact, numerous bloggers get paid to feature and review products.  Blogs have turned in to a great source for marketing and advertising.  If a blogger whose opinions you respect recommends a product, you are more likely to believe her than the advertisement to the left of the page. Blogs are not new, but the concept of using blogs to bring brand awareness and reach new customers is new to Integrated Marketing Communication, as is the practice of IMC itself.

Lets hope we find an ethical solution that will keep blogs, social media, and the creative exchange of ideas still alive.

-Molly Jacques

The game is rated T for teen by Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), meaning that the game is suitable for children 13 and older. In accordance to ESRB, the game may contain more intense violence, suggestive themes, crude humor, low to no blood, simulated gambling, and/or infrequent use of strong language. The game upkeep personal has done a very good job of censoring people who use too much strong language in the game and on the discussion boards. So why is it that they slipped up in two of their commercials? The two little 30 second commercials with Ozzy and Aubrey both have parts that are censored out because these actors used foul language. The company seems to want to have a friendly game environment as we see from their vigilance with language in the game; so why did they have it in the commercials for the game? Now one can reason that the commercials were censored, so you don’t actually hear the profanities. According to the Media Awareness Network, the thing to keep in mind is that the public has to find the content relevant, tasteful, and entertaining. The public audience that W.o.W. is targeted towards is young teenagers, who need their parents to buy the game. And if a parent sees those commercials, they might not want their children playing the game because of the thought of the profanities used by the actors might lead them to believe the game uses those profanities as well. So we see that companies need to keep in mind that the commercials they show are possibly the first contact the perspective customer has with the product. If there is not a true representation of your game in that commercial then you may be losing more business then wanted.

- Dorothy Conley, Christina Stevenson, Mollie Berthold, Laura Simmons

As this class, and many of our college careers come to a close, we decided to expand on this evoking concept and provide our own final few thoughts before we all sign off for the last time.

Looking back at my college career, I was offered a lot of advice but the one that held true no matter what the circumstance was to value your time here. These past four years have been frustrating, exhilarating, gleeful, melancholy, and turbulent but they have helped me grow and achieve things that I never thought possible. Treasure opportunities and learn from your mistakes; it’ll only make you a stronger, most resilient person in the end. - Jessica Kingman

UNCW provided me an opportunity to see the world. Studying abroad with UNCW to Valencia, Spain opened my eyes to various ideals, ethics and values other cultures engage in which I now incorporate into my life. - Michela Noreski

With one semester left in my college career, I’ve realized that you really shouldn’t hold back.  Do what makes you happy and don’t be scared to try new things; it’s all about the experience! - Liz LaPuasa

Everyone says that college changes their life forever – UNCW has definitely changed mine. As I am about to graduate, I realize how much I am not ready to leave this place. The best advice I can give to future Seahawks is a lesson learned from the one and only Tom Petty: “You have four years to be irresponsible here. Relax. Work is for people with jobs. You’ll never remember class time, but you’ll remember time you wasted hanging out with your friends. So, stay out late. Go out on a Tuesday with your friends when you have a paper due Wednesday. Spend money you don’t have. Drink ’til sunrise. The work never ends, but college does…” - Jordan Hill

What does UNCW mean to me? It means opportunity. The opportunity to start fresh, the opportunity to expand my knowledge, the opportunity to be a part of a tight-knit community, the opportunity to meet new people, and most importantly, UNCW has been the opportunity for me to grow as a person. I could not have chosen a more perfect school to spend my college years. I’ll be graduating next December—and when I do, I guarantee you it’ll be with no regrets. - Stephanie Bakolia

I say, UNDER-PROMISE AND OVER-DELIVER and MEAN WHAT YOU SAY AND SAY WHAT YOU MEAN – Jared Sales

The UNCW COM Studies Dept. has afforded me the opportunity to become an employee at one of the most prestigious publishing companies in the world. - David Glaubach

My advice for the next IMC Hawks is: “Keep up with your work on a daily basis and be in full communication with your group members. If you all learn how to use your strengths, every assignment will become easier.” - Sally Shupe

As a senior who is graduating a year early, I cannot believe how much I have learned from UNCW and particularly from my amazing professors in the COM department in such a short amount of time. If I take away anything from this experience, it is that you must find a way to feel passionately about the work you do, no matter how trivial it may seem at the time because every assignment will help you develop further as a student and an educated citizen. - Claire Dillard

My advice for the next IMC class is to READ the books assigned! Not only are they very interesting and teach so much about integrated marketing, but they are a great to source for future interviews! Everyone in the business knows Shirky! - Ashley Nelson

There are so many things I could say but I am sure my classmates have covered most of them. My advice to you is simple…don’t forget why it is you are here and how important what you are learning is because we are the future. - Alaethea Hensley

My advice to the incoming IMC-Hawks is to remember the importance of every lesson you are encountering through this course, and every course you take at UNCW. Don’t just do it for the grade, see the importance in each problem, each assignment and each project. You will get out of the course what you put into it!-Lauren Phelps

UNCW to me is a place where I am able to fully reach my potential and grow as an individual, both creatively and intellectually. As a transfer student, I couldn’t be any happier with my decision. I think it is safe to say that the Communication Studies Department has given me tools to succeed in the working world. - Claire Outlaw

Thank you to my IMC 2 class for asking me to join them on their last post of the semester. Although this sounds like graduation advice, it’s more like life advice. I try and follow it as much as I can. – Henry James, the American-born writer (he wrote The Turn of the Screw and The Portrait of a Lady, among others, which you may remember from a literature course you might have taken at UNCW), wrote an article called “The Art of Fiction” that was published originally in 1884.  In this piece, James responds to a pamphlet about writing fiction from another writer, with whom James seems to disagree. I’m not a literary critic so I’m going to leave it at that. Anyway, one of the pieces of advice James gives to new writers of fiction has always resonated with me as a student, a scholar, a teacher, and a citizen: “Try to be one of the people on whom nothing is lost!” I offer to you, my IMC-Hawks, that being this kind of person – the kind on whom nothing is lost – is one of the best pieces of advice I can give you as you complete your B.A. in Communication Studies. To me, James is saying more than “pay attention;” he’s reminding us that a lot goes on that we ignore, either willfully or unintentionally, when we should be at our most conscious. I see it in my classes, when students are caught up in everything other than what we’re discussing that day; I see it in my son, who can get lost in a game of Angry Birds (my parenting award is on its way!); and I see it in my own behavior, when I have two monitors and an iPad and a cell phone and all are tuned to something different. To be the kind of person on whom nothing is lost, we sometimes have to stop paying attention to those distractions and focus on what’s in front of us. Conveniently, an education in communication studies teaches us to be the kind of person on whom nothing is lost. Rhetorical theory teaches us how to interpret oral and written communication. Paying attention to interpersonal communication helps you in your most intimate relationships. I try to demonstrate how understanding of IMC doesn’t just make you a better practitioner, it makes you a more conscious consumer and a more engaged citizen.  Being the kind of person on whom nothing is lost rejects the passive and embraces the active. Take an active role in your education, your occupation, your family life, your civic life. Don’t just sit back and let it happen to you. Good luck and I’ll miss you all!   – Dr. Persuit

We hope you have enjoyed our edition of the IMC-Hawks blog this past semester. Although this is our final blog post as a group, be sure to check-in in January for a new generation of IMC-Hawks! Until then — Stay classy, Seahawk Nation.

IMC-Hawks:  Oliver Evans, Jared Sales, Michela Noreski, Lauren Phelps, Jordan Hill, Alaethea Hensley, David Glaubach, Liz LaPuasa, Stephanie Bakolia, Sally Shupe, Claire Dillard, Ashley Nelson, Claire Outlaw, Jessica Kingman

Fast-forward 15 years and here I am graduating college.

It honestly feels like just yesterday I was moving into Cornerstone Hall on UNCW’s campus, a ‘fresh’ new student straight out of high school. When people say “time flies when you’re having fun,” they are referring to college. I cannot grasp the fact that in 10 days I will be a college graduate; time has definitely flown by. Before this semester began, I thought I had it all figured out, and that I was “ready” to graduate. However, I had it all wrong! My current feelings are similar to Peter Pan’s in that all I want to do is scream “I will not grow up! You cannot make me!” But, I realize that I am not Peter Pan and I do not live in Neverland; I am a Communication Studies student who is about to step foot into the real world. It may be scary, and I might not like it at first, but its life. I shouldn’t worry though – I am prepared for it. I have taken so many different classes at UNCW, have experienced so many different things, and have learned from all of them. I have dealt with my share of “crazy” roommates, the difficult realization that UNCW will never have a football team, and also a climate that is all but predictable. As I am about to graduate, I can honestly say that I am a better person after my time spent as a Seahawk. Although I am not 100% sure what I want to do with the rest of my life, I know that UNCW has prepared me for anything.

An excerpt from Robert Fulghum’s book, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, is the list of things learned in kindergarten – with the insight I have gained over the past 15 years in parentheses:

• Share everything. (but write your name on it, roommates sometimes steal from you!)
• Play fair.
• Don’t hit people. (it is against the law when you get older)
• Put things back where you found them.
• Clean up your own mess. (if you don’t, no one will)
• Don’t take things that aren’t yours. (you will get caught)
• Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody.
• Wash your hands before you eat. (getting sick in college is not fun- your mom can’t make you soup!)
• Flush.
• Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you. (but you should probably visit the Rec Center too)
• Live a balanced life – learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
• Take a nap every afternoon.
• When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together. (especially when you ‘go out’ downtown)
• Be aware of wonder.
• Remember the little seed in the styrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that. Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup – they all die. So do we.
• And then, remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned – the biggest word of all – LOOK. Everything you need to know is in there somewhere.
• The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living. Take any of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or your government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm.
• Think what a better world it would be if all – the whole world – had cookies and milk about three o’clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had a basic policy to always put thing back where they found them and to clean up their own mess. And it is still true, no matter how old you are – when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.

Some things change and some things stay the same but in the end we all have to grow up. But for the next week and a half that I have left as a student, and for everyone else that has time left here, and for the future Seahawks – I suggest we listen to the lesson that Jay-Z and Alphaville live by and stay “Forever Young.”

– Jordan Hill

I can’t think of a more tenacious, more courageous graduating class that the one. It is finally here, all of the hard work has paid off. We all have been prepared on what to expect after graduation, searching aimlessly for jobs hoping to get a bite on the line of resumes we send out. We have compiled our portfolios full of artifacts with our best work, so we should be set right? Well somewhat. We are well prepared an well-rehearsed on how to approach the challenging interview questions, but we are about to enter a new chapter. This new chapter no longer has a safety net or someone to hold our hand, it is the real world where we have a choice to sink or swim. The world is my oyster and is anxiously waiting for me to reveal my talents.
I am very proud of myself and of my achievements I have had at UNCW. I have had several phenomenal mentors who have provided me with the building blocks of who I evolved into becoming. THANKS MOM, MY #1 FAN!!! It has not been easy being pulled in so many different directions by so many responsibilities. But I muddled through, and I held tightly onto my dream and now that dream is a beautiful reality and a sign of a wonderful tomorrow. The plans of jobs are distant. Applications have been sent and few call backs and interview are in the midst of being scheduled. I know that most of us are concerned about our future, but there’s no need to worry. The economy is booming, the job market is wide open, the planet is just fine. It’s going to be great…… well here is to wishful thinking. But I am hopeful dreamer.
The torch can now be passed along to others. My work here is now complete. Here are a few tips for those to who are about to embark on their new chapter.
• Think outside the box to fill the box.
• Don’t stop learning, keep trying to excel and grow.
• Don’t miss an opportunity because of a prior commitment or class. (Sorry professors) Take advantage of everything you are given. You may kick yourself later.
• Don’t ever let someone tell you, you can’t do something. Protect each dream and find the path that will lead you to it. If you want something go get it. PERIOD!
• There are many roads we can take in life, there are also paths, and some trails, and some paths that turn into roads that then turn into trails. I guess what I’m saying is life is a journey and you can go whichever direction you want.
• It is easy to slack off, but don’t do it. Taking the extra steps now will make things better in the long run.
• Don’t say you can’t, because you can. It may be HARD, but deal with it.
• Don’t be a lizard brain. If you are unfamiliar with any of Seth Godin’s books or blog, a lizard brain is simply saying how you want one thing, but you do something else. That’s a bad characteristic trait to have and does not look well on anyone.
To conclude live each day by this quote from Ellen DeGeneres it has always put things into perspective for me. “Life is like one big Mardi Gras. But instead of showing your boobs, show people your brain, and if they like what they see, you’ll have more beads than you know what to do with.”

-Michela Noreski

Then something miraculous happened.  A friend of a friend was able to hand deliver my resume to her HR department at a very reputable publication company where I never thought I would have the chance to work.  I was contacted two days later and interviewed.  My discipline capstone training payed off because I nailed the interview.  I was unofficially hired on the spot, and then today I got my official offer letter.  I feel like the luckiest person alive after all the upset I endured when none of the other thousand applications worked out. 

The moral of the story is: One of the most import aspects of job hunting is networking!  You have been told by most of your professors that knowing people and meeting people who do what you want to do can greatly improve your chances of finding employment.  Take your informational interview seriously.  If you never had Tammy Bulger’s interpersonal communication class, I’ll tell you what she told us.  Use Linkedin, clean up your Facebook, meet as many people as you can and leave a great, lasting first impression.  Be proactive, take IMC and utilize that contact list!

David Glaubach

Captain Planet, that is, and he’s got an organization too! The Captain Planet Foundation (CPF) was founded in 1991 to allow kids grades K-12 to raise environmental awareness in their communities and schools. By funding and supporting hands-on environmental educational projects for kids and teens, CPF strives to educate the future generations about the natural world we live in so they will have an understanding and appreciation for it. I’m sure we have a lot to thank Captain Planet for…

In case you’re not a child of the 90’s and maybe unaware of who this Captain Planet is, here’s a little background info:

He is summoned when the rings of 5 planeteers unite.  He is called to help when the planeteers cannot handle the environmental crisis at hand. His superpowers include morphing into the properties of any element, flying, and telepathy. His powers do not work if he is not on Earth. Most importantly, his “kryptonite” is any sort of pollutant or radiation that causes harm to the environment. Like every other superhero, he is known for one statement in particular. Whenever he departs, he claims, “The power is yours.” This implies that it is everyone’s responsibility to keep the environment clean and healthy. That is some pretty good rhetoric for a children’s hero. Although there has not been much talk about Captain Planet lately, there has been plenty of talking about the environment and “going green.” This is a perfect excuse to pay tribute once again to a superhero that informs the youth of such an important issue.

 And what do you know; a week from today CPF is hosting their annual CPF Benefit Gala at the Georgia Aquarium! This star-studded eco-benefit will feature musical guest Alison Krauss, and dinner cooked by all-star chef Wolfgang Puck. All proceeds will go directly to the organization to help them create opportunities to make our youth more eco-conscious.

So, when you’re thinking about little things you might be able to do to help out the environment, think about Captain Planet and remember, “The power is yours!”