On topics from Miley Cyrus to mental illness, communication seniors gathered in D.Vickers Hall to demonstrate their ability to effectively communicate their theses at the 2016 Senior Colloquium.
Also gathered in D.Vickers Hall on the Friday morning just before finals week, were the presenters’ families, moderating faculty and other students who were spectating. According to communication professor Claire Procopio, the point of the colloquium is to put the seniors’ ability to communicate to the test.
“When you graduate with communication in your degree title, people think you can give a speech even if what you majored in is video editing,” said Procopio. “We totally believe people with that name can do these communicative things.”
Procopio said the speeches need to be well organized, to connect with the audience and to be clearly communicated without phrases such as “um, uh, you know.”
According to Procopio, the communication seniors began preparing for the colloquium semesters in advance.
“They have to ask a question, research a question in communication and they have to do their own research,” said Procopio. “They have to do the methodology to answer their question. They can’t just look up what other people have said.”
Communication senior Shelby Devlin spoke about Miley Cyrus’ image transformation from a Disney star to the provocative pop-star of the 2013 VMAs during her presentation. In order to research this topic, Devlin had to turn to the star’s internet presence.
“It was really time consuming,” said Devlin. “I’m not going to lie.”
Students were required to have a visual presentation during their colloquium. Devlin was comfortable with handling the visual representations of Cyrus who often wears overtly sexual clothing.
“If there was going to be little children in here, I was going to be like ‘just so you know, viewer discretion advised,’ but there wasn’t,” said Devlin. “We’re all adults here.”
Delvin said she was confident in her presentation and wants to get a job in Colorado after graduation. She said she would enjoy working with someone like Miley Cyrus in public relations.
“It would be a challenge, but a fun challenge,” said Devlin.
After the colloquium the seniors were pinned and some were awarded for their work.
Along with winning the “Outstanding Senior in Communication” award, senior communication major William Dew won “Best Senior Thesis” for: “New Gatekeepers: The Effects of New Media on Gatekeeping Theory.” According to Dew, the Gatekeeping theory describes the way news is spread, but social media has changed it.
“There has been a lot of research that suggests that this either is not a valid theory anymore, or it needs to be changed to account for the internet audience,” said Dew.
Dew’s research focused on Ferguson Missouri and if Twitter influenced print media coverage.
Freshman communication major Tyler Guidroz went to senior communication major Danielle Shearer’s thesis “Real Perception in Avatar Creation” and said it was “eye-opening.” He said he wants to focus on reality television for his thesis.
“I just don’t feel that reality TV is real anymore,” said Guidroz.