“I was in a posi­tion where I wanted to do some­thing dif­ferent and get involved,” said Dick­inson, now a third-​​year communication studies major at North­eastern. So she started a Tumblr blog called “We Are The Kids” and began writing about her effort to break into the business.

She quickly built a loyal fol­lowing, amassing some 25,000 readers. Today she spends a few hours each day posting infor­ma­tion about intern­ships and answering ques­tions on topics ranging from finding a good col­lege music industry pro­gram to securing an intern­ship with scant expe­ri­ence in the field. When she doesn’t know the answer to a ques­tion, Dick­inson finds an industry expert who does.

For example, Dick­inson recently con­ducted an inter­view with the press coor­di­nator for the Warped Tour based on ques­tions posed by her fol­lowers. The strategy has helped her build a net­work of industry con­tacts, which could come in handy when she applies for co-​​op positions.

Dick­inson is cur­rently working with IDEA—Northeastern’s student-​​run ven­ture accelerator—to develop a busi­ness plan for the blog, which also helps readers find jobs in the music industry. “Having this team behind me is exactly what I need right now,” she said. “I’m not looking to make a living off of this, but I do think there’s a lot more I could do with it.”

Dickinson’s readers often approach her at con­certs, telling her of their deci­sion to major in music industry or the great job they found through her blog.

“I started this project trying to learn more about the industry and find intern­ships for myself,” Dick­inson said, “so there’s nothing better than having people tell me I’ve made a dif­fer­ence in their lives.”

This article was originally published by News@Northeastern.

1. Collins’ announcement began “I’m a 34-year-old NBA center. I’m black. And I’m gay.” How does Collins’ identifying statement factor into how the news has been received?

The concept of identity is a significant element in Collins’ story. At the moment of coming out, the speaker gets to frame his own image, publicly declaring the elements that he considers essential to his sense of self. For Collins, that meant saying, “I’m a 34-year-old NBA center. I’m black. And I’m gay.” Similarly, when former New Jersey governor Jim McGreevey came out, he said, “I am a gay American.” Though the two men came out under vastly different circumstances, they chose to frame their identity in similar ways by placing their sexuality in context with the other primary aspects of their identity. McGreevey’s statement, which sounded awkward to some, emphasized his Americanness above all. Collins highlights his status as a professional athlete first, then his blackness and, finally, his identification as a gay man.

Collins’ declaration affirms the compatibility of these aspects of his identity: elite athlete, black and gay. It also asserts all three are important and can harmoniously coexist. Perhaps for this reason, gay black men in particular publicly celebrated Collins’ statement and framed it in relation to its significance for black youth. On Salon.com, Rob Smith disclosed that when he first heard an NBA player had come out his reaction was very personal: “I wanted Jason Collins to be black, because I knew what it would mean to black gay youth in this country… I wanted Jason Collins to be black because I know exactly what it’s like to be a gay teenager with dark brown skin who comes out but cannot find anyone gay who looks like you on television. Or in magazines.“ On Buzzfeed.com, Saeed Jones simply wrote, “Black gay kids need heroes too.”

This idea of Collins as a role model and public figure is very important. The late gay activist and San Francisco city councilman Harvey Milk championed the importance of coming out to both the straight and the gay communities. For gay youth, coming out was important because, as Milk said, it provides hope. It shows a young gay man who may be worried about social isolation and the impact that their sexuality will have on their lives to see that they can be successful, full members of their communities. This act is also important for its potential impact on straight people. Beyond acting as a role model for gay youth, Collins serves as another pubic figure that Americans—specifically young men and male sports fans in this case—can identify and connect with. Research shows that people who can name at least one family member, friend or coworker who is gay are much more likely to have positive thoughts and feelings toward gay men and lesbians and support gay rights. For those who believe they don’t know anyone who is gay, a public figure can act as a stand in. The effect is not as great but it is meaningful.

2. How did making his announcement as a first-person essay in Sports Illustrated allow Collins to shape the media narrative that unfolded?

Writing the essay in Sports Illustrated allowed Collins to speak directly to the public without a filter or intermediary. In doing so, Collins was able to effectively frame this very personal story himself, disclosing as much or as little detail he wanted, highlighting some aspects of his story and downplaying others. By writing in the first person, he could also exercise greater message control by planning and thinking in advance about what he wanted to say. He was not responding to someone else’s questions and his words weren’t reduced to a sound bite.

3. Collins is the first male pro athlete in the four major American sports to come out. How does that fit into the nation’s evolving public and political acceptance of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Americans?

Coming out is an important and still courageous act, even in 2013. It serves multiple purposes and carries multiple meanings. Since Collins is the first male athlete to come out while still active in one of the four major professional sports leagues, the revelation is historic in a material way.

It’s also meaningful because he is breaking new cultural ground. Athletes are icons in American popular culture and help to uphold traditional ideals of masculinity. Their bodies and images sell cars, clothes, and lifestyles. Collins’ coming out counters the dominant schema that sets those icons of masculinity apart from the image many Americans have of gay men. For someone so stereotypically masculine and athletic to be gay is instrumental. It helps to redefine in some symbolic way what it means to be gay in America. And, in doing so, it also extends the mainstreaming of homosexuality and gay rights.

At the same time, Collins’ story is really a continuation of existing social trends. It is one additional data point—though an important one—in a story about gay rights in America that was already very much in progress and rapidly evolving. His story was made possible in part by several other momentous acts that preceded it, and by rather dramatic shifts in public opinion over the past 20 years. Harvey Milk laid the groundwork for Martina Navratilova who enabled Jason Collins, who will in turn inspire many others. By his own account, Collins notes that he was motivated in part by the Supreme Court hearing two major cases involving same-sex marriage. Earlier this year, President Obama’s endorsement of marriage equality in the State of the Union Address was another historic moment and brought that discourse into the mainstream even further.

This interview was originally posted in News@Northeastern

Congratulations!

to our students who made
The Huntington 100: Distinguished Seniors & Juniors, 2013:

Rather than writing a paper or making a pre­sen­ta­tion, stu­dents enrolled in ass­so­ciate pro­fessor of com­mu­ni­ca­tion studies Greg Goodale’s Service-​​Learning Advo­cacy Work­shop orga­nized a day of events at the Mass­a­chu­setts State House last week. There, they lob­bied leg­is­la­tors and ral­lied mem­bers of the public to sup­port leg­is­la­tion that would improve the lives of foster chil­dren in Mass­a­chu­setts who age out of the system.

Stu­dents and leg­is­la­tors spoke in Nurses Hall and a cap­pella singers per­formed pop songs such as Ed Sheeran’s “A Team” and David Guetta’s “Titanium.”

“We want it to be really hard for people to miss what we’re doing,” said Ryanne Olsen, a second-​​year stu­dent pur­suing a com­bined major in polit­ical sci­ence and com­mu­ni­ca­tion studies.

The day of events marked a cul­mi­na­tion of months of work in which stu­dents researched the foster care system, lob­bied law­makers, and helped foster chil­dren develop the skills to advo­cate on their own behalf. One of the goals of the course is to draw sup­port for sev­eral bills that would improve the state’s foster care system, which Goodale said leaves too many to fend for themselves.

“I love teaching this class,” said Goodale, whose research focuses on public advo­cacy and polit­ical rhetoric. “The oppor­tu­ni­ties it pro­vides are out of this world.”

Ask his stu­dents, who report that the course not only teaches them to spark reform and address public policy issues from dif­ferent per­spec­tives, but also reshapes their career ambitions.

“I took the first ever advo­cacy course and it changed my life and the course of my career,” said Brit­tany San­toro, a 2011 grad­uate of the com­mu­ni­ca­tion studies pro­gram. Advo­cating for foster care reforms in Goodale’s class, she explained, prompted her to get a job with Demand Abo­li­tion, a non­profit orga­ni­za­tion that com­bats sex traf­ficking, a system to which foster chil­dren are dis­pro­por­tion­ately tied.

San­toro has even extended a full-​​time job offer to another one of Goodale’s pupils; Devon Rebello, a fifth-​​year com­mu­ni­ca­tion studies major who served as an intern and co-​​op for Demand Abo­li­tion, will join the staff full-​​time after grad­u­ating in May.

This semester’s Advo­cacy Work­shop has the sup­port of State Sen­ator Katherine Clark and State Rep. Gloria Fox, whose dis­trict includes part of North­eastern and who grew up in the foster care system.

“There is so often just nothing for these young people,” Fox said. “So we have to make sure there are some safe­guards put in place.”

Goodale’s course pushes stu­dents out­side their com­fort zones, they said, forcing them to develop the same knowl­edge and skills that a pro­fes­sional lob­byist would bring to an issue.

“We’re trying to make it so foster kids are no longer a voice­less pop­u­la­tion,” said Rebello, who took Godale’s course and now serves as his teaching assis­tant. “Often foster kids don’t have the oppor­tu­nity to speak out on what’s working and not working, and if they do it’s often not taken as cred­ible. It’s a respon­si­bility the stu­dents in this class do not take lightly, and they’ve seen results, too, helping three pieces of leg­is­la­tion get passed in recent years.”

Though the semester is drawing to a close, Fox urged the young advo­cates to con­tinue sup­porting social causes, foster care or oth­er­wise. ‘Each of you can find your niche, each of you can find your bliss, and each of you can find ways to improve lives in very real, very impor­tant ways,” she told them.

news@Northeastern.

Forever is more than 20 years so far, during which Marshall has been both host and political pundit, debating the likes of Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, and other conservatives. In 1992, Marshall became the youngest person ever syndicated on talk radio when she replaced Tom Snyder on the ABC Satellite Radio Network/Daynet. She was also the first woman to host a national issues-related program. And, to hear Marshall tell it, Northeastern helped tune her for a trailblazing career.

Admitted to numerous schools, including Boston College, Boston University, and Emerson College, Marshall selected Northeastern—in large part for its co-op program. Her co-op at WGBH, for instance, included exceptional exposure to public radio. The communications studies major did everything from cataloging radio shows to writing press releases, gaining experience that helped shape both her and her stellar career.

The Somerset, Mass., native is passionate about the university and experiential learning. “Much of what I learned back then is still applicable,” she says. “Co-op teaches life lessons you don’t get in the classroom. My Northeastern experience has been invaluable at every job I’ve had.”

She is also grateful to Northeastern for support during a challenging time for her family. When she was a first-year student, Marshall’s father suffered a heart attack. This crisis could have jeopardized her college education, but the university’s financial-aid office worked with her to ensure she could stay in school. Marshall’s co-ops and work-study program not only helped with her tuition but also provided the career experience she sought.

After attending a master’s program at Emerson College, Marshall planned to become a TV news anchor. She started in radio—where many TV hosts got their start—landing a reporting job at WBSM in New Bedford, Mass. After Marshall moved to Miami, a program director from a competing radio station heard her on a music program and convinced her that she belonged on the talk side of the business. She switched stations and started her talk-radio career.

From there, Marshall worked in Buffalo, N.Y., and Houston, hosting shows that frequently bested competitors like Rush Limbaugh in the ratings. In 1992, she was offered national syndication; for more than three years, her show aired on 200 stations nationwide. When the station disbanded, talk radio took her to Chicago, San Francisco, Sacramento, and Los Angeles.

In 2007, she started her second syndicated talk radio show, The Leslie Marshall Show, currently broadcast on more than 100 stations across the country. By then, she’d settled in Los Angeles, where she now lives with her husband and their two children, ages four and five.

This time, Marshall owns her show: “So I’m the decider,” she laughs. She’s also one of a handful of liberal contributors on the Fox News network—she appears on the network’s top three shows, The O’Reilly Factor, Hannity, and America Live with Megyn Kelly—and a weekly blogger for U.S. News & World Report.

The challenges, she says, are sometimes akin to “a circus performer who’s spinning many plates on sticks.” Talk radio, however, is worth the sacrifices, she says. “It’s a great deal of hard work and stress, but I love what I do.”

Northeastern Magazine

“I over-​​think every deci­sion,” said Taylor, a fourth-​​year com­mu­ni­ca­tion studies major. “My friends say I shouldn’t think so hard because I can’t pre­dict the out­come of everything.”

Taylor cer­tainly did not pre­dict that a panel of North­eastern stu­dents, fac­ulty, and staff would select his film as the university’s best pic­ture in the 12th annual Campus MovieFest, the world’s largest stu­dent film fes­tival and the pre­mier outlet for the next gen­er­a­tion of auteurs. Since its incep­tion in 2001, more than 500,000 stu­dents at col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties around the world have participated.

The con­test chal­lenges aspiring film­makers to make a five-​​minute movie in one week using free micro­phones, Pana­sonic cam­corders, and Apple lap­tops with high-​​quality editing soft­ware. More than 100 North­eastern teams sub­mitted their shorts on March 19 and the top 16 were screened on campus the fol­lowing week.

Northeastern’s top three films, for best overall pic­ture, drama, and comedy, and those from dozens of other par­tic­i­pating schools, will be screened in June in Hol­ly­wood by a secret panel of industry insiders. Prizes for the Hol­ly­wood win­ners include $30,000 in cash, a one-​​year sub­scrip­tion to Adobe Cre­ative Cloud, and industry expo­sure at the Cannes Inter­na­tional Film Fes­tival in May.

No Chance will face some steep com­pe­ti­tion from the other two North­eastern films to make it to Tin­sel­town: Flint, in which a young couple on dif­ferent sched­ules bonds by sending sweet noth­ings to each other via a minia­ture stuffed lion, and Library: A Quiet Film, in which a young man silently woos his crush like a modern-​​day Charlie Chaplin.

“I’ve always wanted to do classic sight gags,” said Library star Gordon Freas, a second-​​year com­mu­ni­ca­tion studies major. “The biggest chal­lenge was telling a story without any dialogue.”

Editing the raw footage into a coherent film took longer than expected. “I decided to do all the editing in one night, which was a ter­rible deci­sion,” Freas joked, “but it was worth it.”

Elena Guy, the writer, editor, and director of Flint, drew inspi­ra­tion from her rela­tion­ship with her room­mate, whom she seldom sees. “I wanted to tell a story about a couple that stays close without ever seeing each other,” she explained. The pro­tag­o­nist, she added, “knows that their system of passing notes is not a long-​​term solu­tion, but they love each other enough to con­tinue sending them.”

Guy, Taylor, and Freas plan on trav­eling to Hol­ly­wood to net­work with industry insiders and watch their films on the big screen.

“Making films is some­thing I have an interest in doing long-​​term,” said Taylor, the vice-​​president of NUTV and pro­ducer for the TV show Can­dlepin For Kids. “The field is based much more on con­nec­tions than degrees.”

“I’m inter­ested in meeting pro­fes­sional film­makers and asking them about breaking into the industry,” added Guy, whose career goal is to become a screen­writer and director. She has high hopes for Flint, but said, “If people enjoy it, then I have reached my goal.”

In a wild, sleepless weekend, you and a team will make a movie–write, shoot, edit and score it.  From scratch.  In 48 hours.  On Friday, May 3rd, you’ll get a character, a prop, a line of dialogue and a genre, all to include in your movie.  By Sunday, May 5th, the movie must be complete.  It will show at Kendall Square Cinema at a screening in the next week.

There are three ways to get involved:
 
1. FORM A TEAM
If you can rustle up enough folks to make a movie, great!  The project is open to pros and amateurs alike.  You can register at http://www.48hourfilm.com/boston – but do it soon, as slots are going fast.  Then meet us on May 3rd, ready to go!

2. JOIN A TEAM
If you’re interested in participating, but can’t form a team, you can still definitely be involved!  Here’s a few ways to do it:
- COME TO AN EVENT.  We’ll have networking events where you can meet team leaders and get on their teams.  The first is April 23rd.
- SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER.   This it the best way to get all of the important announcements.
- PUT AN AD ON OUR WEBSITE.
- POST ON OUR FACEBOOK PAGE.
 
3. WATCH THE MOVIES
Since it’s the tenth anniversary of the Boston 48HFP, we’re showing the best of the 700 films that have been made here on April 9th at the Brattle Theatre.  At 7pm we’ll have family-friendly films and at 9:15pm we’ll have R-rated ones.

Also, every film made as part of the Boston 48HFP will be shown at the Kendall Square Cinema on May 7th, 8th, and 9th.  (Each night is a totally different set of movies.)  More info at: http://www.48hourfilm.com/boston

Meet other New England filmmakers, spend 48 hours in intense movie making, and have your film screened at the Kendall Square Cinema!  And compete to represent Boston against the other city winners from around the world!

Register at http://www.48hourfilm.com/boston
…and you, too, can make a movie!

Ben Guaraldi
Boston Producer
48 Hour Film Project
boston@48hourfilm.com
http://www.48hourfilm.com/boston
http://www.facebook.com/boston48

On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court began hearing oral argu­ments on the con­sti­tu­tion­ality of the Defense of Mar­riage Act and California’s gay mar­riage ban enacted by Propo­si­tion 8. We asked Sarah Jackson—an assis­tant pro­fessor of in the Col­lege of Arts, Media and Design whose research focuses on how social and polit­ical iden­ti­ties are con­structed in the public sphere—to explain why public sup­port for gay mar­riage has increased in recent years and how the social move­ment com­pares to others in the country’s history.

1. Recent national opinion polls have indicated that support for same-sex marriage is increasing. What factors have contributed to the shift?

Increased vis­i­bility of LGBTQ Amer­i­cans, espe­cially since the 1990s, has played an impor­tant role in shaping public opinion. The LGBTQ move­ment did have sig­nif­i­cant moments of public vis­i­bility before this—including the Stonewall Riots in the 1960s, the elec­tion of Harvey Milk in the 1970s, and the work of ActUp in the 1980s.

But the 1990s brought an unprece­dented rise of pop cul­ture rep­re­sen­ta­tion. When Ellen DeGeneres came out on her TV show in 1997, it was a very risky move and many adver­tisers pulled their sup­port. How­ever, her risk showed media-​​makers that Amer­i­cans were willing to iden­tify and empathize with gay char­ac­ters. Soon after, Will and Grace arrived on the scene, and we’ve since seen a huge increase in LGBTQ char­ac­ters both on net­work and cable channels.

These pop cul­ture rep­re­sen­ta­tions have allowed us to see LGBTQAmer­i­cans living lives much like other Amer­i­cans, thus dis­pelling past stereo­types that sug­gested LGBTQ people didn’t embrace Amer­ican values. Adver­tisers have now also rec­og­nized the eco­nomic value of the LGBTQ market and begun to target the very group they were pre­vi­ously afraid to acknowl­edge. Vis­i­bility in pop cul­ture has also served to high­light the vis­i­bility of LGBTQ Amer­i­cans, and the chal­lenges they face, in other parts of the public sphere like pol­i­tics and education.

2. What strategies have gay rights activists most successfully employed to advance their cause? What have they learned from previous social movements in America?

Efforts for social change are one of the pri­mary char­ac­ter­is­tics of human his­tory, so many move­ments have and con­tinue to influ­ence one another. One strategy that the LGBTQ move­ment has used suc­cess­fully that can be linked both to the civil rights and fem­i­nist move­ments is that of main­streaming their agenda. Rather than focus on more con­tro­ver­sial issues that chal­lenge taken-​​for-​​granted norms in Amer­ican society, main­stream legs of the civil rights and women’s move­ments simply asked to be included in already accepted struc­tures and norms. Civil rights orga­ni­za­tions demanded the same access to schools and buses as their white coun­ter­parts, while fem­i­nists argued that they should have the same oppor­tu­ni­ties of employ­ment and pay as their male counterparts.

Sim­i­larly, the LGBTQ move­ment has focused on the idea that LGBTQ people deserve the same access to rights like mar­riage as their straight coun­ter­parts. It’s impor­tant to keep in mind that often such main­stream demands didn’t, and don’t, reflect all the chal­lenges that African-​​Americans, women, and LGBTQ people face, but they are a place to start.

Like­wise, the LGBTQ com­mu­nity has formed orga­ni­za­tions like GLAAD (which focuses on fair and inclu­sive media rep­re­sen­ta­tions), and the Human Rights Cam­paign (which focuses on raising aware­ness and lob­bying for leg­isla­tive change). Orga­ni­za­tions such as the NAACP (in the case of the civil rights move­ment) and NOW (which rose out of the fem­i­nist move­ment) did and con­tinue to do sim­ilar work for their con­stituen­cies. Uniquely, and because of evolving tech­nolo­gies, orga­ni­za­tions that focus on LGBTQ issues have been able to com­mu­ni­cate their mes­sages more quickly and to larger audi­ences than the pre-​​21st-​​century orga­ni­za­tions they are mod­eled after.

3. Do you see momentum from the same-sex marriage fight as a force strong enough to advance other social causes across the United States?

Most social move­ments never end; they simply evolve with the his­tor­ical and polit­ical moment. Unfor­tu­nately, pop­ular opinion some­times implies that if one battle is won the fight is over. The civil rights move­ment faced this chal­lenge with the pas­sage of Brown v. Board of Edu­ca­tion and other land­mark cases, which, while hugely sig­nif­i­cant, did not dis­solve racial inequality as a problem in America.

Sim­i­larly, if DOMA and Prop 8 are over­turned by the Supreme Court, that won’t solve all the issues faced by LGBTQ Amer­i­cans. How­ever, a poten­tial vic­tory could help to strengthen the movement’s infra­struc­ture in ways that would allow it to tackle other issues that dis­pro­por­tion­ately impact its com­mu­nity, such as poverty, hate crimes, and teen homelessness.

Vic­tory, how­ever, is not nec­es­sary for the move­ment to sur­vive. Every social move­ment in doc­u­mented his­tory faced many defeats in the process of pushing for social change; it was long-​​term resiliency and com­mit­ment that allowed these move­ments to accom­plish even­tual wins.

Article originally posted on News@Northeastern: 3Qs: How the gay marriage movement has evolved