School of Communication and Media

U N L I M I T E D

COMICS
Media. The name COMICS originated from the merging of abbreviations of our programmes. As mentioned, we are now working and studying closer together. I hope this feeling strengthens with the arrival of COMICS and that everyone becomes enthusiastic about what happens within our school. It is good to be aware of what is going on. In every edition you will find that in every programme there are interesting and fun things happening. I invite everyone to send ideas and articles to comics@org.hanze.nl for the next edition appearing in June. Enjoy reading your first COMICS!

Agenda
20 February 17 March
KIC-social, Caf De Doos Hanze University Groningen Open Day

16 April

Information on electives and specialisations

Dear students and staff members at the School of Communication & Media. We study and work at a busy and committed school, where more initiatives and special projects are undertaken every year. We are one of the fastest growing schools and relocation to the new premises was very welcome! Everyone agrees that one big advantage is that students and staff members are working closer together. This was clear at the social drinks on 8 January. Here is the first edition of COMICS, the new newsletter of the School of Communication &

24 April

Business Intelligence lectorate congress

Elly Landman,
Dean School of Communication & Media

Student Association ICM established

As the largest school within the Hanze University Groningen it was high time that the School of Communication & Media had its own student association. Three enthusiastic communication students took on the challenge, and now the student association is a fact!
Keen In Communication
KIC stands for Keen in Communication and has been created for the Communication, International Communication, Communication Systems and Media & Information Management programmes. In short, the student association is there for all ICM students. the official KIC-off with social drinks. Social drinks are now being held in the Caf de Doos (Gelkingestraat) every third Tuesday of the month. There is also a tour through Groningen planned for February for (international) students..

Alive and KIC-ing!

Board Members Ingmar and Sanne present KIC at www.i-see.tv

KIC-off party
The student association commenced activities in January. On 23 January we celebrated

members can establish contact with the field, broaden their knowledge of the profession, as well as maintain contacts and facilitate knowledge transfer within the school. The latter not only between students, but also between students and lecturers. Membership for a year costs 10 Euro. If you beBecome a member! come a member as of February, you pay 5 Euro KIC organises study-related for half a year. Lecturers can become a contribuas well as social activities. For tor of course. example, visits to businesses, congresses, theme parties, guest lectures and monthly For more information see: www.sv-kic.nl social drinks. In this way
The official KIC-shirt

Pressit.nu@FunX
Pressit.nu, the internet newsletter of the Journalism minor, was a guest at FunX in January. The crossmedial urban youth radio station from the urban agglomeration of Western Holland descended on the studio of our local station OOG, to report on Eurosonic and Noorderslag (annual music festival).
Urban locals
Pressit journalists Remco Veurink and Robbert Warners, and guest journalist Jop Heinen, joined in for three days. They were given a work space, were immediately included in the team and sent out to gather reports. Items they covered for the studio included the visit by mayor Wallage and alderman Van Schie, and reviews of performances in the city. They were also on air as locals describing (student) life in Groningen.

Journalism: something for you?

You too could choose the Journalism minor as an eletive. This elective is open to all Dutch-speaking ICM students and commences twice per year, in September and February. More information can be found in the education guide on Blackboard > School of Communication & Media > Elective Programmes. www.pressit.nu

To be repeated next year

FunX was very enthusiastic about the collaboration (recorded on their weblog) and would like to repeat this next year! The collaboration was organised by lecturer Rick Slagter, who came in contact with the director of FunX (Willem Stegeman) during the ICM congress De toekomst van de media (The future of the media) in October.

Winterfair: a drink from the Senseo!

In January it was again exhibition time, the final presentation of the first years Event theme. This is one of the highlights for the first year CO students. Students invent a new, unique product that they try to bring to the market using a completely furnished stand. The theme this year was Winterfair!
Pea soup with meatballs
At the top, at D250! a winterfair student tells me while pushing a coupon for free soup with meatballs into my hand. Great marketing! On

Jop and Robbert in the studio

arrival it appears that the soup does not contain meatballs, but sausage. Then there is the beer bin. It hangs out your window like a flower box, and the beer is cooled by the cold outside. However, they have not yet really thought about how to prevent potential theft, the representative tells me. His advice: just put the kettle of hot oil ready. Tropical tea, white chocolate milk, Heat Up winter beer, everything could be found at the exhibition. With the coffee and tea pads already introduced on the market in the Netherlands, there were also chocolate milk pads available at the Winterfair. Pop in the Senseo and avoid skins in your drink.

Excursion in the storm

How do journalists process the information they receive for the programmes they work for? This was central to the excursion made by first year IDM/Media & Information Management students to RTL and the NOS Journaal (NOS News).
Two day excursion
They were away for two days. First a day in Amsterdam, where the students visited the head offices of ABN Amro and KPMG as well as the advertising agencies TBWA/Neboko and DDB Nederland. The information specialists there spoke about the information departments, the work performed by M&I staff and the future of desk research and marketing intelligence. The next day during heavy storms on 19 January visits were made to RTL Nederland, the NOS Journal and the Instituut voor beeld en geluid (Institute for Sound and Vision). The planned visit to Media Experience was cancelled due to the storm. The visit to RTL was quite unique, as they made an exception for us. We were able to view the editing, the information unit and the RTL Nieuws (RTL News) recording studio.

Stranded
Evening train traffic was halted due to the storm, and we therefore stayed overnight at Hogeschool Windesheim in Zwolle. The stranded students did not let this worry them; instead they gave an interview for RTV Oost (RTV East) and met the mayor.

Relaxed
The stands look perfect, and the activities appear to be well thought out. What is lacking here and there is a bit of action. I linger around some stands without being approached by a salesperson. The exhibition is also becoming increasingly popular amongst ICM staff, as it is a nice diversion and there are a lot of nibbles. It is clear from Rick Slagters experience that lecturers are not only there for the evaluations. He is looking very relaxed lying on a number of cushions, enjoying jazz music and tropical tea. I could not be more relaxed!

M&I students are the future information specialists that ensure that everyone within an organisation has the required information at their disposal. The excursions were organised as part of the theme Graven in Gegevens (Digging into information), in which marketing intelligence and information databases were covered.

Chinalize it!
Source: Luuk Steemers, De Hanze

From 29 October till 11 November 2006 thirty International Communication students and five staff members took part in a program offered by Nankai University in Tjanjin, China.
The Nankai University program consisted of a substantial number of lectures about Dutch, European and Chinese education and debates with Chinese (buddy) students about cultural differences. Wang Fei, a fourth year International Communication student initiated the project. I wanted the students to see life as it really is in China. I had great hopes of getting rid of miscommunication and stereotypes between people of the two countries. Think globally, act locally was our motto in this project. The students visited local government institutions and businesses. They also went to the Forbidden City and the European Chamber of Commerce in Beijing. The students also worked on funded projects for Dutch companies, for instance finding potential trade partners. They succeeded very well in a number of cases, lecturer Erik Kostelijk says. We definitely want to continue international trips like these. They provide a unique opportunity for students to learn about non-western cultures.

Success in the animal business

As a zoo you must be very inventive these days to keep visitor numbers at a good level. There are an increasing number of ways to spend your free time and it is not as common for people to think of spending a day at the zoo as they used to. And that while the Emmen Zoo is one of the nicest zoos in Europe!
Past the elephants with your sandwich
Kirsten spent approximately four months on her project. She received an 8.5 for her graduation project! Luckily I was sitting on a chair. I was ecstatic about the result! I had a well organised plan, which allowed time for extension in the last few weeks. I had spread out my activities fairly well and was therefore able to work comfortably. And if I wanted to do something different for a bit, I just went into the zoo. That is the advantage of performing a graduation project at such a location, at lunchtime you can eat your sandwich while walking past the elephants

Searching for a connection with the business market

Kirsten had the opportunity to get to know a different side to the zoo. Staff members showed her with great passion and enthusiasm how they worked with the animals. A lot of businesses see this too. It appeals to the business client during an event in the zoo. Just that little bit extra. That is why this will be capitalized on in the future during communication with the business client. Communication incorporating the support of an organisation that stands for caring for nature and the environment is an opportunity for Emmen Zoo in my view. Emmen Zoo stands The assignment: for respecting people, animals and nature. OrgaI had to formulate communication advice nisations feel a connection with this, they value to start responsible communication with a the environment. Together with your colleagues potential new client, the business client. you become aware that we are collectively resKirsten interviewed people at various organi- ponsible for the environment. As a business you sations to discern what businesses found im- show what you stand for. portant when it came to business events and how they preferred to communicate about it. Social drinks in a rat sewer Furthermore she gained firsthand experience, A business visit to a zoo is furthermore very by observing a reading and subsequently joi- unique: who does not want to be meeting with ning the businesses during their tour of the views of the savannah, to dine at the shark animals behind the scenes. When they were basin, have drinks in a rat sewer or compare the finished I also gave the business visitors a collaboration in a project group (or just your questionnaire. The interviews and question- colleagues) with a group of apes? naires have resulted in interesting advice.

Kirsten Coffeng, fourth year student Communication

Emmen Zoo obtains communication advice

The Emmen Zoo needs to be creative to ensure it meets the required turnover, including a new marketing policy and tapping into a new market, the business market. The zoo has barely paid any attention to the business market so far, but this market certainly provides opportunities. Businesses can hold meetings and hold social events or a staff outing at the zoo. This requires the right communication! That is why the zoo decided to obtain professional advice regarding communication. Kirsten Coffeng, fourth year Communication student, took on the challenge in the form of a graduation project.

In the Old & New column we can read from two staff members. One has been working at ICM for some time, the other only started recently.

Old &
Bodewes, such as the online booking system and planning system.

E-learning
He started his PhD on electronic learning last year. For students its as if Blackboard has always existed. Jelle: E-learning exists, but there is very little written about it or thought given to it. Jelle is looking at areas such as the learning effects that occur when students watch instructional videos. All of Jelles students would have seen one of his demonstration films at some point. I show areas of programming using screen captures, and you can see everything that happens on the screen. Then my voice adds do this, do that. Students can watch the short films at a time that suits them, rewind, pause and continue watching as many times as they like. It makes a difference that students can use the stop and rewind button if they dont understand something, which they cannot do during class. I can see exactly when and how they are watching the films, and I try to extract a study pattern from it. How the students are really absorbing the material. I believe that those who were at danger of getting behind are now able to keep up. The good students can do without the video; however you can help the middle group of students in this way.

Jelle de Boer
MSN messaging in the train to Hoogezand
Jelle de Boer 46 years old Study: Physics Previous position: research assistant at RUG, science lecturer and contract activities coordinator at TU Twente Personal: married to Renate, and has three sons; Lucas (17), Pieter (15), and Rogier (15)

Fiona van Gelder

When I read the job advertisement I thought, thats me
Fiona van Gelder 25 years old Study: Pre-university education, English/Communication & Information Science Intercultural Communication specialisation, teacher of English as a second language Previous position: bartender Personal: passionate about Teade

Jelle de Boer (46) commenced his position as a lecturer at ICT in 1998 within the New Media specialisation area. Amongst other activities, he has contributed to the Communication systems programme right from the very beginning. He has recently started a PhD in electronic learning.
Versatile
The versatile Jelle teaches ICT subjects at CO and CS, supervises graduates and work placement students, and is involved in educational reform. He is developing an English minor called Virtual Organisations together with Peter Jan Hagedoorn. Furthermore, he is also very involved with the computer facilities at ICM. He setup a media server and has created handy tools together with former colleague Michiel

MSN
E-learning is the future, he is convinced of this. There is a chain of tools that you can employ. Instant messaging for example. MSN is often cursed, it belongs to the youth, however you can also employ it in a useful way. It makes it short and easy to confer with colleagues, as well as with a student who is stuck during a work placement. You can msn and email with Jelle wherever he is, he even checks his messages on his PDA when he is on the train to Hoogezand. Jelle still really likes teaching a class of students. Every now and then, not every lesson, you see a students eyes twinkle. A student that says, gosh, that is interesting. That keeps me going for another month.

Fiona van Gelder (25) applied for the position of English lecturer in International Communication in April of last year. Aside from English lecturer with IC and CO, she is also a project coach and personal development planning counsellor. It is my first real job, she says, when I read the job advertisement I thought: thats me!, or does this sound arrogant?
International students are very fanatical
Fiona grew up in the Netherlands with a Dutch father and an English mother. When she was seventeen she moved to England with her parents. She only lived there for a year before returning to the Netherlands to further her studies. She likes the international environment. I am

New
very Dutch but also feel very English. And in England she feels very Dutch. At the RUG fellow students were all Dutch. I now work with international students and colleagues. International students are very fanatical. The Dutch students sometimes have the mentality that obtaining a six is sufficient enough.

Volunteer of VERA
Fiona travelled to Mexico and Guatemala and would like to spend even more time in Spain. A beautiful country, a beautiful language, nice food, tapas. And I have had flamenco lessons. She hopes to pickup Spanish lessons again soon. For the time being she is developing herself further at the ICM and she would like to obtain the professional education certificate for lecturers, a certificate that is a prerequisite for a permanent appointment. Fiona works at the counter of VERA as a volunteer in her spare time. The weekly night out? No, the counter is actually very relaxed, you can be in bed by midnight if you want to.

The official opening

The new ICM building was initiated with a festive opening on 8 January last year. Lecturers, staff members and students at the institute toasted to our beautiful new building. From the first day students hung around the square at the front office as if they had always been there. The lecturers are very happy with the living room. Students are also getting their own area: a lounge is being created in the open space in front of the entrance to the ICM on the 2nd floor.
Lecturers Champagne Systems present

Cheers!

Many students paid a visit

Inbox
I heard through the grapevine that my attitude was seen as not being interned in the project. I hope Im not getting an unsatisfactory mark as I have put an enormous amount of time into this. I use nonverbal communication a lot, and especially when talking. There are very few photos of Gaudi to be found, perhaps this is also the cause of his death. I hereby send you the assignment for tomorrow. Unfortunately I was not able to send it to you 24 hours beforehand. I am not going to give you an excuse, as you have heard them often enough. To be honest, I was so busy looking at your website that I unfortunately lost track of time. Do you have hilarious quotes or emails from lecturers? Then email them to: comicsinbox@gmail.com

The school statistics

There are currently 1830 students enrolled at the School of Communications & Media. 54% are male, 46% are female. Is it true that only females study at CO and only males at CS? The current situation at CO is 34% male and 66% female (IC is about the same, with 32% and 68% respectively). They have been closer in the past. The statistics at CS are further apart, with 81% male and 19% female. You can understand why we stimulate combined

Colofon
COMICS is a half year news letter edition for all students and staff of the School of Communication and Media. Everyone is invited to send ideas and articles to comics@org.hanze. nl, for example news facts, excursion reports or events and photos.

The men and women at ICM

parties. IDM is divided in exemplary fashion, with 49% male and 51% female. There are 118 staff members. 66% of the lecturers are male (would that be due to CS?), however management largely consists of women (83%). As lecturers teach multiple programmes it is difficult to determine the ratio of male/female per programme. The ratio lecturers / remaining staff is 74% / 26%.

Mark in your agenda: Congress

Business Intelligence using unstructured data
The Business Intelligence lectorate has organised the Unstructured data also speak volumes congress. The congress focuses on the enormous increase in use of unstructured data within organisations for Marketing and Competitive Intelligence. Using readings, product presentation, workshops and casuistry the lectorate would like to involve the information professional more in Business Intelligence: the information strategy to utilise data more within organisations. For more information see: www.hanze.nl/home/Schools/ Instituut+voor+Communicatie+Media/Lectoraat+B usiness+Intelligence

Redaction: Eva Liesting and Babz Mook. Text contributions: Jop Heinen (Winterfair), Kees Westerkamp (IDM excursion), Dionne Fentrop (interview with Jelle de Boer), Ingmar van Ast (KIC), Kirsten Coffeng (Emmen Zoo), Elly Landman and Luuk Steemers (Chinalize it). Photos: Remco Veurink (FunX), Jop Heinen (Winterfair), Annebet Neef & Maura van Dijk (IDM excursion), Pepijn van der Hoeven (Chinalize it), Babz Mook (the rest). Thanks to: Tonnie Elderman Design: Wieke Mulder Circulation: 250 copies Redaction address: comics@org. hanze.nl