UIS host to three-campus Communication conference

April 15, 2009
By Nathan Harmon
Staff Writer

UIS was host to a University of Illinois-wide conference last Friday. Several students and faculty attended the 6th annual University of Illinois Communication Collaboration Conference, or UICC Conference. This marked the first year that the UIS campus was home to the event.

However, all three University of Illinois campuses were well represented in speakers and attendees.

“We were really happy with the turnout,” said Megan Kearns, a graduate assistant in Communication, “because the campuses were represented.          

The first panel was entitled "Media Convergence and Collective Information." Panelists Ginnifer Mastarone (UIC), John Anderson (UIUC), and Adriane Stoner (UIC), gave presentations about their research studies in collective intelligence, the potential of convergence studies, and study abroad program coverage in the media.         

When asked about convergence studies, Anderson, a doctoral student, replied that there was not a solid definition of convergence. However, many ideas were put forward to help explain convergence, like the universal language of binary code, and the combining of new and old media.          

The keynote speaker, Dr. Sandra Metts, gave a PowerPoint presentation to a packed house of mostly UIS students entitled, “The Role of Emotion Experience and Expression in the Development and Maintenance of Close Relationships.” This presentation included a brief, albeit lively, and scientific analysis of emotions and emotional expression.            

Metts presented theory on primary and secondary emotions, primary emotions like anger and secondary emotions like guilt, the latter of which is more involved in “reappraising” situations.            

“We don’t realize how much emotion logic is in relationships,” said Metts during her presentation, getting to the conclusion of how emotions are expressed in close relationships, and thus communicated.  

“The keynote speaker was vivacious [and] charismatic,” said Kearns, who introduced each panel at the conference.

About the panels that occurred throughout the day, Kristin Nisbet, a graduate student in the UIS Communication department, said, "It was interesting to hear other students present, because it gave me ideas about my own research."

“It was nice to get feedback on projects that were not fully developed and research in progress,” said Clifford White, a 1st year graduate student in the UIS Communication department.           

“It makes you feel like a real grad student,” said White.