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UWI TODAY
– SUNDAY 1st NOVEMBER, 2015
The talk
at the table
Adding to the discourse
of other great Caribbean
thinkers, conference presenters from Barbados,
Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, joined minds
and gave insights into a vast array of subject
matters related to the discipline of Human
Communication and featured academia, public
sector and private sectors for this 2nd biennial
conference.
Among other topics, it examined issues
such as identity and fandom in an online
football community (Dr Kathy-Ann Drayton),
the representation of national culture in the
public websites and repositories managed by
agencies such as NALIS (Revelino Guevara and
Dr. Prahalad Sooknanan) and the influence of
the Disney channel on the identity of adolescent
girls (Casey Pereira-Smart and Dr Prahalad
Sooknanan). This research was on the Media,
Culture and Society panel.
The Disney research looked at the channel’s
contribution to the identity development of
nine to 12 year-old girls in Trinidad and Tobago
by examining content of its selected television
programmes. The football fandom research was
connected to the quest for identity and explored
the virtual communities shared by fans forming
a network based on a common social identity.
The Interpersonal/Family Communication
panel shared research on the communication
challenges and experiences of families who are
geographically separated (Maxine Maxwell) and
compared the influence of face-to-face and online
counselling on communication in the families of
alcoholics (Anisa Hasanali).
The Health and Risk Communication I
panel celebrated the Green Market and the
communication strategies used to promote
a green and sustainable lifestyle (Ryan
Jaggernauth), traced the public education and
communication efforts of the UWI Seismic
Research Centre (Omari Graham), and analysed
the marketing communication strategies used in
sugar sweetened beverages and their contribution
to discourse on obesity in point of purchase
communication (Chinyere Roberts and Dr.
Godfrey A. Steele).
The parallel panel, Organizational and
Corporate Communications I, featured
relationships among democratic and autocratic
leadership styles, communication competence
and subordinate responses (Donneyal Farray), and
an example of internal communications research
which studied the efficacy of communication
modes used to engage employees (Wynell
Gregorio).
The Organizational and Corporate
Communications II Special Professional panel
was well-received and generatedmuch discussion
among younger communication professionals
and their more experienced colleagues.
Wynell Gregorio is Manager of Marketing & Communications at the Marketing & Communications Office, UWI St. Augustine.
innovations in research, products and services to the world.
Calling on great Caribbean theorists and thinkers who went
before like Rex Nettleford, Roderick Sanatan and Stuart
Hall, he urged the crowd of Communicators, Marketers,
Researchers and other professionals in the field to tell
our own stories and not allow them to be told by others.
Theories of cultural and media imperialism he said were all
offered from the North and as Caribbean people, we have
the knowledge, the skill and the capacity to present from
our points of view.
Peter Neptune, Corporate Transformation and
Communications Consultant, spoke on defending the brand
and what accounts for good branding using examples from
industry. He cited research that shows that brands that
communicate frequently with their stakeholders “are more
easily trusted, benefit fromgoodwill from investors, perform
better in their markets, have more loyal customers and are
more connected to their communities.”
Yolande Agard-Simmons, Manager Corporate
Communications in the Ministry of Trade and Industry,
addressed developing one’s personal brand and image as
a brand ambassador, investing in self, and maintaining
professional standards.
Your brand exists in the public’s mind; it is all about
perception and you must recognises its importance. Zero
in on the attributes that you want to define you and invest
in developing that brand, was her take.
Daniel Plent y, S enior Manager, Corporate
Communications, Water and Sewerage Authority, discussed
the role of the communication professional in decision-
making in an organization. He asked some key questions
for organisations to consider in ascertaining what that role
should be for them.
“How high in the organizational structure should the
communications practitioner be positioned?” he asked, as
he wondered if it should be at the highest decision-making
level.
HUMAN COMMUNICATION STUDIES CONFERENCE REPORT
Dr Tara Wilkinson McClean of The UWI, Cave
Hill applied communication and gender perspectives
to examine male masculinities as reflected in popular
male lifestyle magazines in Barbados and Paula Thomas
reported her findings on the potential influence of teacher
attire on students in secondary schools, in the panel on
Communication, Culture and Gender.
Using a clip from Alicia Keys’ “I don’t know your
name,” Amanda Lewis examined the influence of popular
love songs on young adult romantic relationships on the
Political and Rhetorical/Influential Communication panel.
This presentation generated discussion on male and female
experiences and interpretations of the role of imagined
interactions.
On the Health and Risk Communication II Special
Professional panel, Carlon Kirton, Communications
Manager at the Caribbean Regional Health Agency
(CARPHA), and Yvonne Lewis, Director, Health Education
Division in the Ministry of Health addressed regional
and national issues in Chikungunya public health
communication activities and strategies.
Dr Godfrey A. Steele shared insights into research on
media coverage and patterns of reporting of the 2013-2014
outbreaks of Ebola in West Africa.
For more on the conference presentations,
please go to
/
humancommunication/index.asp
For more on the opening plenary, keynote address,
pictures and social media, please visit
/
conferences/15/humancommunication/socialmedia.asp
Dr. Kathy-Ann Drayton’s football fandom research was connected to
the quest for identity and explored the virtual communities shared by
fans forming a network based on a common social identity.
PHOTO: RYAN DURGASINGH
Keynote speaker, Professor Hopeton Dunn, Director of CARIMAC
at the Mona Campus, spoke on Cultural Resilience and Globalization
from within.
PHOTO: ATIBA CUDJOE
