|
|
Chan visiting the Illinois governor's mansion in Springfield.
|
As the world's economies become increasingly interconnected,
both scholars and academic institutions are seeking ways to gain
a more global perspective on their fields of interest. For Bradley
University, a teaching institution in Peoria, Ill., this goal
was at least partly achieved with the residency of Kara Ka Wah
Chan, an associate professor in the School of Communications at
Hong Kong Baptist University. Chan not only shared her considerable
knowledge of advertising and advertising strategies in Hong Kong
and China, but also developed professional and personal connections
with colleagues and students at Bradley that all expect to last
for years to come.
In her "Advertising Creative Strategy" course, Chan
used the real-life marketing problem of a Hong Kong client to
help students develop an international approach to their advertising
strategies and the copy they wrote. Despite cultural difficulties
they encountered, the students, according to Chan, came up with
"a brilliant advertising campaign," which "demonstrated
sophisticated understanding of the market situation and creative
execution of a sound advertising strategy." During a course
on advertising research, Chan used her own research projects to
give students practical experience conducting surveys and using
survey results to develop advertising strategies.
The experience, however, was mutually enriching. As Chan explained,
"As a scholar in cross-cultural study on mass communications
and advertising, I benefited a lot in the extended stay in the
United States." With the data compiled by the students in
her research course, Chan was able to complete two studies-one
on the public perception of environmentally friendly products
and the other on how marital roles influence decisions surrounding
wedding and household expenses. As a result of the former project,
Chan published an article in the February 2000 issue of the peer
review journal Environmental Awareness.
During her stay, Chan also took advantage of the opportunity
to visit advertising archives. In nearby Chicago, she went to
the Museum of Broadcast Communications to view more than a hundred
commercials and public service announcements aired in the United
States in the fifties and sixties. She furthered this line of
research by traveling to UCLA's Film and Television Archives,
where she reviewed additional award-winning advertisements broadcast
in the fifties, sixties and seventies. This work will contribute
substantially to a study she planned to begin after returning
to Hong Kong on gender portrayal in U.S. commercials from the
fifties and sixties that targeted children.
Living in and interacting with the community of Peoria also gave
Chan, a trained observer of consumer behavior, the unique opportunity
to study a new group of consumers in their own environment. "Being
in the mid-west for a while enables me to have a better understanding
on the cultural values and [to] experience a totally different
consumer environment," Chan explained. She also had the chance
to experiment with new consumer environments herself, including
the World Wide Web. According to the scholar, this included making
online purchases, searching for an apartment and furnishings before
her arrival and selling her car using free online classifieds.
Chan made valuable use of her access to professional development
activities while she was in the United States. In addition to
establishing contacts and conducting interviews with U.S. colleagues
and communications industry professionals such as her faculty
associate, Sharon Murphy, and well-known consumer advocate David
Horowitz, she built upon her computer and multimedia skills. She
took advanced-level courses in software programs important for
Web communications such as Adobe PhotoShop, SoundEdit, Adobe Premiere
and Macromedia Dreamweaver.
By all accounts, Chan's stay in the United States was a great
success. The scholar will continue to assist the university as
it develops a new graduate program in global communication strategies
and to maintain the research partnerships and student mentoring
relationships she developed at Bradley. As Sharon Murphy, interim
chair of the Communications Department and Chan's faculty associate,
remarked, "Getting to know her as a person and incorporating
her and her family into the community life of the department helped
individuals better understand and appreciate her culture. Such
learning and growth make all of us richer."
Please contact us
if you would like to submit your own story and/or photographs.
|
