From Academia to Social Media

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The majority of the authors in Applied Geography are older researcher and professors who are quite unlikely to have social media accounts, even on LinkedIn and Wordpress. There are a few younger authors, but even then they are from foreign countries, such as Amsterdam and Switzerland and were not on American social media. Such is the case with one of the authors, Julie G. Zaehringer.

What is she on?

• I was unable to find Zaehringer, who is a younger person, on any social media common to the younger generation, such as Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. However, I continued to research her and found her on a site called Research Gate, which provided information on her and her accomplishments.

Who is she?

• Research Gate presents her as a professional and as a great researcher. It holds all of her recent publications as well as provides information on her academic and professional career. The site also rates her based on her publications and interactions with other researchers. Overall, this site is definitely for professional networking and presenting research to collegues.

Who is she really?

• Her online identity matches perfectly with the personality that she presented in her research paper, professional and intelligent. I do not see any discrepancies within the two. I think she truly wants to be seen as a professional and refrains from using social media that could say otherwise. 

Academic Discourse and Genre

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Applied Geography is a scientific journal that covers international environmental issues and publishes the studies that are dedicated to them. The type of content that is published can range from papers to articles reviewing other case studies.

What types of genres?

• This issue of Applied Geography is composed of primarily papers discussing the concept of spacial data and it's implications for environmental policy. However, the first piece of content in the journal is an article that is essentially a study condensed into a few paragraphs, like it is giving more of an abstract than a full case study.

What are they called?

• The majority of the content are published research papers on case studies, which are essentially papers that explain an issue that a researcher or a group of researchers began to study. It also has the processes that they underwent/ did in order to learn more and come up with a viable solution to the issue. It also has a considerable length in comparison to articles, sometimes up to a hundred and sixty pages. The other article that was published is more of a review or abstract of a case study that either needs to be performed or has already been published. It is significantly lacking in data or analysis, and is quite a bit shorter, about two or three solid paragraphs.

How are they defined?

• I feel that a research paper could be defined as a presentation of a case study on a specific issue that consists of discussion, data, and analysis. These are primarily for fellow researchers and professors who have the ability to understand the content to the fullest degree. The review article, on the other hand, is more of an abstract of a larger case study that could have been published previously. It is more to inform and grab the interest of people who are not necessarily involved in academia, and who could not have a complete understanding of a full case study.

Rhetorical Analysis of Academic Journal

Applied Geography, Volume 68, 03/2016

The journal I chose to analyze is aptly named Applied Geography, because it discusses different environmental issues concepts in relation to it's geographical location. The next issue is going to be published (physically) in April of this year, however I was able to secure a copy of the March 2016 issue online.

Who is the author?

• In the most current issue, Volume 68, there are many different articles with different authors, some articles with more than one. For example, the very first article was authored by Karina Zelya, Jasper van Vliet, and Peter H. Verburg, who are all professors at different universities. Karina Zelaya is a Professor at California State University, and Japer van Vliet and Peter H. Verburg are professors at the University of Amsterdam. However, this article is just a review article. The rest of the issue is composed of research papers done by other professors. A majority of the authors in the journal are also professors and educators. In this field, research and education are mutually exclusive. But, their research is portrayed as just as important as any other field work.

Who is the audience?

• The journal contains language and some mathematics that require an in depth knowledge of the field to really get all the information that is given. The diagrams are somewhat helpful, but even so, the intended audience audience for this journal is not very general. However, I think that the article could be used as an example for what you could do with an environmental degree, so in turn it could be used as teaching material for a class.

What is the context?

• The theme of this issue is spacial data and awareness in relation to environmental issues/ problems. Each of the articles have "highlights" of the papers/ articles, and all of them at least mention the interpretation and collection of spacial data. This means that only a few of the hundreds of articles that have been submitted to the journal for publication this month are selected. 

What is the message?

• The message of this issue is what happens when you take something that happens in a large area's environment and look at it's affect on a small area's environment, as evidenced by the discussion and visualization of data in various articles.

What is the purpose?

• The issue is analyzing the results of scalar data and showing how our activities can have a huge affect on all environments.

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My Major

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Environmental Studies is one of the most essential, world changing, fields out there. We may not be building computers or writing novels, but we are helping make global change and create a cleaner planet. Without clean air, vegetation, or water, there would be no one to make computers or write novels.

• In my field of study, we learn not only about past and current environmental issues/disasters, but also how to analyze data and fix problems. For example, we may learn of a specific mining company that is polluting local water sources with sludge and chemical run off, and we will also learn how to measure acidity levels of the water and look at the chemical makeup of the toxicities in the lake. Finally, we would learn how to neutralize these problems and prevent them from happening again.

• There are many possible professions with this degree, including field work with various environmental disaster groups, teaching at a high school or university, or even journalism, reporting on issues that come up on the news. I personally would like to go into field work for the possibility on traveling around the world helping people and the environment is very exciting to me. 

• In my junior year of high school, I took an AP Environmental Science class. From the first class I fell in love with the idea of saving the environment and helping victims of corporal pollution. My teacher was very encouraging (he went on to be my mentor for my last two years as well as for my senior capstone on food scarcity) at the time. I still keep in close contact with him today.

• A well known name in the environmental field right now is May Boeve, who was very active in the political fight against the Key Stone XL pipeline. She and her coworkers formed the environmental group 350.com, who dedicated their resources and time to prevent the passing of a bill that would allow the construction of a large oil pipeline from Alaska all the way to the Southern States. This pipeline was very environmentally dangerous and had it burst it would have cost billions of dollars in damage. Another well known name is the industry is Katharine Hayhoe, who is both a evangelical christian and an environmental activist known for her views on global warming. She uses her religious influence to convince spiritual non-believers of the real threat of climate change. Finally, Julian McQueen is also a big name, especially for his work with Green For All, a group that is dedicated to uniting communities over environmental issues.

• Two very interesting journals in the geography/ environmental field, which I discussed in my interview with Sophia Borgias, are Applied Geography and Annals of the American Association of Geography. Both of these journals are peer-reviewed and academic, and to be published in them could take up to two years. I personally find these journals very interesting because of the different ways that the two journals approach the same topic. Applied Geography tends to take more of a social justice stance on issues, covering opinions of those affected by a disaster, while Annals analyzes the topic through a political lense, discussing different policies that lead to the outcome. Both journals, however, are great introductions to the Environmental Field. The third journal, which I discovered on my own, is called Environmental Science and Policy, which covers BOTH the social issues and the policy issues, while also analyzing the economic impact of the problem. 

My Interviewees on Social Media

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As one of my interviewees was an older professor, I did not expect to find him on much social media other than on perhaps LinkedIn, for job outreach and Wordpress. My other interview subject, who is a much younger graduate student, was much more likely to be on media sharing sites such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

• Sophia Borgias uses Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Dr. Carl Bauer, however, is not on many social media sites. As far as I could tell, he was not on any social media sites at all, actually. I could find him only on his faculty page and his website.

• Except for Twitter, Sophia seems to use social media for personal purposes and for sharing content with close friends. Both of her Instagram and Facebook are restricted from public view. Her twitter, on the other hand, is mostly dedicated to sharing stories about recent environmental policy issues. Bauer's faculty website is only for sharing information about him, and links us to his website which discusses his accomplishments and past work experiences.

• Bauer's internet present reflects the academic professionalism that comes across in his journal article and book. On the other hand, Sophia's social media presence it more dedicated to her personal experiences, not necessarily her professional ones.

My Interview Subjects

I emailed seven people asking to get interviews to understand what it is like to publish within the Environmental community. Unfortunately, five of them are off in impoverished an environmentally damaged countries at the time and cannot sit down for an hour interview. But that only means more content for them to publish for further research in the field. Never the less, I needed two interview subjects, and soon. Thankfully, two individuals from the School of Geography and Development here at the University of Arizona were willing to dedicate some time to me.

Sophia Borgias, M.A. in Geography/ Graduate Research Assistant

Who are they?

• Sophia Borgias

Who do they work for?

• She is a research assistant at the Udall Center of Public Policy as well as for QUASEC Center for Excellence in Water Security.

What is their education level?

• Sophia Borgias graduated from the University of Oregon with a Bachelors in both International Studies and Spanish. She is currently a second year master student in Geography at the University of Arizona.

How long have they worked in the field?

• Borgias has been employed at the Udall Center and the QUASEC center for a few years, however, her undergraduate research took her to the Maipo River Basin in Central Chile, where she explored the development of the Patagonia Sin Represias movement against dam building in the basin. Her undergraduate thesis was focused on this issue, and she plans to have her graduate thesis expound upon her previous findings.

When is the interview?

• I plan to interview Ms. Borgias this Friday, February 26th, in the ENR2 building at 9 am. I am very excited to see what she has to say about the publication process, especially since she is in the midst of publishing her first two papers in the field. 

What are the questions you are going to ask?

• Have you found that a specific type of source is more prevalent in an educational setting?
• Have you noticed, specifically as a fairly recent undergraduate, an increase in any type of genre as research material?
• In your research for your undergraduate thesis, did you use any genres more often than not? Did you notice yourself turning to a specific publication more than others, such as a specific journal or study?
• Would you say that certain types of publications are more reliable than others, such as primary versus secondary research?
• The publication you had on your informational page, Patagonia Without Dams, is your undergraduate thesis? Since it was published by the University of Oregon, would you say that it was easier or more difficult than going through other publication sources?
• Do you feel that it was because it was a paper, rather than a different type of genre?
• What are your current projects that are undergoing publication?
• Have you found that publishing these have been more difficult here at the University of Arizona than at your previous university?
• As a graduate research assistant, do you find yourself handling many different genres of research?
• Which have been the most valuable to your work?

Professor Sapana Doshi, PhD from Department of Geography, University of California, Berkley

Who are they?

• Professor Sapana Doshi

What is their education level?

• Dr. Doshi received her undergraduate degree in 1997 in Economics from Columbia University. She then received her doctorate degree from the University of California, Berkley, in 2011. Her studies focused on Geography and Gender Women's studies as well. 

How long have they worked in the field?

• Professor Doshi, before becoming a professor at the University of Arizona, worked in the field in Brazil, Nepal and the US, where she worked as a "development practitioner" on various issues and policies. She dedicated her time and and work to micro-finance, gender-based empowerment, rural drought relief, urban housing and sustainability. She has also worked in South Asian-African communities on LGBQT+ issues and gender issues.

When is the interview?

• The interview is scheduled for Tuesday, March 1st, in the ENR2 Building.

What questions are you going to ask?

• In your long career in education, both as a student and an educator, have you noticed a significant pattern in what genres are most used to teach students about geopolitics and gender issues?
• Can you say with definitive certainty that professors and researchers alike are beginning to turn to a specific genre for teaching and publishing findings?
• Do you yourself prefer a certain genre when teaching? What about for publishing your findings?
• Is there are specific publication, such as a journal or book, that you find yourself turning to more often than others? Why do you feel that this publication makes a significant difference in a student's understanding of geopolitics and the issues related to it?
• You yourself have published in many different genres from journals to books to just chapters. Do you find that one genre is easier to write in? What about to publish in?
• Can you describe the process for publishing in these genres? What would you say is the most difficult part of the process? The easiest?
• Have you ever published a paper through a university, such as for a graduate or undergraduate thesis?
• Would you say that the publishing process has become more difficult since your undergraduate career? Would you say that it depends on the type of genre?