Professor Touts Grad School

Associate Professor and Graduate Director at UW-Milwaukee’s Journalism, Advertising and Media Students Department, Elana Levine, talked with students of the UWM JAMS Living Learning Community about the different careers and opportunities that come from working in media-related jobs.

From writing books to working in advertising and promotion, she said the opportunities present are basically endless.

On Monday, Oct. 14, Levine came by the classroom of the Journalism, Advertising, and Media Studies (JAMS) Living Learning Community (LLC) and discussed her background in media, as well as what the university has to offer to these students. She described for students the theses produced in the department’s graduate program. This is the second figure in media to come into the classroom and talk with these students about where they could potentially be at in a career later on.

With speakers like Levine, and ESPN talk show host Drew Olson, these students are becoming more exposed to prominent figures in the media industry and the options they have when starting their careers.

By bringing in experienced speakers, the JAMS LLC instructor hopes to get the students excited about media careers, which is exactly what the university intends for this program to accomplish.

“Elana Levine is an accomplished professor who has conducted important research into television and gender issues,” said Jessica McBride, instructor of the JAMS LLC. “My goal in having speakers like Professor Levine come to class is to excite our freshmen students about media professions. It’s important that students also become critical thinkers about the media rather than simply skills practitioners. Professor Levine is a leading thinker in media theory.”

Levine’s work consist of articles and books she’s written, including: “Wallowing in Sex,” a book discussing the prominence of sex in media. The work she’s done in this industry illustrates the broad range of jobs it has to offer. Her extensive research on entertainment media and women in media also contribute to her career as well.

UW-Milwaukee’s Student Success Center says the LLC program was designed to give students with similar interests an environment that makes it easier to make connections with classmates both inside and outside of the classroom. They are often called “communities within communities” since those who are in a LLC all live in the residence halls together among one another.

The University offers 28 different learning communities across campus that reach out to students with a wide variety of interests to choose from. Everyone who lives in a LLC has at least one class together (although often most find themselves in other classes with these same students as well). With everyone living on the same floors as their fellow classmates, homework and studying become a lot easier to do when you have a “built in study group” right outside of your door.

Levine told the JAMS students about some of her background information and experience. Growing up in the Chicago suburbs and then going to Indiana University, she knew that she wanted to get into something that involved the media. During her time there, she obtained an internship in Chicago and shortly after graduating she was able to get her first job working in public relations and advertising for a hospital.

“It was a lot of responsibility for such a young person,” Levine told the students. After working in this position, she then realized that she wanted to teach and furthered her education by attending UW-Madison for graduate school. There she studied commercial arts and media/cultural studies. Levine landed a teaching position at UW-Milwaukee and there she teaches mostly undergraduate courses, but she also teaches both graduate and special graduate courses as well.

To keep the students on track to gain a higher education, Levine told the class about what the JAMS graduate program was all about.

Levine says,“It’s a critical study and analysis program. Students get a lot of individual attention and they develop really close relationships with the professors as well.”

Levine has also gone further to expand her research and knowledge on the media as well. She told the class about the books and articles she has written, as well as how she also edits books too. Her profession isn’t limited to just teaching, but she goes further by writing and editing to spread her research to an even bigger audience.

To end her presentation, she said, “I can’t think of a better job, I have freedom and can still look into what I’m interested in.”

The students in the LLC took Levine’s presentation as an example of the never ending amount of opportunities that can come from the media.

“Finding out that she writes and edits books, on top of being a professor here had me so inspired. It’s nice to hear about such a successful person’s life and accomplishments, especially when that person is doing what I hope to someday do,” says Alyssa Lile, one of the students in the JAMS Living Learning Community.