We went to a few sessions and then attended the Health Communication Top Paper session. So fascinating!! The papers were absolutely fantastic and the topics were even better! One did a literature review of thousands of news stories from the media top dogs regarding cancer coverage and how those top dogs portray more uncertainty of the disease than not.....another covered a cyberbullying victimization intervention (so timely!).....another (from Auburn, AL!!) discussed whether organ donation would increase more through "organ shortage" messages or "donation success" messages....and the final topic covered communicating emotion in health care and how those emotions affect prevention decisions. They were wonderful! I wish I had time to transcribe all my notes here for you all--you'd love it, I'm sure ;) We then sat through the HComm business meeting to see if we could get involved at all and then we were off to the presentation of my paper!!
EEK! It was so exciting! Dr. Sweetser, of course, did a spectacular job--so well-spoken, confident, a quiet intelligence! She even fielded questions with perfection (which would be the part that would send me for a tailspin! I can prep until the cows come home, but answering academic questions on the spot like that, no thank you!). She gave me wonderful tips afterward for when I get to present on my own someday (?!?!) on how to do that last part, thank goodness. There was also a respondent in our session who critiqued and commented on all of the presentations. She was so funny because (after singing Dr. Sweeter's praises) she exclaimed that the only reason she didn't like Dr. S was because she wouldn't let her take her research course at UGA (which is where my paper came from). I had to keep myself from laughing out loud because that class was HARD HARD HARD and I could barely imagine someone volunteering for something that!! Ha! It was very apparent at the end of it all that Dr. Sweetser is definitely a respected intellectual in the national public relations community--it's certainly one thing to see the vast amount of respect she gets at UGA but definitely another to see her praised among the PR elite! So proud of her! Hopefully, some of her awesomeness has rubbed off on me and my fellow co'10 PR grads...
After a quick wardrobe change, Susan and I wandered Fisherman's Wharf again (less tourists + much more of a bay view, this time) to find some dinner. We ended up going to a greasy but totally delicious hamburger joint that's apparently only in CA and Arizona--In and Out--and we both enjoyed our fair share of burgers + fries! I even got a cute hat for Jocelyn, because she's in love with that place (but not more than Taco Bell, duh). If our burger/fry combo weren't enough, we next ventured to Bi-Rite Creamery for salted caramel ice cream! HOLY COW!! No, seriously. That ice cream had to come from a holy cow because it was the MOST amazzzzzing thing I've ever put in my mouth! All of you, go buy your plane tix to CA right now because, gosh darn it, that ice cream was waaaaay worth it!!
Of course, we next totally collapsed from all of the amazingly healthy food we'd been eating all day (yea, right) and we caught a few zzzz's before our last full day in CA!!
say cheese,
katy
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