Media releases

• Brock University set to host Virtual Fall 2020 Convocation

  Tuesday, October 06, 2020 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: 6 October 2020 – R0148

  Brock University students and their families will once again be able to celebrate Convocation from the comfort and safety of their own homes around the world.

  With the COVID-19 pandemic continuing, Brock’s 108th Convocation will be held virtually, launching on Friday, Oct. 16.

  Similar to Spring Convocation, the Class of 2020 will be celebrated in an online format in order to follow public health restrictions around large, in-person gatherings. President Gervan Fearon said the University will invite 2020 graduates back to campus for an in-person celebration at a future date.

  Fall Convocation is always a single-day affair, with around 1,000 Brock students from across all seven Faculties marking the conclusion of an important chapter in their lives.

  Rather than a live event, the University has created a Convocation portal, where each graduand will get their own personalized experience based on their Faculty, and whether they’re an undergraduate or graduate student.

  In addition to the conferring of degrees for students, Fall Convocation will include a couple of significant events.

  First is the installation of Hilary Pearson as Brock’s ninth Chancellor in its 56-year history. Pearson, a recognized Canadian leader in philanthropy and community engagement, follows Shirley Cheechoo, who in 2015 became the first woman and first Indigenous Canadian to hold the ceremonial leadership role at Brock.

  One of her first tasks as Chancellor will be conferring an honorary degree on Lieutenant-General, the Honorable Roméo Dallaire. A celebrated international advocate for human rights, Dallaire is a respected author, government and United Nations advisor, and former Canadian senator. He is also founder of the Dallaire Institute for Children, Peace and Security.

  Appointed as commander of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Rwanda, Dallaire was witness to the 1994 Rwandan genocide. He spoke at Brock on International Day of Persons with Disabilities in 2017.

  After going live on the morning of Friday, Oct. 16, the Virtual Convocation portal will remain online for students and their families to access the site at their own convenience.

  Also part of the Virtual Convocation portal is a social media ‘celebration toolkit,’ where grads can download graphics such as social media cover photos and animated confetti. Brock gives a small bag of confetti to all of its incoming students, and many wait to open the bag until Convocation Day.

  Shortly after Virtual Convocation launches, all graduating students will be mailed a package that includes their degree parchment, a Convocation program, an alumni pin and other information from the Brock University Alumni Association, information on how to purchase a degree frame from the Brock Campus Store and a bag of Class of 2020 confetti. Graduands are encouraged to update their address and phone number on their Brock student portal.

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  * Dan Dakin, Manager Communications and Media Relations, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca or 905-347-1970

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  Categories: Media releases

• Brock expert puts focus on Canadian crisis communication

  Monday, October 05, 2020 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: 5 October 2020 – R0147

  In the age of fake news, social media and an ongoing global pandemic, the importance of effective crisis communication continues to grow, says Duncan Koerber.

  The assistant professor in Brock University’s Department of Communication, Popular Culture and Film says Canadian organizations must base their communication in times of crisis on more than “anecdotal experience or hunches.”

  To that end, Koerber has edited a special issue of the Canadian Journal of Communication, one he hopes will build the Canadian research culture around crisis communication and “start to create a foundation of best practices rooted in theory and experiments” to which professionals and organizations can turn when catastrophe strikes.

  Although creation of the special issue was underway well before the global pandemic took hold, its release couldn’t be more timely.

  “The COVID-19 situation has certainly raised ordinary Canadians’ awareness of this deficit and the importance of effective crisis communication practitioners,” Koerber says.

  In an editorial within the journal, he points out that crisis communication is now often measured within minutes or hours, not the days or weeks of pre-social media eras.

  “The speeding up of communication that happened with the advent of internet communication has put more pressure on practitioners to respond quickly in a crisis,” says Koerber. “Culturally, audiences expect it too — but responding quickly may not be the same as responding effectively.”

  He also notes that social media users have more power in a crisis than the average person had just 20 years ago, when members of the public had few ways to influence crisis communication typically delivered through mass media.

  “Now, social media users can easily create a serious crisis that practitioners have to deal with,” Koerber says. “Social media users can get people fired and force organizations to make significant changes.”

  Koerber also believes that crisis communication is important in a time when “fake news” is in high-volume circulation on social media.

  “One study from Carnegie Mellon University found that about 50 per cent of users talking about COVID-19 a few months ago were bots,” Koerber says. “Having authoritative and accurate crisis communication accounts to spread information to people who aren’t consuming traditional mass media is important to counter any disinformation.”

  The case studies presented in the journal’s articles include topics such as crisis communication during the 2014 terrorist attack at the Canadian National War Memorial, possible early warning systems for tsunamis in British Columbia and Koerber’s co-authored paper on how a photograph of drowned child refugee Alan Kurdi affected Stephen Harper’s re-election campaign in 2015.

  The journal also includes what Koerber describes as an “eye-opening” assessment of Canadian hospitals by Sebastian Dobosz of McMaster University, based on a survey of hospital crisis communication teams completed a few years ago.

  “It’s the first-ever study of crisis communication and management in Canadian hospitals,” says Koerber. “Obviously during COVID-19, the state of our hospitals has been top of mind every day, and Dobosz shows how hospitals could be doing so much more in this area.”

  Duncan Koerber, Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication, Popular Culture and Film, is available to speak with the media.

   

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  * Dan Dakin, Manager Communications and Media Relations, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca or 905-347-1970

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  Categories: Media releases