About Jenny
Born in Michigan, Jenny grew up in South Florida, spent six years in Juneau, Alaska, and now lives in Braddock, Pennsylvania. Starting at an early age, Jenny was an avid writer with enthusiasm for print materials. At the University of Florida she accentuated her study of journalism with the pursuit of photography, expanding the potential of communication and art by integrating the two fields. She started a communications design studio, MetaPaint LLC, in collaboration with business partner John Ryan Brubaker in 2002. In 2004 she began the pursuit of a doctoral degree in Media Psychology with Fielding Graduate University.
Why media psych
Media Psychology is a new area of study that I stumbled across online. I had been toying with the idea of becoming a full-time student again for a few years. When I spent a year studying French at the University of Alaska Southeast just for fun, I realized that it might be time to go back for something more.
For those who don't know much about Juneau, it's the capital of Alaska. We have no roads in or out even though we are the largest capital city (land mass, not population) and not an island. Most of Southeast Alaska, including Juneau, can only be reached by plane or boat.
This makes it slightly difficult to find an intensive masters or doctoral program of study in a field that fits my undergraduate work and current path in communications design. While the University of Alaska offers some outstanding classes, the only graduate-level program I was interested in was not distance learning and only offered out of Fairbanks. A little more Alaska geography - getting to Fairbanks from Juneau requirs taking a ferry to Haines, driving through and over-nighting in the Yukon, Canada, and then rolling into Fairbanks the next evening.
While my communications design studio allows me to travel and work from virtually any location, I've grown attached to life in Juneau. So when I discovered Fielding University's Media Psychology Ph.D. program I became obsessed with reading the website and researching the concept of media psychology.
From what I have seen Media Psychology is only offered as a major in the UK and as a topic at a few stateside universities. This journal will chronicle my exploration of media psychology, the technology and interactions of distance learning, and what it's like to be returning to school while working full time.
