Comm Central Podcast

For the 60th anniversary of the COMM department, we are highlighting scholars to showcase their journeys and what it was like! This includes being included in the social media team (SMT) and how it benefitted them to becoming such awesome scholars! #sjsu #commsjsu #podcast #spartans

In this episode we take a deep dive into getting to know Professor Ash Rahmani, the work he has been able to do throughout his career so far, and many more amazing topics.

On this week’s COMM Scholars Podcast, we sat down with Professor Ching Ching Tan. As a U.S. immigrant, scholar, and life long writer–Professor Tan uses her experiences from both China and America to bring forward marginalized voices, all while inspiring others in similar situations. As well as, developing a more empathetic approach to teaching students from diverse backgrounds. In this episode, Professor Tan shares how her persistence and keenness for learning has impacted her life. From moving to a new country, taking ESL classes at her local community college, and receiving a MA in Communication Studies-Ching Ching Tan has been able to create a life for herself in what she references in her Huffington Post article as the “mainstream.” Listen to the full podcast to dive deeper into the conversation that took place.

On this week’s Comm Scholars Podcast, we sat down with scholar Belén Moreno, visiting from Spain. Belén studied journalism at the University of Malaga, received a master’s degree in Audio Visual Communication for the Digital Age at the Complutense University of Madrid, and is currently working on her Ph.D. in Communication Studies at San Jose State. Belén shares her thoughts on the biggest difference between America and Spain in terms of communication. She shares a synopsis from her recent mystery novel, and gives us a look into her dissertation focused on brand content developed by Netflix. Listen to the entire podcast to dive deeper into the conversation.

On this week's Comm Scholars Podcast, we sat down with Dr. Ash Rahmani and learned more about his work within the communication community. Dr. Ash Rahmani has taught many communication classes at many universities, including SJSU, regarding digital media, quality research methods, and similar topics. His latest research and dissertation focuess on a woman-run radio station in Fiji known as femLINKpacific. This organization empowers women's voices to be heard in the media and is a pathway for more women to participate in local/national government spaces. Listen to the full podcast to dive deeper into the conversation that took place.

Dive into what Black History means to Afro-Filipino communications studies professor Raissa Simpson. Learn about her background, identity, education, career, and what to focus on when it comes to understanding black history.

In this episode of Audio Production Podcast, Charles talks about this huge opportunity for prospective healthcare students to participate directly in patient care for one year! For more details, requirements and way to apply, please tune in or reach out at www.med.stanford.edu before feb 2nd 2022!

In this episode, the SJSU Audio Production Team members will be sharing tips and experiences on how to be ready for finals week. Additionally, we will review the counseling resources that SJSU provides to students that may be struggling with their mental wellness during this time of the year.

In this episode, the SJSU Bookstore is offering to buy back textbooks previously used by SJSU students for up to 50% cash back as soon as finals week! Books must include original material and student ID is required. Click on the podcast for more info!

On this episode brought to you by the Communication Studies Department , we will review the Forensics Team (Speech and Debate) and the benefits of joining activities and events provided by them to all SJSU students (like getting that required COMM198 needed for COMM major students)

On this episode, we interview Dom and Mark, directors from the San Jose State University Social Media Team to overview different positions and roles within the SMT, as well as their experiences within the team and posible career paths to consider for team members.

The Audio Production Podcast shares some valuable info about internship opportunities at San Jose Internship Program available to undergrad students (more info at http://www.sanjoseca.gov)

In this episode, we will be having an interview with Rishelle, a former SJSU SMT Platform Lead, and will discuss her experiences while getting her communications degree at school, being part of the SMT, working in HR for a tech company, and getting professional oportunities for life after graduation.

Info on upcoming SJSU games!

Discussing several resources for mental health on campus

Chris Sander's conducts an interview with the former lead of the Social Media Team: Ted Coopman.

In this episode, Meli and Zach discuss the subtle and major differences between Discord and Zoom. 0:00   Zach: Hello, and welcome back to the "Communication Now" Podcast. I am your host, Zachary Behnke. And... 0:08   Meli: Meli Rose. 0:09   Zach: And today we're gonna be talking about the differences between zoom and discord in terms of learning. Why don't you start with your own experiences using zoom Meli. 0:20   Meli: Okay, yeah, zoom has been used a lot... I've been using it ever since COVID kind of started, especially for school, I haven't really used it for any personal meetings or communication yet. But so far, it's been not a problem for me, I don't really have any like, Wi-Fi issues with it, it's pretty easy for me to get on with just a link or with like a passcode. It's been pretty convenient for just any meetings, when COVID first happened, I only had one in person class. So that had to be moved into a zoom meeting. I mean, it was, it's still not as good as being in a regular classroom, just because it's like you not the same at all, but- 1:16   Zach: the "in person" factor is kind of missing, you know? 1:18   Meli: right, exactly. But I mean, it's still a way to communicate, and I haven't really had any issues with it, 1:26   Zach: I'd say my experience is more or less the same. Admittedly, when it comes to using discord versus zoom, I will just say that I kind of find the passcode thing to be a little clunkier than just creating, versus creating, like a little server where you and your friends can talk, you know, and I feel that's the one big difference I feel with zoom versus discord as it zooms just kind of more associated with learning. You know, I mean, usually when I hear people talking about talking with their friends over, you know, some kind of communication server that's not like text or phone, it's usually Discord. Whereas when it comes to learning, it's usually zoom. You know what I mean? Yeah, not that not that discord couldn't be used for learning, because I think that it still could for sure. Especially since discord has this little feature where if you're connected with an account, it'll actually kind of tattle on you when you're playing a game. So maybe teachers might want to use discord, just to make sure that all their students are you know, there and not just playing some game on their computer. 2:32   Meli: I see. 2:32   Zach: Yeah, zoom doesn't really have that. 2:35   Meli: Right. Yeah, like you can, you can be on zoom, but you can also just be doing some other stuff. And not really be paying attention to what's going on 2:45   Zach: Yeah like... being on your phone or, y'know. Discord, I'm pretty sure Discord. will actually tattle if you do stuff like that, so uh, you know, that's something for teachers to consider if they're worried about- maybe not college teachers, because, you know, I mean, like, when you're in college, you kind of want to be there, you know, so yeah, imagine most people would do that. But maybe for teachers who are teaching high school or middle or even Elementary, you know, that might be more useful where the kids are more inclined to kind of slack a little bit. I think. I think overall... just the only thing is just I think zoom is more mainstream a little bit, I guess, is why it gets used more. 3:25   Meli: Right. 3:26   Zach: Plus the passcode system that makes it so that people can't just like sneak in. You know what I mean? Actually, that's not entirely true, because somebody could give like the passcode stuff to another person. 3:40   Meli: That's true. 3:41   Zach: Yeah, you know, really thinking about it, they're not THAT different. Also, I guess, just if we really wanted to get into the nitty...

Hello everyone, my name is Zachary, Becky and I am with the San Jose State Communication Studies social media team. Today I have an interview with uh Miss Lauren Oliver, how are you doing? I'm doing well. What about you Doing okay, so I guess we should get started. Uh really quick. Tell us about yourself. Who are you? Your interests? Yeah, wow that's a big question. I... Well I'm a communication studies major and the master's programs. I have a bachelor's degree in English. So I really love literature and writing and communicating and speaking. And my ultimate goal is to be a teacher at a community college so. Nice, okay, so what exactly is the GTA program. So the applications for the GTA program, close, I think every March and so if you are applying to the master's program, you can apply to the GTA program. And if you're already in the master's program, you can also apply. And so essentially, if you become a GTA, there's usually about I think, a a year, you are trained, you get professional development on how to be a teacher, and you get one section of COMM 20s. That's public speaking per semester. And so you are the Instructor of Record. And so you do the class sessions, you do lectures, you plan your own lesson plans, you grade, a-a lot of speeches, three speeches a semester per student with other assignments, like outlines. And then along the way you get training on how to teach and how students learn, and best practices and what it's like to teach at a university, and other things like that. And then in the process, too, you get..um, you get two units of teaching practicum a semester. So you end up with four units of electives towards your master's degree. All right, that's good. What are some hardships to the program? Like what would you say is most difficult about you know, learning to be a teacher? My most challenging thing was last semester. So in the fall, I obviously was teaching all online through zoom as we are at San Jose State. And my students were having a lot of challenges with participation. And so I think that's kind of a big challenge is how do I create an environment where students want to participate? And where we're all really engaged in the discussions and the in class activities. And so I think that was my biggest challenge. But some other challenges my colleagues face are like creating rubrics, knowing kind of how do I best assess these learning outcomes? Yeah, probably mostly those things. Yeah, I could, I could definitely see that with the pandemic could be difficult considering you're moving from a physical classroom to a zoom classroom. So it's a lot harder to keep people engaged, I could definitely see that. Uh but on a side note, what would you say? Are the highlights of being involved? What do you love about the program the most? Yeah, so many things. It makes me so excited when I see my students really learning and engaging with the material and applying it to their own lives in a meaningful way. When my students were struggling with the outlines or APA citations, or how do I integrate sources into an argument, and then I'm able to try to help coach them through that and learn from their failures and learn from each other. And so when a student says, like, "Oh, I get it now", or they produce this amazing outline that's improved on all those areas. They were struggling with that super rewarding for me. Another highlight is class discussions. I love kind of discussion based learning. And so when all the students are, yeah, just engaging with the material and dissecting it. I think discussion comes from like a Greek or Latin word that means to dissect. So when we're just kind of ripping apart all these things and mashing it together in a new way, that's just really exciting for me. Yeah, and seeing my students connect personally has been fun during the pandemic, you know, when it's hard to forge those new friendships...

Unknown Speaker  0:00   How's everyone doing today? Unknown Speaker  0:02   Good doing great. Unknown Speaker  0:04   Yeah. Unknown Speaker  0:05   So, Adrian, how are you doing? Unknown Speaker  0:10   I'm doing good. Unknown Speaker  0:11   All right. So us as hosts, we'll go ahead and say our names. My name is Gabby. I am a comm major at San Jose State. My name is mellie. I am also a call major. I'm in my fourth year. Unknown Speaker  0:25   And my name is Bruno. I am also a comm major at San Jose State. This will be my fourth year as well. Unknown Speaker  0:30   Okay. And I major in I graduated in May 2020. So last year, and I majored in mechanical engineering gratulations on that. Unknown Speaker  0:41   Congrats on my graduation there. Unknown Speaker  0:44   Thank you. It sucks but at least I graduated, right? Unknown Speaker  0:47   Yeah, totally. Unknown Speaker  0:50   To start it off, Adrian, since you were still a student during the pandemic, how was it shifting from going to school and having to go completely online? How did that affect you? Unknown Speaker  1:05   It was definitely a big change, because it started out as spring break. And when we first heard about COVID, we're just going to be about a week or so.So we didn't really think much about it. And as like the first week came by and were like, Oh, just another vacation. But as the week's progressed, and we just didn't show up to school for the rest of the semester, and then continue the next semester, like completely online. It was just really hard like mentally like trying to pay attention. Especially because like online classes, especially speaking for like engineers, it's really hands on. And to follow along like the screen instead of in person, it was really hard. So just kind of harder to study and focus in class. And then just to study out of class, because you are always home and just being in the same like environment every day kind of just, I don't know, it kind of puts a toll on you mentally here. I mean, Unknown Speaker  1:54   definitely. So I hear you play games, or would you say that you're a gamer that plays a lot? And if so, did you play during the pandemic? Did that did that help at all? Unknown Speaker  2:07   So yeah, I definitely play video games like to de stress when I wasn't doing anything, or I was done with all my schoolwork. And yeah, it definitely helped me to de stress and just not think about school for like a couple hours. On one game. I was relaxed Sam, remember was playing Minecraft. And just building things like, this is like Legos for adults pretty much but just building things, especially for me as an engineer, I really enjoy building things. So just doing that in a video game for a couple hours just kind of like my de stressor after every day. Just going through a lot of work. Unknown Speaker  2:39   Says playing video games still help with stress? Unknown Speaker  2:44   Yeah, definitely. Like if I'm ever really feeling really stressed or feeling like my work was too heavy. I'll just take like an hour or two hours off I'll play a game that I'm I'm really used to playing or I'll try play a new game just to just for something new, you know, just something else to distract me from whatever's going on. Unknown Speaker  3:03   Was this a tactic for you in the past? Or did you start playing games more frequently during the pandemic, when we were all trapped inside? Unknown Speaker  3:12   I used to play a lot also before the pandemic, but then during the pandemic, because like everyone was at home like 24 seven played more...

Unknown Speaker  0:01   Hello, my name is Zachary Behnke. I'm the manager of the audio production team on the social media team. And I am here with my guest, Hayley Behnke. Who is a former alumni here at San Jose State. Why don't you introduce yourself with what you majored in? Unknown Speaker  0:17   Hi, yes. I majored in English with a prep for teaching. Unknown Speaker  0:22   And how would you say that went? Unknown Speaker  0:25   It went pretty good. It was really fun. The classes that I had to take were really, really cool. Unknown Speaker  0:33   The purpose of this interview is to basically gauge or get your take on how video games have helped the pandemic or help people through the pandemic with their stress and all that. So first question first important question, you play video games, right? Unknown Speaker  0:48   Well, yeah, play video games. Unknown Speaker  0:52   Okay. Okay. So to get that out of the way. First question, what games did you play during the pandemic to help you keep your stress levels low? Unknown Speaker  1:01   Oh, man. Well, definitely. We we were both on that Animal Crossing New Horizons train. Yeah, like, it was perfect timing. Because with Animal Crossing, you know, it's all about just relaxing. You know, you're on your own island. You're, you know, making it your own little piece of yourself. Unknown Speaker  1:27   Yeah, no, it's definitely some of our other other interviewees have brought up Animal Crossing. It's definitely it's definitely a common theme. That's for sure. Unknown Speaker  1:36   It's almost kind of like a conspiracy theory like, like Nintendo. Hey, how'd you do it? Like, Unknown Speaker  1:43   they waited for the pande- aw jeez. So, would you recommend Animal Crossing for people who maybe have trouble with their stress? Maybe as a way to deal with it? Would you recommend them getting a switch and some other games on the console? to help them? Unknown Speaker  2:01   Yeah, I absolutely would. Because what's not to love about escaping reality and going to a deserted island where you just you plant flowers, you talk to animal friends, you just you just relax, you have a good time? Unknown Speaker  2:16   Yeah, absolutely. Well, okay, so, I know that was a little short. But I really want to thank you, Haley for being here on the podcast here today. For this interview, sure that even though it was a little short, I think we definitely got some really good insight on you know, just how video games can help with stress during the pandemic. And yeah, Unknown Speaker  2:36   For sure. Unknown Speaker  2:38   Alright, so again, thank you so much for being on here. And we'll see you guys for our next podcast. See you.

Unknown Speaker  0:01   Hello, everybody, this is Zachary banky. With the social media team. I'm here today with Professor Emmanuel J. Watkins. Tell us a little about yourself. Unknown Speaker  0:09   Yes. Hello. So Hello everybody, I am Professor Emmanuel J. Watkins with the Department of African and African American studies with San Jose State University, it is such a pleasure to be able to come to you today to have this interview to talk to you all, so that you are enlightened about the various massacres or riots that have happened around the United States at the hands of white supremacy and those who uphold it. I think that when we think about race relations and the experiences of African Americans in the United States, we are saddened to see that the actions and the behaviors have not changed (yeah) in order for them to change for the future, we have to go back look, take a look at the past, learn what we can learn and apply them to the present. So it is such a pleasure for me to be able to have this opportunity with you today. Unknown Speaker  1:03   Absolutely. So first thing, what exactly happened during the 1921, Tulsa race massacre? Unknown Speaker  1:11   Yes. So Zachary, thank you so much. One of the things that I need everyone to understand is that shortly after, uh the end of slavery, the Emancipation Proclamation at the end of the Civil War, you have the reconstruction period. And within the reconstruction period, this was an idealistic time, where African Americans who are free kind of felt like there might be an opportunity for them to be considered equal, for them to be considered a part of American society, for them to be considered or, or to believe that their wants and desires and dreams were falling on the horizon. However, the reconstruction was a big bus that equality was not felt, there were various forms of laws that were take- that were put in place, especially within the south to hinder African Americans from migrating and becoming a part of the main society. So what you begin to see is African Americans coming together and creating their own communities, creating their own churches, creating their own schools, creating their own universities, and unfortunately, often it is in a radius, white Americans, it's not like they were able to go deep down in the woods and create their own settlements we're talking about is saying San Jose, is our white town, then San Francisco is a black town, close in proximity where the white individuals knew what was going on. They knew that the black individuals were there. And that could create, which it did some jealousy, it could create some and it did created some envy. Because how is it that this newly freed group of individuals are now experiencing economic prosperity and progression? The white Americans aren't. And that is when we have and that sets the stage for the Tulsa race massacre, the torture, race riot, the Greenwood massacre, because essentially, post Oklahoma had a portion of their town that was called block black Wall Street. That was where many of the African Americans lived within that community. You're talking doctors, you're talking lawyers, you're talking teachers, you're talking, you know, entrepreneurs, and because within this time period, and we're talking about 1921. And so because of this time period, whites then often go shopping black businesses, blacks, unless they absolutely needed to didn't go shop at White businesses, the money circulated within the communities, white money within their community, that money within their community. So what you see is if there's a community of doctors, lawyers, pastors, teachers, and their money is circulating in their community, obviously, based upon group economics, that said community is going to be prosperous, that set community is going to have a will oh success or a will of prosperity. They're...

Unknown Speaker  0:02   Hello, my name is Zack Benke,  I am with the social media team interviewing Mr. Patrick Albert, Lising. Why don't you Introduce yourself? Unknown Speaker  0:12   Hi, my name is Patrick. I am a fourth year here at San Jose State majoring in communication. Unknown Speaker  0:20   Lets see if the team wants to introduce themselves as well. Unknown Speaker  0:23   Hello, my name is Bruno Gallelli. I'm also a fourth year at San Jose State. And I am also a communications major. So it's nice to have someone who is also you know, within the same major, so nice to meet you, Patrick. Unknown Speaker  0:35   Nice meet you too. Unknown Speaker  0:38   I'm mellie Rose, and I'm also in my fourth year and a communications major. Unknown Speaker  0:44   All right, let's get this interview underway. So, how is  being a communication studies major going for you, Patrick. Unknown Speaker  0:51   It's going really well. I love every minute that I'm a part of, or that I'm doing communication. I'm in my last semester, so kind of excited, also sad at the same time. But yeah, I love communication. I loved everything. I loved everything that I've learned so far. And I'm excited to learn more as much as I can before I graduate. Maybe that'll take me somewhere else, maybe a graduate program, but we'll see. Unknown Speaker  1:19   Alright, the point of this interview is that we're going to be asking you what your thoughts are on video games and how they've been helping people throughout the pandemic. So, first question to get out of the way. Do you play video games? Unknown Speaker  1:33   I do. Yeah. So I played I played a lot when I was growing up a lot of video games like I had like the gameboy color gameboy advance a lot of that. And then I stopped for a little bit when I got  into like Middle School in high school. But I recently got more into gaming within the pandemic. Unknown Speaker  1:53   Sort of rekindled your love for video games a little bit. Unknown Speaker  1:57   Yeah, like, I don't know why I stopped. I think I just got really busy. I loved gaming, and I'm excited to game more. I recently just built a PC within the last couple of months. So that kind of expanded more and more opportunities within gaming. Unknown Speaker  2:17   Nice. So what games are you currently playing? Like? What platforms besides pc? Do you play on any consoles? Unknown Speaker  2:26   I have a Nintendo Switch. So I've been playing a lot on that. I don't really have any other consoles besides that. But I definitely do want to, again, expand. I'm looking at getting a PS five. Unknown Speaker  2:41 Unknown Speaker  2:41   I have heard the horror stories. Again, one of those scalpers stuff going on. Unknown Speaker  2:47   So would you say that the pandemic exclusively brought that rekindling back? Or were you kind of dancing around with it in your college years? Or like wanting to kind of start your Yeah, reimagining of the video game world? Unknown Speaker  3:03   Yeah, so I think it really started again, when I started college, when I had a little more free time, it really started probably within the pandemic, even though I had free time, I'm still working part time with school full time. So I didn't really have a lot of time to do so. But I bought my, Nintendo Switch, probably at the end of 2018, early 2019. So I had it for a little bit, playing a few games here and there. But it really started at the beginning of the pandemic, when I had the most free time I've ever had. So it was very convenient, because I was really looking forward to Animal Cro...

Zach: Hello, my name is Zachary Behnke. I'm the manager of the audio production team on the social media team. And I am here with my guest, Hayley Behnke, who is a former alumni here at San Jose State. Why don't you introduce yourself with uh... how about what you majored in? Hayley: Hi, yeah. I majored in English with a prep for teaching. Zach: And how would you say that went? Hayley: Uh, it went, I went pretty good. It was really fun. The classes that I had to take were really, really cool. Zach: Yeah. Okay, cool. So, the purpose of this interview is to basically gauge or get your take on how video games have helped the pandemic or have helped people through the pandemic with their stress and all that. So first question, first important question. You play video games, right? Hayley: Well, yeah, play video games. Zach: Okay. Okay. Just had to get that all the way. Hayley: Should we let we let people know that we're like, we're siblings? Zach: I think- I think I call you by your last name. Right. So that's, I feel that's kind of implied. But I figured that as a former alumni, I think you definitely have some really good insight on how to manage stress. So first question, what games did you play during the pandemic to help you keep your stress levels low? Hayley: Oh, man. Well, definitely. We were both on that Animal Crossing New Horizons hype train. Because, yeah, like, it was perfect timing. Because with Animal Crossing, you know, it's all about just relaxing. You know, you're on your own island. You're, you know, making it your own little piece of yourself. Zach: Yeah, no, it's definitely some of our other other interviewees have brought up Animal Crossing. It's definitely it's definitely a common theme. That's for sure. Hayley: It's, it's almost kind of like a conspiracy theory like, like Nintendo. Hey, how'd you do it? Like, Zach: they waited for pande- ah geez. So do you think that... would you recommend Animal Crossing for people who maybe have trouble with their stress? Maybe as a way to deal with it? Would you recommend them getting a switch and some other games on the console? to help them, y'know? Hayley: No? Yeah, I absolutely would. Because, you know, what's not to love about... you know, escaping reality and going to a deserted island where you just you plant flowers? You talk to animal friends. You just you just relax. You have a good time. Zach: Yeah, absolutely. Well, okay, so, I know that was a little short. But uh, I really want to thank you, Hayley for being here on the podcast here today for this interview. I'm sure that even though it was a little short, I think we definitely got some really good insight on you know, just how video games can help with stress during the pandemic. And yeah, Hayley: For sure. Zach: All right. So again, thank you so much for being on here. And we'll see you guys for our next podcast. See you

Bruno: All right, we're recording. How's everyone doing today? Gabby: Good, Doing great. Meli: Yeah, same here, I'm good. Gabby: Adrian, how are you doing? Adrian: I'm doing good. Gabby: All right, so to start off we'll go ahead. us as hosts, we'll go ahead and say our names. My name is Gabby. I am a comm major San Jose State. Meli: My name is Meli. I am also a comm major. I'm in my fourth year. Bruno: And my name is Bruno. I am also a comm major at San Jose State. This will be my fourth year as well. Adrian: And I majored and I graduated in May of 2020. The last year, and I majored in mechanical engineering. Bruno: Congratulations on that, congrats on my graduation there. Adrian: Thank you, it sucked, but at least I graduated, right? Bruno: Yeah, definitely Meli: totally. Gabby: So to start it off, Adrian, since you were still a student during the pandemic, how was it shifting from going to school and having to go completely online? How did that affect you? Adrian: Um, it was definitely a big change, because it started out as spring break. And when we first heard about COVID, we're just going to be about a week or so. So we didn't really think much about it. And as like, the first week came by and we're like, oh, just another vacation. But as the week's progressed, and we just didn't show up to school for us that semester, and then continue the next semester, like completely online. It was just really hard, like mentally like trying to pay attention. Especially because like online classes, especially speaking for, like engineers, it's really hands on. And to follow along like the screen instead of in person, it was really hard. So just kind of harder to study and focus in class. And then just to study out of class, because you're always home, and just being in the same like environment every day kind of just and I don't know kind of puts a toll on you mentally here. Y'know what I mean? Bruno: Yeah, definitely. Gabby: Definitely. So, so I hear you play games? Or would you say that? You're a gamer that plays a lot? And if so, did you play during the pandemic? Did that did that help at all? Adrian: So yeah, I definitely play video games like to de-stress when I wasn't doing anything, or I was done with all my schoolwork. And yeah, it definitely helped me to de-stress and just not think about school for like a couple hours. One game that was relaxing, I remember was playing Minecraft.And just building things like... It's like Legos for adults pretty much but just building things, especially for me as an engineer, I really enjoyed building things. So just doing that in a video game for a couple hours is kind of like my de-stressor after every day. Just going through a lot of work. Gabby: For sure, for sure. Meli: Does playing video games still help? Like with stress? Adrian: Yeah, definitely. Like if I'm. ever like feeling really stressed or feeling like my work load is too heavy. I'll just take like an hour or two hours off. I'll play a game that I'm really used to playing or I'll try to play a new game just to... just for something new, you know, just something else to distract me from whatever's going on. Bruno: Was this a tactic for you in the past? Or did you start playing games more frequently during the pandemic, when we were all trapped inside? Adrian: I used to play a lot also before the pandemic, but then during the pandemic, because like everyone was at home like 24 seven. Yeah, I played more. So I just kind of got more on to it. So it's kind of just work, sleep and then playing video games. Bruno: Did you um, because definitely, within the time that we've been staying inside, it's been hard to see friends and socialize and stuff. And I've kind of utilized certain games to, you know, grab a party together and sort of play together so we can still social..

Zach: Hello, my name is Zach Behnke, I am with the social media team interviewing Mr. Patrick Albert Lising, uh, why don't you introduce yourself. Patrick: Hi. My name is Patrick. I am a fourth year here at San Jose State majoring in communication... is there anything else I should introduce myself about? Zach: Uh, no, I think that's uh, mostly it, uh, anyone else on the team want to introduce themselves as well? Bruno: Hello, my name is Bruno Gallelli, I'm also a fourth year at San Jose State. And I am also a communications major. So it's nice to have someone who is also... you know, within the same major, so nice to meet you, Patrick. Patrick: Nice meet you too. Meli: I'm Meli Rose, and I'm also in my fourth year and a communications major. Nice to meet you, Patrick. Patrick: Nice to meet you too. Gabby: (Gabby gets cut off here) also a communications major. Zach: You kind of got cut off, but uh, Gabby: (adjusts audio) how's that? that better? Zach: Yeah. Okay. So your communications major, or Communication Studies major as well. They were all communication studies majors in here. Patrick: Cool. Zach: Okay so... alright, let's get this interview underway. So, uh we already covered what's your name, how old you are, all that jazz, what your major is- how's being a communication studies major going for you, Patrick? Patrick: It's going really well. I love every minute that I'm a part of, or that I'm doing communication. And yeah, I'm I mean, I mean, my last semester, so kind of excited, also sad at the same time. But yeah, I love communication. I loved everything. I loved everything that I've learned so far. And I'm excited to learn more, as much as I can before I graduate. Maybe that'll take me somewhere else, maybe your graduate program, but we'll see. Zach: All right. It's good to hear. So, the point of this interview is that we're going to be asking you what your thoughts are on video games and how they've been helping people throughout the pandemic. So, first question to get out of the way. Do you play video games? Patrick: I do. Yeah. So I played - uh - I played a lot when I was growing up a lot of video games, like I had like the Gameboy Color, Gameboy Advance, A lot of that, and then I stopped for a little bit when I got into like Middle School and High school. But I recently got more into gaming within the pandemic, so yeah. Zach: It sort of rekindled your love for video games a little bit. Patrick: Yeah, definitely. I was... I... Yeah. Like, I don't know why I stopped. I think I just got really busy. But I love. I love gaming, and I'm excited to gain more. I recently just built a PC. Zach: Oh yeah? Patrick: Yeah, within the last couple of months. So that kind of expanded more... more opportunities within gaming. Yeah. Zach: Nice, so what games are you currently playing? Like? What platforms besides pc? Do you play on any consoles? Patrick: I have a Nintendo Switch. So I've been playing a lot on that. I don't really have any other consoles besides that. But I definitely do want to, again, expand more on that. So let's hope that within the next like, couple months or like in the next year or so that I can. I'm looking at getting a PS5. So yeah. Zach: I have heard the horror stories about getting one of those, all the scalpers stuff going on. Patrick: Yeah, so I'm definitely like waiting out for a little bit. Whenever that comes down, and then I'll buy one. Zach: So anyone else want to ask him a question? Bruno: So would you say that the pandemic exclusively brought that rekindling back or were you kind of dancing around with it in your college years or, like wanted to kind of start your reimagining of the video game world. Patrick: Yeah, so I think it really started again, when I started college when I had a little more free time...