Meet Department Chair: Q&A with Professor Masahiro Yamamoto
Intro and interview by Liliana Cifuentes
A department chair is typically a full-time faculty member in an academic department. While working as professors, chairs perform administrative duties, leading their departments, and serve as a liaison between department faculty and administration (in our case, between the communication department and the office of the College of Arts and Sciences).
On September 1, 2022, Masahiro Yamamoto started the role of Chair of the Department of Communication. While he had held leadership positions before, he felt enormous pressure and responsibility stepping into this role. I sat down with him and asked how things have been going so far and a few things about him.
Name: Masahiro Yamamoto
Title: Associate Professor / Chair
Address: Social Science 331 / 351
Phone: 518-442-4881
Contact: [email protected]
Social Media: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter
What is your role here in the Department of Communication?
Currently, I serve as the chair of the Department of Communication. This role involves many responsibilities, one of which is to represent the interest of the Department to the College administration and those of the administration to the Department faculty on matters related to budget, personnel, and curriculum.
I started this role in September 2022. Our former chair, Professor Rukhsana Ahmed, showed outstanding leadership for the prior three years. She guided us through many challenges, most notably the pandemic, while accomplishing many for our Department.
It was a major challenge to assume this role after her. But, she has been giving guidance. My colleagues have been extremely kind, patient, and understanding. So, the transition into this role was not as difficult as I thought it would be. But, it can get stressful at times.
What classes do you teach at the University at Albany?
I mainly teach ACOM 360: Digital and Social Media in Strategic Communication. I always enjoy teaching this course. It is great to work with students who are excited about this topic. I get a lot of energy from them every single class.
As you can imagine, things change so quickly on social media. It is hard to keep up with all changes and developments. I am certain that students know more about certain aspects of social media.
But, the fundamentals of content creation have not changed drastically, I think. Good storytelling. Be unique, relevant, engaging, and valuable to target audiences.
Bring problem-solving mindset to content creation. It is just adapting to new platforms while adding a little bit of creativity and new favors of thinking.
I also teach the same class at the graduate level - ACOM 660: Digital and Social Media in Strategic Communication. Occasionally, I also teach ACOM 502: Communication Research Methods.
You mentioned you teach a course that revolves around digital and social media content. In your experience, how have you seen marketing evolve over the years as the world develops a higher tolerance for digital media consumption?
Digital content practice has evolved so much over the years – the emergence of social networking sites, search engine algorithm updates and changes, the adoption of smartphones, and privacy and data protection, among many other innovations and developments.
Artificial intelligence is definitely one of the most significant innovations right now. It presents both opportunities and challenges for content creation.
AI does improve the effectiveness of analytics, targeting, and customer service, but it demands originality from content creators.
AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT) can do a very good job at answering questions and generating in-depth descriptive text.
But, digital content still needs human interventions. A challenge is to move beyond simple descriptive information that can be readily found elsewhere or easily replicated by AI tools.
We need to integrate unique stories to build distinct experience and trust in the minds of target audiences.
Did you study communication and / or journalism in college? If so, why? If not, why not?
No, I did not study Communication or Journalism per se in college.
My college major (back in Japan) was Law. Back then, Communication was not really an established discipline in Japan, including the University where I obtained a Bachelor’s degree.
It has become more widely recognized recently. The main reason why I became interested in Communication/Journalism is its potential to drive positive changes in society.
Communication messages, whether news or social media content, can have powerful impact on individuals, groups, and institutions.
So, why communication? What is the value of the Communication major at UAlbany?
Great question. Well, communication is so broad. It’s difficult to precisely explain what communication really is.
One unique thing about communication is its power to influence people's perceptions and behavior. If you look around, many messages we encounter everyday try to persuade us to do something - persuade us to buy a product, support a non-profit cause, adopt a healthy lifestyle, stop unhealthy or risky practice, and vote for a certain candidate, among others.
If you think of higher education, we try to persuade students to attend UAlbany and choose us as their major.
Every professional, group, and organization (companies, non-profit organizations, political candidates, healthcare providers, salespersons, teachers, leaders, health campaigns, etc.) needs communication to accomplish their goals - to sell products, build good reputation, raise donations, or persuade people to support a non-profit cause, and vote for a certain candidate, among others.
Without communication messages, people might not be even aware of your existence.
Depending on how we communicate - what messages to use, what language to use, what image to use, what channels to use, who conveys a message, the way people see a product, an organization, a non-profit cause, a political candidate, etc. can be very different.
That is unique power of communication. How we communicate really matters - advertisements, speeches, news headlines, videos, social media posts, everything. We need an effective message convincing target audiences that this is the product you need to buy, this is the non-profit cause that deserves you money, this is the candidate you need to support.
When you think of communication this way, it is not a soft skill at all. You cannot really practice effective communication as if you turn on and turn off a switch.
To design, produce, and distribute effective messages, you need systematic training - acquisition of evidence-based theoretical knowledge in the classroom, learn the ethics of communication, gain cultural awareness to communicate to people of different backgrounds, and apply knowledge in a practical context through experiential learning and internships.
We provide structured learning opportunities. We prepare students for communication intensive careers - business, public relations, digital marketing, social media management, and many others.
We do important work. Anyone who is interested in message design, Communication is a great academic major and career path.
Are there any upcoming projects you hope to see the department invest in in the near future?
One area of improvement that I see we need to address is more “communication” to internal and external constituents.
Lost of stuff are happening in our Department. Our faculty actively publish cutting-edge research. We are well-known on campus for providing an engaging and positive learning experience.
Our students are great - they engage in a wide range of activities and achieve lots of success on and off campus.
I think we can do more to have people aware of greatness happening in our Department.
On that note, I want to encourage all to follow us on social media. We try to share content on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Follow us to learn our latest news and opportunities that might benefit you.
Also, please do let us know if you want to see certain types of content and if you can help us create more content and engage our audiences!
If you could join one club / organization on campus, which would you join and why?
I just realized that there are so many interesting and inspiring clubs and organizations on campus - over 300? A lot of opportunities to get involved, which is great.
I will say that I would be interested in joining Albany Student Press. I have a lot of respect for professional journalists, particularly those who cover local communities.
Local journalism provides coverage of community events and activities, local issues, and achievements of residents and groups, which we would not be able to find in national news.
It allows us to navigate everyday life, holds elected officials and local leaders accountable for what they do, and build a sense of community. Local news is a fundamental feature of community life.
It would be fun to serve the mission while fulfilling academic requirements.
Or, perhaps WCDB radio (does that count?). I listen to radio a lot when I am on the road. Radio seems so fun.
But, I just do not like hearing my own voice. It just sounds awful. So, it may not be meant to be.
When you’re not teaching, what do you do in your spare time?
Well, when I am not in the classroom, I work on research projects and perform administrative work for the Department.
When I am not working, however, I spend time with my wife and our 7-year old daughter. We go to parks and walk on trails. I take my daughter to local libraries on the weekend.
My daughter's recent favorite is to go watch UAlbany Women's Lacrosse games. She remembers several players' names already.
I also know that 3 of our graduate students play on the team. So every time they have home games, we try to go there and support the team.
Sometimes, cook and bake with my daughter. I also watch cat and bunny videos on YouTube.
If you could travel anywhere for a vacation, where would you go and why?
I would love to visit (at least spend a few days) the U.S. states that I have not been to yet.
So far, I have been to maybe 17-18 states. So, all the other states. Each state has its unique character (e.g., history, people, food), and I would love to gain different experience in every corner of the country.