In the largest SJMC Japan program ever, two graduate and 16 undergraduate students took the experience to new heights after nearly two weeks in Japan earlier this month.
On Friday, Texas State students presented brief summaries of their work and shared what the program meant to them personally, academically and professionally.
Led by SJMC Japan Academic Program Director Gilbert D. Martinez and Lecturer Sara Shields, who participated in her first faculty-led program as a faculty partner, students toured Tokyo and Kyoto in June, writing daily blog posts, feature stories and personal travel essays for the class website (www.sjmcjapan.com). In addition, students produced stories, posts and reels on the class Instagram account (@sjmcjapan).
The amount of work created is impressive.
18 student creator introductions.
On the Instagram account (@sjmcjapan):
80 Daily Instagram Carousel Posts.
16 Feature Story Promotion Posts.
18 Tokyo Reels.
18 Kyoto Reels.
18 Recap Reels.
16 Daily Reels.
16 Daily Stories.
Over the course of a month, the SJMC Japan Instagram account reached almost 20,000 users!
Of the 372 posts that were published, 98.7% of the accounts reached were non-followers. This is an indication that the Instagram algorithm believed that users would find the content interesting, which made the SJMC Japan account highly discoverable.
The most discoverable pieces of content came from reels, which is no surprise, as this is something Instagram has been pushing hard on their platform. Students paid close attention to trends, storytelling practices, and social media content strategies to create engaging, informational stories.
For those who followed our adventure in Tokyo and Kyoto on the website and on Instagram, thanks so much! As a group, we won’t soon forget the life-changing experiences we had.
At final presentations on Friday, SJMC Japan also debuted the promotional video created by graduate students Vallie Figueroa and Lisette Calderon.
If you’re a journalism and mass communication student at Texas State University and are interested in participating in SJMC Japan in the future, please contact Martinez (gm19@txstate.edu) for more information. We’re also open to non-majors! Join us in 2025!
