Encouraging women to join STEM : a transmedia recruitment campaign

In 2016, Accenture found women currently held 24% of the positions in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), yet as many as 2.4 million STEM jobs will be unfilled in the United States by 2018. To decrease the number of unfilled positions, it is crucial to recruit more women into STEM fields. This project goal was to create a transmedia recruitment plan to increase the number of female applications to Center for Information and Communication (CICS) graduate program. By using a content analysis of both the Women Working in Technology (WWiT) group and CICS social media; a survey from students of CICS; and a focus group of undergraduate students interested in STEM graduate degrees, to understand about attitudes surround support in STEM and potential recruitment methods. This project has three specific aims: 1) to discover possible methods of recruitment that relate STEM programs to common values women often express, including philanthropic and/or altruistic pursuits; 2) engage young women in transmedia experiences that encourage them to consider possible STEM career paths; 3) create a recruitment tool for WWiT that incorporates results from research on these topics, as well as transmedia content that makes more women interested in applying to masters of CICS.Department of JournalismThesis (M.A.