Dr. Erik Collins is the Associate Director for Graduate Studies and Research at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. A native of New York, Collins previously served as a senior public relations manager for major corporations including Miller Brewing Company and Philip Morris and taught at Syracuse and Ohio State universities.
How do you define mass communication?
One might, I suppose, define the term by focusing on technology. Let me define it in terms of my idea of its function. Mass Communication is the purposeful intent to communicate information that aids the functioning of individuals in a capitalistic, democratic society through multiple communication channels.
How do you keep your students excited about working in the field of communications in light of shrinking job opportunities?
Strangely enough, students seem to need no motivating force. With their eyes wide open, they are still enthusiastic about careers in mass media even though what exactly those careers will be is, at best, indeterminate.
What changes do journalism and mass communication programs need to make in order to stay relevant today?
They need to figure out a way to get back to the basics that separate true journalism and mass communication from idle chatter and/or fixation on “new” technology. In short, they need to stop being buffeted by the fickle winds emanating from new media gurus and/or Chicken Little pessimists. Students need to be made aware of, if not proficient in, new communication technology (although I would not be surprised to find that they are already ahead of the curve), but it is a loser’s game, in my opinion, to make that a central focus of a journalism/mass communication program.
If you could save one journalism and mass communication course from extinction, what would it be and why?
Thought long and hard about this and it has to be media law and ethics. Almost everything else could be obtained elsewhere in the university or on the job. Knowledge of media law and ethics is clearly one of the great defining factors in separating mass communications professionals from hoi polloi communicators.
What new media tools or applications do you incorporate in your teaching? Why these in particular?
It has to be understood that I generally teach substantive courses, but the actual answer is none whatsoever. In fact, new media technologies are banned from the classroom in favor of that old-fashioned faculty member on one side of the log and student on the other. When it is announced that there will be no Twittering, blogging, texting, e-mailing, Internet searching, PowerPointing or other “-ing” in this course, invariably, with the exception of the scowling student in the back who suddenly realizes that he actually will have to pay attention in this class, the students erupt into cheers and applause. Students today are perfectly capable of supplementing the classroom experience through use of new media tools on their own.
If you could offer a piece of advice to both your fellow educators and media professionals in the field, what would it be?
It would be a two-edged bit of advice. To fellow educators, remember that this is a profession and that at least some of their efforts ought to be aimed at solving problems and/or advancing knowledge for the professional community. The professionals need to recognize that now, more than ever, they need to support the efforts of the academic community to achieve a partnership to solve the raft of problems facing the profession.
What do you see for the future of journalism and mass communication both in general and in higher education?
Candidly, and unfortunately, from my perspective, I don’t believe either is headed in the right direction. There is a startling incompetence in the management of traditional media, exemplified everyday by lamentations about the decline of newspapers and the fragmentation of advertising. Why in the world Google is not APoogle or Craigslist is not NYTimeslist is almost beyond comprehension. And that the mass media, long ago, did not figure out a way to stop giving away their product for free is mind-boggling. As for journalism and mass communication education, the concept that it should function as a professional school, similar to law, medicine or engineering seems to be disappearing in favor of turning journalism and mass communication education into a social science oriented academic discipline. Rather than focusing research efforts on advancing knowledge to aid the profession (e.g., creating a workable business model for online journalism), many academics today apparently could care less about what is happening in the professional world in the sense of trying to solve the problems it faces. What an ideal world it would be, from my perspective, if all the media professionals were as eager to get their hands on Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly or the Journal of Public Relations Research, as physicians are to receive their copy of JAMA.