AEJMC President’s Column, November 2010

by Jan Slater, University of Illinois

It seems we just were together at the annual conference in Denver. What a wonderful conference it was! Some 2,189 delegates had much to choose from with our 372 sessions and presentations of 853 original research papers.

Every August, we come together to share our experiences, our ideas, and our scholarship. We are supercharged for those five days and that electricity carries us into the new academic year.

So here we are in November. The leaves are changing (falling in some places), the days are shorter, the nights are cooler, and our semester is past the mid-point and moving a bit too quickly to its completion. We are bogged down with grading mid- terms, revising that journal article one more time, advising dissertations, serving on numerous committees within our pro- grams and universities, calming anxious seniors that there will be a job for them, and trying to keep up with the changes happening within our disciplines and within our own universities. It is easy to forget that energy we enjoyed post Denver when we get overwhelmed with all that is happening in our worlds. For that very reason, we need to keep connected through- out the year. This is essential as we manage our current challenges and plan for the future of what an education in journalism and mass communication will look like.

As I announced in Denver, we will be hosting a series of regional Idea Summits throughout the year to discuss “Keeping Journalism and Mass Communication Education Relevant in a Changing World”. To me, this is one of the most important topics requiring our attention. While we are making incredible strides in managing the lightening speed changes occurring in our industries, we continually face new challenges in classrooms and on our own campuses. How do we keep journalism and mass communication education relevant in this sea of change?
Never before have we witnessed such a collision of factors — economic markets, media changes, amounts of available information, sources of information, consumer control, and budget woes that are driving the industries we serve as well as the institutions we call home.

Never before has there been a more challenging time to prepare the next generation of journalists and communicators. Never before has journalism and mass communication been more important. Educating the next generation of journalists, storytellers, scholars, and communicators is vital for the preservation of our values and principles that are grounded in this country’s heritage. We have an obligation, not just to our students, but also to the citizens of this country, to advocate the process of journalism not just the product of journalism. To do that we must be relevant to the networked world of news, information, media and strategic communications.

Therefore, there is no better time for us to have intensive and inclusive conversations about how we provide JMC education that is important and impactful. To do this, we need all to participate in this conversation – teachers, scholars, administrators, high school educators, and professionals.

The purpose of the Idea Summits is to bring professionals and professors together to generate ideas that we can employ to build a stronger partnership and provide better preparation for the next generation. The first Idea Summit will be in Dallas in February, followed by ones in Chicago in March, San Diego in April, and Washington, D.C. in June. More information will be coming so you can begin to plan which Summit you can attend.

In the meantime, start focusing on what a JMC education provides. It is so much more than reporting, broadcasting, advertising, public relations, etc. JMC education teaches people skills, oral and written communication competencies, and technological prowess; we teach fact finding, the critical thinking aspects of sorting out depths of information and making it accessible; we teach analytical skills, accuracy, culture, societal impact; we teach constitutional law, history, equality, ethics, curiosity, storytelling, and most of all we teach truth- telling.

What other educational endeavor crosses so many disciplines in its teaching and preparation? Our students can work in any business because of the values and competencies we teach. We need to emphasize all the strengths of what we teach, and reinforce that the basic foundations of JMC education teach life preparation and citizenship. No matter what is happening in the media industries, a JMC education is relevant preparation for a multitude of career opportunities.

While we may not have a clue as to what jobs or experiences are available to our students by the time they graduate – we must ensure that we have prepared them for anything.

So, let’s start the conversation. Only together can we be successful. I hope you will plan to attend one or more of the Idea Summits. And I hope you will plan to submit a paper and attend one of the upcoming AEJMC regional meetings – the Midwinter Conference in at the University of Oklahoma March 4-5, and the Southeast Colloquium at the University of South Carolina March 17-19.

What you can do right now is start Idea Groups within your own department, college and university. Engage alumni, other departments on your campus, professionals, your students and faculty. Start your own conversations about how to improve what we do and how we provide value to our institutions, our industries, and our students. Email me at president@aejmc.com if you’d like to be part of the Idea Summits. Let’s work on ways to keep the conversation going.

While the challenges are many, the opportunities are greater. There’s never been a more exciting time in our profession. We must embrace that excitement and be fear- less about whatever comes next. Let’s get to work.