Inspired by the series on social media by Danny Brown, “Discussing JMC with…” features a collection of interviews with academics from across the U.S. and abroad discussing current topics and trends in journalism and mass communication.
Francesca Dillman Carpentier is an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her teaching interests include television production, telecommunication management and policy, and media effects. Her research questions focus on how we process mass-mediated messages, with additional focus on understanding what motivates us to select certain media offerings over others.
Francesca’s academic work has been published in a number of journals inside and outside of the communication discipline, for example Media Psychology, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, International Journal on Media Management, Journal of School Violence, and Personality and Individual Differences. She has also written television scripts for children’s and educational videos.
How do you define mass communication?
I would broadly define ‘mass communication’ as any message delivered in any number of vehicles (high tech, low tech, or no tech) to an audience consisting of a group of individuals who might or might not share a number of similarities.
How do you keep your students excited about working in the field of communications in light of shrinking job opportunities?
I focus on the idea of doing what you love, and I also emphasize that the skills they learn are not just applicable to employment at a newspaper organization or television news network. There is need for good communicators, good writers, good videographers, and good information packagers in nearly any field, from marketing to medicine to space exploration.
What changes do journalism and mass communication programs need to make in order to stay relevant today?
I think an acknowledgment of amateur information gathering and social media is crucial to understanding what interests people, how people want to be reached, and how people differentiate between non-professional and professional quality work. From here, I think giving students a good overview of the different skill sets is needed to be competitive in our newly-converged environment, as well as challenging them to think about new ways of packaging information and reaching different publics. Ultimately, I believe it’s of the highest importance to get the students to think conceptually about how to use the tools they learn to become leaders in the field, not just good employees.
If you could save one journalism and mass communication course from extinction, what would it be and why?
Editing. I’m a firm believer that one’s writing cannot really improve unless that person can successfully critique others’ writing, as well as his/her own. I think this is true no matter what style of writing is needed for the job.
What new media tools or applications do you incorporate in your teaching? Why these in particular?
Well, I teach audio/video/multimedia introductory courses, in which the students get to play with the different toys they might encounter on the job, in addition to getting to know various software packages they’d likely use to create radio, television, and online presentations. We’re using digital audio recorders, shooting in HD (with an eye for 4:3, of course), playing around with mics and lighting, editing primarily on Final Cut, having fun with video compression, and demystifying webpage creation by having some light fun with Dreamweaver and Flash.
If you could offer a piece of advice to both your fellow educators and media professionals in the field, what would it be?
I have no idea. Perhaps try to keep up with the technological advancements of the field? Perhaps try not to let the technological advancements overshadow the importance of good storytelling? I feel I need to remind myself of this second point quite often.
What do you see for the future of journalism and mass communication both in general and in higher education?
I see the future as bright, especially with the push for interdisciplinary work and with the recognition by other fields, such as public health, that mass communication is integral to the success of their own endeavors. I think the definition of what journalism is will change and perhaps become more broad, and I think we will see continued use of citizen journalists, but I also think the traditional core of fact-checking, objective reporting, etc. will remain hallmarks of good professional-quality communication – hallmarks that will still be recognized by our media-saavy public.