in Journalism and Mass Communication
By Jennifer A. Palilonis, Ball State University
After talking to a number of people from across the country at the AEJMC convention this year, I realized just how many of us are developing new courses that focus on multimedia and cross-platform storytelling. Of course, anytime we rethink curriculum, it’s a trick to balance the foundations of good journalism, more software and technical training, and how to determine what tomorrow’s journalists need to be successful. [Read more...]
By Jim Benjamin, Director of the Graduate Studies in Communication, University of Toledo
The recent explosion of interest in social networking technology brings to light new dimensions of the spoken vs. written communication debate that occasionally emerges. Twitter uses written text, Facebook uses text and graphic images, “chat rooms” in on-line courses use text, and the “old” technologies of books and e-mails use written communication. Lecture captures, teleconferences, radio, television, and the “old” technologies of lectures, conversations, discussions, and telephones use oral communication.
The debate is ancient. Plato’s Phaedrus argued that the discovery of writing “will create forgetfulness in the learners’ souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves. The specific which you have discovered is an aid not to memory, but to reminiscence, and you give your disciples not truth, but only the semblance of truth; they will be hearers of many things and will have learned nothing; they will appear to be omniscient and will generally know nothing; they will be tiresome company, having the show of wisdom without the reality.”
We know, of course, that speaking and writing are not mutually exclusive, that the existence of one does not preclude the existence of the other. You can as easily write the words for a speech as you can speak the written words aloud. We also know that the arts of writing and speaking are both valuable skills communicators must develop. As a journalism educator you need to write out your lesson plans and instructions for activities and scripts for programs, but as a journalism educator you must also speak in class, talk with your students individually, and transform the script into an oral performance. [Read more...]
By Tom Mueller, Appalachian State University
There’s a race underway at many academic institutions. A mass communication movement is working to build media interactivity, where the potential for convergence occurs. Convergence is a somewhat mythical place where all things come together into a concurrent stream of messaging and effect. To succeed, one needs to disseminate media through multiple channels. Where a print communication might have succeeded in the past, one must now craft the story, get it to press, post the blog entry, tweet the copy, launch the YouTube promo, alert LinkedIn and Facebook contacts and find a marketing partner to infuse revenue. It’s all in a day’s work for the modern, educated and converged communication professional.
A weblog created for the non-profit Center of Innovation in College Media stated that the University of Missouri now features a degree in “convergence journalism.” Department chair Lynda Kraxberger reported that students are given the opportunity to tell stories in the traditional way, but also integrate “information delivery platforms” such as live blogs and mobile devices. Terry Eiler, a professor at Ohio University’s School of Visual Communication, is quoted on the weblog regarding Ohio University’s graduate multimedia program. “At the core of the curriculum is the ability to learn,” Eiler said. “You don’t teach a software package – you teach the ability to learn.”
If learning is essential within the new convergence model, how must we, as advertising educators, modify and adapt our curricula? Advertising offers an essential component within the mass media industry; some would portend that adverting fuels media, which allows for free press, which fires the engines of democracy. With that relevant deliverable in our tool kit, we must find traction as we craft our own convergence initiatives. [Read more...]
