As you know, the School of Journalism & Graphic Communication is working on a major overhaul of our curriculum -- both on the journalism and graphic communication sides. The goal has been to reflect the changes in the media business, specifically the blending of print, video, audio and online. Dean Hawkins also wanted us to change the names of some of our courses to include key terms such as multimedia.
So the Curriculum Committee, for which I'm filling in as chair this year in Professor Ritchie's absence, came up with a plan to collapse the newspaper and magazine sequences into one -- giving the students several options depending upon their interests. And we kept separate broadcast journalism and PR sequences. This is what we presented to the students.
However, within the past two weeks, the faculty have been re-evaluating this proposal, and an earlier idea to offer ONE multimedia curriculum -- with several options -- is again on the table.
Essentially, students earning a degree in multimedia would take the same core courses and then could choose from a variety of print, broadcast, multimedia and online courses. For example, a student might take TV News I, Public Affairs Reporting and Radio Practicum.
The question arises, where should PR fit in all of this? Would it make sense to eliminate the separate PR degree and allow our students the opportunity to take, say, TV News I instead of PR Research & Strategies, or for multimedia students to take Introduction to Public Relations or PR Communication? If we create, as proposed, a course titled PR and Social Media, shouldn't we open it up to other SJGC students as well?
What do you think about this idea of creating just one major -- multimedia -- in the Division of Journalism and allowing students to pick and choose from among all of the courses we offer?
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15 years ago
If we as FAMU students are suppose to be familiar with multimedia, then we need to take classes in all areas, including broadcast, news writing, intro to PR, etc. I think it would benifit students overall if they had the option to take classes in other concentrations. It might even be a good idea for it to be a pre req. As far as combining Magazine and newspaper majors, I'm not so sure about that. They are very similar, but you know you're going to hear complaints from magazine students about having to take newspaper classes and vis versa. Everyone should have to take or at least be able to take one PR class! PR has to do with EVERYTHING IN THE WORLD OF BUSINESS! Just my opinion though. ;-) Good luck with finding the right medium to the new curriculum.
ReplyDelete-- Samantha Savory
I think that multimedia and PR should be two separate majors. According to the blog, media students will learn every spectrum of journalism. It is true that PR practitioners should know how to communicate through all media, but there is more to PR than just that. PR involves research, strategies and evaluations.
ReplyDeleteIf someone majored in multimedia, I would assume that they want to know how to properly produce and communicate through television, radio, broadcast, newspaper, magazine and the Internet. Multimedia should be more in depth by teaching students how to work “media machinery” (cameras, radio equipment, computers (web layouts on the internet), etc.).
Good luck to the Curriculum Committee, and please keep the future careers of the journalism students in mind.
-Armegan
I think changing the curriculum will create guidance issues. I feel that curriculums create a straight path to graduation, and minimize confusion. Creating a multimedia sequence would create a major in which students are taking a variety of classes, but aren't really becoming specialized in any of them. While I understand that it can be better to know a little of everything (as opposed to knowing a lot of one thing) creating a new sequence is pointless. Students who want to be versed in other areas of media can partake in student media for experience. I think the curriculum is fine as is.
ReplyDeleteI believe that it may be time to change the curriculum. It's important to remain current and to update anything that's necessary in order to better educate and prepare PR students. On the other hand, there are so many people that are pleased with the current curriculum and have already begun on a solid path to graduation. Many students have a plan and a change is the curriculum could be highly disruptive to those students. I'm graduating this semester, so I don't really feel very strongly about the subject either way. I just hope it all works out.
ReplyDelete--Porsche
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ReplyDeleteI guess I'm confused on what you mean by eliminating the PR degree. Does that mean that you wouldn't be able to be just a PR student? Would you have to be multimedia student? If that's the case, I believe that you shouldn't eliminate the PR degree. I think that that's what makes SJGC so unique. I love talking to my friends that went to schools around the country and telling them how I study PR. A lot of my friends major in communications hoping one day to do PR. I think we learn so much more than other schools because we concentrate on PR. Don't get me wrong, I think that the classes that you are mentioning are a great idea, I just think you should keep the PR major separate. I feel that if a student wants to take one of the courses that you mentioned, it's up to them to make that final decision. I hope everything works out as planned!
ReplyDeleteKiah
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ReplyDeleteI think we should keep PR separate. I could see other J school students taking a beginning PR class, because it is useful across media, but I don't really understand the benefit that a PR student would have by taking TV news instead of research studies. But I really like the PR and social media idea, as well as online classes. I think that though we still need the basic understanding of PR theories, we need to be able to understand the business side of the internet.
ReplyDeleteMandla Deskins