Digital Communications:
A modular approach to a 21st century curriculum
by David R. Thompson, Ph.D.
The University of South Carolina
March 1995
Paper presented to the AEJMC Task Force on Curriculum,
Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication
Annual Convention, August 9 - 12, 1995, Washington, D.C.
Awarded "Second Place" in AEJMC's Task Force on Curriculum
national paper competition. Theme: The future of journalism
and mass communication education
David R. Thompson, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Journalism & Mass Communications
University of South Carolina
Columbia, SC 29208
(803) 777-6898 office
[log in to unmask]
Digital Communications:
A modular approach to a 21st century curriculum
ABSTRACT
"Digital Communications" refers to a set of four modules -- information
gathering, message preparation, editing & production, and message
delivery. The modular concept is intended to be flexible enough to
accommodate your program's needs.
Digital Communications does not replace or displace any traditional
skills or concepts taught by schools of journalism and mass
communication. Digital Communications does extend those skills and
concepts to include multimedia content, which is encoded, manipulated
and stored on computers.
A modification of Blanchard & Christ's (1993) New Professionalism, the
Digital Communications approach may improve and enhance your
academic
unit's service and centrality to the mission of your institution.
By grounding experiential learning in a foundation of conceptual
thinking, journalism and mass communication programs may cultivate a new
and improved image.
Digital communications is a cutting-edge educational concept, with
opportunities to develop interdisciplinary courses (with information
science, education, and computer science, for example). Research
opportunities abound (media effects studies, for example). Funding
opportunities exist, as well as the chance to develop entrepreneurial
partnerships with local media.
Dutch Fork High School in Irmo, South Carolina has an online edition of
its newspaper, The Renaissance (http://www. scsn.net/biz/dfork/).
High
school students are applying digital technologies to traditional
newspaper skills.
Will your university's journalism and mass communication program
attract and accommodate today's high school students?
This paper presents a concept that may help you increase enrollment by
attracting computer-literate students.
At the Raleigh (North Carolina) News & Observer, "digitized information
skills -- for using computers, databases, online services -- are
becoming standard for nearly everyone in the newsroom" (Moeller 1995,
p. 43).
And a concept called "team journalism" is enabling multimedia projects.
In 1994, the News & Observer created a 16-week series that "ran in the
paper, aired on local radio and television, and was uploaded onto
the
Internet via NandO, the paper's online service" (Moeller 1995, p.
46).
During this project, "newspaper" reporters conducted videotaped and
aud
iotaped interviews intended for broadcast.
Will employers, such as the Raleigh News & Observer, recruit your
university's journalism and mass communication graduates?
This paper presents a concept that may improve your academic unit's
service to a communications industry that is digitizing its newsrooms.
New positions have been created to staff new online services. Boston
Globe Electronic Publishing, a subsidiary of The Boston Globe
newspaper,
has announced employment opportunities for "developing news,
advertising
and information services for consumer online distribution, the
Internet,
and other emerging interactive platforms" (Online-news 1995a). The
positions included: development director, advertising manager,
editorial manager, marketing coordinator, graphics/design coordinator,
and content developers/entrepreneurs.
Houston Chronicle Interactive has announced employment opportunities
(Online-news 1995b). The positions included: content developers,
electronic media wire editors, communications coordinator, electronic
media producers, marketing services specialist, member services
coordinator, audiotext coordinator, software developers, systems
technician, and system administrator.
Does your curriculum reflect these organizational developments?
This paper presents a curriculum called Digital Communications.
Digital Communications is a modular concept that may be implemented at
different levels -- from "College of Digital Communications" to
"major
in Digital Communications" to "this course includes the four modules
of
the concept called Digital Communications." Digital Communications
is
an idea that synthesizes current developments in the structure of
academic units, the structure of media organizations, and emerging media
routines.
As Dutch Fork High School's nameplate suggests, a new Renaissance has
begun.
Whether it is called a communication, information, or technological revolution,
rapid changes within the U.S. media system coupled
with new ways of thinking
about communication processes and content challenge
media educators to rethink
curricular structures and what and how they teach.
This challenge calls for
flexible, integrated, and innovative media courses and
curricula; it means a
movement away from narrowly conceived media-specific
sequences based on
industrial configurations toward broad-based, cross-media,
integrative models;
the teaching of ideas and skills that transcend the
narrow occupational focus of
specific, entry-level, job-related protocols;
"demassifying" the concept of
communication to incorporate the study of intrapersonal
and interpersonal
communication and their relationship to "mass" forms of
communication
distribution; and, finally, rethinking how people teach and
how learning
environments can be enhanced with the use of technologies.
- Blanchard & Christ (1993, p. 22)
Janis (1991) suggested that "the media workplace of the future will be an
information technologies theme park, where technical
distinctions among the
attractions will blur and everyone will speak the same
language -- digital (p.
18).
- Blanchard & Christ (1993, p. 31)
Blanchard & Christ (1993, pp. 47-53) describe a curriculum for a "New
Professionalism" in media education programs. To grossly
oversimplify
their work, Blanchard & Christ propose a core curriculum based on
conceptual perspectives and knowledge -- including what they call a
"conceptual map" of communication processes and their context within
"historical, legal-ethical, institutional, social, economic, and other
social systems." The conceptual core includes "technological
literacy."
And it includes "information gathering and media writing and speaking
capability, including the ability to gather and present information
systematically in written and oral form"
(p. 47).
Beyond this conceptual core, experiential learning -- "hands-on"
instruction -- is considered "essential" (p. 50). Blanchard & Christ
recommend a laboratory setting: "The media laboratory would provide
for
systematic investigation and experimentation with purposeful
challenging
of media content and forms. Reflecting the liberal ethos, it would
go
beyond the replication of contemporary management and occupational
hierarchies, as useful as they might be" (p. 50).
By modifying Blanchard & Christ's concept, a curriculum that applies
Digital Communications may improve and enhance your academic unit's
service and centrality to the mission of your institution. By
grounding
experiential learning in a foundation of conceptual thinking,
journalism
and mass communication programs may cultivate a new and improved
image.
Digital communications is a cutting-edge educational concept, with
opportunities to develop interdisciplinary courses (with information
science, education, and computer science, for example). Research
opportunities abound (media effects studies, for example). Funding
opportunities exist, as well as the chance to develop entrepreneurial
partnerships with local media.
The Concept of "Digital Communications"
"Digital Communications" refers to a set of four modules -- information
gathering, message preparation, editing & production, and message
delivery. The modular concept is intended to be flexible enough to
accommodate your program's needs.
For example, you may choose to offer a major in Digital Communications.
Each of the four modules may be taught as a separate course. The four
modules may be taught concurrently as an in-house internship
experience.
Or, two modules may be taught in the fall semester as introductory
courses for the other two modules, which may be taught in the spring
semester.
Or, a particularly energetic instructor could treat the modules as
elements of one existing course. Any professor could incorporate at
least one module into an existing course plan.
In other words, the modular concept allows flexibility. The modules
are designed to be related and complementary, yet free-standing.
Disclaimer: Digital Communications does not replace or displace any traditional
skills or concepts taught by schools of journalism
and mass communication.
Digital Communications does extend those skills and
concepts to include
multimedia content, which is encoded, manipulated and stored
on computers.
These modules do not replace or displace core content. Rather, the digital
concept may be incorporated into classroom teaching
methods to enhance student
involvement in core courses.
The concept may be applied to many forms of content in many
disciplines, tracks, or sequences. Text, photographic image, video,
and audio content are all accommodated by the concept of Digital
Communications. Professors of newspaper, magazine, photojournalism,
advertising, public relations, radio and television may utilize these
teaching modules.
Because this author's background is print and multimedia, the
explanations presented in this paper will demonstrate a bias toward
adapting newspaper and magazine courses to this modular curriculum.
Note: Try not to get stuck on semantics. So far, it doesn't matter
what these modules are called.
The working names and working definitions for the four modules are:
Module #1: Information Gathering
For print media (including photojournalism), broadcast media,
advertising, and public relations, this information gathering module
applies traditional information gathering skills such as interviewing,
scouring the public record, and covering current events.
Interviewing -- Face-to-face and telephone interviewing skills will
still be taught and practiced. For advertising, this may include
focus
groups and surveys. The Digital Communications concept applies and
extends these methods.
Now, e-mail interviews may be conducted. These interviews may be
conducted in "real time," as a typed discussion between interviewer and
subject. Interviews may also be conducted as a "time-independent"
exchange of questions and answers -- the interviewer sends a list of
questions to which the subject replies when convenient.
E-mail interviews seem to invite follow-up. There is a "reply" key
built into many e-mail programs.
E-mail interviews allow subjects who may be shy, reclusive, or very
busy to answer with relative comfort and a sense of control. Some
subjects may electronically transmit supplemental materials -- from text
to digitized photos to video clips.
Also, E-mail interviews allow shy or insecure students to practice
their interviewing skills with relative comfort and a sense of control.
Research of available, existing resources -- This includes "library
research" -- from using the dictionary to investigative use of city,
county, state, and federal documents. For advertising, this may
include
collection of demographic data. Again, the Digital Communications
concept applies and extends these methods.
Now, we can add computer-assisted reporting (C.A.R.) to the repertoire.
Database searches may be conducted. Surfing the Internet may turn up
relevant information. Involvement with discussion lists may be used
to
develop a "global beat," including networking to develop sources.
And multimedia resources may be searched. We are not looking for text
only. Now, we can search for text, audio, video, and other images.
Documentation of current events -- In other words, reporting, shooting
raw video, taking notes at the scene, etc. The Digital
Communications
concept applies and extends these methods.
Now, one reporter takes a video camera and a laptop computer to
document the event. That reporter returns with content that may be used
as text, still image (capture one frame of the video), video, audio
(the
sound track from the video).
Future research of Digital Communications applications may reveal that
students and professionals are highly involved, psychologically,
with
the information gathering process. Perhaps information culled from
both
traditional and digitized resources will be more substantive than
facts
gathered with traditional methods only.
Module #2: Message Preparation
Courses and course content that deal with creation of media content may
apply this second module. Message Preparation may include writing
for
mass media, advertising copy writing, news writing, feature writing,
information graphics, mass media PC graphics applications, public
relations writing, darkroom techniques, broadcast announcing, television
production, radio production, and others.
The Digital Communications concept applies and extends the methods and
skills presented in a traditional curriculum. But now, each student
works with digitized content.
Students still learn to use word processors, video cameras,
microphones, cameras, etc. But Digital Communications adds scanners,
digital cameras, and computers with video cards (or Macintosh-AV).
This is convergence within the curriculum. Every student performs a
variety of message production tasks for a variety of media.
Digital Communications simply creates a "homogeneous" environment for
the study of media. The literal and symbolic walls of the
sequence-based structure of academic units are no longer necessary
because the computer becomes the video editing studio, the digital
darkroom, the graphics lab, and the writing lab. Students work in
teams. Professors collaborate.
Here's an idea that could be applied to the Message Preparation module.
In a course designed with a pubic relations emphasis, press release
preparation would be covered. A traditional course teaches students
to
produce written press releases. Another traditional course teaches
students to prepare video news releases (VNRs).
By applying digital communications concepts, a digital press release
(DPR) could be created. On disk, or on CD-ROM, the press release
could
include text items for print media, digitized photographs for print
media, digitized video clips for television use, digitized audio clips
for radio use, and supplemental information (background) that could
provide context for the DPR. In professional situations, the
information could be distributed by mail, or electronically through file
transfer protocol (ftp). In academic situations, the assignment is
graded from the disk.
Each student learns public relations skills. But, those skills are not
media-dependent.
This should improve students' conceptual and critical thinking skills.
Digital communications encourages and requires students ... and
professors ... to think in multiple dimensions -- aural (listening to
radio and television content, perhaps even sound effects embedded in
text), visual (reading text and viewing video), and tactile (with an
interactive media interface).
Module #3: Editing & Production
Again, the basic skills and concepts remain the same. Proper selection
of material, style, copy editing, video editing, and audio editing
are
still taught. Production processes that have been introduced in
other
courses are now applied in laboratory situations. These courses may
include: advanced radio programming, advanced television programming,
advanced magazine and newspaper editing, graphic design, and,
perhaps,
advertising campaigns.
In a traditional curriculum, students may not get much hands-on
experience until they enroll in upper-division editing and production
courses. In a Digital Communications curriculum, students work with
computers from the beginning.
Today's college students have grown up with the computer. They have
used computers in their high schools, junior high schools, perhaps
even
grade schools. And many of them have had access to a computer at
home.
In a way, a Digital Communications curriculum simply provides the tools
with which today's students are most familiar. These students do
not
know what a T-square looks like, but they can use the "guides" in
PageMaker.
In module #3, students learn to edit and produce digitized content.
They may be preparing content for the weekly newspaper. What they
are
doing is desktop publishing and pagination, using programs like
Quark
Xpress and Photoshop.
They may be preparing the evening newscast. They are just using a
program like Adobe Premiere to edit digitized videos.
These students may be preparing a presentation for AAF's annual
competition. But, they may use a program like infini-D to create a 3D
effect.
Or, a team of students may be creating a home page on the World Wide
Web. What they are doing is a form of electronic publishing, using
HTML
(hypertext mark up language) to create their links to the global
information network.
This is innovative, experiential learning. Students are challenged by
this type of learning environment. They are motivated by it. And
they
learn from it.
Module #4: Message Delivery
Students will still disseminate messages in traditional ways. The
newspaper and magazine are printed, and the anchors broadcast the day's
news for television and radio. As far as the audience knows,
nothing
has changed. As far as educators are concerned, the process has not
changed. But the techniques have been updated and upgraded.
With a curriculum in Digital Communications, the horizon is expanded.
The online newspaper and magazine are uploaded to the Internet.
Online
radio and television content is uploaded to the Internet. Student
system administrators update files for the information server (another
computer). They track subscribers. They record the number of times
users access certain categories of information and add, delete, or
modify subject headings to accommodate the subscriber base. They do
demographics. And they get direct, real-time data that tells them if,
when, how often, and for how long a digital, multimedia
advertisement is
accessed.
Editors respond to e-mail feedback from audience members.
A team of students may develop a CD-ROM product. Perhaps the yearbook
is sold on CD, complete with mugshots that come to life with a video
clip. Now, graduates can hear their college buddies once again.
Comments
This Digital Communications curriculum is an idea "under constuction."
The author encourages readers to expand, develop, adapt and adopt
the
idea.
If you believe your department cannot possibly afford a computer-based
program of study, use the clich -- "Can we afford not to?" High
schools are practicing electronic publishing. The media industry is
digitizing its operations.
You can afford Digital Communications at some level. Look around. If
your department has a (new) Macintosh computer, a video camera, a
flatbed scanner, a slide scanner, and a laser printer, then you can get
started.
Add Internet connections, and you've entered the next dimension.
This paper has attempted to provide a basic, skeletal structure upon
which you and your program may build. But, the system is not the
solution. Without a solid conceptual core, no academic program will
remain indispensable to the mission of the university. Without
innovative experiential learning opportunities, enrollments will
continue to wane.
By adapting to the emerging professional and educational cultures of
the 21st century, media programs and their graduates will thrive.
So,
digitize. Now!
References
Blanchard, Robert O., & Christ, William G. (1993). Media education and
the liberal arts: A blueprint for the New Professionalism.
Lawrence
Erlbaum:Hillsdale, NJ.
Janis, P. (1991). "Workplace of the future," Ganetteer, July/August,
pp. 18-19.
Moeller, Philip (1995). "The digitized newsroom," American Journalism
Review, January-February, pp. 42-47.
Online-news (1995a). Online-news is an electronic discussion group for
those interested in online services. This item appeared Feb. 2,
1995,
17:04:41 (EST).
Online-news (1995b). This item appeared Jan. 31, 1995, 14:22:10.
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