Redesigning a University Curriculum in the Age of Convergence: A Lesson in Progress

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Redesigning a University Curriculum in the Age of
Convergence A Lesson in Progress

• Tony DeMars

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Convergence Curriculum Questions

• How does convergence relate to newspaper and
  television news?
• How does convergence relate to journalism and
  broadcast journalism education?

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Convergence Curriculum Questions

• What parts of convergence are driven by
  technology and what parts are driven by
  economics?
• If news convergence in media industries is
  primarily driven by economic factors, is there
  really anything new to teach undergraduate
  journalism and broadcast journalism majors?

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Convergence Curriculum Questions

• Do students majoring in journalism expect to
  learn how to do broadcast news, and do students
  majoring in broadcast journalism expect to learn
  how to write a newspaper article?
• Does the news industry expect newly graduated
  journalism and broadcast journalism students to
  be skilled in writing and producing for multiple
  forms of content distribution?

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Previous Studies

• Quincy, IL -- 2002
• NBC broadcast, Fox cable, radio stations, web
  site and newspaper
• Multipurposing content (news but also talk
  shows), coordinating newsgathering, creating
  product for multiple outlets
• Challenges turf, coverage areas, locations
• Partnership with Northwestern University

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Previous Studies

• Survey of Texas TV News Directors and newspaper
  editors in same markets -- 2003
• Evaluation of what was working and what was not
• Wide range of market sizes
• Co-owned worked better than partnerships
• Newspaper editors less enthusiastic and
  optimistic of benefits than TV News Directors
• Making the web site useful and profitable was a
  challenge

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Writing Class Example

• What sections could be moved or deleted to
  accommodate more broadcast?
• Found limited number of texts that cover both
  print and broadcast writing
• Book chosen addresses broadcast writing, but does
  not go very deep enough into the subject
• Biggest concern with the new approach is that it
  may be difficult for students to keep print and
  broadcast writing separate in their minds if both
  are emphasized in a single course

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Applying this to curriculum change

• Merger of R-TV and Journalism
• Convergence in a TV Reporting class? or having
  Broadcast Journalism majors take some
  print-focused classes?
• Writing easier production more challenging
• Skills of faculty to teach a class how to do good
  TV news, good newspaper article and a good
  multimedia web-based version?
• Research leans toward what the industry is doing
  and an assumption we should teach convergence,
  but what do students expect?

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Literature

• Kraepun and Criado (2005) report that journalism
  educators placed a higher belief in the
  importance of convergence than did newspaper
  editors or TV news directors.
• How important are convergence skills to media
  managers when hiring?
• 23.5 of TV managers said very important and
  49 said moderately important,
• Newspaper managers 16.2 said very important
  and 27.5 said moderately important.
• 27.5 of TV managers and 30.9 of newspaper
  managers said convergence skills were not at all
  important.
• Among educators surveyed,
• 31.1 thought convergence skills were very
  important to media managers when hiring,
• 62.2 rated them moderately important,
• while only 6.7 said it was not at all important.

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Literature

• Birge (2004) reviewed previous studies and did
  interviews to question what convergence really is
  and to suggest that journalism schools should not
  rush to teach convergence as part of their
  curriculum.
• Notes a study done in 2002 by Popovich and Massé
  a reasonable number of journalism and mass
  communication programs were adding convergence
  components to certain writing classes.but also
  found a lot of indecisiveness about how to
  approach convergence.
• Birge suggests adding too much to the traditional
  areas of study in a journalism or broadcast
  journalism program can weaken the quality of
  classes.
• Even industry professionals working in converged
  newsrooms say the attempt to create this be-all
  newsperson creates more chaos than benefit.

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Literature

• Castaenda, Murphy and Hether (2005) documented
  the development of a converged journalism
  curriculum at the University of Southern
  California.
• USC instituted a curriculum in fall 2002
  designed to teach journalism students print,
  broadcast and online journalism concurrently
• Used surveys of both students and faculty, but
  also made judgments from open-ended questions and
  faculty comments at meetings,
• Students and faculty believed the new curriculum
  diluted classes and slowed the learning process,
• But, their study did find an improvement in key
  journalism skills.

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Literature

• Corrigan (2004) says convergence benefits the
  media owner, but not the consumer
• Suggests university researchers should consider
  the loss of insightful journalism that comes as a
  result of convergence efficiency
• Discusses several issues university researchers
  should consider
• (a) Where is good journalism when reporters are
  required to create multiple versions of an
  important story instead of one, thoughtful,
  in-depth version?
• (b) What further burnout chances are there to
  those working in the industry when faced with
  even more demands on their time in a world of
  convergence? -more-

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Literature

• (c) How superficial will news become when
  reporters have to work in a convergence mode in
  all their stories?
• (d) Doesnt convergence simply mean big media
  conglomerates are squeezing more and more work
  from each person to the benefit of the bottom
  line?
• (e) Isnt it likely the media conglomerates like
  more superficial content instead of in-depth
  stories that might question their power and the
  related dangers to democracy

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Deb Winger in Quill, Sept. 2005

• As of September 2005, after 10 years of
  struggling with some of these types of
  convergence challenges, at least one journalism
  program has just said no to convergence.
• Brigham Young University was one of the first
  schools in the country to begin teaching
  multimedia journalism. By 2001, the school
  started to realize that the convergence
  experiment was not working.
• The faculty turned Writing for Mass Audiences
  back into a basic news writing course. But in
  2004, Dept. Chair Ed Adams said BYU started to
  back off on the model entirely, primarily for two
  reasons.
• First, both the broadcast and the print faculty
  felt they had evidence that students were still
  not getting the depth they needed within the
  individual journalism disciplines.
• The second big obstacle is the amount of faculty
  resources convergence requires.

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Research Questions

• Will students with broadcast-focused career plans
  believe Broadcast Journalism students should
  learn about convergence-based, print-style or
  multimedia courses?
• Will students with broadcast-focused career plans
  believe Print Journalism students should learn
  about courses that are convergence,
  broadcast-style or multimedia?

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Research Questions

• Will students with broadcast-focused career plans
  have a positive view of integrating new media
  content into existing courses?
• Do students with broadcast-focused career plans
  believe they are being properly prepared for what
  it appears the future will be?

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Data Collection

• An e-mail solicitation sent to 228 students
  enrolled in courses in six different
  broadcast-related subject areas
• Seventy-eight responses were received during the
  time period the survey was open. No follow-up
  efforts were made in an effort to generate a
  higher response rate
• More than 75 were in the age range of 17 to 22
• More than 60 of those responding felt pretty
  certain about their career plans
• Sixty-eight percent who answered the question
  regarding gender were female

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What other issues besides courses offered are
important to you in preparing for a career,
related to the mass communication field of study?

• Hands-on work in a TV studio 78
• Hands-on work in radio
  52
• Hands-on work in TV field shooting 48
• Hands-on work with a student newspaper 8
• Hands-on work with web page design/multimedia
  authoring
  4
• Hands-on work with an online magazine 0

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• How important do you believe each of the courses
  below are for a student majoring in broadcast
  journalism?
• Very Important
  Important Somewhat Important Not Important
• Writing for
• Mass Media 58 38 0
  4
• Newspaper 22 17
  43 17
• Reporting
• Television 64 27
  5 5
• Reporting
• Computer
• Assisted 9
  52 30 9
• Reporting
• Online
• Journalism 13 26 48
  13

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How important do you believe each of the
courses below are for a student majoring in
broadcast journalism?
Very Important Important
Somewhat Important Not Important Desktop
Publishing 4 22 65
9 Video Shooting 65
22 13 0
Editing Print 18
23 41 18 Photojournalism Newspa
per Editing 17 22
43 17 TV Studio 61
30 9 0
Production Investigative 52 30
17 0 Reporting
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• How important do you believe each of the courses
  below are for a student majoring in
  print/newspaper journalism?
• Very Important
  Important Somewhat Important Not
  Important
• Writing for
• Mass Media 65 20 15
  0
• Newspaper Reporting 60 30 10
  0
• Television Reporting 20 40 35
  5
• Computer Assisted 35 35 30
  0
• Reporting
• Online Journalism 50 35 15
  0
• Desktop Publishing 65 20 15
  0

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• How important do you believe each of the courses
  below are for a student majoring in
  print/newspaper journalism?
• Very Important Important
  Somewhat Important Not Important
• Video Shooting 25 15 20
  40
• Editing
• Print 65 25
  10 0
• Photojournalism
• Newspaper Editing 65 30 5 0
  
• Producing TV 30 15 30
  25
• Newscasts
• TV Studio 25 15 25
  35
• Production

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Preliminary Findings Careers

• Should new media/ multimedia skills training be
  incorporated into a Broadcast Journalism degree?
  Y 38
  N 53 DK 9
• Do you believe the courses you currently take in
  your major properly prepare you for your career
  plans?
• Y 67 N 12 DK 21
  
  

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Please indicate in which of the following courses
you would like to have more work

• TV Reporting 0
  
• Newspaper Reporting 0
• Mass Media Writing 0
• Television Studio Production 0
• Video Shooting and Editing 0
• Advanced Video Production 0

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Preliminary Findings

• Will students with broadcast-focused career plans
  believe Broadcast Journalism students should
  learn about convergence-based, print-style or
  multimedia courses? Noevery area clearly
  print or often associated with new mediamore
  negative side answers
• Will students with broadcast-focused career plans
  believe Print Journalism students should learn
  about courses that are convergence,
  broadcast-style or multimedia? Possiblymore
  middle range to positive answers in new media
  courses and TV-related courses

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Limitations

• One university program analyzed
• Some possible student misperceptions of what
  classes were by title
• Students may have been evaluating with biases
  based on current faculty or tracks
• This part only covers broadcast-focused students

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Conclusion

• Students need to be involved in the changes to
  convergence curricula
• Maybe the curriculum changes are not as necessary
  as some have thought
• While knowing about all the people traditional
  media areas and beyond doing multimedia is
  important, we cant teach everythingso, combine
  the traditional mass communication training with
  an awareness of how jobs are changing