The battle in D:F/M over the direction of the journalism curriculum (reflecting the many conflicts of the internecine war of several years also ongoing in D:F/M) forced this writer into a publish or perish mode. This series is one of the results.
The Usual Suspects
V) I believe the benefits of the former – required portfolio development – can make the department look good – the Chairs and the P&Bs obviously believed that or there wouldn’t have been the kind of bovine internecine interference by them that has been ongoing for years. I don’t need to address that in depth here. But reserve the right, so to speak, to address it later in a fashion of my choosing.
Portfolio development most definitely can make our students more competitive in the intern-ship, job, grad school market. And I believe it can be done without increasing instructors’ burdens, significanlty, if we developed the news writing sequence. But the adjuncts will have to be seriously involved and supported. I also believe that portfolio development requires much more critical thinking than the those lecture classes preferred by Colleagues who essentially don’t like interacting with students.
VI) We need to do something about broadcast journalism even if only on a minimal level. The department has resisted for years having students develop broadcast portfolio experience but one or two instructors have had students in class producing news-type shows that were broadcast on CUNY-TV. Broadcast journalism is in a limbo. I have other ideas for discussion.
VII) I want to take the WORD to the next level of development, making it more interactive for student involvement and more of a medium for disseminating news and information, and I also want to explore ad revenue. Because the WORD has been online for more than seven years, it has a modest online presence and I am constantly getting requests about advertising. That means a significant upgrade should be considered. I also think we should be discussing the concept of journalism labs, especially if students are involved in producing content for disseminating news and information.
VIII) Students have been complaining for years that the so-called analytical, theoretical courses in media studies are redundant. We need to be aware of this.
End of series.