Dr. Sushma Gandhi
Chairperson,
Deptt. of Communication Management and Technology
Guru Jambeshwar University, Hisar (Haryana) India



MEDIA EDUCATION :NEED FOR A PARADIGM SHIFT

The world today is in the midst of one of the most dramatic technological revolutions in history. It is effecting changes in everything ranging from the ways we work, communicate, commerce and spend our leisure time. The technological revolution which is underway centers on computer, information, communication, and multimedia technologies and may be seen to be the beginnings of a knowledge or information society. In such a society education has a central role in every aspect of life. The proliferation of communication-information technologies poses tremendous challenges. It compels educators to rethink their basic tenets and to deploy the media in creative and productive ways. It forces them to restructure ways of learning-teaching to respond constructively and progressively to the technological and social changes that we are now experiencing.

Just as the transition from oral to print and book based teaching involved a dramatic transformation of education, as Marshall McLuhan (1961 and 1964), Walter Ong (1988), and others have argued, so too does the current technological revolution necessitates a major restructuring of education today with new curricula, pedagogy, practices, and goals.

The technological revolution of the present era has created the new multimedia environments necessitating thereby a diversity of types of multisemiotic and multimodal interaction entailing interfacing with words and print material and often images, graphics, and audio and video material. As technological convergence develops apace, combining the skills of critical media literacy with traditional print literacy and new forms of multiple media technologies will become imperative to access and master the new multimedia hypertext environments.

Kellner notes how critical pedagogues of the future must also confront the problem of on-line education, of how the emergent cultural terrain of cyberspace is likely to produce new sites of information, education, and culture giving rise to novel on-line forms of interaction between students and teacher. Additionally this will open up great possibilities of students developing their own spaces, cultural forms, and modes of interaction and communication. The new challenge that will stare in the face will entail how to balance classroom instruction with on-line instruction, together with sorting out the strengths and limitations of print versus on-line multimedia material. Indeed, the new media and cultural spaces that arise require educators to rethink education in its entirety. The focus range from the role of the teacher, teacher-student relations, classroom instruction, grading curricula construction, and testing, the value and limitations of books, multimedia, and other teaching material, and the goals of education itself.

Other offshoots of new media technologies is on-line education and virtual learning. This is likely to confront us with novel problems such as copyright and ownership of educational materials. It will demand collaborations between computer programmers, artists and designers, and teachers and students in the construction of teaching material and sites. This will magnify and enhance the respective role of federal and local government, the community, corporations, and private organizations in financing education and providing the skills and tools necessary for a new world economy and global culture.

Another vital challenge that contemporary education poses is to overcome the disconnect between students experiences, subjectivities, and interests rooted in the new multimedia cyberculture in contrast to the classroom situation grounded in print culture and traditional learning and disciplines (see Luke and Luke, forthcoming). Already in the 1960s, Marshall McLuhan (1964) drew attention to this disconnect between students raised on radio, television, and popular culture confronted with print materials. Today, the disconnect is even more stark and striking. This is especially between an interactive and multimedia cyberculture and traditional forms of authoritarian lecturing and problematic print materials. Such a disjuncture is suggestive of a generational divide as well as a digital divide.

Most educators and media experts opine that the current disconnect and divide can be overcome, however, by more actively and collaboratively bringing students into interactive classrooms or learning situations. This will help them to transmit their skills and knowledges to fellow students and teachers alike in a comforting environment. The purported step will pave the way for a democratic and interactive reconstruction of education. It will help cultivate among the learners the new skills and literacies needed for the new global economy and cyberculture.

The project of transforming educational scene will take different forms in different contexts. In the overdeveloped countries, individuals must be equipped and empowered to work and act in a high tech information economy. They must be imparted skills of media and computer literacy so as to survive in the new social environment. They need be offered vision of how life can be, of alternatives to the present order, and of the necessity of struggle and political organization to realize progressive goals in the emerging globalized world. Languages of knowledge and critique must thus be supplemented by the discourse of positive hope and praxis.

In much of the world, in a country like ours the struggle for daily existence is paramount. There meeting unmet human and social needs be accorded a high priority. Yet everywhere, whether developed or developing world education can provide the competencies and skills to improve human existence, to create a better society, and a more civilized and developed world. Education is indeed pivotal in enabling the entire world to become part of a global and networked society.

As a consequence of information super highway and communication technologies the media and communication education have undergone almost unbelievable changes. The old lines between disciplines are becoming obsolete. The work of journalists and other professional communicators is undergoing dramatic change. Resultantly there are likely to be very few belonging to one discipline who might be conversant with all forms of media in the days to come. With such metamorphosis of the professions underway it is a real challenge to prepare students for successful professional careers in the era of convergence and connectivity of the variety of media.

In an era characterized by convergence of technologies the need for skilled media professionals who understand the foundation, both ethical and practical, from which they need to work becomes even more critical. But without adequate training in new media skills the goal will remain unachievable. This crisis in journalism requires to be addressed in the class room where young journalists are molded and sculpted. But to meet the needs of the fast growing media industry an ongoing training is vital to ensure that those working in the field too grow and develop. This entails broadening, updating and upgrading the core component of the media education at various levels.

Undoubtedly not only the production of new knowledge, but also the reproduction, application and contextualization of the already existing philosophical, scientific and technological knowledge, has a potential to give rise to a ‘class’ of ‘knowledge workers’, or skilled experts who are able to apply knowledge to local contexts and problems.

Jordaan adds that, “To me this signals a shift away from the academic to the applied knowledge domain.” Within this context, journalism educators need to critically evaluate both the “what” and the “how” of their teaching.

Today, however, younger people are attracted to journalism not as a calling but as a career. They are not motivated and driven as the previous generation of journalists had been who worked selflessly for long hours with little financial reward to improve their media skills and fight their way up the ladder. The new generation of journalists, so to speak the majority of them have no idea what a career in journalism entails and they are enticed to join the profession by the glamorous portrayal of journalists in the media.

A journalism education program is a good platform for identifying and developing media professionals who have the passion for the media and require training to get into industry. A journalism department with a good curriculum and faculty who have linkages with industry can serve a valuable training ground to groom future media professionals and leaders.

Media education in particular is all about practice and more practice. More you practice, the better you become. The best way to teach print media is to make them write in newspapers and/or for websites. And if their interest is radio or television, then they need to get practical experience in these areas. This may be achieved either by working at community radio stations or by being involved in producing television documentaries that may or may not be broadcast on television.

Among the challenges faced, particularly by the still-disadvantaged technikons or universities or technology ironically, relate to the lack of access to technology. For instance, most students who come from disadvantaged backgrounds have never been exposed to basic tools such as a personal computer. Another problem related to technology is that owing to the rapid changes in it will always be difficult for disadvantaged technikons to keep abreast with latest advances in the media environment. In the absence of significant investments in the technikons, the adverse effect are becoming visible.

It is a fallacy to assume that educational institutions are soley responsible for the education of journalists and media professionals. The fact is that they who are then made over to media organizations to let them get on with the practice of journalism. Any mass communication graduate, no matter how well trained, is at best only at the beginning of a process of development and need be further taken within the work place. One cannot expect graduates entrants in the profession to be fully skilled when they begin to work. Their development as media professionals needs to be seen as an ongoing one. Though they are launched in institutions of mass communications but eventually find their fulfillment in media organizations. The emergence of a high-tech media professional and a good journalist is indeed only a matter of time and entails much work experience and maturation.

What media students today need is nothing short of a leading-edge education suited to the needs of networked globalized industry. This would involve greater accent on fundamental concepts, values and skills needed to prepare them for communication careers commensurate with unprecedented changes. They need be fully equipped to understand the whole of communication scenario, be able to solve problems and imbibe the ethical and legal implication of media and communication which will let them be comfortable with innovation and working in concert with their peers. The object of the new media education is to prepare students for leadership roles in their professions and in their communities.

With this end the media curriculum in most of our universities which has become outdated needs be made more responsive to the rapidly changing fields of communication so that students and faculty are enabled to collaborate to explore and master new media technologies, including digital and interactive ones. They need prepare them to produce and disseminate information in multiple formats, including written text, audio and video and on the web. This involves new initiatives to forge partnerships with other University programs and with media and communication companies to enhance the education and training of students, faculty and professionals.

With a view to achieving the object of quality media education, the institute of Mass Communications are in dire need of to reconfiguring and updating their curriculum to produce graduates who are prepared for future leadership roles in the media and communication industries and who are able to communicate across disciplines and in multiple media formats. This for providing students with strong core content in critical thinking, research and analysis, information gathering, writing, graphics and design, and law and ethics and the latest media technology and skills.

The new media industries today the world over are at a crossroads. Media organisations are hard-pressed to comply with the highest industrial standards while portraying the essence of a changing society. In context of fast changing societies, media workers who are wanting in lacking adequate skills, and as a result the challenges they pose for journalism education and training, is not something new. Currently journalism educators and communication professionals are seen to be busy discussing the ethical, economic and enduring issues on journalism and mass communication education both globally and locally in universities. Scholars from around the world are increasingly researching on issues such as the changing multicultural society, the popularity of “infotainment” genres, the convergence of media technologies and the effects of internationalisation.

A radical approach to curriculum design, aims to equip students with more than just skills in one discipline, but rather grooming media professionals that are critically reflective, multiskilled, technically proficient and processing of a broad theoretical and contextual framework. The core media component does not only focus on journalism (print and broadcast) but also on cultural studies, film studies, media theory, public relations, advertising, scriptwriting and video production.

Most journalism educators are aware of the responsibility they bear and the challenges they face, and most understand that change will take time. It means re-examining what we are doing in our programmes, consulting with industry, finding a balance between theory and practice, broadening what we expose our students to and finding innovative ways to overcome the language barriers we face. And Journalism trainers need to be sensitive to the barrier that language creates, while still ensuring that graduates possess the skills and competencies needed to be good journalists.

So in essence the challenges are two-fold. On the one hand journalism training need to balance critical skills with practical skills, while on the other hand making journalism training accessible so that true transformation of the industry can take place. There are no quick-fix answers.

Accordingly several international audits on journalism skills and journalism education have recently been conducted to address the challenges facing the media world-wide. These embrace the 2001 Meyn and Chill study in Germany, Drok’s 2002 survey in the Netherlands, and those conducted by Kees (2002), Pavlik, Morgan and Henderson (2001) and Medsger (1996) in the United States (see Deuze, 2002, p.91). These studies each highlight issues like a lack of practical skills among reporters non-involvement of many journalist or even practicing journalists in matter of receiving adequate skills and training. One of its disturbing corollary is that Journalism schools also need to adjust their training programmes to the demands of the new media industry and so on and so forth.

Admittedly, today the core knowledge required by journalists and media men is undergoing rapid changes reflective of media convergence and the increasing prominence of multimedia. Media students and reporters are seen to be deficient in having a conceptual map of the nature, scope and range of their field of study a well as their industry. One of the reason for this is that concentration on traditional ideas about journalism is impacting strongly on the journalism industry. It is putting an added accent on the need for classrooms and newsrooms to reflect the social and cultural diversity of modern-day societies, alongwith simultaneously meeting the diverse needs within societies. Hence the urgent need for a detailed investigation into the context and direction of media education and training in the new millennium. (Steenveld, 2002; Wrottesley, 2003a, p.14).

The findings o the audit triggered a debate among both professional media workers and journalism educators concerning journalism skills and journalism education and training in the country. The salient findings of the Sanef 2002 journalism skills audit elaborated areas needing serious attention from both a social and media industry viewpoint as well as a journalism training perspective. Journalism skills cannot be viewed in isolation, but with regard to future training and education the match between suited to the typical profile and needs of “new” media audiences and that of “new” journalists entering the field of journalism.

The SANEF skills audit report reveals that journalists in the field are falling short in eleven critical areas, namely:

Poor reporting skills
Lack of concern with accuracy
Poor writing skills
Lack of Life skills
Low level of commitment
Weak interviewing skills
Weak legal knowledge
Lack of sensitivity
Weak knowledge of ethics
Poor general, historical and contextual knowledge of journalists
Low level of trainer knowledge.

Mark Deuze (2002:92) of the Amsterdam School of Communication Research hold that the media education should be about “keeping the best practices of teaching context and practical skills course on the one hand, and including cultural and critical reflective didactics on the other” (2002:90). Students must not only be made to learn how to write; but also be taught how to think or rather how to reflect critically, analyze, interpret and move beyond basic reportage to the heart of journalism as watchdog. Hence it is imperative that journalism and media courses broaden their focus and force their students to take subjects which while not explicitly journalism-related, are critical in forging the kinds of journalists and media we need in industry today.

As Boezak and Ranchod (2003, p.1) noted: “What needs to change are institutional and organizational cultures and practices that continue to hamper the process of real change….Once we realise that transformation is a process, not an event, not a deadline, not a quota, once we look at what we have indeed achieved, the roads we have indeed travelled, we start being able to change, and to prepare we start being able to change, and to prepare for what will follow…We have a long and exciting journey ahead—one in which we determine the route, without forgetting where we come from”.

In order to “expand investment in journalism training” the Sanef 2002 journalism skills audit proceeded to the status of reporting, writing and accuracy skills among reporters in the mainstream media in South Africa with a view to facilitating the design and development of journalism curricula and to improve the journalism skills of those journalists already working in the media.

The existing News-Editorial and Electronic Media sequences need be combined with Electronic and Print Journalism geared to the needs of a revised journalism curriculum that will provide students with cross-training across multiple and converging media formats in addition to a specialization in either print or electronic journalism.

Even the existing Advertising and Public Relations sequences, while retaining their specialized foci, need grow around the concept of “integrated communication,” the strategically converged use of advertising, public relations and marketing concepts and tools.

Courses that develop interactive communication skills and understanding also need be added to curriculum so as to meet not only general education requirements of all students at the University but also as part of the professional preparation of the mass communication students. Existing courses should be so recast as to integrate an interactive component while incorporating new media topics.

Several neo-conservative status quoists believe that the more sophisticated and complex technology becomes, the more time it takes to learn how to use it. But there are quite a few detractors of this viewpoint especially among those who teach television journalism:

Technology is becoming easier and easier to use. For example, many video cameras today can be used in totally automatic mode (where the shooter only has to worry about shot size and composition and not iris/focus/white balance, etc.) and this means, in a teaching/learning environment, one can worry less about the fine points about what the ‘buttons’ do and more about what the pictures say and how they work to tell a story. Further, new digital editing programmes are often incredibly easy to learn at a basic level. (doug Mitchell 2004)

Again as Mitchell underlines this fact:
More and more, journalists are expected to be able to ‘do’ the technology as well as the journalism. Twenty years ago, reporters didn’t need to know the first thing about how a camera works, whereas today more and more reporters are being asked to do basic editing and even their own shooting. For example, there is CBC’s VJ (video journalist) phenomenon where reporters do everything.

But he agrees that if technology is raised to the status of an end in itself, or as a sine quo non of a particular from or kind of journalism, then the emphasis is more likely to shift on learning how to use the technology rather then the social uses to which it could be put. Focusing on television journalism, he writes:
When it comes to teaching something like TV journalism….there is a very real danger that we end up putting too much of our energies into teaching the technology at the expense of the ‘journalism’. (Mitchell 2004)

And this not withstanding his view that television technology has become easier to use.

The journalism program in order to be successful must be forward looking, competitive and state of the art. It would world require to build on and extend its extensive relationships with local, regional and national media companies and associations for the education and training of journalism students and faculty as well as media related industry professionals.

The board of studies of journalism departments need include media and communication professionals with high reputations. Their expertise need be tapped for advice relating to curriculum and other professionally related matters, including how the course can acquire and maintain the latest technology in its facilities and how it can best upgrade the current analog broadcasting studio to digital and continue systematically upgrading its computer labs and production studios. This updating and upgrading of expertise and facilities is the very pre-requisite of the new media education program aiming at excellence. It can achieve its object only by providing opportunities for faculty professional development to keep faculty expertise current as communication fields evolve thereby enhancing its resources for internal and external communication. This will help enable to build a national reputation an image.

The media education departments must offer to their students fully computerized reporting and editing classes, and create totally digital classroom and laboratory systems. They must orient themselves to revise their journalism curriculum and always be ready to undergo continual adjustments in response to changes in the profession. Far from print and broadcast sequences running separate as is the case today, students in the two sequences need to plan news coverage together, work together in the labs. Tomorrow, it is quite likely that the sequences might disappear and students will be required to work seamlessly on stories for print, electronic media and the Internet – or whatever systems will exist in the future.

Yet the journalism program must focus on fundamentals, on the concepts and concerns that remain constant regardless of how information is transmitted.
Media education requires to be deeply imbued with the spirit of a broad, comprehensive education, and ideal liberal arts tradition. They must ensure that journalism remains well grounded in the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences.

For this the students need be equipped to live roles that an independent press plays in a free society. This is achievable by confronting the ethical component that exists in virtually every professional decision that media professionals make. With this grounding and motivation media students will be able to make good news judgements.

However the underlying principle of all training and education is to serve society and contribute to the creation of “press scholarships”.

Today, to be able to meet the challenge of the Information Age, it is important to understand how the mass media influence societies and how crucial it is for young people beginning their careers in the Information Age to be able researchers and clear writers. Combined with this grounding in the liberal arts there is the need to evolve a highly professional perspective. While concerning themselves with popular culture and communications theory, the mass communication students need emphasize the professional competencies of information gathering, analysis and writing. Unless the faculty have substantial experience in the newsroom and regularly return to it and need be active members of professional organizations, proper grooming and training of the students in the new information communication technologies will remain a distant dream.

For the reporting students the community is their primary sources of news and the labs receives feed from the professional news agencies like PTI and UNI alongwith foreign ones. For practical training of the students it is imperative that they be well equipped to produce radio news packages for the University’s student-run radio station, television news programms carried over the local cable system, and a web site of local news for the community.

All students in the professional sequences must undertake an in-depth reporting course in which they research and produce projects for broadcast, print and the World Wide Web. This would involve interviewing local officials and inspecting official records, searching on the Internet, researching with such sources as Lexis-Nexis, performing statistical analysis with spreadsheets and databases, and producing graphics with the aid of satellite mapping. Step be step students are required to be oriented and groomed to the much needed competencies, habits and perspectives which would help them to grow into competent reporters and editors both during their internship and jobs.

A major trend in the news media today is convergence. It involves combining of print electronic and online news operations in a single operation. While there are several models, it is not certain which will ultimately prevail. But the department’s students have to be so equipped by training and field work that they become prospective leaders in the evolving field. Mass communication programs in Indian Universities must respond to this technological revolution by increasing their focus on the computer applications the industry is using. But woefully this is not what is happening even in the departments equipped with excellent facilities. There too owing to the apathetic mindset and outdated curriculum the focus of all media education classes continues to be on the concepts and principles, not on the technologies or equipment the industries and markets. Any forward looking media education curriculum must include courses in multi-media, graphics, advertising, management and business journalism and public relations. This will well position the students for excellent jobs upon graduation.

Students in the management and business journalism sequence need to take specialized courses Economic and Politics with emphasis on E-commerce and political communication. The global integrated communication management is a highly innovative program designed to respond to an increasing need in the industry and society for knowledge and skilled journalists who can report clearly and with authority in this vital area. Mass communication students therefore are required to develop an international perspective and an increasingly globalised professional orientation. For this learning a foreign language and if possible a term abroad in an exchange programme will do them lot of good. The faculty too in order to keep abreast with the latest in the profession must regularly return to the newsroom to maintain their skills and act as consultants. They need continually interacting with progressive journalism programs at other universities. Similarly, journalism students should be deeply involved in campus life as newspaper reporters and editors, fraternity and sorority leaders, dorm counselors and members of service organizations. This in-house training will help them to become highly successful professional journalists with careers in advertising and public relations, and in a wide variety of other communications-related fields. They will be valued in virtually any field for their ability to gather information and present it compellingly, with precision and clarity, in any medium.

Their reputations and their devotion to the journalism department and the profession will strengthen the competitive position of those who follow them.



References:

ELANIE STEYN and ARNOLD S. DE BEER
The Level of Journalism Skills in South African Media: a reason for concern within a developing democracy?

Dauglas Kellner
New Media and New Literacies: Reconstructing Education for the New Millennium

Rhodes Colloquim
Taking stock of ten years of media education and training in tertiary education: Addressing an Agenda for the next decade.

Lynette Steenveld
Media education in South Africa? Context, context, context