MASS COMM EDUCATION
10/21/2024
This month has been designated National Higher Education Month, and I thought it might not be inappropriate to talk a bit about myself.
Actually, not just about me, but about what I and a lot of other mass communications professors do with our students.
The thousands of students going through the mass communications programs across the country will, in a very short time, be the young men and women making decisions about what you see in newspapers and magazines, hear and see on radio and television, and what you see, hear, read and listen to on the Internet.
For many years there has been a raging debate in higher education circles about just what the role and function of mass communications instruction is supposed to be. Are we glorified trade schools teaching skills; are we technical training schools teaching students the intricacies of new technology; or are we in ivory towers, teaching high-sounding philosophical arguments that have nothing to do with the real, every day worlds of information and entertainment.
Well, yes and no to all three.
The communications field is at once creatively, technically and philosophically diverse. In fact, it is a misnomer to refer to it as a single field of study at all.
What we are trying to do is give our students the philosophical and legal underpinnings in order to use manual skills and expanding technical wizardry in a way that will provide you, the consumer, with relevant information and entertainment.
Thus we cannot just teach our students only how to write news stories and public relations handouts. We cannot teach our students only how to run computers and cameras. We cannot teach students only their legal and moral responsibilities. We must do all three.
And that, I’ll confess, is a challenge.
These three areas, basic skills, technical expertise and sound, logical reasoning, are so intertwined it is impossible to separate them. No longer is it enough to simply write a competent news story.
Now, a reporter must deal with the method of transmission of that story. And the legal or ethical ramifications of one kind of coverage over another.
As we all know, constantly changing technologies allow us to send messages instantly anywhere in the world. But, are those messages simply raw data, or are they really packages of information the audience can digest and then assimilate into their lives?
It has been said the key to power lies in the ability to get information. Thus, those who control the flow of information wield a tremendous sword.
It has also been said the pen is mightier than the sword.
But, now the pen itself has become a sword of awesome proportions and destructive power.
I, for one, think we are doing a good job teaching our students how to use that power effectively and humanely.
I’m Larry Burriss.