What More Do We Need to Do?
Teach entrepreneurship. Financial media literacy. Digital media
literacy. Cartography. Grant writing. Grammar.
The question was posed to professionals meeting with journalism
deans and directors at the recent Association of Schools of
Journalism and Mass Communications winter meeting in Dallas.
We got plenty of answers — those above — along
with some "don'ts."
"Don't teach software," Peter Bhatia, editor
of The Oregonian, cautioned. "Teach how to use software." In
other words, the young professional must be adaptable.
Juan Elizondo, editor of the Dallas Business Journal, was
explicit: "Math, math, math, math, math. Hard core!"
 Yes, we need to dispel the notion that there is no math in
journalism. There is a significant amount of applied math — statistics,
polls, consumer finance, budgets in millions, billions and
trillions. Our students need to understand that. We can't
shirk it. We can make it more palatable through the way we
incorporate the instruction across the curriculum. But there's
little substitute for a research methods course, and one conference
colleague described a "math for journalists" course
taught by his university's math department. That has
the ring of "math for dummies," which would miss
the point of overcoming the math aversion.
From what I heard at our conference, programs across the country
are wrestling their curricula into some form that accommodates
the dramatic changes in the media environment while maintaining
core competencies of effective writing, critical thinking and
ethical judgment. That's what our faculty members are
doing, as they carefully reshape the curriculum for our School
of Journalism and Mass Communications.
The aim is to prepare our graduates for the new environment,
meet the needs of the professions and blend with the university's
revision of core competencies. No mean task, but an essential
one taking place across this university for all programs.
One apt description of what our students need is a program
that fits them to a "T". That is, breadth across
disciplines and, in the media sense, platforms. That's
the crossbar of the "T" and what we encompass in
a broad liberal arts foundation. Its stem represents depth
in a specific area of expertise—a major or minor. We've
been meeting the "T" test for a long time, but
how we do it is not engraved in stone, certainly not in this
digital age.
And one of the things we welcome hearing from the professionals — you — is
the sort of thing we heard in Dallas. What more do we need
to do so that our graduates, regardless of their school or
major, are best prepared for today's jobs?
There is a growing Gamecock cohort at ASJMC meetings. One
of the pleasures of attending is the reunion with our alumni
and former faculty who are deans, directors or department chairs
at other journalism and mass communications programs.
Alumni on hand in Dallas were Brad Hamm, dean at Indiana University;
David Arant, chair at University of Memphis; and Jennifer McGill,
ASJMC's executive director. Former faculty were Sonya
Duhe, now director at Loyola University, New Orleans; Judy
VanSlyke Turk, now associate director at Virginia Commonwealth
University; and Lynn Zoch, director and acting dean at Radford
University.
Alumni News
J-school Alumnus Writes Book About His Years In the Media
Business
 Journalism alumnus and Deputy Managing Editor of Fortune Magazine,
Hank Gilman, ‘75, shares a "management memoir" in
his book, "You Can't Fire Everyone: And Other
Lessons From an Accidental Manager." "Hank is one
of the smartest, funniest, still employed journalists I know," said
Teresa Barker, New York Times bestselling co-author of "Raising
Cain".
Hank shares about managing employees in his book
saying, "motivating your employees is one of the most
important parts of your job. That means you have to treat your
stars differently. Otherwise, you'd pay everyone the
same and your company would be one big happy socialist workplace."
The
book releases March 17 and is available for purchase at all
fine booksellers.
Mentor Program Continues
The college's Mentor Program held its Spring Mentor Match
Night Thursday, Feb. 10 and made 18 matches of alumni and students
from both SLIS and SJMC. Alumni and students participated in
speed networking in a fun environment to determine their best
matches. Cocky even joined the networking!
View photos from
the event >
Internship Lands Alumna Dream Job at ESPN
 Laura Goldman, '09 broadcast graduate, interned in USC
Athletics for three years and had a senior-year opportunity
at "the worldwide leader in sports" that resulted
in her dream job at ESPN.
Laura's working in the Social
Media Department to produce and launch continuous content on
YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. It's a job that involves
on-camera interviewing, such as a recent assignment interviewing
New York Jets players.
Read more >
College News
SLIS Partnership Bringing 3D Image Center to University
SLIS has partnered with Arius3D to open a 3D Image center
at the McKissick Museum. The Center will produce scientific
quality, full color, three-dimensional models of museum and
research collections. The resulting 3D image models will be
used within the museum and university to enhance learning,
creativity and research on a full range of topics. Arius3D
and SLIS will serve the 3D models through a commercial Image
Library. In addition to SLIS, the Center for Digital Humanities
(CDH) at the university will serve as a research partner, offering
CDH faculty fellows opportunities to participate in the project.
Read
more >
Cocky Award Goes to VW's "The Force"
After all votes were counted—and the Packers had defeated
the Steelers-- the overall winner of the eighth annual Super
Ad Poll was Volkswagen's "The Force" commercial.
Professor Bonnie Drewniany's Super Bowl of Advertising
class and online viewers rated the commercials on brand identity,
likability and persuasiveness. The spot used a child dressed
as Darth Vader to promote the new Passat's remote-controlled
engine.
Watch the winning commercial and see other videos from the
event >
Upcoming Events
Carolina Day at the Statehouse
Wednesday, March 30
Every year, hundreds of alumni take to the steps of the Statehouse
to advocate for the our university. Wear your garnet and black
and "Step Up" in support of Carolina. Don't
miss out on this opportunity to become an effective advocate
for USC and meet your legislators at the Statehouse. You
can make a difference on Carolina Day at the Statehouse, March
30, 2011! Those wishing to participate should register by March
23. There is a $15 registration fee to defray the cost of lunch.
Click here to register >
SLIS Deans' and Directors' Lecture
April 7, 7 p.m.
Ernest Hollings Library Program Room
Dr. Michael Buckland, Professor Emeritus at Berkeley University
Open to the public.
Student Spotlight
AAF Minority Award
By Reilly Blackwelder, SJMC Student
 Tsilavo Ratsimbaharison has a name that is hard to pronounce
but is a person who is easily remembered. Ratsimbaharison was
named one of the American Advertising Federation's Most
Promising Minority Student and was recognized Feb. 3 in New
York City at the AAF annual meeting. Only 50 students were
chosen for this award from the 200 AAF chapters.
He is a senior advertising major who is a leader with Young
Life and blogs about advertising trends.
While in New York, he went to recruiter expos, seminars and
networked with important people in the industry. Of all the
people Ratsimbaharison met, he most enjoyed meeting Rob Rizzo,
the executive creative director of Digitas, who gave him some
advice and encouragement. "Rizzo told me, ‘you
can do it,'" Ratsimbaharison said. "It just
came at the perfect time. I want to be a copywriter and it's
really hard to get into the creative side of the advertising
industry right now, but he was just so encouraging."
Ratsimbaharison was also recognized by CNN and received a
$1500 grant for his commitment and service to the community.
He was one of three students chosen for this grant.
 Ratsimbaharison wasn't the only USC journalism student
recognized. Erin Loo was named to the AAF Honor Roll.
Erin is
a senior advertising major and is involved with the Student
Advertising Federation and the Baptist Collegiate Ministries.
She also is the media director for the AAF-NSAC Ad team.
At
least one student from the School of Journalism and Mass Communications
has received this honor each year since the AAF Honor Roll
was created in 1997. |
