By Dr. Nnamdi Ekeanyanwu
The communication curriculum at the College of Communication, Ohio University, Athens, is very unique and cosmopolitan in many respects. I liked the idea of the specializations and the efforts to give them the required detailed attention through expert training. This is the way I think we should go in the next 20years.
The communication curriculum at the College of Communication, Ohio University, Athens, is very unique and cosmopolitan in many respects. I liked the idea of the specializations and the efforts to give them the required detailed attention through expert training. This is the way I think we should go in the next 20years.
Some scholars have, however, expressed fears that employers now prefer graduates who can cover the event, write the story, edit, take his own pictures, voice and even present the story where applicable. So, to dance to the tune of the so-called market forces, such scholars are advocating for a redesigning of the communication curriculum to train students to become master of all! This may never be the situation.
I do not think the employers can win this one. They will have no choice in the matter. In the face place, I believe a reasonable employer will prefer a graduate with the requisite skills and talent in a particular field of Communication than another graduate with a secondary knowledge of different aspects of the communication arena struggling to be what he is not. This is the major reason I think Mass Communication should be abolished. We dont have "mass" in the sense of the word anymore. The current practice at Ohio should be a model to photocopy across the globe.
Let students make a choice of their area of interest and let the curriculum be available to support that. We can no longer have jack of all trades. Lugging a camera around is not equal to taking an ecstasy shot that tells a story more than words will have. In Nigeria, we have attempted experimenting with students knowing something of every aspects of the discipline. This is good but should not be the practice for a 4year program. The major areas should be emphasized and students made to go into such with a sense of detail. Most respectable disciplines have specialists not generalists. A medical doctor only make sense to me when he is a specialist surgeon, ganeacologist, etc I cannot allow a general practitioner to touch my housemaid not to talk about me!!.
So, lets go ahead and produce Photojournalists with an eye for photographs; a great newscaster with such elegance and elocution in her voice; an eloquent speaker, a visual communication, experts artist, a print writer etc. This is where the industry is headed to. kudos to Ohio for being on the track already. They should not step outside. The others players would soon join. What they want is a commitment that this will work. I know it would work.
Thank you SUSI 2011 for this expose on curriculum issues focusing on the United States and other Universities represented.
Dr. Nnamdi T. Ekeanyanwu
Director, International Office and Linkages
Covenant University.
SUSI SCHOLAR at AEJMC 2011
I do not think the employers can win this one. They will have no choice in the matter. In the face place, I believe a reasonable employer will prefer a graduate with the requisite skills and talent in a particular field of Communication than another graduate with a secondary knowledge of different aspects of the communication arena struggling to be what he is not. This is the major reason I think Mass Communication should be abolished. We dont have "mass" in the sense of the word anymore. The current practice at Ohio should be a model to photocopy across the globe.
Let students make a choice of their area of interest and let the curriculum be available to support that. We can no longer have jack of all trades. Lugging a camera around is not equal to taking an ecstasy shot that tells a story more than words will have. In Nigeria, we have attempted experimenting with students knowing something of every aspects of the discipline. This is good but should not be the practice for a 4year program. The major areas should be emphasized and students made to go into such with a sense of detail. Most respectable disciplines have specialists not generalists. A medical doctor only make sense to me when he is a specialist surgeon, ganeacologist, etc I cannot allow a general practitioner to touch my housemaid not to talk about me!!.
So, lets go ahead and produce Photojournalists with an eye for photographs; a great newscaster with such elegance and elocution in her voice; an eloquent speaker, a visual communication, experts artist, a print writer etc. This is where the industry is headed to. kudos to Ohio for being on the track already. They should not step outside. The others players would soon join. What they want is a commitment that this will work. I know it would work.
Thank you SUSI 2011 for this expose on curriculum issues focusing on the United States and other Universities represented.
Dr. Nnamdi T. Ekeanyanwu
Director, International Office and Linkages
Covenant University.
SUSI SCHOLAR at AEJMC 2011
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