The dramatic changes in the media industry. The impact of technology changes. The budget concerns. All of these are helping encourage our faculty — and faculty of communications programs across the country — to review and revise the curriculum. 

Are our students learning the technology skills they need to be competitive in the media job market? Are they learning the business skills that they may need to freelance or form their own media businesses if traditional media jobs don’t exist?

The Journalism Department, as well as the other departments in the college, continue to make progress toward curriculum change. A Journalism Department colleague and I met with a task force for undergraduate curriculum from the Public Relations Department to discuss how our department’s curriculum changes could impact the public relations students and what input they had for our proposals.

The conversation was collegial and informative. We all learned more about the other courses being offered in the college. I look forward to continued discussion. Certainly trying to help build a curriculum of connected courses helps with the teaching and learning process.