The original impetus for this page was an assignment from a course that is required for me to obtain a master’s degree as a journalism educator. The master’s is offered through Kent State, and the course that instigated this little experiment is called The Social Role of Mass Media. What I liked about this assignment is that it was a badly needed kick in the pants for me, because I had been thinking about the social role of mass media for the long time and the blog gave me a forum to express some of these thoughts in the context of what we were studying.
The current motivation comes from another course, Teaching Multimedia. The course provides me with an opportunity to learn about the subject as I go and grow with it. All of it is a bit overwhelming, and, at the same time, necessary. If I am going to be able to teach my students to use multimedia, I should be able to use it myself. While I am a proponent of slow news and hanker for the days the media was a gatekeeper for the rest of us, I understand that social media and new technology have transformed the news landscape.
It’s has taken a while for me to get this, and I do get it. Now I need to get up to speed not only with the technology but also the thinking that comes with it, so that I can provide new opportunities for my students to embrace it and exercise all of it as they make prepare to make their unique contributions to journalism.
Revision of original post from August 2015
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