COM 121: Intro to Mass Media

The John Sacca Band submitted this as a student project for the Fall 2008 Intro to Mass Media class:

I used it as the soundtrack for a montage of blogs and web pages created by other students in the class.

Dr Coyle

Tech journalist Leo Laporte – broadcaster and leading online ‘caster – highlights his story and experiences leading from broadcasting through cablecasting to the current new media landscape. Great stories; very real.

Keynote recorded October 2, 2009, at the Online News Association’s 2009 convention in San Francisco.

Note: The video quality of this Livestream archive isn’t very good, but the audio and information is well worth listening to.

It’s time for me to write the first exam for this semester’s Introduction to Mass Media class and I find myself thinking about it differently than I used to. Oh, I can pretty easily crank out a test that’s relatively quick and easy to grade and covers the content of the textbook readings I’ve assigned and the things I’ve shared in class: multiple-choice, true/false, fill-in the blank – all approaches I’ve taken in the past. I’ve got two sections of the class – 2 versions of the test since they’ll take the test at different times, with a total of 90 students. In terms of grading efficiency, this approach is once again tempting.

This time around, though, I find myself asking myself some questions. The Big Question: What is the Purpose of This Test? My response: The purpose of this test is to give me and to give each student feedback about what they’ve learned about the communication and mass media topics we’ve considered in class so far through presentations, discussions, recordings, online assignments and textbook reading assignments.

That’s a somewhat general and standard-sounding response, but it’s really my answer. OK, it’s really the second part of my answer. The first purpose I have – my hope – is that the test will help each student learn better. Maybe it would be through reviewing and thinking about the information and ideas again (or, in some cases, perhaps for the first time?). Maybe some students would study and talk about the ideas together – a very effective way to learn. I really want these students to understand basic and important aspects of communications and the mass media because each of them – and me, of course – is and will continue to be affected by communications in important ways.

But wait – there are other questions to answer, Pretty Big Ones: Does the “objective” format – multiple-choice, true/false, etc. – work effectively for all 90 of my students? What about different learning preferences and styles (I bet my students aren’t all the same)? Has the style of the class been directed toward a fact test? We’ve listened to and watched recordings, had a bit of class discussion and on-line activity, a few PowerPoint presentations in which I’ve talked about things in and beyond the textbook.

And then there’s test anxiety. I experienced it in almost every class during my doctoral course work in the ‘90s – and I knew I knew the information (at least most of it; some courses I was concerned). Some (most?) of my students have experienced it. And I have experienced a kind of test anxiety as a teacher when it’s seemed the type/format/content of a test hasn’t been “in sync” (not the boy band of yesteryear) with the way class time has been spent. I’ve gotten overly defensive, at the same time feeling the test probably wasn’t right for that particular class or variety of students. (At least it was relatively fast and easy to grade.)

The clock is ticking and I really need to start writing the test now. But rather than me write a regular objective test as in the past, what would happen if I asked each student to think about their own personalities, learning styles and ways of expression – and prepare for me a written, online or recorded proposal for a test, project or activity/activities that will let me know what they’ve learned about the half-dozen or so main topics of this first part of the class, along with Grading Criteria I should use to measure it? Let’s find out.

Dr. Jim Coyle

Updated September 23, 2009: We didn’t purchase a TriCaster after all. One of our dealers recommended and let us test a Grass Valley Indigo production unit. It was a rock-solid performer, built well for the production environment of the campus location where it was needed.

The NewTek TriCaster has been around for a few years, getting regular upgrades and improvements. We considered this as a replacement for a production system on campus (not our Egan Hall Studio system). Robert Scoble chats with NewTek.

This video is from Fast Company’s video site. Good source for current info.

This is an exciting time in media, but I haven’t found a textbook that tells the story – a story that’s changing almost every day. Here’s one of the better videos I’ve seen about communications today/tomorrow:

There are important online resources we’ll be using, and probably a text-ish item or two. But the future of journalism and media communication will be created by you and students like you. It’s an amazing time!

Dr C

April 29, 2009.

Here’s a look at a team of creative professionals producing a pretty unique TV ad.