The 2nd “C” – Credibility
How can the values of the Medill School of Journalism, the values of professional journalism and the new gyrations of the professional employment market be aligned for the 21st century beginning in 2010?
The values of journalism as stated by Medill are most visibly found in 2009 at http://ugadm.northwestern.edu/freshman/academics/medill.htm
In its teaching, Medill has always emphasized three fundamentals to media reporting: accuracy, fairness, and balance. "There is a right way, an ethical way, to present the news," says Boye. "More than anything else we want Medill graduates to have a strong appreciation that this is what good journalism is all about."
From the Poynter Institute’s tolerant publishing of G. Stuart Adam’s Notes Towards a Definition of Journalism Understanding an old craft
as an art form: “Whatever else this journalism may be … it is the product of reporting — the gathering and presentation of slices and bits of human experience and thought selected from what N. K. Llewellyn once called the “aperceptive mass of behavior.” So journalism involves, and is defined to some extent by, reporting. But it also involves criticism, or editorializing, or the conferral of judgments on the shape of things. Each of the items in the foregoing inventory — some more consciously than others — involved a judgment or an assessment of the significance or value or worth of the actions of its subjects.” http://www.poynter.org/media/product/20030123_141216_24094.pdf
After meandering about in his essay for 27 pages Adam’s finally writes: “In other words, I am trying to define journalism in terms of what it is rather than by the medium through which it is circulated. Now I am prepared to commit myself.”
He writes: “There are minimally five elements or principles of design in any piece
of journalism that, although journalism may share some of these with
other forms of expression and although the elements may be unequally
represented in individual pieces, together mark and define it. In my
view, journalism comprises distinctive elements or principles (1) of
news, (2) of reporting or evidence-gathering, (3) of language, (4) of narration, and (5) of meaning.” (p. 23).
The readers of the report are fully familiar with Adam’s often used descriptors of journalism through other Medill School 2020 planning terms. Our language is similar but richer choice of words such as storytelling, audience, engaging, news, research, writing, technology, reporting, relevant, differentiated and more..
Dean Lavine stated in 2006 on the Medill 2020 plan:
The realities of today’s media environment require an education that incorporates elements of both traditions, Lavine says. In a world of abundant choice for consumers and fierce competition for their time, journalists need to learn how to reach their audience with compelling stories and presentation, while marketers and communications students must understand how to think and write with the clarity of journalists, according to Lavine. http://www.northwestern.edu/magazine/fall2006/cover/cover/sidebar1.html
Wisely there never was a debate among reasonable, thinking adults about the need for change (only the process). Since 2006 for the journalism program and bluntly since 1989 for the IMC program the changes have been explored, tested, researched, authored, rejected, accepted and refined. As 2020 approaches, the challenge will be to build a viable alternative educational delivery system (a degree combining the content and credible values of journalism for many organizations) that may take as long as IMC has taken to be accepted – toward the year 2020.
For example, a team of communicators at Boeing Corporation operates as the internal communications staff. The team is lead by a former newspaper reporter and editor and staffed with traditional Medill journalism graduates. Their avowed goal is to “transparently communicate to the employees of Boeing” (confirm quote from October 18 2009 meeting).
The example of Boeing is prescient of the future of the need for a journalism based but more broadly targeted educational program in what could be logically, academically and professionally called: “organizational service journalism,” or organizational journalisms” While initial expressions of concern over this preliminary label seemed premature since the report had not been edited or submitted. The report offers in the appendix a combination and permutation of 2925 other phrases constructed from 27 possible degree title words selected from this study. The final choice should be the faculties
The values of the press including “freedom of expression” (Emerson, Fuchs 1992) do not apply only to the traditional news press. It may be time, again, to label the various estates related to the 4th estate of the press and journalism to clarify the richer list of “estates” available to the modern graduate... The discussion above from Adam and Lavine, established that journalism in this discussion is a not simply an organization but a highly professional intellectual process. From this discussion it is fair to suggest that the elements of journalism may be found and logically practiced in any number of institutions or estates.
Given the complex role of so many institutions from the historical 1st-4th Estates it might be reasonable to note the shifts of power and communications to the 1st through the 9th Estates. Therefore, the loss of credibility and the need to restore it for the new estates and old ones. The incumbent expectation of the provision of content may indeed make the new estates “more important than them all."
From the corporate and other organizational concept of transparency in financial, social and other reporting to the shifting search of employees, voters, investors and general public to non-traditional journalism sources for news and news like content, we have a caldron perfect for a more diverse and richly segmented communications “soup”.
William Baker calculates a very high level of unemployment among traditional news journalists: “There's no doubt that news in America is in trouble. Of the 60,000 print journalists employed throughout the nation in 2001, at least 10,000 have lost their jobs, and last year alone newspaper circulation dropped by a precipitous 7 percent. Internet, network and cable news employ a dwindling population of reporters, not nearly enough to cover a country of 300 million people, much less keep up with events around the world. It is no longer safe to assume, as the authors of the Constitution did, that free-flowing news and information will always be available to America's voters.” http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091012/baker
Baker’s government take-over (NPR, PBS) or foundation solution in The Nation may be just one of the “too big (or important) to fail” solutions to changing journalism’s future:
“Saving journalism might seem like an entirely new problem, but it's really just another version of one that Americans have solved many times before: how do we keep a vital public institution safe from the ups and downs of the economy? Private philanthropy and government support are the two best answers we have to this question.” http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091012/baker
The balance of this report has a modest suggestion of a more balanced, likely and institution building approach to advancing journalism as a provider of credible content.
Proposals for Program Research
Initial paper was shared with a dozen members of the leading elite organizations in public relations - Arthur W. Page Society (www.awpagesociety.com). The select group represents professional PR who led the communications function in corporations with $3,000,000 in sales and the top official of leading PR agencies. Members are selected for life-time appointments.
Several of the reviewers are also current or former adjunct professors in the Medill School of Journalism (IMC Department). The proposal was also read by selected members of the Medill faculty’s journalism educators (full-time) as well as full-time members of the IMC Department. Several graduate students in Journalism and IMC were asked for their opinion.
Showing posts with label A.W. Page Society. Show all posts
Showing posts with label A.W. Page Society. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Floating "PRournalism"
In two parts this blog reexamines the career directions of journalism at the graduate level. Despite the increase in applications to the field (due to the recession), the field is constricting day by day. The following discussion, drawn from a report to my university leadership, suggests that graduate journalism students can be redirected to NGO, corporate and government positions. These posts will require their knowledge, skills and natural desire to write and communicate. The clear communication weaknesses of so many international students and U.S. students demands that we find the very best journalism talent, but help them find a career where they can use the the two leading dimensions of journalism: 1. content and 2. credibility. By the way, the unfortunate word "prournalism" is a combination of public relations and journalism. The Handbook of Strategic Public Relations and Integrated Communications
First “C”: Content
The first issue of “who will provide content” is a contemporary issue that is argued by surviving members of the press, by researchers in the automated delivery of journalism and by investors in new media systems .
For example, the well publicized “test” announced October 16 2009 by the Chicago Tribune of the value of the AP wire service, the sharing of stories and content across an Ohio network of newspapers and media as told by Professor Owen Youngman suggest that content supply and demand are in flux. If a precipitous decline in the numbers of traditional news hunters and gatherers means a relative decline in content; then new sources for news content, information and even entertainment content will have to be developed, staffed and supported. http://archives.chicagotribune.com/2008/oct/16/bsiness/chicago-tribune-ap-oct16u
The content may be needed for the rapidly increasing numbers of newer channels of communications. However, while traditional journalistic channels are dying in some countries, they are growing rapidly in others such as China. The growth and demand for content includes the growth of advertising and public relations to feed the dragon..http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703816204574485044128954298.html Whether traditional journalism is dying or not, the demand for original content and new communication pipelines may be expected to outstrip the ability of even traditional journalistic content providers to create and disseminate information. in the midst of severe journalism cutbacks even in the field of business reporting. Journalism has always been an experimenter in new media as has public relations. From a mirror perspective both fields have served the public and their audiences with credible communication standards.
Technology Shifts
• From broadsheets, to tabloid to newspapers and back to tabloid
• From paper to computer screens to digital readers
• From print to electronic to digital
• From print to sound to video to digital forms
• From community to national to global and back to community
A somewhat useful search of Google for November 4, 2009 locates 167,000 searches for the phrase “who will provide content”. The more serious uses of the phrase and the concept of content are identified in two cases that 1. "operationalize" journalism as a professional provider of content (and not simply the traditional media and new organizations that have hired journalists) and 2. "Operationalize" public relations and corporate communications as professional assignments providing content for multiple stakeholders or a wide range of non-media and non-journalistic organizations. Paul Gillin wrote about the future of journalism in a where the role of journalists will be substantially pared: ( For one thing, the craft of journalism will evolve to include far more aggregation and organization than it has in the past. Editors will assemble their reports from a vast library of resources located across the Internet. Information will come from paid staff writers, others from freelancers and still more from reports and opinions published by independent third parties who Editors will still have a critical role, but their value will increasingly be in assembling and organizing information for readers who don’t have the time to sort through the vast Web.http://paulgillin.com/gillin/how-the-coming-newspaper-industry-collapse-will-reinvent-journalism/ with edits by Clarke Caywood for this report.
The future of the creation and dissemination of content was also described by Gillian under the title which parallels the work of this report as “How the Coming Newspaper Industry Collapse Will Reinvent Journalism”
Gillian wrote that “Editorial content is outsourced to an army of individual enthusiasts, former journalists working for a wide range of organizations and bloggers who find interesting information on the Web or original information from organizations and feed it to the site operators. Editorial expenses, which account for about a third of the operating costs of a daily newspaper, are practically zero.
What Gillian misses in both his creative predictions is the logical placement of traditional journalists and new journalists into a wide range of organizations from hospitals, to NGOs , to churches, to government and politics to the largest potential content provider - business. His “third party” journalists may be former journalists and new crops of young journalist able and willing to deliver content from their catbird seat in many legitimate organizations with huge quantities of digital information to share for free. His editors in surviving journalistic pipelines may be charged with determining the credibility of the content of the wider and wider range of content providers (rather than simply tossing the past high percent of public relations generated content .
http://paulgillin.com/gillin/how-the-coming-newspaper-industry-collapse-will-reinvent-journalism/
The content provider issue is on-going even the decline of reporting on business by the press was illustrated by David Carr’s November 1and 2, 2009 stories in the New York Times :
“Fortune magazine had already cut back to 18 issues a year from 25 and this week will be whacking anew at staff along with other Time Inc. magazines. BusinessWeek was sold for parts to Bloomberg a few weeks ago.”
“Instead, Forbes, a magazine that sells a beau idéal of capitalism, announced last week that it was cutting a quarter of its already decimated staff. The Wall Street Journal’s Boston bureau — historically a hothouse of game-changing business coverage — is being closed.”
http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/02/the-media-equation-no-rally-for-business-media/?pagemode=print, http://bx.businessweek.com/magazine-industry/business-is-a-beat-deflated/6777786051928429494-75b532ee469e37c690aac826af91df26/
Graduate journalism schools sealed their fate decades ago by aligning their future with a single, narrowly defined economic industry. An industry that has been a relatively small (and growing smaller) fraction of industrial sector. The mistakes of the past cannot be undone, but the future of schools of journalism can certainly learn from history.
Business schools only marginally aligned their curricula with specific industries (real estate, transportation). In general, the teaching and research were “industry neutral”. Except for an overheated relationship with consulting firms, business schools have survived the multiple recessions that impact the placement of their students. In other educational fields such as engineering the organizational relationships are redefined by technology with some overproduction of students in selected fields like industrial engineering. However, the response in schools of science and technology has been to increasingly create joint field (Bio-engineering, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence). Even the very popular schools of communications have developed all weather sub-disciplines that survive on the generalized applications of communication theory and practice. Specialized areas such as theater which have always suffered from poor economic models are promoted as great for working in matrix management organizations (Stanford University).
The exception in schools of journalism has been the productive and popular fields of public relations and advertising found almost exclusively in the American educational model in journalism or journalism and communication schools or departments. Again, the alignment for research, teaching and graduate career building in PR and advertising (including IMC in the Medill School) is relatively industry neutral except for the agency side of the field. Both of these disciplines are able to use their specific knowledge, education and skills in a very wide range of businesses, NGOs, healthcare and other institutions. By deliberate design of curriculum and their placement service development the field of advertising and PR are more recession proof than their brethren in more narrowly conceived and implemented journalism.
Creating graduate programs that are less precipitously married to a single industry is not as simple as abandoning the original field. We know that the definition of journalism should be considered “wider” than the press. The question of who will provide content is an answerable question that can move forward with or without journalism schools vying for the new honors. However, there is something that journalism schools possess more than many other organizations that may create a new professional advantage for journalism in a wide range of organizations. More to come on credibility.
First “C”: Content
The first issue of “who will provide content” is a contemporary issue that is argued by surviving members of the press, by researchers in the automated delivery of journalism and by investors in new media systems .
For example, the well publicized “test” announced October 16 2009 by the Chicago Tribune of the value of the AP wire service, the sharing of stories and content across an Ohio network of newspapers and media as told by Professor Owen Youngman suggest that content supply and demand are in flux. If a precipitous decline in the numbers of traditional news hunters and gatherers means a relative decline in content; then new sources for news content, information and even entertainment content will have to be developed, staffed and supported. http://archives.chicagotribune.com/2008/oct/16/bsiness/chicago-tribune-ap-oct16u
The content may be needed for the rapidly increasing numbers of newer channels of communications. However, while traditional journalistic channels are dying in some countries, they are growing rapidly in others such as China. The growth and demand for content includes the growth of advertising and public relations to feed the dragon..http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703816204574485044128954298.html Whether traditional journalism is dying or not, the demand for original content and new communication pipelines may be expected to outstrip the ability of even traditional journalistic content providers to create and disseminate information. in the midst of severe journalism cutbacks even in the field of business reporting. Journalism has always been an experimenter in new media as has public relations. From a mirror perspective both fields have served the public and their audiences with credible communication standards.
Technology Shifts
• From broadsheets, to tabloid to newspapers and back to tabloid
• From paper to computer screens to digital readers
• From print to electronic to digital
• From print to sound to video to digital forms
• From community to national to global and back to community
A somewhat useful search of Google for November 4, 2009 locates 167,000 searches for the phrase “who will provide content”. The more serious uses of the phrase and the concept of content are identified in two cases that 1. "operationalize" journalism as a professional provider of content (and not simply the traditional media and new organizations that have hired journalists) and 2. "Operationalize" public relations and corporate communications as professional assignments providing content for multiple stakeholders or a wide range of non-media and non-journalistic organizations. Paul Gillin wrote about the future of journalism in a where the role of journalists will be substantially pared: ( For one thing, the craft of journalism will evolve to include far more aggregation and organization than it has in the past. Editors will assemble their reports from a vast library of resources located across the Internet. Information will come from paid staff writers, others from freelancers and still more from reports and opinions published by independent third parties who Editors will still have a critical role, but their value will increasingly be in assembling and organizing information for readers who don’t have the time to sort through the vast Web.http://paulgillin.com/gillin/how-the-coming-newspaper-industry-collapse-will-reinvent-journalism/ with edits by Clarke Caywood for this report.
The future of the creation and dissemination of content was also described by Gillian under the title which parallels the work of this report as “How the Coming Newspaper Industry Collapse Will Reinvent Journalism”
Gillian wrote that “Editorial content is outsourced to an army of individual enthusiasts, former journalists working for a wide range of organizations and bloggers who find interesting information on the Web or original information from organizations and feed it to the site operators. Editorial expenses, which account for about a third of the operating costs of a daily newspaper, are practically zero.
What Gillian misses in both his creative predictions is the logical placement of traditional journalists and new journalists into a wide range of organizations from hospitals, to NGOs , to churches, to government and politics to the largest potential content provider - business. His “third party” journalists may be former journalists and new crops of young journalist able and willing to deliver content from their catbird seat in many legitimate organizations with huge quantities of digital information to share for free. His editors in surviving journalistic pipelines may be charged with determining the credibility of the content of the wider and wider range of content providers (rather than simply tossing the past high percent of public relations generated content .
http://paulgillin.com/gillin/how-the-coming-newspaper-industry-collapse-will-reinvent-journalism/
The content provider issue is on-going even the decline of reporting on business by the press was illustrated by David Carr’s November 1and 2, 2009 stories in the New York Times :
“Fortune magazine had already cut back to 18 issues a year from 25 and this week will be whacking anew at staff along with other Time Inc. magazines. BusinessWeek was sold for parts to Bloomberg a few weeks ago.”
“Instead, Forbes, a magazine that sells a beau idéal of capitalism, announced last week that it was cutting a quarter of its already decimated staff. The Wall Street Journal’s Boston bureau — historically a hothouse of game-changing business coverage — is being closed.”
http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/02/the-media-equation-no-rally-for-business-media/?pagemode=print, http://bx.businessweek.com/magazine-industry/business-is-a-beat-deflated/6777786051928429494-75b532ee469e37c690aac826af91df26/
Graduate journalism schools sealed their fate decades ago by aligning their future with a single, narrowly defined economic industry. An industry that has been a relatively small (and growing smaller) fraction of industrial sector. The mistakes of the past cannot be undone, but the future of schools of journalism can certainly learn from history.
Business schools only marginally aligned their curricula with specific industries (real estate, transportation). In general, the teaching and research were “industry neutral”. Except for an overheated relationship with consulting firms, business schools have survived the multiple recessions that impact the placement of their students. In other educational fields such as engineering the organizational relationships are redefined by technology with some overproduction of students in selected fields like industrial engineering. However, the response in schools of science and technology has been to increasingly create joint field (Bio-engineering, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence). Even the very popular schools of communications have developed all weather sub-disciplines that survive on the generalized applications of communication theory and practice. Specialized areas such as theater which have always suffered from poor economic models are promoted as great for working in matrix management organizations (Stanford University).
The exception in schools of journalism has been the productive and popular fields of public relations and advertising found almost exclusively in the American educational model in journalism or journalism and communication schools or departments. Again, the alignment for research, teaching and graduate career building in PR and advertising (including IMC in the Medill School) is relatively industry neutral except for the agency side of the field. Both of these disciplines are able to use their specific knowledge, education and skills in a very wide range of businesses, NGOs, healthcare and other institutions. By deliberate design of curriculum and their placement service development the field of advertising and PR are more recession proof than their brethren in more narrowly conceived and implemented journalism.
Creating graduate programs that are less precipitously married to a single industry is not as simple as abandoning the original field. We know that the definition of journalism should be considered “wider” than the press. The question of who will provide content is an answerable question that can move forward with or without journalism schools vying for the new honors. However, there is something that journalism schools possess more than many other organizations that may create a new professional advantage for journalism in a wide range of organizations. More to come on credibility.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Teaching communications in MBA programs may be moot
Reference to debate over more PR being taught in MBA programs athttp://www.awpagesociety.com/awp_blog/comments/pr_education_a_most_un_businesslike_proposition1/
This is one of the longest discussions we have had on the evergreen topic. Given the economic realities of the market and the cost of education; I will argue that we may be too late to even include communications in business schools. First, I have some history for you.
Our A.W. Page B-School Committee has debated the topic for over a decade with all the frustrations demonstrated above. At a personal level most of you know that I moved from teaching at the Business School at Wisconsin-Madison to the Medill School of Journalism. With a joint doctorate in Business Management and in Journalism Mass Communications (PR and Advertising and similar joint undergraduate work), I was recruited to teach graduate PR, marketing and management. Our goal was to create the new Integrated Marketing Communications program in response to chaos in the industry and in Schools of Journalism and Communications. We knew that we could offer the best of a business management degree since we had been on the campus long before Kellogg and could make an agreement to use communications as the strategic field of study. We received a great deal of valued publicity when our work was attacked by the biggest academic names in Communications and PR for “getting in bed with marketing”.
We have not looked back since that time and have given students tremendous opportunities to use communications as a strategic advantage in business and complex organizations. Our agreement with the Kellogg School of Management (including joint appointments for IMC faculty there and in Engineering) have given our students a competitive advantage. Our students are “terminal degree” candidates with business and political experience like MBAs who don’t want to use the masters as a pre-doctoral degree. At Medill IMC we now offer a program for undergraduates in IMC with PR since Kellogg does not have an undergraduate degree (they have a very small certificate program for some undergrads).
However, in the business schools and other professional schools; the issue has dramatically changed. The private schools may face the issue of “return-on-investment” for a professional graduate degree not being worth the risk. Even the “pubvate” schools (a term for public schools that are no longer substantially supported by state aid) are raising tuition and fees more rapidly than the private schools. The issue is compounded the failure of state taxpayers and legislators to support higher education but to still muddle in the work of the university. For example, only 20% of the support for the University of Ilinois-Urbana is from state funding. The private schools like Northwestern consider all pubvates direct competitors for federal money, grants, alumni dollars, tuition. At many private schools and increasing numbers of pubvates tuition costs for an MBA or IMC degree exceed a reasonable payback period. I am developing a website “widget” for students to calculate before returning to school the real costs and benefits of a professional graduate degree. The breakeven point on the degree can be over a decade which means that many students may never pay back the degree costs from their career income. They also still have loans outstanding from their undergraduate work which I do not challenge with the ROI message. While education has some non-fiscal values, we are asking the same questions that allowed the preparation of economic impact and social impact statements on national and state legislation. My preliminary conclusions are that the only business related graduate degree that has a potentially positive ROI is a part-time degree that allows the student to work and avoid the opportunity costs of leaving their income producing job.
We can worry about communications being a critical function in business (and I agree) but the key issues are whether your companies will 1. support education and training for your employees, 2. how students can repay outrageous business degree costs (compared to your degree costs many years ago), 3. support higher wages for professional degree holder from MBA and IMC programs to get the talent you want, 4. support extensive research (not just case studies) on the real value of communications in business decision-making, crisis management, political risks to business, etc.
By Clarke L. Caywood, Ph.D. on October, 02 2009
This is one of the longest discussions we have had on the evergreen topic. Given the economic realities of the market and the cost of education; I will argue that we may be too late to even include communications in business schools. First, I have some history for you.
Our A.W. Page B-School Committee has debated the topic for over a decade with all the frustrations demonstrated above. At a personal level most of you know that I moved from teaching at the Business School at Wisconsin-Madison to the Medill School of Journalism. With a joint doctorate in Business Management and in Journalism Mass Communications (PR and Advertising and similar joint undergraduate work), I was recruited to teach graduate PR, marketing and management. Our goal was to create the new Integrated Marketing Communications program in response to chaos in the industry and in Schools of Journalism and Communications. We knew that we could offer the best of a business management degree since we had been on the campus long before Kellogg and could make an agreement to use communications as the strategic field of study. We received a great deal of valued publicity when our work was attacked by the biggest academic names in Communications and PR for “getting in bed with marketing”.
We have not looked back since that time and have given students tremendous opportunities to use communications as a strategic advantage in business and complex organizations. Our agreement with the Kellogg School of Management (including joint appointments for IMC faculty there and in Engineering) have given our students a competitive advantage. Our students are “terminal degree” candidates with business and political experience like MBAs who don’t want to use the masters as a pre-doctoral degree. At Medill IMC we now offer a program for undergraduates in IMC with PR since Kellogg does not have an undergraduate degree (they have a very small certificate program for some undergrads).
However, in the business schools and other professional schools; the issue has dramatically changed. The private schools may face the issue of “return-on-investment” for a professional graduate degree not being worth the risk. Even the “pubvate” schools (a term for public schools that are no longer substantially supported by state aid) are raising tuition and fees more rapidly than the private schools. The issue is compounded the failure of state taxpayers and legislators to support higher education but to still muddle in the work of the university. For example, only 20% of the support for the University of Ilinois-Urbana is from state funding. The private schools like Northwestern consider all pubvates direct competitors for federal money, grants, alumni dollars, tuition. At many private schools and increasing numbers of pubvates tuition costs for an MBA or IMC degree exceed a reasonable payback period. I am developing a website “widget” for students to calculate before returning to school the real costs and benefits of a professional graduate degree. The breakeven point on the degree can be over a decade which means that many students may never pay back the degree costs from their career income. They also still have loans outstanding from their undergraduate work which I do not challenge with the ROI message. While education has some non-fiscal values, we are asking the same questions that allowed the preparation of economic impact and social impact statements on national and state legislation. My preliminary conclusions are that the only business related graduate degree that has a potentially positive ROI is a part-time degree that allows the student to work and avoid the opportunity costs of leaving their income producing job.
We can worry about communications being a critical function in business (and I agree) but the key issues are whether your companies will 1. support education and training for your employees, 2. how students can repay outrageous business degree costs (compared to your degree costs many years ago), 3. support higher wages for professional degree holder from MBA and IMC programs to get the talent you want, 4. support extensive research (not just case studies) on the real value of communications in business decision-making, crisis management, political risks to business, etc.
By Clarke L. Caywood, Ph.D. on October, 02 2009
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Comments on a prestigious University expanding its degree programs in a unique and admirable way (name of the School is removed). Agencies like Edelman, Ketchum, Fleishman Hillard, may find the new degrees of interest to their HR plans.
"Other schools would benefit from this school's approach to educational planning. Their response to the strategic and applied communication education market is a credit to their insight into the demand for professional education over the past 5 years. Their initial response to create a strategic program for more experienced professionals seeking to advance in their field or develop new business communications knowledge for corporate, agency, government or not-for-profit organizations was timely as the field was growing at 9 percent per year. The School has established a recognized position in an enviable leading communication industry and professional market. They allowed the program to mature, attract students, build a reputation and attract senior clinical faculty.
As the market changed; they did not simply rest or exploit the new demand that would change the character of their strategic program. Unlike others have done in similar programs, they reanalyzed the market and with determination and decided to offer a new, advanced degree program that met the needs of the market of younger and more international students. Rather than simply muddle the program they had created for a more experienced and older market (similar to what was done in superior MBA programs) they recognized and redefined their educational mission to serve the newer applicant pool.
The extraordinary demand for an American university education from students in China and other countries in Asia was seen by the faculty and administration as a new market rather than simply more applicants to fill a program that was not suited to the Asian applicants. (I spend 20 days and more in China each year with several faculty courtesy appointments). The team also saw the demand of younger, more recent college graduates as different from the interest of the pool of applicants served by the established master’s degree. Instead of watering down their existing degree with students who can benefit from and earn a graduate degree, they realized that the knowledge and skills that needed to be “mastered” were different from the knowledge and skills of the strategic degree.
While the distinct cultural experience of international students is often of great value to a class of sometimes parochial Americans, the barriers to learning in the field of communications are often tied to the namesake of the field. As with any other professional field, the skills and knowledge needed to succeed early in a communications career are demanding and core to the grasp of the professional practice and concept building. An approach we utilize at Northwestern is to identify theories or concepts that are more universal and examples of best thinking by business and other organizational leaders. The concepts, while very helpful to articulating why a specific action may be taken, are not sufficient. In a professional field as far ranging and dependent on so many social science bodies of knowledge, statistics and mathematics; a comprehensive degree at the masters level much match concept with tactics.
For the professional students without work experience or a portfolio of written and creative work, their degree work must direct them to accomplish the concepts and practices of the field. For students with a newer acquired command of business English and less experience in the Western business environment; their education and training must emphasize a few powerful theories and even more tactical skills to demonstrate their grasp of the advanced fundamentals of the field. It would be my belief that the new generation of students would receive an education that would emphasize more application of tools and tactics but still make sure they are grounded in very carefully selected theories or concept. The ratio for the applied degree might be 30% theories and concepts matched with 60% tactics and tools directly related to the concepts taught. While all tools and tactics should be based on a concept to explain why the tactic is being used, not all theories have incumbent tactics. The other advanced degree with different objectives for a different set of masters candidates may be 70% theories and concepts (sometimes called strategies in business) and 30% knowledge and application of skills (tools and concepts).
This model gives me a strong reason to agree that two master’s degrees with different objectives can co-exist in the same school exploring the same widely defined topic – communications. The School is taking a stronger approach to the education of the next generation of business leaders who will use communications as a strategic and tactical advantage in the marketplace of ideas, products and services.
Rather than entering the market at a “lower” level (as some might interpret their actions), the educational plan, courses and faculty illustrate the intellectual and practical benefit of distinguishing between the two slightly parallel degrees and timely degrees. The degree opens the world of conceptual and applied communications to a wider range of holders of a wide range of bachelor’s degrees. The degree is a superior model in which many students can begin their careers in an increasing specialized world with advanced work.
In summary, the school’s identification and definition of a professional degree for less experienced candidates with the desire to “master” a subject is an appropriate degree at an applied level in a strong university environment. I fully expect that selected topics of the strategic communications degree will “trickle down” as new knowledge is created and tested in that degree. I expect that a number of joint opportunities will be conceived of notable guest speakers from industry and academe, possible mentoring by the older master’s students on complex projects but also tutoring by the younger students on some of the quantitative work and tactics that they share. Some form of joint field trips to advanced agencies or practices of the strategic students might be bonding. I hope that the Applied students would be considered by the strategic students who are working for their firms. Their common and overlapping education would be a great recommendation for employment and the joint interest into the Columbia model would be a productive value to share. A single joint team project at the end of their coursework might be conceived to have them work as a comprehensive team of strategists and applied experts.
The strongest possible effort must be documented and practiced to give both sets of students equal respect and equal rewards to meet their goals. The culture of the School should reflect the efforts of the faculty and administration to demonstrate that the degrees are both master’s of communications. The distinction should be goal driven and important to the students as they master elements of knowledge and skills of a wide and deep discipline.
The educational nostrum that education should prepare students for their third job or for a job that has not been created sometimes belies the value of the widely ranging baccalaureate degrees of the candidates, the rich nature of the media covering topics that might have only been found in advanced curriculum, and the life-time learning goals of students. School faculty and administrators have carefully defined a professional communications degree in two categories which should lead and define the field among their competitors but mostly to the advantage of their students. While other schools, including Northwestern, force the faculty to select from only one degree in strategic and applied business communications (Integrated Marketing Communications in the Medill School); this school can logically attract a wider range of students. The Medill IMC program was judged in the competitive analysis as a "marketing program" not a "communication" program despite the title Integrated Marketing Communications.
Finally, the idea of a dual track master’s programs in strategic and applied communications seems to be a superior model to attract a wider range of holders of the baccalaureate degree in a wider range of topics rather than those with “pre-professional” degrees. I have confidence in the faculty to carefully and continuously monitor the distance between the two degrees, the standards for admission, planned overlaps, and joint learning opportunities. This monitoring of an original new degree mix will be served by experience, testing, occasional failures and frequent faculty reviews to create true distinction between the degrees but a long term goal of finding important similarities and even dual master’s earned by very selected students over time."
"Other schools would benefit from this school's approach to educational planning. Their response to the strategic and applied communication education market is a credit to their insight into the demand for professional education over the past 5 years. Their initial response to create a strategic program for more experienced professionals seeking to advance in their field or develop new business communications knowledge for corporate, agency, government or not-for-profit organizations was timely as the field was growing at 9 percent per year. The School has established a recognized position in an enviable leading communication industry and professional market. They allowed the program to mature, attract students, build a reputation and attract senior clinical faculty.
As the market changed; they did not simply rest or exploit the new demand that would change the character of their strategic program. Unlike others have done in similar programs, they reanalyzed the market and with determination and decided to offer a new, advanced degree program that met the needs of the market of younger and more international students. Rather than simply muddle the program they had created for a more experienced and older market (similar to what was done in superior MBA programs) they recognized and redefined their educational mission to serve the newer applicant pool.
The extraordinary demand for an American university education from students in China and other countries in Asia was seen by the faculty and administration as a new market rather than simply more applicants to fill a program that was not suited to the Asian applicants. (I spend 20 days and more in China each year with several faculty courtesy appointments). The team also saw the demand of younger, more recent college graduates as different from the interest of the pool of applicants served by the established master’s degree. Instead of watering down their existing degree with students who can benefit from and earn a graduate degree, they realized that the knowledge and skills that needed to be “mastered” were different from the knowledge and skills of the strategic degree.
While the distinct cultural experience of international students is often of great value to a class of sometimes parochial Americans, the barriers to learning in the field of communications are often tied to the namesake of the field. As with any other professional field, the skills and knowledge needed to succeed early in a communications career are demanding and core to the grasp of the professional practice and concept building. An approach we utilize at Northwestern is to identify theories or concepts that are more universal and examples of best thinking by business and other organizational leaders. The concepts, while very helpful to articulating why a specific action may be taken, are not sufficient. In a professional field as far ranging and dependent on so many social science bodies of knowledge, statistics and mathematics; a comprehensive degree at the masters level much match concept with tactics.
For the professional students without work experience or a portfolio of written and creative work, their degree work must direct them to accomplish the concepts and practices of the field. For students with a newer acquired command of business English and less experience in the Western business environment; their education and training must emphasize a few powerful theories and even more tactical skills to demonstrate their grasp of the advanced fundamentals of the field. It would be my belief that the new generation of students would receive an education that would emphasize more application of tools and tactics but still make sure they are grounded in very carefully selected theories or concept. The ratio for the applied degree might be 30% theories and concepts matched with 60% tactics and tools directly related to the concepts taught. While all tools and tactics should be based on a concept to explain why the tactic is being used, not all theories have incumbent tactics. The other advanced degree with different objectives for a different set of masters candidates may be 70% theories and concepts (sometimes called strategies in business) and 30% knowledge and application of skills (tools and concepts).
This model gives me a strong reason to agree that two master’s degrees with different objectives can co-exist in the same school exploring the same widely defined topic – communications. The School is taking a stronger approach to the education of the next generation of business leaders who will use communications as a strategic and tactical advantage in the marketplace of ideas, products and services.
Rather than entering the market at a “lower” level (as some might interpret their actions), the educational plan, courses and faculty illustrate the intellectual and practical benefit of distinguishing between the two slightly parallel degrees and timely degrees. The degree opens the world of conceptual and applied communications to a wider range of holders of a wide range of bachelor’s degrees. The degree is a superior model in which many students can begin their careers in an increasing specialized world with advanced work.
In summary, the school’s identification and definition of a professional degree for less experienced candidates with the desire to “master” a subject is an appropriate degree at an applied level in a strong university environment. I fully expect that selected topics of the strategic communications degree will “trickle down” as new knowledge is created and tested in that degree. I expect that a number of joint opportunities will be conceived of notable guest speakers from industry and academe, possible mentoring by the older master’s students on complex projects but also tutoring by the younger students on some of the quantitative work and tactics that they share. Some form of joint field trips to advanced agencies or practices of the strategic students might be bonding. I hope that the Applied students would be considered by the strategic students who are working for their firms. Their common and overlapping education would be a great recommendation for employment and the joint interest into the Columbia model would be a productive value to share. A single joint team project at the end of their coursework might be conceived to have them work as a comprehensive team of strategists and applied experts.
The strongest possible effort must be documented and practiced to give both sets of students equal respect and equal rewards to meet their goals. The culture of the School should reflect the efforts of the faculty and administration to demonstrate that the degrees are both master’s of communications. The distinction should be goal driven and important to the students as they master elements of knowledge and skills of a wide and deep discipline.
The educational nostrum that education should prepare students for their third job or for a job that has not been created sometimes belies the value of the widely ranging baccalaureate degrees of the candidates, the rich nature of the media covering topics that might have only been found in advanced curriculum, and the life-time learning goals of students. School faculty and administrators have carefully defined a professional communications degree in two categories which should lead and define the field among their competitors but mostly to the advantage of their students. While other schools, including Northwestern, force the faculty to select from only one degree in strategic and applied business communications (Integrated Marketing Communications in the Medill School); this school can logically attract a wider range of students. The Medill IMC program was judged in the competitive analysis as a "marketing program" not a "communication" program despite the title Integrated Marketing Communications.
Finally, the idea of a dual track master’s programs in strategic and applied communications seems to be a superior model to attract a wider range of holders of the baccalaureate degree in a wider range of topics rather than those with “pre-professional” degrees. I have confidence in the faculty to carefully and continuously monitor the distance between the two degrees, the standards for admission, planned overlaps, and joint learning opportunities. This monitoring of an original new degree mix will be served by experience, testing, occasional failures and frequent faculty reviews to create true distinction between the degrees but a long term goal of finding important similarities and even dual master’s earned by very selected students over time."
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Daivd Walker former Comptroller General of US comments
He began with a speech device that worked to describe a 300 year organization that exists without a plan, without outcome metrics and without competitive data. His litany of debt, revenue, missteps and tomfoolery awakened the post lunch audience to realize that it was the U.S. he described. His most memorable word was "laggership" the opposite of leadership to define the actions of the U.S. Congress and Administration. He usefully refers the audience to www.pgpf.org for unbiased, non-partisan information. For my students, he often used the term "young people" (18-36 related to the Foundation work)who must become involved with linking business with other institutions more in the traditions of previous decades. Watch for development here of a future seminar on coalitions of the future at NU.
In Hangzhou, China on West Lake, a group of CEOs met to listen to the American professor returning after only 3 months to stand by his predictions of a rapidly sloping economy. The metaphor that rang true with these Chinese business leaders was of the world economy being more like the Chinese Year of the ox where a laborious economic return very unlike the spiked fall would be the example. Not a bull, but an ox.
In Hangzhou, China on West Lake, a group of CEOs met to listen to the American professor returning after only 3 months to stand by his predictions of a rapidly sloping economy. The metaphor that rang true with these Chinese business leaders was of the world economy being more like the Chinese Year of the ox where a laborious economic return very unlike the spiked fall would be the example. Not a bull, but an ox.
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