I’ve been working on a new syllabus for the New Media Skills course taught at the Columbia J-School. It’s a quicky elective that’s designed for students concentrating in other disciplines (e.g., print, radio or television) so most are coming into class with a very basic understanding, if any, of how content works.
For example, the print reporter writes exceptional copy and that’s that. He wipes his hands clean. The radio reporter records a great documentary but doesn’t understand how ID3 tags can be her friend when it comes time for the podcast.
We’re changing that though and I’ve been tasked to revamp the syllabus so that it focuses on both the hands-on and the theoretical. The goal is to get students comfortable creating digital content as well as to become literate in talking about internet/web/digital technologies.
While musing (read: procrastinating), I came across the above by Michael Wesch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University. Besides being entirely entertaining, it’s an entirely good place to start in on discussions about what content actually is.
This piece by Adrian Holovaty discusses how newspaper sites need to change in light of that.
Michael Cervieri is ScribeMedia.Org’s Executive Producer. He currently has a small piece of glass stuck in the bottom of his foot due to a late night swim in a Long Island pool.
