ch 15 questioning the media

1. What are your main concerns or criticisms about the state of media studies at your college or university?

One of my main concerns about the state of media studies at Lenoir-Rhyne is how the school as a whole views greek life. The schools whole judicial system is a joke. I am critizing it because of what it chooses to accuse people for. It needs to re-evaluate its whole process because most of it is a big waste of time. Another concern about the media studies at LR is the current convocation system thats in place. Under the current system, students should not be required to attend one convo of each category, but rather say five total convos in a year because there is a limited number of convos for each category and students may not have time to fit one of a certain category into their schedules.

2. One charge that has been leveled against a lot of media research is that it has very little impact on changing our media institutions. Do you agree or disagree?

I agree with this statement because no matter what is said about our media institutions, usually nothing will change in them. Most of the time when things change, it is because the policies of these institutions need to be updated or changed to reflect the change in the society as a whole. Even with al the cultural models that are made about these institutions and how mocu better they could become by doing so, usually changes nothing. To me, media research is just another thing to do in orderto try and critize someone else.

4. In looking at media courses in a college curriculum, what do you think the relationship is between theory and practice? Do hands-on, practical-skills, courses such as news reporting, advertising copywriting, or TV production belong in a liberal arts college or in a seperate mass communication college? Explain.

Since a theory is an idea or hypothesis which aims at explaining something, practice can be correlated with theory. I think that in media courses in college curriculum, practice is supposed to make perfect since practice is an exercise/application of a theory into an idea or action. Say the theory was that one had to learn a dance perfectly within a week. This just means that the person would have to practice and practice in order to be perfect to prove the theory right. I think that hands-on, practical-skills courses belong in both liberal arts and mass communication colleges because of the diversity a college is supposed to offer its students. Especially things like TV or theater production should be in a liberal arts college because there is alo of that here at LR and it enhances the LR experience, so therefore it would at other colleges as well.