James Loney
One man meets the media
New media/old mindsets
In: Uncategorized| University
11 Mar 2009I labeled it as recession paranoia and ignored it (at first). After all, I’m a Radio and Television Arts student, I live within the safety net of a university, I have nothing to lose — right? Wrong.
Even the university is feeling the crunch. The operating budget used to run my program with will be reduced by 5% according to a recent email sent out to students. This has translated into a reduction in table I and II (non-core courses, think something along the lines of theory/production electives for radio and television students).
However, when examining what’s on the chopping block, I just can’t help but notice a trend or two. Below, I have posted a list of courses that are being canceled in Fall 2009/Winter 2010 due to low enrollment demonstrated over two years. While my peers seem to be content taking traditional broadcasting courses designed for conventional broadcasting business models that worked fine in a pre-internet age of scarcity (think tv commercial waste models, averaged-out Nielson audience metrics, tax credits to fund Canadian productions,…) I see little evidence that the School of Radio and Television Arts is rejecting tradition to embrace new business realities in a networked digital environment unaffected by limits of channel capacity.
Producing for the Internet doesn’t mean just posting your 22 minute episode onto an IP-video service on some broadcaster’s website. RTA has an obligation to respect the new online networks that displace conventional (satellite, terrestrial broadcasting, cable, DVDs) channels of distribution. Many people in my generation are now ditching their TV sets and using IP-video services (many of while are illegal but still rival the quality of over-compressed high definition satellite and cable service) to view content that they would have normally received over terrestrial or cable systems. Why are we still being taught to create (primarily for traditional methods of distribution) when such a paradigm shift is taking place? Are we really being trained to provide the YouTube generation an alernative where they can find quality programming targeted directly to them?
Now, don’t get me wrong, there are promising courses like digital media (intermediate and advanced) that enable students to specialize in the newer areas of our industry, but these are production courses not designed to focus in-depth on business models. Using Flash to design the latest IP-video platform’s front-end is great, but if you don’t have a client to pitch the project to because you didn’t study the changing business climate last year when you graduated, than you’re purely out of luck.
Courses on this upcoming academic year’s chopping block were cut due to low enrollment or folded into other similar courses if possible. But we can’t dismiss the fact that the student body as “course consumers” have been bred into an RTA culture that I believe hasn’t fully realized/promoted the displacing potential of non-traditional delivery/business models.
Does it not seem ironic that Advanced Media Management, Legal Aspects of Interactive Media, Economics of Media and others are on the course chopping block this year? Call me crazy, isn’t the idea of future course offerings being based on prior demand, despite being in an age where more consumers are going digital by the day kind of odd? How can you empower next year’s graduates to deal with tomorrow’s changing business models and methods of distribution when you’re living in past trends?
I’ll leave my valued readers to contemplate this question.
Electronic Media Sales (Curriculum from this course will be folded in BDC 901 – Advertising in Electronic Media)
Advanced Media Management (Curriculum from this course will be folded into BDC 402 – Management & Regulation)
TV Distribution (Curriculum will be folded into BDC 907 – TV Programming and BDC 908 – Independent Production I)
Legal Aspects of Interactive Media (Curriculum will be folded into BDC 915 – Legal Issues in Media)
Economics of Media
Media Research – Theory & Practice
Media Restoration & Content Management (possible course substitutions offered through Image Arts)
Special Project: Writing (will alternate each year with Writing for Animation)
3D Animation (possible course substitutions offered through Image Arts)
Digital Graphic & Web Design
PA, AD & Continuity
Corporate Media Production (Curriculum will be folded in BDC 917 – Public Relations)
- Tags: economy, radio and television arts, recession, RTA, ryerson
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About Jim
Based out of Toronto, I'm a graduate of the Radio and Television Arts program at Ryerson University and, at present, a graduate student registered in the Communication and Culture joint program at Ryerson and York Universities. I'm also a new media creator dealing heavily with internet video delivery systems. I'm fascinated by the idea of user-centric networks, whether they be social or technological, and the ways they alter our social interactions.
- Kathleen: Sweet. I would never find out about these things if it weren't for you Jim. [...]
- Brad: Well written Jim, To my way of thinking (based on the comments above) the Radio side of RTA is ac [...]
- Android: [...] Now here’s an idea… | James Loney [...] [...]
- elaine: It's hard to be part of RTA sometimes because we're such a small dept. The courses on the chopping b [...]
- Jim: Ahhh, good points indeed. But video and audio will always needs to remain "new," there's no room fo [...]
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4 Responses to New media/old mindsets
Tara
March 11th, 2009 at 5:40 pm
Good points–I too think that there should be more new media courses included in the curriculum.
BUT if you consider what most RTA students want from the program, it’s courses on Radio and Television as the name suggests. I think student demand ought to count for something, especially when it comes time to decide which courses to kill.
Maybe you should try a program that is more focused on New Media theory and models.
Jim
March 11th, 2009 at 9:59 pm
Ahhh, good points indeed. But video and audio will always needs to remain “new,” there’s no room for being behind the times when technology is changing by the day, and consumers’ demands along with it. What I do want an increased emphasis to be put on is the new(er) networks that let producers deliver their material. As student we should be gaining skills that enable us to be network independent.
elaine
March 12th, 2009 at 6:50 am
It’s hard to be part of RTA sometimes because we’re such a small dept. The courses on the chopping block have gotten (From what I’ve heard) not the greatest reviews and I understand why they got chopped. Though, content management/archiving is the next big career and I am sad that no one has the foresight to take this course (granted, it’s also really boring and I had to drop out of it as well.)
The current model is crashing, especially with the rumors Rogers is building an internet video streaming portal. So, I can understand why we need to push students in learning these new technologies.
But, the job of RTA is to teach us how to be storytellers using different types of media, the job of the student is to challenge traditional models and make something new out of it. Success stories such as Marble Media and the company who provides the videos on the subway platform reminds us that it is possible to just learn the basic skills but have the idea of applying it in a new direction.
What I honestly think we need is a 3rd year MRP/reading course, which allows students who are interested in not-very-interesting topics the freedom and guidance to look at a topic of their choosing and have someone who is knowledgeable in that area to give support. Granted, that also requires RTA to wake up and stop hiring industry professionals and instead hire people who actually are genuinely interested in following what is the future trends of media…
Brad
March 25th, 2009 at 12:27 am
Well written Jim,
To my way of thinking (based on the comments above) the Radio side of RTA is actually a good audio program that ultimately steers students in the program towards the business of Radio. The new SPIRIT Studio’s have been built as a Radio/TV hybrid steered towards distribution via traditional radio, via the Internet audio only, via streaming video and even HDTV quality traditional video that can go live to RUTV.
I think that is the way technological facilities should be built at Ryerson as it lends itself to a student experience that covers the pallet of story telling possibilities. Let the courses go wherever the faculty and students take them but I would encourage the students in the RTA program to develop their passions in their production work. Hopefully the University can continue providing facilities that address both the traditional and emerging opportunities in the area of Media porduction and distribution.
I don’t feel that things are so black and white when it comes to the content covered in some classes. The business of broadcasting has been changing on a continuous basis ever since I can remember. I started in TV way back in 1972 and Ryerson in 1977. I can tell you that the classes in RTA and the business models taught in RTA have changed with the times. The business model for Broadcast TV has rapidly diminished in the past two years, yet the business model for Digital Signage has increased exponentially during the same period. There will be a market for RTA grads but the high value positions won’t be in the traditional places.
You’re right around your concern about technological change. You’re also right that Academic programs are not and should be not be treated as a marketplace based on consumerist principles. However when organizations face cutbacks and administrators have to make quick decisions on how to handle them and its often the parts of the operation that get the least use that suffer. That might be what you’re seeing here.
….brad….