DIVISION OF EDUCATION, ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATION
ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Brief notes and actions from the meeting
6 September 2007 from 4:00pm in H2-40, Amy Wheaton Building, Magill campus
1.
Present
Ms Megan Lloyd (Chair)
Mr Che Metcalf
Ms Nicky Page (for Deb Welch)
Prof Kerry Green
Mr Bill Dwyer
Mr Geoff Strempel
Ms Susan Caracoiussis
In attendance
Prof Michael Rowan
2.
Mr Julian Eitzen (Executive Officer)
Apologies
Ms Deb Welch
3.
Ms Barbara Wiesner
Minutes
The minutes of the previous meeting held on 19 April 2007 were approved.
4.
Business arising
4.1
Student participation in Emergency Services training exercises
Kerry reported that Patrizia Furlan had met with Metropolitan Fire Service training
coordinator Peter Mason and set up an ad hoc arrangement for students to provide
media services at MFS training exercises. The School was pleased with the
arrangement and anticipated it would be of benefit to all parties.
Susan advised that the emergency services (SES, MFS, CFS) were about move to a
combined public relations office.
Megan suggested that journalism students consider volunteering for federal election
coverage operations.
4.2
Journalism students at Press Club luncheons
Susan reported that the journalism students had attended three luncheons to date and
had adapted very well. At the last event one student had participated in asking
questions for Kevin Rudd. The students had recently been accredited for Press Club
purposes as working journalists.
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ACTION: Kerry to place a story in the Uni News about the student engaging Kevin
Rudd in questions at the Press Club luncheon.
4.3
Additional marketing opportunities
Susan indicated that the opportunities she originally had in mind had not eventuated.
Nicky suggested that Radio Adelaide would be willing to link their training web site to
relevant School sites. Kerry welcomed the suggestion and indicated that it would most
likely fit the Media Arts portal and “The Warbler”, the Schools online newspaper.
5.
Members’ items
Megan indicated willingness to develop the relationship between the Journalism
program and the Messenger Press. Kerry suggested developing along the line of
opportunities for interns in week long blocks. Megan announced that Messenger
would move to an online editing system shortly and anticipated that would precipitate
somewhat of a culture change. She noted that in the UK “Drudge” had become the
journalism ‘maker’.
ACTION: Kerry and Megan to liaise regarding intern arrangements and the online
editor.
ACTION: Kerry to discuss online journalism training with Susan Hill.
Geoff reported that much effort had been going in to workforce planning for South
Australian libraries. The central emphasis had been on developing “organic learning
opportunities” for librarians to update to new technologies. He noted that at a recent
SA Young Librarians conference that graduates were indicating that the skills they had
been taught did not fit very well with the current library environment.
ACTION: Library Studies group to organise a meeting with Geoff concerning librarian
training.
Susan alerted the Committee to the Press Club Scholarship which includes a return to
study arrangement.
Nicky noted that Radio Adelaide had transferred to digital broadcasting technology and
would commence digital broadcasting from 1 January 2009. She noted that the station
was looking in to arrangements with community radio and suggested that it might
provide the School with opportunity to access new capacity. Kerry welcomed the
suggestion and indicated that the School was developing shell courses to facilitate
students taking up project work at short notice.
6.
New business
6.1
Head of School report
Kerry tabled the Head of School report (attached). He noted that the new and
reorganised programs had been well received and were in strong demand. Only
Bachelor of Arts (Communication and Culture) has not attracted as much interest,
which would be investigated to determine whether that was an anomaly or a trend
away from the program. Overall, the School would need to carefully manage demand
for its undergraduate programs. Kerry outlined the growing economic importance of
the creative industries and some possibilities for the School to participate in and lead
its expansion in the state.
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ACTION: Members’ advice sought on the Creative Industries options (refer appendix).
Kerry advised the Committee that the School had been invited to Liverpool to lead the
Games TV for the World Police and Fire Games 2008. The media role would be in
conjunction with John Moores University Liverpool and would include a student team
and up to six academics, several of which would also work on other projects while in
the UK. Michael recommended Kerry contact Chris Hass to discuss funding options.
Kerry informed members that the School would celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of
the introduction of Communication degrees in the first week of December 2007. He
sought nominations from members of potential invitees and advised that invitations
would be distributed shortly.
6.2
Strategic planning
Kerry tabled the strategic planning document. In particular, he noted that the School
intended to build its capacity to offer all students the ability to publish their work in
public forums. The emphasis in development would be in multimedia publishing but
the School would be mindful not to extend its publishing enterprise as competition for
the mainstream. It was considered expensive but necessary to make investments in
capacity building for the School to remain useful and relevant to its stakeholders.
Megan recommended Kerry contact Rod Savage for TV studio consultancy.
6.3
Arts degree renaissance
Kerry tabled a cutting from “The Australian Higher Education” (O’Keefe, 5/9/2007) titled
“Changing environment spells a possible renaissance for the arts degree”. He
indicated that the School was well placed to catch the renewed interest in the BA.
7.
Any other business
Che advised that MegaSA was about to go national and that it had won $1 million in
funding in support of its expansion. He noted that the industry viewed UniSA as
progressive, particularly in the mobile space. Kerry indicated that the School intended
to support MegaSA.
ACTION: Kerry to discuss funding opportunities for MegaSA with Michael.
The meeting closed at 5:15pm.
8.
Next meeting
The next meeting is to be confirmed for 2008.
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School of Communication, Information & New
Media
Educating Professionals • Creating and Applying Knowledge • Serving the Community
Memorandum
To:
Ms Megan Lloyd, Chair, School Advisory Committee
From:
Professor Kerry Green, HOS
Copy:
Date:
6 September 2007
Subject:
Head of School’s report: CONFIDENTIAL
The school finds itself at a crossroads as it approaches its 30th anniversary. Student demand
for a number of the school’s degrees is strong, indicating students and the community
continue to see those programs as relevant and useful, both in students’ quest for jobs and in
terms of social utility.
In particular, the journalism degree, updated and renamed the Bachelor of Journalism, and
the new Bachelor of Media Arts, which grew out of the old Bachelor of Arts (Communication
& Multimedia Studies) have attracted strong enrolments this year and were overwhelming
favourites with potential students at the recent University Open Day.
The school also has introduced a Bachelor of Public Relations degree, a Bachelor of Marketing
and Communication degree, and has reorganised and refreshed the remaining programs into
degrees that are strongly industry-focussed. The school is, therefore, in a good position to
service the needs and requirements of South Australia’s students and communication
industries. An article in yesterday’s Higher Education Supplement of The Australian
(supplied) comments on the resurgence of the Arts degree, with employers seeking graduates
with strong problem-solving and communication skills. If the article’s predictions are correct,
the school is perfectly positioned to supply those needs.
However, while the school has introduced new technology and associated new practices into
its curricula, it has not concentrated the undeniable skills of individual academics into a single
major or program to take advantage of their combined expertise and to encourage further
convergence.
At the same time, the economic impact of the so-called Creative Industries is becoming more
readily apparent. China, in particular, has recognised the economic benefit to be derived from
the Creative Industries and has begun to invest in them seriously, including investment in
university programs. It is time, therefore, for the school to consider how it might both
participate in and lead the expansion of the Creative Industries in South Australia.
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To that end, the school would appreciate the advice of the School Advisory Committee
members on how best to proceed. Some options are:
1. Introduce a Creative Industries Masters coursework degree
2. Introduce the above degree in conjunction with the South Australian School of Art and
the Louis Laybourne School of Architecture and Design
3. Replace an existing undergraduate degree with a Bachelor of Creative Industries,
either from within the school alone or across the schools listed above
4. Introduce a Bachelor of Creative Industries degree as above without replacing any
existing degree
5. Introduce a research Centre for Creative Futures to show how and where the Creative
Industries can benefit South Australia, with students from measures 1 to 4 above
integrated into its research
Each of the options would be expensive to introduce, so the committee’s advice would be
welcome.
In other areas:
1. Demand for the school’s programs was strong at the University Open Day two
weekends ago, although there was some weakening in interest in the Bachelor of Arts
(Communication and Culture). This may have been due to the scheduling of the
various talkfests.
2. The school will apply for additional staff in a variety of programs for next year, but in
particular for Journalism, Public Relations and Media Arts.
3. The school signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Shanghai
Theatre Academy, the foremost performing arts academy in Shanghai, and is in the
process of signing an MOU with the top-level Chinese University of Communication.
4. Chester University also may sign up with us.
5. We will lead the Games TV service at the World Firefighter Games (WFG08) in August
in Liverpool next year, providing administration and some student support.
6. We expect staff visits from John Moores University Liverpool and the University of
Chester over the next six months. The Liverpool staff will visit to familiarise
themselves with the procedures required for the WFG08, while Chester University and
UniSA will exchange staff during their respective cultural festivals in February and
March. It is planned to make this a permanent arrangement with staff from each
university teaching in each other’s programs.
7. The school has applied for funding of $500,000 to refurbish and update its Magill TV
studio. This funding is unlikely to be approved in the next 12 months, but this places it
firmly on the university’s development agenda.
Regards
Kerry
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