[AEJMC Newspaper Division list] The Association needs to change

[Barbara Mack]

Dear Colleagues:

I think AEJMC is struggling with the same issue that has plagued many 
a curriculum committee:  we've built an educational and industry view 
around the idea of a "medium," now known as a "platform," and that 
concept is no longer relevent.

Gannett reporters are equipped with video cameras.
Television stations report news online, with both print and video 
versions of stories.
Online news services incorporate audio, visual and printed messages.
Television networks have formed partnerships with computer-based 
information systems.

The screen on the wall can be (and shortly will be) your computer, 
your television, your Kindle, your radio, your photo album, your 
newspaper, your postal system and your telephone.

The questions raised go beyond a name change--as important as a name 
is--and call for asking broader questions, association (and industry) 
wide.

I favor going to "News Division" and see what other divisions merge with it.

Thank you.

Barbara
-- 
Barbara M. Mack
Associate Professor
Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication
213 Hamilton Hall
Iowa State University
Ames, IA 50011
(515) 294-0498
bmmack at iastate.edu