FROM THE PLAYGROUND TO THE BOARDROOM: KEY THEMES IN MEDIA MANAGEMENT EDUCATION Dr. John Oliver and Marketa Zezulkova

Bournemouth University, UK

OUTLINE

• Media education – a view from the Playground

• Media education - a view from the Boardroom

USA Czech Republic

COLOMBIA MALTA

Current and potential role of media

learning within primary school

classrooms.

Media literacy: access, analyse, critically evaluate and create media

Those perceiving the world either through emotions, senses, or intuition

superiorly to rational thinking (Jung, 1921[1991]), the cognitive-rationalist

curriculum of traditional education insistently forces them to experience

the world in a way that is not their own.

Educate the whole person, in all his or her emotional,

cultural, social and sensory-motoric complexity

Holistic and complex relationship with media playing socially, emotionally and

culturally important role in the classrooms.

Transmedia storytelling: Fans following their favourite characters ‘wherever they

appeared’ and each platform making ‘a unique and original contribution to the

experience as a whole’ (Jenkins, 2013, p.6).

The combination of varied activities, strategically

managed by the children themselves

[1] Exercised and practised their coordination: dancing, playing games,

re-acting film scenes or game scenarios

[2] A complex process of thinking: exchanging collectible cards, teaching

each other, discussing

Boy (8 years): ‘I don’t think games can make you

violent but my mum told me that. I think maybe

because they’re so much fun, and that some kids

never stop playing the murdering games, then they

actually want to do it and then you cannot stop.’

Researcher: ‘Do you think it could happen to you?’

Boy: ‘I don’t know, I’m addicted to games, so

maybe. I don’t really want to. I want to be free, not

in jail. I want to get a job. I want to be freeman!’

Girl (8 years): Angry Birds is a bird that you swing, they’re like trapped birds, and you like to swing them on, so that they crash into boxes, and because they’re trapped in the cages when all the birds can go out, you set them free. When you’re done, like when you hit anything, they explode, like a knock out. Researcher: Why do they explode? Girl: I don’t think we’re killing them [thinking] I think they explode, because they want to die. Researcher: Why do you think they want to die? Girl: I think they’re unhappy, because they were trapped.

[3] Reflecting and acting on feelings

how ‘bad Miley Cyrus felt when she thought people liked her only as Hannah Montana’

‘I like theatre more than a movie

theatre, because you’re more in the moment if you’re at a play’

‘McDonald is where I never go, because it’s sad they cut down trees for burgers. My sister searched that on the Internet and she told me. I’ve been there, but I’ll never go again.’

Covering eyes, changing channels, closing windows…

[4] Sociocultural environment

What is better to do alone and what

with somebody.

‘Sesame Street is for babies’, ‘girls

love Justin Bieber’, ‘boys like superheroes’, ‘it’s a family comedy’, ‘these are Czech fairytales’, ‘CNN is more for Americans than BBC’, ‘we don’t

have Santa Claus like Coca Cola shows in Christmas’, ‘families without money can’t buy Xbox’

• Learning through their own experiences how to

manage their, as well as their peers’, media lives

• ‘the responsibility for’, ‘the control off’, ‘the

process of dealing with’, ‘achieving goals’, and

‘efficiency’

• Ideally be used to ‘see what it is ready for, and

upon what material [learning] could work most

readily and fruitfully’ (Dewey, 1987)

• Media management education on all levels

should facilitate the learners’ individual and

collective reflections on their and the others’ life

with, through, and in media.

• The holistic media management teaching and

learning drawing upon reflective and leaner-

centred pedagogic practices might as well be the

right approach to educating new generations of

media leaders setting the trends and managing

complex processes within the convergent and

participatory media environments.

Creative learning and earning to be creative

an authentic, and on a personal level innovative,

problem-solving and communication

A crew worked on specific long-

term projects and were called upon

during the day to run crew, direct

and produce other in-classroom

projects across all grades.

10% of children live below the

poverty line

‘quiet on the set’,

‘action’, ‘cut’,

‘change camera

angle’, or ‘we need

better light’

Encouraged brainstorming about the storyline and

respected the learners’ ideas

FUTURE MEDIA PLATFORMS

ASSIGNEMENT:

Students on the course are asked to identify two future media platforms and prepare an in-depth critical analysis on the ways in which these innovations can together allow their own/employers’/clients’ business to benefit from one emerging trend (e.g. convergence, remediation, participation, interactivity, transmedia storytelling, life in media, community meaning-making, etc.).

A portion of the assignment (equivalent to 1000 words) should be devoted to creation of a media artefact for, or distributed across, these platforms and building upon the chosen trend.

M level, 20 credits, short course at BU for media professionals

Creative media learning and creating media artefacts

Children excited

Media managers

terrified

Goes hand in

hand with

holistic learning

addressing the

whole person

MEDIA MANAGEMENT EDUCATION - A VIEW

FROM THE BOARDROOM What do people want from Media Management

Education? • Creative Craft Skills – directing, lighting, production

• Commercial Skills – Pitching skills, knowledge on IP, business skills

• Management Skills – leadership, strategy, project management, managing creativity

Why do people want Media Management Education? • Development in current role

• Differentiate from their competition

• Change career direction

• Validate their industry experience with an academic qualification

BARRIERS TO MEDIA MANAGEMENT EDUCATION

Cost

Time

Flexibility

“Flexibility is so

important, we

don’t work 9am-

5pm”

Executive, Film

Company

“Costs issues would

come top for me,

we don’t do courses

if we can’t afford

them”

Executive, TV

Company

“Well if I did a

course on top of

work, I’d be

giving up having

any kind of life”

Junior Executive

TV Company

Developing

knowledge and

skills that have

value to

employers

HOW HAS BU RESPONDED?

Core principles

• Knowledge and skills development through learning and reflective practice

• Flexibility – of delivery of learning, timescale to completion and payment terms

• Variety in the courses on offer

BUILD YOUR OWN MA

• 5 study themes including Media Management

• Choose from a range of programmes to ‘Build Your Own MA’

• Blended learning model

• Flexible payment terms

• Up to 6 years to complete

PROFESSIONAL DOCTORATE

• Aimed at experienced professionals working in the Creative Industries who are looking to address the application of knowledge in professional practice

• Original contributions to both knowledge AND professional practice

• Candidates submit an independent piece of work in the form of a thesis (30,000-80,000 words) and supporting

non-written material where appropriate

• Methodology based on Action Inquiry