Op-Ed
Last semester, I had the honor and privilege of being the assistant director on the student short film, “9 Ball.” The half-hour hit-man movie was a class project, written by a classmate, directed by another classmate, and put together in every aspect by students. None of us would have had the time or resources to make this movie happen had we not been in the electronic media productions class MCJ 119. At the end of the spring semester, my department had a red carpet event where we featured “9 Ball” and other projects that students have created over the years. Family, friends, classmates and professors came to honor both the students and their accomplishments, and it was an incredible night to showcase our hard work. However, within a year’s time, events like this will have no reason to exist because my department will no longer exist.
The main professor of the electronic media productions option in the mass communications and journalism department is Don Priest. Don has been heavily involved in television and film productions for more than twenty years, and as such, he is finally taking the time to retire. Instead of replacing him, however, Fresno State desk-sitters have decided to merge electronic media with the digital media option, naming it “multi-media productions.” It sounds like a great idea; by combining two similar options and not replacing Don Priest, the school is cutting excess “fat” and creating a more efficient major. But take a closer look.
The one electronic media class that is a pre-requisite for all the others is MCJ 113. Offered only in the fall, it teaches patience for those who want to take it but missed the deadline. This new merger, though, will be changing this core class to an elective offered once every fall semester of an odd year ”” that’s once every two years. Unfortunately, Candace Egan will be the only EM professor left at Fresno State and her training was not in live TV, thus contributing to the decline of EM classes offered. This is the story for most of the EM classes. If they aren’t changed to being offered once every other semester or longer, they’re being removed altogether, whereas digital media will change very little. DM dabbles in all forms of media: photography, web design, graphic design, filming, etc. The DM students will therefore have a few extra film classes added to their major to create the multi-media productions option.
Even though dissolving EM won’t really change DM, I believe it will have a strong impact on the MCJ department as a whole. MCJ is all about journalism, focusing mostly on broadcast and print journalism. However, due to the demanded visual stimulation of anyone younger than 30, print journalism is dying. That leaves broadcast as the most effective way of mass communication. But again, broadcast journalism is only at its peak of success if it is visual, using videos or a series of photos. In the past, that hasn’t affected the journalists themselves, because they could always leave the visuals to the film crew. But times are changing.
In many of my MCJ classes, I have learned about one-man-band journalists, or video journalism. One journalist will grab a camera, light, sound equipment, a pen and paper, and will go find and report on a story without any assistance. These journalists are becoming more and more popular because it cuts down the cost from paying four people to just one. But how can upcoming journalists learn the technical skills if schools stop offering those classes? Even if students don’t choose to be video journalists, knowing the skills of being one crucial. Rodica Melinda, from the University of Bucharest in Romania, points out the importance of this by saying, “The journalists who best understand the specific strengths of multiple media will become the leaders of tomorrow.”
I genuinely believe that the MCJ department will disintegrate over the next five to 10 years unless the electronic media option is reinstated. When students desiring to major in journalism discover the lack of filming classes at Fresno State, I believe they will turn to a different school that teaches all aspects of journalism. Without students, the MCJ department cannot survive, and without MCJ, the school will suffer.
Some may argue that students are fleeing Fresno because they hate living here, not because of Fresno State. And I agree: Many people in my generation are too bored to stay in Fresno, especially if they grew up here. And with the already prominent stature of Hollywood, it seems easiest to move there to create a career in film. But instead of Fresno State accepting defeat, they should add new aspects to the EM option.
I have heard that Fresno State is dissolving my major because of the school’s budget crisis. However, the school managed to scrape up approximately $6 million to spend on football in 2010 alone. Fresno State is also breaking their contract with the Western Athletic Conference to move to the Mountain West Conference, costing the school $900,000 in exit fees. People often view sports as the moneymaker of Fresno State, thus justifying the money spent on athletics. But if that’s the case, why did Fresno State spend almost $29M on sports in 2008 while earning only $27.5?
While I understand that it is impossible to stop bureaucracies, it is a shame that Fresno State has lost focus of academics so much that it would prefer to spend its extra cash on a game. Meanwhile, the Fresno film culture risks being hidden forever, the MCJ department is likely to implode and Fresno State will no longer see a famous filmmaker or journalist and be able to say, “I made that happen.”
