Reflections and Implications
These trends suggest that many approaches can be developed on how to incorporate multimedia in communication curricula. Most Departments of Communication, particularly in the US, seem to be somewhat reluctant to engage strenuously in developing special areas of specialization in multimedia. Most of these departments prefer to only offer some courses on multimedia. The exception to this general tendency is The Annenberg School for Communication of the University of Southern California which offers a variety of courses on multimedia both at the undergraduate and the graduate levels and The School of Design and Media in UK which offers a Master Degree in Hypermedia Studies. Many universities opt for a macro level approach by creating independent multimedia centers or laboratories which can be utilized by many related disciplines including the field of communication. Sill, many departments of communication adopt the wait-and-see attitude to make sure that the move to make is in the right direction. It is probably too early to conceive a field of inquiry, within the filed, which specialize only on multimedia like Print Media, Broadcasting and Film. While the technological rationale is energetically present , the content of such specialization has to be developed through research and accumulation of knowledge. It is probably very suitable to include multimedia within Broadcasting and thus have a new field called Broadcasting and Multimedia. After all, the two basic elements of multimedia, audio and video, are also the essence of broadcasting. Meanwhile, it is most appropriate to start multimedia programs at the graduate level for reasons that students at this level are expected to have the intellectual background necessary for using multimedia within a particular theoretical perspective. In addition, the multimedia, as a new branch of inquiry, requires empirical research which can be conducted at this level and from which knowledge can be generated at the undergraduate level of education in communication.
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