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October 16, 2008
Colleges Fail on Social Media

Are the journalism and communications programs at US colleges preparing students for a business environment shaped by social media and Web 2.0 technologies?

That is the question I pondered as I walked across American University’s campus last week. On the invitation of former Forbes senior writer Matt Swibel (http://www.linkedin.com/pub/0/61/500), I had just spoken to a class of about 40 sophomore and junior communications majors. The experience had me worried.

The source of my concern was not the quality of students in the class. Far from it. By and large they were an outstanding group. Smart, energetic, inquisitive and focused on how to best prepare to competitively enter the workforce.

Rather, it was the students shocking lack of knowledge of social media. Perhaps I had unrealistic expectations as I was under the impression that the generation now making their way through higher education were raised on IM, blogs, virtual worlds and online communities.

With the exception of an intimate knowledge of the features and functionality of Facebook, this group came up short on even the basic tools of social media.

-Who in the class writes a blog? No one raised their hand.

-Who in the group reads blogs on a regular basis? All quiet.

-OK…how about social networks other than Facebook? Does anyone in this group have a LinkedIn profile? Blank stares.

-Has anyone heard of Twitter or Plurk or Pownce? Those are Disney characters, right?

I spent the better part of the next 90 minutes walking the class through blog publishing platforms like WordPress and Blogger. We explored LinkedIn and its group functionality. We looked at Twitter and talked about the business applications of micro-blogging.

Woven into the discussion were examples of social media programs Strategic Communications Group (Strategic) currently has in place and their related writing requirements (http://attheroundtable.com/blog_post_view.aspx?BlogPostID=7af347d3cb514770b38a01e9aa47bcc0).

All in all, my guest slot at American University was fulfilling. I have a passion for social media and enjoy speaking on the topic. The students were engage and (I hope) came away with a better understanding of the skills they need to develop prior to entering the work force.

However, my unease about their lack of social media engagement lingers. Are college journalism and communications programs building this into their curriculum? If not, we sure are doing this generation a disservice.

comments, Post A Comment!

Robert posted 10/21/2008:

Marc, as I shared elsewhere, I'm pretty sure you're well off the mark in your assumptions. I wrote about it here - http://is.gd/4r6l - in response. For those that feel emerging digital media is not important, we will likely differ, too. But, I understand that social media is not a panacea. It will not replace all traditional PR practices. I think of it as one new way to effectively reach some audiences. So many of my students are now working in agencies and organizations doing social media projects. Many students, seeking PR jobs, are initially hired to work on intranets (internal comms) and Web projects. They need this experience prior to graduation, if only to be ready for the needs of their employers. We've been providing these experiential educational experiences since 2000. Thank you, Bill, for mentioning what we're doing at Auburn. Students may come in unfamiliar. Yes, that happens. They don't leave that way, though. And, I suggest - they shouldn't. Schools need to embrace and adapt. It is in their students' best interest. P.S. I tried to post this much earlier today, but it seems to have not made it through. So, I'm trying again with another browser. My apologies if that other comment shows up down the line.

PaulaSnap posted 10/21/2008:

That's unbelievable that they don't even read a blog, for goodness sake! A good friend of mine is a lecturer at University of California, Santa Barbara, and I'd suggest universities are largely behind in terms of applying social media to the classroom, based on his stories. If my friend wants to set up a course webpage/collaboration area for students, he has to find the budget himself to do it. There are 120+ departments on campus and each is responsible individually for what they do with their IT. And wouldn't it make sense to have links to articles/class materials online rather than pay $80 for a tome of a 'reader' with all the articles printed out? This is banned due to copyright concerns. Students are coming up with their own sites for study groups, but some are getting in trouble for this... See here from March: http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/posted/archive/2008/03/06/university-student-faces-expulsion-for-facebook-study-group.aspx

Robert posted 10/21/2008:

Marc, as I shared elsewhere, I'm pretty sure you're well off the mark in your assumptions. I wrote about there here - http://is.gd/4r6l - in response. For those that feel emerging digital media is not important, we will likely differ, too. But, I understand that social media is not a panacea. It will not replace all traditional PR practices. I think of it as one new way to effectively reach some audiences. So many of my students are now working in the area. So many students are hired to work on intranets and Web projects. They need this experience, if only - just in case. We've been providing these experiential educational experiences since 2000. Students may come in unfamiliar. Yes, that happens. They don't leave that way, though. And, I suggest - they shouldn't. Schools need to embrace and adapt. It is in their students' best interest.

BORNinSTL posted 10/21/2008:

I agree with sarahrazor that this experience can't be representative of all colleges...although it is shocking that none of the students write or read blogs. Before we can leave with our degree in public relations from Webster, we get experience with writing blogs, setting up RSS feeds, creating video and pod casts and creating websites. In addition, we have to learn how to create interactive digital press releases. DLuke is right; a platform that provides one stop shopping attracts most gen X/Yers and will most likely prevail.

RichardHare posted 10/21/2008:

This generational stuff is a red herring - the distribution of people in each generation of people who use social media follows a power law/long tail distribution

sarahrazor posted 10/20/2008:

I agree with DLuke. Why would college students be on LinkedIn and Twitter yet? Everyone in their social sphere's are on Facebook and some on Myspace. As a Gen X/Yer (I'm right in the middle), I read the occasional blog but I don't obsess about them b/c alot of them are boring. If I really want to get a vibe for what people think about anything, I'm much more likely to read comments at the end of a news story. Besides, the reactions of one classroom is not enough to declare that all colleges fail on social media.

DLuke posted 10/20/2008:

Perhaps these young people’s choices in social media should be seen a reflection of tomorrow’s social media landscape rather than a gasping canary in the coalmine of journalism and communication education. For them, integrated social media platforms like Facebook provide all of the social media functionality they desire in one place. I built a Joomla CMS site to host my blog, I’ve got a LinkedIn profile, I twitter—but is anyone reading any of it? Platforms like Facebook deliver a continuously expanding menu of publishing capabilities with integrated delivery. Why would these young people choose to learn a dozen platforms when one does the trick for them? Because these young people have grown up steeped in social media, they have the perspective to know what’s lasting (relatively) and effective. And because their generation represents the largest group of social media consumers, they’ll determine what is lasting and effective in social media in the future. As communication professionals, we try to learn every new technology that comes along because we’re scared to death these little whipper-snappers will take our jobs if we don’t, but perhaps we’re over emphasizing the value of what we’ve learned so far, and should recognize that it’s still the message that matters.

mildbill posted 10/20/2008:

Here's a bright spot: My former colleague at Auburn University, Robert French, does a great job educating the next generation of PR practitioners about social media, new technology and more. -- His marcom blog (http://www.marcomblog.com/) links 16 pros from around the world to his students (and anyone else). -- infOpinions (http://www.auburnmedia.com/wordpress/) , which he writes for his students. -- PROpenMic (PROpenMic.org ), for his students and those beyond Auburn. (According to one post last month, http://www.auburnmedia.com/wordpress/2008/09/28/propenmic-celebrates-six-months-online-how-are-we-doing-compared-to-other-sites/#comments, this blog outpaced myragan.com by a hair.) -- The Loveliest Village (http://www.loveliestvillage.org/journal/) for all Auburn students, put together by his students. And probably other stuff I don't know about. -Bill

BillSweetland posted 10/20/2008:

Marc: So much for the claim by social media gurus that communicators who ignore new media will be ruthlessly weeded out and superseded by Web-savvy ten-year-olds who are writing wikis about how to get their dysfunctional anti-MySpace parents into counseling. How many times have I heard that my job will be gone, my credibility with Gen X'ers and Y'ers as a communications commentator reduced to zero, unless I get up to speed on podcasting, blogging, and IM'ing NOW. This is not the first time I've been taken in by a plausible urban legend, and it won't be the last.

profchris posted 10/20/2008:

That's certainly not the case at our college: Centennial College in Toronto, Ontario. One of the first PR programs in the Greater Toronto Area to include an Online Public Relations course in its postgraduate program, our students write blogs, create podcasts, subscribe to blogs, etc. More importantly, they learn how Web 2.0 is influencing the practice of PR. We're currently organizing Talk is Cheap 2.0, (talkischeap.pbwiki.com) an unconference, exploring PR and Web 2.0. Many of our students will be involved in this November 12 event; even better, a number of grads who are deeply aware of social media will attend.

KathrynK posted 10/20/2008:

I think you would be surprised how often this is the case. I am a Gen Y working at a corporation and, other than Facebook and a few other tools, learned about social media & Web 2.0 tools from a Ragan conference. Most colleges still teach the traditional methods of communication, including the one I graduated from.

MichaelSebastian posted 10/17/2008:

Wow. This is shocking--for two reasons. First, last March I wrote a story about journalism/communications students. The students at Northwestern's Medill journalism school were all over social media; same thing for students at the University of Missouri. Perhaps that's misleading. While American University is a very good school; Medill and Missouri are probably two of the three best journalism schools in the nation. So here comes reason number two. My girlfriend started a Master's program in counseling/psychology this fall at Northeastern University in Chicago. She's in her late 20s and among the youngest in the program. As a counseling grad student she--and her classmates--must blog, listen to podcasts and watch Web videos for EVERY class. Whether they want to or not, these counseling students are learning about social media. Extremely odd then that these communication undergrads are so clueless about social media. Thanks for the post.