In England last year, over 126K freshman enrolled in ‘creative arts & designs’ programs while only 48.4K enrolled in computer science courses - but in the digital era, which will be better equipped for creativity?
Modern media are dogged by a “two cultures” mentality. On one side are the traditional bastions of media – humanities graduates who tell the stories in newspapers, on billboards, in adverts and books. On the other side are the tech crew: the developers who provide the increasingly complex and flexible infrastructure by which those stories can be told. At the moment, the two sides are largely unintelligible to each other. “Is this possible?” asks the writer of a cunning wheeze to make a story more interactive. “Anything’s possible,” replies the developer, a reply that closes off possibilities while pretending to open them.
In part, it’s a simple question of skills. The tribe to which I belong knows how to tell a story, but can’t grasp the digital possibilities. Being a technically illiterate journalist in today’s multimedia world is like being a pilot who’s a bit shaky on landings.
It’s not just a knowledge gap; there are subtler cultural divides at play. Paul Bradshaw, who runs Birmingham City University’s online journalism MA and is a visiting professor at London’s City University, says that different ways of learning are inculcated early on and are reflected in working patterns. The humanities graduates expect to read a book and learn from it. Developers are more hands-on, trying things out and adapting as they go. “Failure is part of the process,” he says. Different ways of working spawn garbled conversations.
Read more at The Guardian
Modern media are dogged by a “two cultures” mentality. On one side are the traditional bastions of media – humanities graduates who tell the stories in newspapers, on billboards, in adverts and books. On the other side are the tech crew: the developers who provide the increasingly complex and flexible infrastructure by which those stories can be told. At the moment, the two sides are largely unintelligible to each other. “Is this possible?” asks the writer of a cunning wheeze to make a story more interactive. “Anything’s possible,” replies the developer, a reply that closes off possibilities while pretending to open them.
In part, it’s a simple question of skills. The tribe to which I belong knows how to tell a story, but can’t grasp the digital possibilities. Being a technically illiterate journalist in today’s multimedia world is like being a pilot who’s a bit shaky on landings.
It’s not just a knowledge gap; there are subtler cultural divides at play. Paul Bradshaw, who runs Birmingham City University’s online journalism MA and is a visiting professor at London’s City University, says that different ways of learning are inculcated early on and are reflected in working patterns. The humanities graduates expect to read a book and learn from it. Developers are more hands-on, trying things out and adapting as they go. “Failure is part of the process,” he says. Different ways of working spawn garbled conversations.
Read more at The Guardian
No comments:
Post a Comment