Mass communication: a moving target: proposed media program addresses rapid changes in news delivery.

• Author: Sukin, Gigi
• Position: EDUCATION - College of Media, Communication and Information - Column

WE'RE PRONE TO make predictions about everything--the season finales of popular television, the winning team of the World Cup, the apocalypse, the economy, technology and everything in between. Though hardly impervious to market shifts or trends, academia is generally a little late to the game. More often than not, announcements of new courses, programs, certifications and degrees are met with public statements that start: "In response to the growing need for ..."

And yet the University of Colorado Boulder is positioning itself as a future-betting ringleader as it weighs in on what's ahead for media, communication and information dissemination.

The 2011 shutdown of CU's School of Journalism and Mass Communication was attributed to the accelerated transformation of media. Two years later, Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Russell Moore announced plans for a new communication-centric college on campus.

"After more than three years of faculty discussions, after consultations with the deans, and with the support of the chancellor, we have moved beyond the question of whether we are creating a new college, to the phase in which we do the work necessary to present our ideas to the board of regents," Moore said in a statement.

And so, the university released a draft of the proposal for the College of Media, Communication and Information focused on digital storytelling. Committee members explored the details including: budget, curriculum, degrees, necessary hires, space needs and faculty governance, soliciting community feedback earlier this year.

The proposal sheds light on the specifics of the college's mission, allocated departments and disciplines, a core curriculum and other details. Rather than merely a reorganization, the "total transformation" of the media program at CU focuses on "convergence," incorporating disciplines such as information science and media production, according to Journalism and Mass Communication Director Christopher Braider.

"Any journalism program that isn't focusing on using technology and the Web to help tell stories is antiquated and a waste of time," said Kyle Ringo, sportswriter at the Boulder Daily Camera. He added that in his decade at the newspaper, numerous students from CU, Metropolitan State University and other statewide and national journalism programs have taken positions at the paper while in school and post-grad.

"We're constantly adapting how we...