Foremost higher education regulator the National Universities Commission in December announced the unbundling of the popular mass communication course offered in over 140 universities and polytechnics. From one course called mass communication, the universities now have the task of teaching seven courses. NUC was responding to developments in technology that have changed the nature of the discipline as well as the demands of experts in the field.
Many challenges will attend this unbundling. Already, a respectful body of the best photographers in the land has entered a word for the inclusion of photography as one of the courses. If NUC heeds their call, mass communication would then birth faculties of communication and media studies with the potential for eight departments.
The courses approved by NUC from the unbundling are Journalism & Media Studies, Public Relations, Advertising, Broadcasting, Film & Multi-Media Studies, Development Communication Studies, as well as Information & Media Studies. NUC acted on the recommendation of a committee of no fewer than 78 scholars in the field. Their opinion must count for much.
Mass Communication was the discipline that captured all the theory and practice of the academic interest in the new technology and methods of reaching large numbers of people in the wake of urbanisation and technology. Big cities had large populations. The new technologies of radio and printing facilitated the means of reaching them.
Technology continues to be the driver of the new age of communication, where the mass audience that mass communication served has become interactive media users. New technologies are driving new definitions, audiences, markets and disciplines.
Yet the discipline still revolves around the institutions and products of the era of mass media. These are newspapers and magazines, radio and television, film (still or moving picture) and the “support” industries of public relations and advertising.
Cynics have claimed that the unbundling follows what various other disciplines such as Medicine and Law did only to birth faculties that ended up granting the same LL. B or MBBS degrees.
The unbundling of the courses is a bold step. Some would describe it as overambitious given the state of play in academia. While some universities abroad offer these courses at undergraduate levels, the tendency is to serve them as postgraduate courses and areas of specialisation.
NUC and its advisers chose to jump into the deep end of the pool and to swim from there. Tough. But.
There would be many challenges. One would be the availability of human resources. The strictures the same NUC has placed on the engagement of professionals to support the institutions in preference for PhD holders would worsen the workforce challenge. Large lacuna.
Another problem is the inadequacy of facilities in the universities. How do you teach broadcasting without studios and edit suites? How do you do Information Science without high-end computers where students learn coding, animation and all the tricks and gizmos of the information age? How do you do media studies at this age without dedicated Internet facilities for staff and students?
There would be the challenge of funding to equip the faculties for these new courses. Who will bell the cat? Recently alumni had to rally to raise funds to enable a first-generation mass communication department to buy equipment and facilities to meet the requirements for APCON accreditation to teach advertising.
Specialisation should be one way to tackle the challenge in the immediate. The universities do not have to teach all the seven courses. They should specialise in the three or four areas for which they have strength in human resource and facilities.
Renown for excellence in some areas should then attract support. Before then, both the NUC, federal and state governments must mobilise to fund the departments adequately. Past performance predicts a tough call.
