Apr. 19 , 2007

Fresh and Bottled at the Source
An Interview with Dr. Jack Hillwig, Chair of the Communications and Media Studies Department
By Michael Dey
kmd001@marietta.edu

With the changes in today's media, the evolution of education must follow. Marietta College prides itself in being as up-to-date as possible technologically and is always striving to stay ahead of trends.

In that regard, the most recent efforts of the Marietta College Communication and Media Studies Department are highlighted in this article via an interview with Dr. Jack Hillwig, Department Chair.

With the restructuring of the titles of majors and minors in the fields of media and communication, the first moves have been made to updating the education offered by the communication and media studies faculty.

“ We're changing a lot of things. We have looked at every major area and reimagined and recreated each one. We looked at all the classes, took away some and added some new ones. We redesigned the audit sheets and reimagined our minors,” says Dr. Hillwig. Not only have many of the courses required for each major been changed in the Communication and Media Studies Department, but the courses themselves have been restructured.

From the syllabi becoming more demanding, to entire shifts in the focus of courses, we are witnessing an evolution from the ground up for Marietta College students.

The department now has five majors: Advertising/Public Relations, Broadcasting, Journalism, Communication Studies, and Organizational Communications/Public Relations. There are also minors in Journalism, Organizational Communications/Public Relations, Applied Communication, and Communication Studies.

With these changes in the media field, many upper-class students are concerned that these changes are too little, too late. There have been additions to the faculty and staff in both the mass media and communications areas of the department, as well as a great deal of updating and modernizing of facilities in both Mills Hall and the McKinney Media Center. But there are also vast changes in the field, especially outside the confines of academia. There are many steps to be made. Marietta College faces a daunting task in restructuring an entire section of majors and minors.

“ There hasn't been a department head in the mass media area of the department who has stuck around for very long in quite some time.

I've been here for three years, and that's the longest amount of time for one person to fill this chairmanship in many years,” Hillwig said.

When asked if he was intimidated by the restructuring of the department, Dr. Hillwig said, “ I look at the restructuring of our programs as incredibly exciting.

Media is changing very rapidly, and to be able to educate students about the changes while we all are experiencing the changes makes education both more challenging and more dramatic. It makes coming to work every day something I truly enjoy.”

Of course, there isn't really a better audience for this message than those students who are entering the program as either undecided students or as new freshmen. The fields of communication and mass media are changing quickly, and to study the field is to be on the cusp of changes that are magnificent in scope and incredibly imaginative.

To study in these fields at Marietta College, and to be a successful professional in these fields, there are a few desired traits.

According to Dr. Hillwig, the best candidate to declare a Mass Media or Communications major is a student who has an abiding interest in writing, speaking, storytelling, and who is curious about the events, products, and people who make our world work.

“ It doesn't really take a special kind of person. It just takes someone curious who loves to communicate.”