Education

Introduction to the 'Media Management for Non-Profits' Major

Josh Penman designed this interdisciplinary major in order to study abroad at Oxford, and to study all of the most interesting courses that Biola had to offer, regardless of which department they exist in. What follows is the logic he used when proposing this interdisciplinary major to the Cinema & Media Arts department. 

Josh Penman designed this interdisciplinary major under the Mass Comm. department to develop skills that are needed for Media Management for Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in the Middle East and North Africa.

The mix of courses is chosen based on his experience working with with NGOs, CBOs (Community-Based Organizations), United Nations departments, and governmental organizations such as the Sudan National AIDS Program (SNAP) and the Khartoum State Ministry of Health as producer of Sudan's first HIV/AIDS prevention media campaign in 2005-2006.

As a producer, Josh found himself lacking in three areas: 

• 1. Knowledge of practical and theoretical sides of the media production process.

  2. Information gathering and investigation.

  3. Organizational communication and efficiency. 

The Media Management for NGO's major addresses these weaknesses and offers a balanced focus between foundational theory and practical skills. 

Theoretical Media Production

For theoretical knowledge, the initial classes in the Film Production major at Biola University fit perfectly: The Art of Storytelling, Visual Aesthetics, and History of Cinema introduce the theoretical side of media production, while Philosophy of Aesthetics at Oxford and Rhetoric of Media Studies (Biola's Comm. department capstone course) allow deeper study of media theory and philosophical bases.

Practical Media Production

Experience in script creation, pre-production, camera work, sound, and logistics/production management is solidified with Intro to TV & Film Production, Editing for Film & Television, The Entertainment Business, Mass Media Law & Ethics, and the Senior Media Project (Biola's Cinema & Media Arts department capstone course). 

Information Gathering & Investigation

Much of Josh's work in Sudan involved collecting information in a hostile political environments, so Information Gathering and Database Analysis for Investigative Reporting in the Journalism department improves investigative and internet research abilities and Methods of Communications Research, in the CNMA department familiarizes him with research tools and builds academic research skills.

Organizational Communication & Efficiency

From Josh's experience organizational efficiency depends on people and their communication with each other, so Biola's Communications and Psychology departments were the natural place to look for improvement: Industrial Organizational Psychology from Rosemead and Organizational Communication from the COMM department provide the tools and frameworks to improve communication and embed efficiency into an organization's structure. 

1. Oxford allowed me to work, analyse, and research like I never had before. It taught me to focus only on the subset of relevant information in large amounts of text, rapidly synthesize it to answer essay questions, and think more clearly than I ever had before. The weight of the production pipeline was exhilarating.

2. At Biola, Mark Landsbaum's Investigative Research and Data Analysis class improved my ability to find information on the internet and analyze its credibility. It amazes me how much improvement on these simple skills impacted my productivity. 

3. Method's of Communications Research is a class that I wish I had taken in my freshman year of college: Qualitative research methods learned in this class are applicable to every kind of information-crunching task that a person undertakes: they should be a basic part of people's education in the modern world.

3. Wade McNair's Organizational Psychology class exceeded all my expectations as an introduction to tools, theories, and techniques that are used to lead and manage organizations today. It gave me specific recommendations for organizational consulting and leadership that I put to good use in volunteer organizations and professional spaces."

Future opportunities:

There multiple career paths coming out of this major. For his undergraduate degree, Josh applied to four completely different programs at four different colleges. For his graduate degree, he likes the following programs:

M.B.A. at the Yale School of Management*

M.S. in Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University.

M.A. in Organizational Psychology at Claremont University.  <– This is the one I ended up doing. 

M.A. in Development at Oxford University.

*When I heard Indra Nooyi talk about MOS's influence on her, and her motto of "head, heart, and hands," this sprang onto my radar.