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Changing Times, Changing Programs:
Changing Times, Changing Programs:
From AB Broadcast Communication to BA Broadcast Media Arts and Studies
From AB Broadcast Communication to BA Broadcast Media Arts and Studies
Written by: Fernando A. Austria, Jr.
At the start of the 1900s, the professional field of Communication was emerging worldwide. Soon after, a network of social scientists began studying the effects of communication during WWII. By the 1950s, schools offering programs in Communication and Mass Communications were founded in major universities in the west.[1] The Philippines was not far behind. In 1966, the University of the Philippines established the Institute of Mass Communication. The development and growth of communication industries called for the training of professionals knowledgeable and skilled in these new disciplines. It was in this era when the Institute of Mass Communication offered the AB Broadcast Communication Program in the school year 1966-67.[2]
In 2007, the faculty members of the Department of Broadcast Communication realized that “the practice and teaching of media has undergone dramatic and profound changes over the last four decades.”[3] The faculty began an extensive study of the broadcast environment: collecting data and insights from former and current students of the program; industry practitioners; professional and government organizations; and local, national, and international academics institutions. The results of the study “indicated that the existing curriculum ought to equip the Broadcast Communication graduates of the College with the skills required in the contemporary practice of broadcasting, and the frameworks and discourses which underpin the production of knowledge about the media.” The re-conceptualized program, with its fluid framework that allowed students to design their academic track, addressed the following concerns: bridging theory and practice; promoting critical analysis and social responsibility; producing competitive graduates; encouraging local and global insights; and utilizing technology.[4]
In 2013, the enactment of Republic Act 10533 mandated the implementation of the K-to-12 Program in basic education. As a consequence, revisions in the General Education Program in higher education were introduced. This prompted the University to call for a review of degree program curricula, particularly in the undergraduate level.[5]
Applying the curriculum revision framework used in re-conceptualizing the Broadcast Communication Program in 2007, the faculty gathered the needed information and insights for their review and assessment of the 2007 BC Program. This preparatory work led to a revision strategy “premised on the complex paradigm shifts in the practice of broadcasting in the last three decades, shaped and reshaped not only by technologies but by the profound transformations in the global and local public spheres.”[6] The salient points of the strategy include the strengthening of “the theoretical and methodological aspects within creative work” by growing the concept of bridging theory and practice into bridging art, theory, and public service; expanding the goals of the previous program in response to the implications of the study; and maintaining the trajectory of the curriculum towards an interdisciplinary program that integrates and synthesizes “the philosophical approaches and methodologies of both the Humanities and the Social Sciences.”[7]
Significant changes in the program are reflective of this revision strategy. For instance, using “Broadcast Media” instead of “Broadcast Communication” indicates “the multifarious cultural and technological platforms that augment the practice of conventional media.” Similar to international academic trends, the renaming of the program from “BA Broadcast Communication” to “BA Broadcast Media Arts and Studies” points out the study and teaching of the practice of broadcasting as well as how this practice “participates in the creation of cultures and everyday life, maintains and challenges social relations and the exercise of power, and promotes or frustrates social transformations.”[8] The courses in the new curriculum, influenced by how leading international universities organized their media programs, was categorized into gateway, cornerstone, specialization, and capstone clusters – capturing the expansion of the program goals of “strengthening students’ creative skills and emphasizing the philosophical underpinnings of a critical cultural studies program.”[9]
At present, as the Department transitions from the “2007 BC Curriculum” and the “BC Program with a revitalized general education courses” to the “Bachelor of Arts in Broadcast Media Arts and Studies” program, the faculty is preparing for a first look at the experiences and reactions of both faculty and students to the implementation of this new program in the context of the ever-changing broadcast media landscape.
Works Cited
[1] Rogers, E. M. (1994). A History of Communication Study: A Biographical Approach. New York: The Free Press.
[2] “College of Mass Communication” from https://our.upd.edu.ph/files/catalogue/CMC.pdf.
[3] Department of Broadcast Communication, College of Mass Communication, University of the Philippines – Diliman (May 2007). “Proposed Curricular Changes in the Bachelor of Arts in Broadcast Communication Program”.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Department of Broadcast Communication, College of Mass Communication, University of the Philippines – Diliman (July 2019). “Proposed Curricular Changes in the Bachelor of Arts in Broadcast Communication Program”.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid.
All images from Sining Del Pilar 2015-2018
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