[Air-l] digital media in academia

[Matthew Allen]

I agree entirely that digital media isn't necessarily (or mainly) Internet
research/studies and, yes, pretty much everything in our film and television
department is digital now.

I suspect the term 'digital media' is a bit like 'new media' - relevant only
in terms of marking out a transition in human affairs that is worthy of
special attention; and, probably, Internet research is another, quite like
it. 

As a side note, 'new media' has become political all of a sudden in
Australia through the way the US-Australia free trade agreement is drafted.
In deference to the US, Australia has basically given away local content
control/support over anything other than what it does already, via the
phrase 'new media' (poorly defined).

What do people think are the key constitutive elements that might provide
some substance to the adjectives digital or new when linked to 'media' - is
it, perhaps, interactivity?

Matt




Dr Matthew Allen 
Associate Professor Internet Studies
Associate Dean Teaching and Learning, Humanities
Curtin University of Technology, CRICOS 00301J Australia
m.allen at curtin.edu.au
http://smi.curtin.edu.au/netstudies/allen.htm
+61 8 92663511 (v) +61 8 9266 3166 (f)
Vice-President, Association of Internet Researchers http://www.aoir.org 
-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Lamoureux [mailto:ell at bradley.edu] 
Sent: Wednesday, 4 August 2004 9:16 PM
To: Association of Internet Researchers
Subject: [Air-l] digital media in academia

The term "digital media" is real contested in American academic circles.

I doubt that there are very many Radio/Television folk (esp. the TVers) who
think/feel that they are doing anything BUT digital media. And many of the
journalists are not far behind. So most of the folks in "mass media"
probably feel as though they are in digital media.

Someone shifted the question about digital media to answers about internet
studies. I know that this is an internet researchers list .  . 
. but I suspect that few in COM/Mass media departments in America would even
think about internet studies as being at the center of digital media, let
alone constrain digital media to internet orientations.

There are a few of us in programs targeted toward new media/multimedia . . .
but again, we are a very small number at the undergraduate level.

And of course, "digital media" encompasses (to name only a few) LOTS of
folks in "interactive" computer science, engineering, and Art programs (esp.
at graduate levels).

In short, I don't think it's possible to accurately categorize "digital
media" programs or classes without producing a list almost as long as
(virtually) all of the schools in the country with COM/ART/CS/ENGIN program.
The studies are very interdisciplinary.

Edward Lee Lamoureux, Ph. D.
Director, Multimedia Program and New Media Center Associate Professor,
Speech Communication
1501 W. Bradley
Bradley University
Peoria IL  61625
309-677-2378
http://hilltop.bradley.edu/~ell
http://gcc.bradley.edu/mm/


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