Dr. John Oliver and Marketa Zezulkova Bournemouth University, UK on learning media management, the expected skill set of media management graduates and BU offering

1. FROM THE PLAYGROUND TO THE
BOARDROOM: KEY THEMES IN MEDIA
MANAGEMENT EDUCATION
Dr. John Oliver and Marketa Zezulkova
Bournemouth University, UK

2. OUTLINE
• Media education – a view from the Playground
• Media education - a view from the Boardroom

3. USA Czech Republic
COLOMBIA MALTA
Current and potential role of media
learning within primary school
classrooms.

4. Media literacy: access, analyse, critically evaluate and create media
Those perceiving the world either through emotions, senses, or intuition
superiorly to rational thinking (Jung, 1921[1991]), the cognitive-rationalist
curriculum of traditional education insistently forces them to experience
the world in a way that is not their own.

5. Educate the whole person, in all his or her emotional,
cultural, social and sensory-motoric complexity

6. Holistic and complex relationship with media playing socially, emotionally and
culturally important role in the classrooms.

7. Transmedia storytelling: Fans following their favourite characters ‘wherever they
appeared’ and each platform making ‘a unique and original contribution to the
experience as a whole’ (Jenkins, 2013, p.6).
The combination of varied activities, strategically
managed by the children themselves

8. 1] Exercised and practised their coordination: dancing, playing games,
e-acting film scenes or game scenarios
2] A complex process of thinking: exchanging collectible cards, teaching
each other, discussing
Boy (8 years): ‘I don’t think games can make you
violent but my mum told me that. I think maybe
because they’re so much fun, and that some kids
never stop playing the murdering games, then they
actually want to do it and then you cannot stop.’
Researcher: ‘Do you think it could happen to you?’
Boy: ‘I don’t know, I’m addicted to games, so
maybe. I don’t really want to. I want to be free, not
in jail. I want to get a job. I want to be freeman!’
Girl (8 years): Angry Birds is a bird that you swing, they’re
like trapped birds, and you like to swing them on, so that
they crash into boxes, and because they’re trapped in the
cages when all the birds can go out, you set them free.
When you’re done, like when you hit anything, they
explode, like a knock out.
Researcher: Why do they explode?
Girl: I don’t think we’re killing them [thinking] I think they
explode, because they want to die.
Researcher: Why do you think they want to die?
Girl: I think they’re unhappy, because they were trapped.

9. [3] Reflecting and acting on feelings
how ‘bad Miley Cyrus felt when she
thought people liked her only as
Hannah Montana’
‘I like theatre more than a movie
theatre, because you’re more in the
moment if you’re at a play’
‘McDonald is where I never go,
because it’s sad they cut down trees
for burgers. My sister searched that
on the Internet and she told me. I’ve
been there, but I’ll never go again.’
Covering eyes, changing channels,
closing windows…
[4] Sociocultural environment
What is better to do alone and what
with somebody.
‘Sesame Street is for babies’, ‘girls
love Justin Bieber’, ‘boys like
superheroes’, ‘it’s a family
comedy’, ‘these are Czech
fairytales’, ‘CNN is more for
Americans than BBC’, ‘we don’t
have Santa Claus like Coca Cola
shows in Christmas’, ‘families
without money can’t buy Xbox’

10. Learning through their own experiences how to
manage their, as well as their peers’, media lives
‘the responsibility for’, ‘the control off’, ‘the
process of dealing with’, ‘achieving goals’, and
‘efficiency’
Ideally be used to ‘see what it is ready for, and
upon what material [learning] could work most
readily and fruitfully’ (Dewey, 1987)
Media management education on all levels
should facilitate the learners’ individual and
collective reflections on their and the others’ life
with, through, and in media.
The holistic media management teaching and
learning drawing upon reflective and leaner-
centred pedagogic practices might as well be the
right approach to educating new generations of
media leaders setting the trends and managing
complex processes within the convergent and
participatory media environments.

11. Creative learning and earning to be creative
an authentic, and on a personal level innovative,
problem-solving and communication

12. A crew worked on specific long-
term projects and were called upon
during the day to run crew, direct
and produce other in-classroom
projects across all grades.
10% of children live below the
poverty line

13. ‘quiet on the set’,
‘action’, ‘cut’,
‘change camera
angle’, or ‘we need
better light’

14. Encouraged brainstorming about the storyline and
respected the learners’ ideas

15. FUTURE MEDIA PLATFORMS
ASSIGNEMENT:
Students on the course are asked to identify two future media platforms and
prepare an in-depth critical analysis on the ways in which these innovations can
together allow their own/employers’/clients’ business to benefit from one
emerging trend (e.g. convergence, remediation, participation, interactivity,
transmedia storytelling, life in media, community meaning-making, etc.).
A portion of the assignment (equivalent to 1000 words) should be devoted to
creation of a media artefact for, or distributed across, these platforms and building
upon the chosen trend.
M level, 20 credits, short course at BU for media professionals

16. Creative media learning and creating media artefacts
Children excited
Media managers
terrified
Goes hand in
hand with
holistic learning
addressing the
whole person

17. MEDIA MANAGEMENT
EDUCATION - A VIEW
FROM THE BOARDROOM
What do people want from Media Management
Education?
• Creative Craft Skills – directing, lighting, production
• Commercial Skills – Pitching skills, knowledge on IP, business skills
• Management Skills – leadership, strategy, project management, managing creativity
Why do people want Media Management Education?
• Development in current role
• Differentiate from their competition
• Change career direction
• Validate their industry experience with an academic qualification

18. BARRIERS TO MEDIA
MANAGEMENT EDUCATION
Cost
Time
Flexibility
“Flexibility is so
important, we
don’t work 9am-
5pm”
Executive, Film
Company
“Costs issues would
come top for me,
we don’t do courses
if we can’t afford
them”
Executive, TV
Company
“Well if I did a
course on top of
work, I’d be
giving up having
any kind of life”
Junior Executive
TV Company
Developing
knowledge and
skills that have
value to
employers

19. HOW HAS BU RESPONDED?
Core principles
• Knowledge and skills development through learning and
reflective practice
• Flexibility – of delivery of learning, timescale to
completion and payment terms
• Variety in the courses on offer

20. BUILD YOUR OWN MA
• 5 study themes including Media
Management
• Choose from a range of
programmes to ‘Build Your Own
MA’
• Blended learning model
• Flexible payment terms
• Up to 6 years to complete

21. PROFESSIONAL DOCTORATE
• Aimed at experienced professionals
working in the Creative Industries who
are looking to address the application of
knowledge in professional practice
• Original contributions to both knowledge
AND professional practice
• Candidates submit an independent
piece of work in the form of a thesis
(30,000-80,000 words) and supporting
non-written material where appropriate
• Methodology based on Action Inquiry