Communication Studies and Media Convergence/Fusion

Communication (and communications) is part of every element of the University, college, classrooms and other organizations in which we find ourselves. It is hard to describe the field of communication when more often I would circumscribe it as circles within circles; constitutive rather than paradigms of transmission and messages. The Wikipedia definition of Communication Studies seems to be sufficiently confusing to speak for us all: scholars, practitioners, researchers and educators. Nonetheless, it is in the field of Communication that I have chosen to teach with all of the complexity of being both a subject field and a process.

It is the combination of Theory and Praxis which makes this field so appealing to me. More importantly, though, it is the diffusion of the internet and other tools of global information and knowledge management which I personally find fascinating. In regard to both the constitution of communication, as well as its transmission, the world is constantly changing. I want to be part of this change, and to help my students be part of it, as well.

This is the Borderlands of Communication, the integration of intercultural communication with the technology of communication. Feminist standpoint theory serves as a basis for an implementation of development communication (see also Donna Harraway's postmodernist Cyborg Manifesto). Political, but not exclusively so; more integrationist and inclusive than not, not technologically deterministic, but historically and materialistically grounded.

I want to encourage my students' Media literacy and help them develop their powers of perception in observing the world around them, whether it is on- or off-line, whether it is textually or conceptually based around language or addressed to their other senses. I am an activist, as well as an academic and an artist. I want to give my students the power and the belief that they too can change the world. Together, I want to weave new tapestries of communication. I also teach traditional subjects such as Communication Theory and Research Methods. I favor hybrid systems of high-tech combined with high touch. I love real-life (rl) classroom engagement, and also look forward to pioneering second life exchanges in places such as the new NMSU Aggies Island.

p, l&l
Martina / mhmbear