Several Cluster Students Now College Graduates- Congratulations!

Several members of our Mass Comm/Soc 109 class graduated on Saturday, May 19, 2007. They were among the group of 325 graduates departing Westminster College with degrees in everything from sociology to elementary education to physics to broadcast communications and public relations. You can spot some of them in the commencement highlights from Titan Radio.



Westminster's commencement speaker, Dr. Dianne D. Aronian, encouraged each graduate to do as Joseph Campbell wrote and "follow your bliss." Aronian, a 1962 Westminster graduate and former College trustee and accomplished ophthalmologist, created a program to bring eye care to southern Belize in Central America. The program responded to a health crisis where there was no eye care available to the poor in the region. Aronian noted her work in that program was one of the more recent occasions where she discovered her newest "bliss." She described her life after her college graduation as a journey of finding her bliss a number of times from medical school and throughout her professional life. She urged the class of 2007 to open themselves up to discover the bliss that will lead them as they leave Westminster.

Follow your bliss.
If you do follow your bliss,
you put yourself on a kind of track
that has been there all the while waiting for you,
and the life you ought to be living
is the one you are living.
When you can see that,
you begin to meet people
who are in the field of your bliss,
and they open the doors to you.
I say, follow your bliss and don't be afraid,
and doors will open
where you didn't know they were going to be.
If you follow your bliss,
doors will open for you that wouldn't have opened for anyone else.
--Joseph Campbell

Outsourcing Journalism: The Shape of News to Come?

Many American manufacturing jobs disappeared as they went overseas to cheaper markets without unions. Much of the animation for The Simpsons is done abroad. Then telemarketing jobs went to India, Central America, Mexico...as did other middle management jobs for all sorts of companies.

Now look for outsourcing to come to a newsroom near you as American journalism is exported. Is this the shape of things to come? Consider what a Pasadena paper is trying to do as it looks to outsource “local” coverage for city hall to a reporter based in India. NPR provides an interesting examination of what could happen with news jobs in this country. Imagine the implication for American Democracy, public opinion, schools of journalism, etc.

Watch Our Student Documentary "Confidence" Online

One of the Mass Comm/Soc 109 student documentaries produced by the TECK Productions group is now available online.
Confidence: The Man Behind the Bench.
This documentary produced by Westminster College students introduces the viewer to the story of Judge George "Tookie" James (Westminster Alum & Beaver County's First African American Judge). The project was produced with consumer available camcorders and editing software.

My Future Role- What I Do Now After The Cluster

"Of all affairs, communication is the most wonderful..." John Dewey


Dr. Tomlinson asked students to consider where we go from here as we close out the Soc 109/Mass Comm cluster. We took a few moments to write out what role we see ourselves playing as we move beyond the class. Here's what I wrote out in those final moments in the classroom:

I chose to live by example when it comes to treating people as I want to be treated. I will respect the dignity of the individual and appreciate the experiences and perspectives offered. By living the example I become a better teacher, parent and citizen thanks to the ongoing discovery born out of the interactions I have with others. This discovery also brings a diversity and richeness that fosters a range of relationships and communities. This discovery allows me to reinvent, update and broaden who I am as well as the pictures in my head. I recognize this is an ongoing human process requiring us to come together as we make the construction of meaning which is constant and fluid.