A Case for Media Entrepreneurship Training in Higher Education

“We live in an entrepreneurial age, not an institutional one. That’s been true of many professionals for quite a while, and increasingly (and perhaps somewhat already) it is true of journalism. The people having the most satisfying careers, it seems to me, are those who create a distinct signature for their work –who add value to the public conversation through their individual talents –rather than relying mostly on the reputation and institutional gravity of the organization they work for.”

-John Harris, telling PressThink why he left the Washington Post for Politico.com

More than a decade ago, In The Rise of the Creative Class, economist Richard Florida (2002) we live in a creative economy. In the information age, creativity is a valued feature of economic life because it yields new technologies, new wealth and new industry (Florida, 2002, p. 44). Florida (2002) describes the creative class, as a new social class that includes scientists, architects, writers, artists, software developers and media producers, who account for 30% of the U.S. workforce (p. xxvii). Forbesmagazine.com reported Americans in the creative class were less likely to be unemployed when compared to Americans with the same level of education in service sectors and working class jobs.

Forbesmagazine.com also contended the creative remains more tied to local industry and is relatively “recession-proof”, because other have been impacted by exported labor.

As self-employment go hand-in-hand with a new creative class of workers and information-centered economy, secondary and higher education should prepare students for current economic conditions. This requires educating students in self-employment or entrepreneurship. Forbesmagazine.com criticized public schools for following an outdated education model which prepares students for work in an industrial economy:

"While well-financed private schools and wealthy public school districts have for years offered students classes in disciplines like web design and robotics, many poorly financed schools lag behind them and miss opportunities to ignite students’ interest in fields like this. We all need to look at what is being taught in the schools in our community and make sure it reflects what students need to know today, not just what mattered 40 years ago. You don’t necessarily need a college degree to excel in a field like web design, yet we do little to promote careers like this among high school graduates who aren’t college bound.”

-Elaine Pofeldt, Forbes Magazine Contributor

In recent years, media entrepreneurship has emerged as a higher education academic discipline. Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication developed the Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship. Syracuse University’s, Newhouse School of Public Communications, created the Newhouse Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship. Other universities that offer digital media business courses include Stanford University, Northeastern University, University of Maryland, City University of New York, and Berkeley University.

As a professor, I have encountered numerous students who were very eager to learn about future business models for the media industries and generating money from digital media intellectual property i.e. blogs, Facebook and YouTube channels. I have also encountered small, brick-and-mortar business owners in need of low-cost Internet marketing and e-business solutions.

Digital media entrepreneurship offers great promise for community college and university students. The Internet provides access to a fertile global economy and serves as an alternative to pursuing entry-level employment. Digital media equipment is now relatively affordable, and many of the most successful Internet startups were funded with minimal capital. Younger generations are also likely to approach business and digital media careers with an inherent knowledge of media technology and the Internet.

Further, digital media entrepreneurship offers a possible solution for assisting students in overcoming social and economic challenges to employability. Online businesses provide flexible work schedule and location. Digital media entrepreneurs can also retain relative anonymity and are fairly exempt from professional prejudice based upon personal image, language, criminal or educational background.