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Local colleges embrace social media programs
WARREN
Social-media programs for students have become a trend in higher education.
Trumbull Business College students, for example, can work their way toward an associate degree in applied business in administrative assisting with a major in social media.
The program “has strong emphasis on resources and technology in order to be successful in social media,” said David Corso, chairman of the program.
The program prepares students for analytics, search- engine optimization, Internet law and market ethics and social-media management, he said. The program will begin in the late fall.
The business college is among several that are implementing social media into the curriculum.
“Companies everywhere know they need social media, but they don’t know how to deliver it,” said Karen Riggs, a professor from the School of Media Arts and Studies at Ohio University. Riggs said the trend started about 2012.
The platforms such as Facebook and Twitter that are used in the curriculum are a means to an end, she added.
“We’re teaching students how to be part of the change,” Riggs said.
At Youngstown State University, the school is providing a social-media track for its communication majors this year. The program just added three new courses to the curriculum for the program.
“You can’t just put a bunch of social-media classes together,” said Adam Earnheardt, chairman of the department of communication at YSU.
Earnheardt emphasized that students still need basic skills such as writing and marketing for programs in social media to work. The new courses will prepare students in social-media literacy, communication and campaigns, he said. They also will have the opportunity to work in social media with nonprofits as their clients.
“The way we communicate has changed,” Earnheardt said.
But some colleges and universities have taken a different tack with their social- media programs.
Westminster College in New Wilmington, Pa., offers a social-media minor, which was approved last April.
“We think it’s too specialized” to be a major, said Keith Corso, an assistant professor of communication at Westminster. Students would not be as marketable with a major in social media, but it makes perfect sense for a business major to have it as a minor, he added.
The biggest challenge for social-media programs is the innovation and trends of technology.
“We just have to stay on top of the technology,” Keith Corso said.
David Corso said that time is an essential factor in how the program at Trumbull Business College will develop for the future.
“As the technology evolves, we would, too,” he said.
“We’re preparing students to be adaptable,” Earnheardt said. “At the end of the day, we want them to be ready for the next big thing.”