JCOM Department takes steps to accommodate viral social media career field

In the upcoming semesters, the Department of Journalism and Communication at USU will introduce more classes to accommodate its new social media emphasis.

“It’s just too big a thing for people to really ignore,” interim JCOM department head, Cathy Ferrand Bullock, said. “It’s going to get more important.”

Despite the recent creation of the track, more classes are to be developed to give the attention necessary to all the skills involved with social media management. 

Previously compacted into a single class, the social media track in both the JCOM major and minor currently consists of three separate classes. But as the prevalence of social media in the communication field becomes clearer, so does the importance of more in-depth social media specific courses. 

“So many students who leave here are being hired just to do social media,” assistant professor Debra Jenson said. “We just wanted to make sure that they were much more prepared for what they were encountering.” 

With the addition of more classes to the curriculum, more focus will be given to each skill within the social media field, instead of being glossed over like in the original Social Media 4040 course. 

“It was way too much stress and speed,” Jenson said. “It was like giving somebody their first training wheels and then expecting them to go out and do the Tour de France.”

Within this single class, students learned social media theory, did content development for clients, learned analytics and earned four certifications.

Even with only one class of experience, graduates were already getting social media jobs. Now, Bullock and Jenson are excited to see where students will go with the current track and as the department continues to foster social media studies.

“The college has been very committed to this and we’re expanding it,” Bullock said.

Jenson sees the current batch of social media students beginning their careers in higher positions and being able to obtain jobs farther geographically than previous graduates. 

She also thinks students who graduated in previous years will see their jobs separated as they leave them.

Whereas current students — who can now focus on social media in their major or minor — can get jobs immediately that are specific to social media. 

Jenson said that public relations and social media jobs will continue to diverge as the workload needed to manage social media increases.

“People are going to learn that you can’t expect one person to be a full house,” she said.

Bullock encourages anyone interested in social media to look into the courses the department offers.

“You can go out and do it for any industry and field,” Bullock said. “So even if you’re not majoring with us or minoring with us, you can still go out and use this.”

The JCOM department has taken many students from other disciplines into their social media course over the years. With the expanding program, even more students, including those just “dipping their toe in”, will be able to cycle through the track.

—william.bultez@aggiemail.usu.edu

@willistheginger