As the students file into the old journalism classroom, those who've been there before would notice that most of the desks and chairs had been moved out, so that there's one of each for all
four five students, side by side and facing the larger desk at the head of the class. All along the wall above the desk there were screens, like huge flat panel monitors, that seemed to be flickering silently through a variety of mostly news and documentary programs, as well as some commercials, sitcoms, music videos and talk shows. A coffee maker brewed fitfully in the back of the room for whomever wanted some.
Their teacher was leaning against the front of the desk as they came in, smiling cheerfully, and he waited until everyone had seated themselves before speaking. "Good morning and welcome to Media Studies and Communication. I'm Logan Cale - Mr. Cale is fine, really, or Professor if that makes you more comfortable. Looks like we have a small class, but hopefully that'll mean we can get into things with a little more depth."
He spread his hands, looking at all of them. "Communication is a vital part of our existence. You guys do it every day, right? You pass each other in the halls, maybe say hello, or stop to talk about last night's radio broadcast." He gestured at the screens behind him. "Mass communication - TV being one example of it - has pretty much the same function.
"It's all about information. The exchange, dissemination, and, sometimes, deliberate modification of it in many different forms - which we then study to see how they work, the pros and cons of each type, and how it all can apply to you specifically.
"Communications and media studies is a pretty mixed bag," he said, picking up a Y-People comic book. "Pretty much anything you can think of, that you can read or watch or-" He put the comic down and picked up a box labeled Half-Life 2. "-even play on your computer - is a medium for information, and the study of these things involves a bit of intuitive anthropology, psychology, and sociology, but not, I think, anything you guys can't grasp as reasonably intelligent individuals.
Logan paused a moment to pass out a
syllabus to each student, then sat against his desk again. "Those are probably going to be a vague guideline now, but at least it's something to start with. So now let's find out who you all are. Tell us your name, place of origin, and, in keeping with, you know, the theme of the class, tell me what your favorite medium of communication is and a little bit of why."
[OOC: Wait for OCD is up. And since we have as small a class as we do, I'll be reworking the syllabus a bit, hopefully to make use of the few students we have.]![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
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