by marshall swanson

“With the media convergence we’ve seen in the past 20 years it’s difficult to be a single skill specialist anymore,” said Van Kornegay, head of the new visual communications sequence in Carolina’s School of Journalism and Mass Communications.

Think of a video on the nightly news that was shot by a passer-by with a cell phone that might also turn up on a TV station’s Web site or on YouTube. “Today’s students have to be far more broad-based in what they can do visually,” he said. “And they have to be able to communicate through a variety of channels.”

For the past four years, Kornegay and the other visual communications faculty—Keith Kenney, Bruce Konkle, and Scott Farrand—have been teaching students how to flourish in this new sphere that began to emerge with the advent of desktop computers, the Internet, and broadband access.

Carolina’s visual communications major was conceived in the late 1990s by journalism faculty who were teaching courses in graphics and photojournalism “and were willing to step outside of their traditional areas and cast their lot with the new major,” Kornegay said.

Since its launch in 2003, the major has grown steadily to a current enrollment of about 150 students with a projected cap of about 200, or some 15 percent of the journalism school’s overall student body.

Visual communications courses cover the history, theory, and principles of visual communications, along with the study of illustration, layout/design, and image manipulation using a suite of software programs. Also included is Web and multi-media production, still photography, videography, and informational graphics, plus a capstone course in which students create a portfolio that showcases their skills in DVD-, Web-, and printed-based formats. Students also take the school’s core coursework, electives, and required liberal arts courses.

The visual communications curriculum is designed to give students a broad spectrum of new media skills they’ll need to function in all areas of 21st-century mass media. “There have been seismic changes in mass communication, and visual communications taps into that,” Kornegay said.

In addition to their technical skills, visual communications graduates can write, understand the ethical and legal framework in which their work will be used, and are conversant with subjects like audience research so that their skills can be applied strategically.

“The combination of strategic and technical skills make you really marketable when looking for a job,” said Addie Diller, ’07, marketing coordinator with Scent Air Technologies in Charlotte, N.C., which provides hotels and retail outlets with fragrances that become part of their “sensory branding.” “This is a great program if you know you want to be creative but aren’t exactly sure how you want to be creative,” Diller added. “It allows you to explore all the possibilities and articulate your strengths. I’m not sure I’d want to build Web sites for a living, but now I have that skill under my belt.” “I thought the program was awesome,” said Mike Conway, ’07, an art director with Agape Senior, a West Columbia health care company, where he is responsible for branding the company’s image and ensuring continuity in its promotional work.

The degree’s curriculum “touches on many different aspects of what you’re going to need in the job market,” said Conway, who liked that the program encouraged students to practice skills outside of the classroom “so you’re putting to use what you learn. When I graduated I had done a little bit of everything we needed to know. I felt very confident that I could go into a job interview and if I were asked to take a proficiency test, I knew I could do it.”

“This is a wonderful program,” said Meg Gaillard, who received both her visual communications degree and a degree in anthropology from the University last December.

Not only was the curriculum of the visual communications degree excellent preparation for landing a job, it also was a valuable prelude for her work on a master’s degree in visual anthropology, which she began at the University of Manchester in England in September.

“It’s important to be able to do photography, audio, video, and writing in the Manchester program, and I’ve had experience in all of those areas because of the visual communications degree,” said Gaillard, who worked part-time for the S.C. Institute of Archeology and Anthropology, assisting with photography, graphics, and PowerPoint presentations.

During her time with the institute she also gathered photos for a visiting PBS production team and was a still photographer for an Oregon public broadcasting crew that was documenting the work at an archaeological site.

The future of the visual communications program is still morphing and will continue to do so, Kornegay said.

“The world of mass media is undergoing dramatic shifts,” he said. “This sequence is a reaction to that, and we’ll keep shifting. I wouldn’t be surprised to see us change a course, add a course, maybe delete a course. But it’s going to keep moving, and we’re going to be fleet footed.

“We’re also interested in continually ramping up quality and setting the bar higher on performance and portfolios in terms of how students express themselves in their work,” he said.

Listening to what students want while following new communications channels as they develop, and, where possible, staying ahead of the curve, also figures in Kornegay’s vision of the program. “Very few people could have predicted phenomena like YouTube five years ago, and yet that’s changing the way video is gathered, edited, and viewed. We’ll exploit those phenomena as they come along.”

Identifying research opportunities and perhaps getting involved in the development of how people interact with new media also “are things I can see down the road that we would like to do.

“Otherwise, you’re just following, and the mission of the University is to lead.”