What a great time to be a Troy University Trojan. We are celebrating our university’s 125th, the Hall School’s 40th and the Journalism Alumni Association’s 20th anniversaries. And we have lots to be proud of here in the Hall School of Journalism and Communication.

Dr. Padgett at the HSJC/JAA Banquet

Our M. Stanton Evans Symposium this year was about the rich heritage of our school’s namesake, the Hall family. The Halls were leaders in journalism and it is only fitting that our Hall School leads the way in journalism education.

During our first 40 years, our outstanding faculty members helped build our strong programs. Now we are looking at the next 40 and educating the communication leaders for tomorrow.

We know the next 40 years are going to be very different from our first. We are watching a historic change in the public’s media habits. The digital revolution is here and that is why we are talking about the concepts of all platform journalism and multi-media communication in our classes. We know that the industry expects journalists to possess critical thinking skills, the ability to write strong stories then be able to translate those stories into audio for radio and podcasts, video for television and online media, and text for online publications. In other words, we are erasing the traditional lines that separated our broadcast and print programs and merging communications into our degrees because we are now all platform journalists and multi-media communicators.

There is another change that is also exciting. During the past couple of years, our faculty members holding terminal degrees have earned graduate faculty status at Troy University. On June 8, the Alabama Commission on Higher Education will vote on our proposal for a Master of Science degree in Strategic Communication. This program is being supported by many newspaper publishers and broadcasters in Alabama.

This is exciting. The documentation to change our status has been filed with SACS, our accreditation agency. The council of graduate deans from Alabama’s public universities have voted to recommend to ACHE that it approve this proposal. In fact, no Alabama university voted to reject our graduate degree proposal.

Pending approval, our fall schedule will contain the first two classes of this exciting graduate degree.

According to legend, Spanish Conquistador Hernan Cortes issued a rather interesting order to his men as they began their conquest of the Aztec empire in the early 1500s. The order was simple: Burn the boats. He wanted his men to realize that they had no opportunity to retreat, so they had to give this fight everything they had.

There is some debate about the legitimacy of this story. Regardless of the accuracy (this is a phrase you will never hear in one of our Hall School classes), it illustrates an important point which can be applied to what we do in the Hall School. We are not afraid to burn the boats on the beach because we must succeed. We know we must lead. We know we must relevant.

We have never been afraid of innovation, we have never been afraid of the move to digital technologies and we not afraid of the future.

Burning the boats doesn’t mean that we are going to walk away from the foundations of journalism and communication. The cognitive, communication and writing skills that are the hallmark of the Hall School will continue with equal importance. The change is that we now include a core of digital competencies to help position our graduates for the changing world of communication.

This is an exciting time and a great time to be a Troy University Trojan, a Hall School student or alumni and a member of the Journalism Alumni Association. And we are excited about our next 40 years.

Is the value of your degree from the Hall School of Journalism and Communication increasing? If you are not sure, we need to look at what is happening in the industry and at Troy University.

Journalism and Communication are going through a time of rapid and profound changes. Digital technologies and the overwhelming acceptance of the Internet have changed the ways that information is communicated to the audience. In addition, the relationship of the media to social and political institutions plus the economics of information are all in transformation.

Traditional boundaries among communication modes are being blurred by technology. Newspapers have digital editions and are using social media to attract readers. The electronic media have World Wide Web sites that appear to be similar to electronic newspapers and are also investing in building strong social media and mobile sites. Poet Bob Dylan’s observation from the 1960s holds true, “the times are ‘a changing!”

Things are also changing at the Hall School. We have an exciting and dynamic proposal for a new graduate degree in Strategic Communication under consideration by the Alabama Commission on Higher Education. I strongly believe that this is a powerful proposal that focuses on the leading edges of communication issues and positions graduates for immediate responses to the new realities facing today’s communication industries. It will prepare students to develop, implement and evaluate communication strategies in an increasingly complex, multifaceted and online environment. This degree program will move our students to the forefront of this new world of all platform journalism and multi-media communications.

While we are seeing fundamental changes in how our industries operate and how the public interacts in the communication process, some things remain rock steady. The Hall School of Journalism and Communication continues to believe that we must focus on certain fundamental values and objectives while forging new directions in communications studies.

We have not lost sight of our goal of providing a world-class education to all Hall School of Journalism and Communication students. We want to make sure that our students graduate as critical thinkers, skilled writers and ethical communicators capable of both using the latest communication technologies and productively using the reporting, writing and communication skills learned at Troy University. It is exciting that our proposed Master of Science in Strategic Communication degree program will uphold the Hall School’s standard of being a cutting-edge program that is positioned to move into the leadership role of graduate programs in our region, if not the nation.

To reach this goal to and enhance the excellence of our programs in print, broadcast, communication studies, public relations and advertising, we make a continuing major investment in new media technology. At the same time, we know that our faculty and students are essential for a bright future.

The addition of a graduate degree brings new challenges to the Hall School. Drs. Colaco, Diggs, Hoppin, Padgett and Spurlock have earned graduate faculty status at Troy University. We are currently searching for a new faculty member and the successful candidate will be expected to quickly qualify for appointment to Troy’s graduate faculty.

If approved by ACHE, the addition of the graduate program will also increase the number of faculty members in the Hall School during the start-up phase. I am confident that our Hall School of Journalism and Communication will stick to the school’s core values and find faculty members who will build on the foundations established by Prof. Chamberlain, Prof. Hamner, Dr. Mayer, Prof. Hall, Prof. Brown, Prof. Wagnon, Prof. Natale, Prof. Cobb, Prof. Buchanan, Dean Bankester, Prof. Evans, Prof. Campbell, Prof. Maynard, Prof. Joseph, Prof. Arnold, Prof. West, Prof. McKerral, Prof. Adcock, Prof. Fordan, Prof. Clark, Prof. Schubert, Dr. Padgett, Dr. Kenney, Prof. Bozeman, Dr. Spurlock, Prof. Felton, Prof. Giglio, Prof. Warden, Dr. Diggs, Dr. Vickrey, Dr. Dye, Prof. Durko, Prof. Young, Dr. Colaco, Prof. Kirby, Prof. Adams, Dr. Hoppin, Prof. Reif, Prof. Gallagher and Prof. Stewart

We know that the value of your degree only increases as the quality and reputation of our program also increases. We are committed to making sure that the Hall School of Journalism and Communication offers the strongest degree programs and has the best and brightest faculty members. While our programs and degrees may change so that we will continue being the leader in journalism and communication education, our core values are rock solid. This means that the value of your degree from the Hall School of Journalism and Communication continues to grow every day.

During the recent term break, I commented to our son about two fast-food restaurants sitting side-by-side on Taylor Road in Montgomery. The first is always packed, except on Sundays when it is closed. The second attracts only a small handful of customers throughout the day. That was when Jeremy said that it appears all restaurants are in a race these days. Some are in a race to the top while others are in a race to the bottom. Then he added that those electing to compete in the race to the top seem to be winning through premium service and products while those at the bottom only have price and size of portions to attract customers.

It seems that this race to the top or bottom has invaded the state of journalism today. Too many stations and publications are in the wrong race. Instead of becoming the “premium” news service in their community, more and more traditional media are electing to cut back or eliminate local news service and opting for more entertainment type programming or content. While some people would say that entertainment programming cannot be classified as “the bottom,” it would be hard to say this is in the top tier of community programming.

Before moving forward with this line of thought, let’s backup for a moment and talk about a recent incident in my family. My wife and I were driving home one afternoon while towing our three-ton RV behind our truck. The local weather along our route was quickly becoming stormy and we were concerned as to if there were any storm watches nearby. My first reaction was to switch over to the AM radio band then scan for a strong AM station. This turned out to be a mistake.

Sure, I found several strong AM signals on-air, but it quickly became apparent that no one was actually at their studios airing local information. The voice I heard was probably a thousand miles away and providing programming to hundreds of stations through a simple satellite circuit. When judged on a scale of community service, these stations were winning the race to the bottom.

We did find out that we were driving through an area of sever storm warnings. Our iPhones gave us the detailed information I wanted to find over the local AM radio stations.

It is easy to find newspapers, radio and televisions groaning about Facebook, Twitter, Blogs and smart phone apps becoming the new face of journalism. After all, the media has been at the heart of the communities for many years. In some markets, the media is still serving the community with news and important information and these newspapers and broadcast stations are in that strong race to the top.

There are other communities who are now served by media outlets in the race to the bottom. The idea of community service is being replaced by a corporate formula to maximize the return on the investment.

Sure, we know that newspapers and broadcast stations are businesses and that they must make a profit in order to succeed, but many successful media outlets in the past were successful because they elected to both serve the public and to be leaders in that market. They became successful and profitable by winning the race to the top and not by surrendering the signal or presses to some outside content source.

Instead of complaining about the new digital services that are stealing the thunder from media outlets, stations and newspapers need to learn from Chick-fil-A and get involved in the community, provide a premium product with premium service and start competing in the race to the top. Otherwise, the media will find that smart phone and tablets have replaced them as community leaders.

The start of a new year is here and 2012 presents us with the gift of 366 days as it is a leap year. Leap years probably remind most people of pending presidential elections in the United States. My personal interest in leap years is because my maternal grandfather was born on February 29, 1880, making him either 132 or 33 years old this year.

If you do the math, we have 8,784 hours this year. That translates into 527,040 minutes or 31,622,400 seconds during 2012 and this is exactly 86,400 more seconds than we had in 2011.

While leap years are interesting, the start of a new year causes most people to think about new beginning.

New beginnings are common in academia. We get to start fresh every term. That means we have three new beginnings every year on the Troy campus and five fresh starts every year on the eTROY campus.

Before talking about the fresh start being given to us this year, let’s take a look back at 2011.

2011 was a tremendous year for the Hall School. Our programs continue to grow and our faculty members worked hard to improve the value of Troy University’s Hall School of Journalism and Communication degrees. We added new courses and refocused many existing classes in order to make sure our programs remain relevant and cutting-edge.

The concepts of APJ/MMC (All Platform Journalism/Multi-media Communication) became the focus of our programs during 2011. You will see that APJ/MMC will continue being a driving force during 2012.

2012 is filled with great possibilities for the Hall School and our students. I hope that everyone will try harder to do the most with his or her time this year.

One of the realities of time is that what we do with our time matters. Make the most of your opportunities this year. Get involved with Troy’s student media. Attend meetings of our Hall School’s student organizations. Make sure that you understand the concepts and technologies we use in class instead of simply trying to slip by with a minimal effort.

I can promise you this for the 2012:

• The impact on your time in the Hall School will be positive if you learn how to thrive and not simply survive.
• Technology is here to stay. Embrace it.
• The Hall School’s standards will continue to be high.
• Get involved and be a student leader as this will help you set the course for your career.

I hope that you invest your time this year in things that matter and that you don’t waste your bonus day or the new year.

It takes fewer than 1,000 steps to move from Wallace Hall to Sartain Hall, current home of Troy University’s graduation ceremonies. Most students invest at least four years to make it into Sartain for commencement. For the majority, getting into the graduation ceremony is a challenging and emotional journey.

One of the emotional components of this journey is the feeling that you are moving away from a school and faculty that have been major elements in your academic career. While the Hall School of Journalism and Communication will always remain your “academic home,” challenges of the workplace replace concerns about Media Law exams.

Graduation forces a change in our student/faculty relationships. It also opens new doors and creates alumni/faculty friendships. It gives you a new role in helping shape the Hall School of Journalism and Communication’s future.

Dean Emeritus Merrill Bankester often said that our present success is not a guarantee for the future. His point was that we must always work to make sure that the Hall School of Journalism and Communication is the best program in the region. He showed us the importance of alumni support as he spearheaded the Journalism Alumni Association’s creation.

Increasing numbers of our graduates are discovering that joining the Journalism Alumni Association is a natural way to nurture the ties with their alma mater. It is a way for you to help build the school’s future and at the same time enhance the value of your degree.

Our school is brimming with talent and confidence. Its reputation, pride and alumni are its strongest recruiting tools. Our adoption of the APJ (All Platform Journalism) and MMC (Multi-Media Communication) models are making sure our graduates for prepared for the future. This coupled with the help and guidance given to the School by the Journalism and Communication Alumni Association continues to motivate and move the program to new heights.

If you have not joined the Journalism Alumni Association, please accept my invitation to become a member. I am sure that you will find it to be an honor to be involved with this vital group. Plus, your energy and dedication will help set the course as we move into a society where the roles between the media and audience are always changing.

The distance between Wallace and Sartain Halls is small. What is learned along the way prepares our graduates for careers in journalism. With your help and guidance and the JAA’s support, I am confident that the Hall School of Journalism and Communication will continue to celebrate the success to which we remain committed.

(Dr. Padgett published an earlier version of this posting in the Fall 1997 Hall Monitor.)

There is an old Vaudeville skit about George Washington’s ax. The basic premise is that the comedian holds up an ax and proudly states it is the very one used by George Washington when he chopped down the cherry tree. At that point, the comedian adds that the head of the ax has been changed six times over the years and the handle was changed ten times, but this is the actual ax held by Washington when he was a child.

I found myself thinking about this routine at Troy University’s Homecoming last weekend. There is a desire to reassure our program’s graduates that the Hall School of Journalism and Communication continues to stay-the-course and that we continue to balance academic content with our practical hands-on approach. While this remains true, the emphasis of our hands-on approach has switched to a digital model.

Yes, we remain the J-School and we are focused on being a relevant and cutting-edge program. That means we have adopted the All Platform Journalism (APJ)/Multi-Media Communication (MMC) models for our classes. While this may not be the “secret sauce” newspapers are currently searching for, it will help our students be prepared for the changing landscape facing today’s mass media.

A recent article in the New York Times talked about John Patton, the leader of the nation’s second largest newspaper chain. He met with his publishers, who were probably looking for a silver bullet to turn their corporate fortunes around. That didn’t happen. Instead, Patton talked about community involvement, cutting costs and going digital. That is a partial definition of APJ/MMC journalism.

Patton’s NewMedia properties are giving their reporters small video cameras and expecting them to create Web pages and to blog about their stories. While reading the report in the New York Times, I found it interesting how this major chain is paralleling our current direction in the Hall School. All students are involved in creating Web content and video is no longer the exclusive domain of broadcast students. We are APJ/MMC.

The founder of a well-known recreational vehicle company once said, “Let’s not make any changes – let’s only make improvements.” While talking with our graduates at homecoming, I was reminded that we haven’t changed our program, we have improved it. While some people may see it as nothing more than George Washington’s ax with a new handle, we are positioned so that our graduates are ready for the industry’s new APJ/MMC digital directions.

The Hall School of Journalism and Communication will mark its 40th anniversary on Dec. 16. It is interesting that our old school is turning out to be a new school. If you are able to look around today’s Hall School, you will see that the evidence supports my conclusion.

Old school J-School was full of electric typewriters, which were used in the early 1970s through the early 1990s. The new school J-School replaced the typewriters with computers that are more powerful than the ones used by NASA to reach the moon.

Old school J-School had the distinctive smell of assignments printed on blue ditto sheets is gone. New school J-School has most assignments delivered in electronic form to students over the World Wide Web.

Old school J-School was full of analog video cameras, editors and studio equipment. New school J-School is nonlinear, digital and HD. If you haven’t walked back to the TV studio, you will be amazed at recent upgrades benefiting the Hall School and Troy University.

Old school J-School drew defined lines between print and broadcast students. New school J-School is erasing these lines. In fact, you would notice that all journalism majors now must know how to shoot and edit video, create Web pages and use emerging technologies.

Old school J-School was home to three or four faculty members and 65 students. New school J-School is home to nine full-time faculty members and 350 students.

Old school J-School taught only print and broadcast journalism. New school J-School adds communication studies, public relations, advertising and sports information.

Old school J-School taught courses only in Wallace Hall on the Troy campus. New school J-School is teaching classes online through eTroy to students all over the world, including soldiers serving in Afghanistan.

Even the Tropolitan, our most traditional form of mass communication, cannot escape the growing role of technology in our society and the march to the new school J-School. Hundreds of people from all around the world read the Trop every day from the Web. It’s a different world and none of our programs can linger in the light of old school technologies.

While technology has forced many changes in how we teach journalism and communication during the Hall School’s 40-year history, the old school emphasis on teaching real-world skills by a dedicated and strong faculty remains intact. New school J-School remains strongly committed to providing the best possible education and hands-on opportunities for our students.

What is going to happen during the J-School’s next 40 years? Computer programmer Alan Kay said that the best way to predict the future is to invent it. While we may leave inventing the future to the computer engineers, new school J-School is immersed in technology and is leading the way in teaching all platform and multimedia journalism and communications. Because of this, I am confident to predict that your old school will continue to produce the best new school graduates in the region, the state and the nation.

My wife and I have a family tradition of reading aloud to each other while on trips. The book we recently completed was A Dog’s Purpose by W. Bruce Cameron. If you love dogs, you will enjoy this book.

I was reminded of that book when a young lady sat in my office searching for a major. She had eliminated nursing, education, social work and criminal justice and was thinking about sampling journalism or communication studies as her next major. It appeared to me that she is a young woman searching for a career purpose in her life.

As we celebrate the Hall School of Journalism and Communication’s 40th anniversary, I cannot help but reexamine our School’s purpose.

It is easy to say the J-School’s purpose is to train journalists and communicators and I am sure that point is in our mission statement. But the J-School’s purpose goes beyond simply training the skills needed for today’s communication and journalism models.

Even casual observers know that the worlds of journalists and communicators are changing. As technology is becoming a key element in our fields, we could say that journalism is rebooting to Version 2.0.

Some of the changes are amazing! Former Trop editor Tony Harris recently visited Troy and it was fun reminiscing about the labor-intensive techniques we taught about newspaper design when he was a student. Both the Apple Macintosh computer and Adobe’s InDesign products have made it easier to build strong pages. The production map that existed just a few years ago when Tony was a student no longer exists and the Hall School was a pioneer in teaching full pre-press pagination.

Not all of the changes in our communication fields have been positive. The consolidation of media ownership created a myopic focus on the bottom-line that often ignores the long-term concern for communities served by the media. Maybe I am showing my age or I’m naive, but I think communicators need help people prepare for tomorrow by connecting the past to today. And while showing people today’s news in context serves the community, it doesn’t always maximize short-term profits.

While profits are a purpose for all businesses and the mass media are businesses, the long-term dividends earned serving and being a part of the community should be considered when building a business plan. The purpose for journalists and communicators has to include serving the community by explaining, clarifying and connecting the audience.

The purpose of the Hall School is to train the journalists and communicators with the ability to synthesize information then to present it in a practical, understandable and ethical way to the audience via multiple platforms. While this is a rigorous process, it is critical to the future of our profession. As we know, journalism and communication matters.

That begs the question, “What is your purpose?”

Nineteenth century mathematician William Shanks thought that his purpose was to calculate the exact value of pi. He spent 15 years calculating pi via hand division to 707 digits. Unfortunately, he made an error at decimal place 528 and that made his calculation wrong. Whoops!

The J-Lab iMacs can calculate the value of pi to 707 digits in a quick moment.

What we know now and what Shanks didn’t know then is that pi to 11 digits is accurate enough to calculate Earth’s circumference to a millimeter. I would hate to think that William Shanks purpose turned out to be to provide comic relief to amateur mathematicians everywhere.

While we cannot predict the future by waving our hands over a crystal ball, we know that journalists and communicators must be smart, connected, online and capable of telling the story via multiple and digital platforms.

Instead of spending years working from an incorrect model, journalists and communicators must be able to apply the core values and skills of the industry to the communication tools used by the audience. We cannot afford to make a mistake, as did Shanks, at some decimal point in our new communication model, which is being forged as we speak.

I hope that the purpose of students today is to connect with their communities and to help make the citizens better people. I hope that our students are curious and have a burning desire to uncover “truth” then have the skills to bring this message to the public through multiple tools and platforms.

I hope that your purpose is to be a journalists and a communicator because there is a strong and growing need in these areas.

I talked with three Hall School graduates last week. Two dropped by my office and the other conversation was via Facebook. While talking with all three, I kept thinking about the special honor and privilege I have to work with so many students at Troy University.

Two of our former students were talking to me because they are in positions of responsibility in their careers and were looking for talent to hire. The third was discouraged because he hasn’t found the “right” job since he earned his undergraduate degree.

It was while talking to the third alumnus that these three visits came together in my mind. There has been a subtle change in how people are hired in the communication and journalism industries. Companies are no longer hiring people for positions, they are hiring talent then using that talent to solve problems.

That brings us to this question: What is your talent? What do you bring to a job interview that will help you stand out from the multitude? How will you help your potential employer solve the company’s problems?

During the years I worked in radio and television, on-air personalities were called “talent.” I discovered that the people who appeared to be absolute naturals on-air worked harder at being “natural” than the second-rate types that never found their niche in the industry.

While there are probably a few rare individuals who were blessed at birth with multiple talents, most talented people earned their talents through hard work and practice.

This line of thought ties in with our College of Communication and Fine Arts (CCFA) Reading Initiative for this academic year. Our book is Talent is Overrated by Geoff Colvin and it details that talent isn’t a DNA thing as much as it about work and practice. If you haven’t read this book yet, you need to move it to a higher priority. It will help you realize that your talents are earned by working on skills and this translates into hard work.

College is a wonderful opportunity for you to earn and hone your talents. The time you spend beyond your classes developing your talents will be important when a potential employer starts sizing up how your talents will help him or her solve problems. It is a cinch that if a potential employer cannot see how you will help solve problems, you will not be hired. Also, don’t be in the situation where you are going to job interviews with nothing more than a resume filled with items you want to do. Instead, show potential employers your talent developed while in the J-School. This means that you need to get involved beyond your classes to build the talents employers need today.

Got talent? If so, it is because you are applying the lessons learned in class to our student media, professional media, online communications, volunteer organizations and you are taking advantage of many other opportunities available to our Hall School students.

Got weak talent? In the words of our CCFA reading initiative, start developing your talent before you find yourself sitting my office discouraged about the finding the right job for your career.

It is no secret that the worlds of journalism and communication are changing. As both journalism and communications are being re-invented, the Hall School’s faculty members have been revising the curriculum to incorporate the digital technologies at the heart of the industries today.

Our journalism programs adopted the APJ (All Platform Journalism) model. This means that we incorporate a strong digital emphasis in our programs. It also means that we recognize the importance of media convergence and cross-train our print and broadcast programs.

Our communication studies students are moving to a MMC (Multi-Media Communication) environment. We will revise the communications program this year to make sure our students are prepared to work in a world that is increasingly digital and online.

The Hall School has a rich tradition of excelling in academics and the hands-on application of communication technology. The adoption of the APJ/MMC foundation means that our programs will continue being the leader in journalism and communication education.