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    Communication & Beyond
    Communication & Beyond
    Communication & Beyond
    Ebook136 pages1 hour

    Communication & Beyond

    By Rodney G. Miller

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    About this ebook

    "Communication & Beyond is like a time capsule offering invaluable glimpses into… the formation of the vibrant academic mosaic that is the field of communication and media studies in Australia." – Steven Maras PhD, Associate Professor, Media and Communication, The University of Western Australia

     

    "deserves inclusion in any collection strong in higher education, educator biographies, or Australian social innovative education processes …fosters bigger-picture thinking about the interactions between institutions of learning and the community …accessible and thought-provoking examination of human communication studies." – Diane Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review

     

    Putting Communication into Practice

    During the 1970s, new communication courses Australia-wide equipped graduates with understandings and skills to pursue careers consequential to human affairs and the nation's advancement – in advertising, broadcasting, business, film, government, journalism, nonprofits, public relations, teaching, writing, emerging technologies, and many other areas.

     

    Describes key pioneering developments in communication study and teaching driving a new dawning of communication education. Touching on social currents, explores changing government mandates, faculty personalities, research, and courses enabling new approaches to communication.

    • Evolution of communication courses nationally and at QUT.
    • National professional developments in study and teaching.
    • Experiences putting communication understandings into practice.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherParula Press
    Release dateOct 4, 2023
    ISBN9798223365846
    Communication & Beyond
    Author

    Rodney G. Miller

    Rodney G. Miller writes on communication to strengthen leadership in organizations and society. Author of Bestest Words, Communication Essays, and Australians Speak Out, which is named reviewer's choice by Midwest Book Review senior reviewer, Diane Donovan.  Published by the State University of New York Press and The Royal Society of Queensland, with early writing in The Australian newspaper. His popular blog shares insights on using words wisely at communicator.rodney-miller.com  Prior to leading the advancement of innovative education for universities in the United States and internationally, Miller consulted on communication, served as adjunct faculty at the Indiana University center on philanthropy, and chaired or served on the governing boards of educational, professional, and community organizations. He taught communication at Queensland University of Technology, founding and editing the Australian Journal of Communication for over a decade.

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      Book preview

      Communication & Beyond - Rodney G. Miller

      Preface

      From the 1970s onwards , Australia experienced remarkable changes in the commercial, government, and nonprofit sectors. How organizations related to both the community and their employees changed progressively, requiring more frequent and more personal interaction. Together with growth in the arts, mass media, telecommunications, and other areas, these changes and more put a spotlight on communication.

      To help address new and enduring communication challenges throughout the nation, academics in Australian higher education designed and taught a variety of degree-level courses directed to enhance the understanding and practice of communication. These efforts ushered in a new dawn of communication education. Among the new courses for study was a premier degree in communication established at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), in Brisbane, Australia. 

      For more than two decades as an academic and then as an administrator, QUT provided tremendous opportunities to help bridge communication study, teaching, and practice. Touching on social currents from the mid-1970s to the early 21st century, Communication & Beyond chronicles my reflections on some people, principles, and practices responsible for advancing communication education and external relations initiatives at QUT and beyond. I’ve since drawn on the QUT experience to lead the advancement of the innovative education in universities within the United States and internationally.

      This booklet records reflections on one stage in the evolution of communication study and teaching in Australia. Mostly described is what I’ve directly encountered, rather than the many developments in the study and teaching of communication during subsequent years. While occupied leading initiatives to increase resources for the academy, very apparent though is a continuously expanding and exciting future that’s possible for anyone equipped to put communication understandings into practice.

      Rodney G. Miller

      1: Everything Felt New

      During the early 1970s , Australia saw a strong expansion of higher education ¹ at a time of tremendous change in the national economy, politics, and daily life. The nation experienced a burgeoning of professional education programs. Change and growth in communication education mirrored the rapidly expanding higher education sector. These years saw spectacular growth in higher education communication departments, similar in some ways to what had occurred previously in North America.

      Amid economic changes after World War II, the expectations and priorities of both older and newer generations of Australians were in flux. Worldwide, adjustments in lifestyles, social norms, and culture were quickly disseminated into households through an expanding range and reach of mass media. In families and in the workplace, changes in interpersonal communication were disruptive of some social norms.

      This was a time when middle-aged and older Australians, who had experienced economic depression and world wars, seemed to look for stability and security. In contrast, their children and grandchildren, who were to enroll in the newly developing communication courses, were keen to explore new approaches to personal life and to take on new professional roles. Concurrently, population growth and expansions in manufacturing, mining, construction, technology, and other areas were occurring, contributing to a demand for entrepreneurial and community service initiatives that increased the range of employment opportunities in the private and public sectors.

      Enhanced Communication

      For many of these roles, Australia needed people with enhanced communication ability to advance the initiatives. People skilled in communication were in demand for work in advertising, broadcasting, business, film, government, journalism, nonprofits, public relations, teaching, and emerging technologies, along with many other areas. Graduates of communication degree courses were soon to advance into responsible roles, initially as communication doers, then as strategists and advisers to leaders, and progressively as leaders of companies, government, and nonprofits. Communication teachers and researchers certainly viewed communication as consequential to these roles and more broadly to human affairs.

      A widely shared belief inside and outside the academy was that efforts in communication study and teaching might help develop better communication. Various leaders in business, government, and the professions, including the news media, were seeking out communication academics for comment and insight on ways to enhance communication, to develop better relationships in many spheres of life. This suggested that some improvements to mutual understandings among people were possible.

      The emergence of new communication technologies and workplace practices, along with a curiosity about changes in the social framework, institutions, workplace interactions, and communication processes stimulated many studies of interpersonal and mass communication, as well as mass media institutions. It was a vibrant time to be teaching and researching communication.

      Political Change

      In the early 1970s, Australians were working through the experience of a reformist Labor Government led by Gough Whitlam, which was vigorously legislating in a wide range of areas, stimulating rapid social change. At the end of 1975, a constitutional crisis suddenly put the brakes on the federal government’s reform agenda. When Gough Whitlam was sacked by the Queen’s representative, using a reserve power put in place in Queen Victoria’s time, social disagreements took center stage. This caused the public relations lecturer at QIT to write:

      Australia today is a badly shaken society; there are few indications of a return to stability. Tremors that now unsettle the political structure will eventually undermine the foundations of all institutions. These shock waves, already being felt in business and education, originate in the ideas, beliefs, enthusiasms and biases of people and can be countered only by re-establishing in the public mind the worth of each institution. And this counteractivity evokes public relations, which must do its work in an ambience of mounting scepticism of all information, whatever the source.²

      Inarguably, these were uncertain times, although the suggestion of an anticipated demise of Australian institutions was likely accentuated by sensitivities that derived from the writer’s United States origin.

      Many academics in Australia were deeply disappointed by the turn in political events. But companies and government were increasingly attentive to the role that communication might serve to meet an increasing expectation that organizations communicate better, especially through their formative customer relations and social responsibility efforts.

      Communication was often touted as the solution to many challenges. It was inherent in most activities and seemed everywhere to be a concern. Yet little clarity pertained on the many different meanings with which the word was used in the different provinces of the academy, news media, and interpersonally.

      Communication Education

      Partly for this reason, it was as clear to Australian educators as to their counterparts elsewhere in the world, that communication study was wildly heterogeneous.³ From established disciplines, academics could reach into this new area of study and application to ask new questions and break out of approaches that [were] standard in established disciplines.⁴

      At first, the higher education offerings of any scale under the banner of communication were pre-degree courses in oral and written communication skills. When charged to tackle the need to dramatically increase the level, range, and scale of communication teaching and research, Australian academics saw this as an opportunity. Faced with a need to grow communication programs throughout the country, a problem-solving approach used was to review what communication-related occupations were likely to be needed then and in the future in the community.

      Shaping new offerings from what was virtually a blank page might include exploration of the courses established elsewhere, particularly in North America, and then drafting approaches and directions to meet local or regional needs. These efforts tended to incorporate or create whatever might need to be done differently, to be most appropriate to the Australian context.

      Also partly driving the educational developments were worldwide trends in the 1960s and later decades to reassess norms previously taken for granted, along with an Australian inclination to question accepted traditions. At times, Australians will express a contrariness in a variety of ways to challenge established overseas approaches. Later, during the delivery and refinement of the educational offerings, within the mix also was empathy with some of the early communication students, who voiced their wish for Australian teaching materials that could deal with Australian differences and sensitivities, especially through Australian case studies.

      Concerns and Growth

      Arguably, communication teaching did not develop only as some type of amalgamation of the efforts of

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