Image Conscious
New major an eye-catcher for visual communicators

Image may not be everything, but it's a fundamental part of almost everything that goes on in the mass media.

In today's multimedia environment, there's a heightened visual vocabulary in which photography, illustration, video, icons, animation and interactive elements are essential and expected parts of storytelling.

The Major
The School of Journalism and Mass Communications has responded by introducing a new major — visual communications. More than two years in the making, the major was introduced this past fall and now has more than 60 students enrolled. Sequence Chair Van Kornegay thinks those numbers are picture perfect.

“We have gone from zero to 60 in one semester,” Kornegay said. “That’s a good pace. We’d like to have about 160 majors within two years. At this rate, we’re where we want to be.”

Like other majors in the school, “vis com” students take core journalism courses in media writing, research, law and ethics. Major courses focus on photography, design and graphics. Students choose electives that target a specific media area such as print, electronic, advertising or public relations. All courses in the major stress the growing multimedia nature of visual communications and require students to produce projects for the printed page as well as the computer screen.

The Students
Junior Mary Waters said visual communications was a natural fit that tied together her interest in the visual and the verbal. "I really enjoy both copy-editing and graphic design,” she said. “I don't want to have to pick between the two. The vis com major jumped out at me as soon as I heard about it because I didn't want to just dabble in graphics courses as electives; I really wanted to come out of college with a mastery of the programs and skills."

The statistical profile of the new majors indicates they are a strong group. Their average collegiate GPA is 3.32, and they include students who have been awarded Palmetto and McNair Scholarships, two of the top scholarships at USC.

Photography professor Keith Kenney said he's seen improvement in the quality of student work in the introductory photo course. “I don’t know what the secret ingredient is,” Kenney said. “Maybe it’s just a strong class, but I hope the improvement is also due to the fact that we’ve raised the bar by making the course part of a new major.”

The Graduates
The visual communications sequence goal is to produce graduates who can:

• Cover breaking news events as photojournalists.Produce commercial photography. Use skills in design, typesetting, illustration, photography, writing and editing to prepare materials for the mass media such as books, magazines, newspapers, newsletters and Web sites.Create graphic communication for informative and persuasive messages in the mass media, such as logos, animation, software interfaces, statistical charts, diagrams, timelines and maps.Create audiovisual communications for internal and external publics.
• Supervise the printing, production and delivery of print and online publications to a mass audience.

The Faculty
Four full-time faculty teach in the major, and they bring a variety of skills and backgrounds.

Professors Van Kornegay and Scott Farrand teach the introductory course and courses in graphics and design. Kornegay has created a number of graphics courses in the School and has worked for the Associated Press Graphics Network in New York. He has conducted graphic workshops for journalists throughout the world.

Farrand has more than 20 years' experience in informational graphics and publication design. He was a graphics editor with The State newspaper when it received the Society of Newspaper Design's highest award — "Best Designed Newspaper in the World." Farrand has served as a trainer and consultant with 10 of the world’s leading media companies, 28 S.C. newspapers and numerous nonprofit and religious organizations in the Southeast.

Drs. Keith Kenney and Bruce Konkle teach courses in photography. Kenney has published a CD-ROM of photos of his pilgrimage to Shikoku, Japan, and his photographs of Uganda were exhibited at several galleries. He is a contributing author of Handbook of Visual Communication.

Konkle, director of the South Carolina Scholastic Press Association from 1985-2002, first taught photography on the secondary school level before doing freelance work for several national magazines and handling communications and photography at the Greater Columbia (S.C.) Chamber of Commerce. He has conducted more than 100 photographic and design seminars for scholastic journalism organizations since the late 1970s.

The Challenge
The process of image making is no longer in the hands of a few specialists. Anyone with a camera phone can take a picture and transmit it over the Web. Anyone with a computer can create graphics or edit video. Digital processes have democratized visual communication in the mass media. The challenge is to help students master these tools and use them to communicate effectively.

Employers say they want these skills in today’s job-seekers. That makes the vis com picture all the more appealing.