FROM THE CHAIR

Thank you for reading our alumni magazine. This magazine is really for you – the alumni and friends of our department. If you haven’t read the first two issues of our magazine, you’ll find them at: https://issuu.com/gcdepartmentofcommunication/docs/2021_lynx_online (2021) and https://cutt.ly/zP1BY9b (2022).

This magazine wouldn’t be possible but for the vision and hard work of Professor Christina Smith and her enterprise journalism students. If you love the work of this magazine as much as I do, drop her a note or email and let her know (christina.smith1@gcsu.edu).

Since I’ve last written, we’ve had several reasons to celebrate. We’ve had a couple of new babies born to department faculty and three new department professors have joined us: Nathan Bedsole, Colin Whitworth and Molly Wilkins. This spring, we’re searching for new colleagues on the mass communication side of the department in digital production and writing.

We’re also increasing our outreach to area high schools in the hope that new Bobcats will join us. We’ve already had several local high schools visit us. If you know of prospective future Bobcats, let us know.

I happened to be in a session earlier this year led by Professor Harold Mock, who directs the campus leadership programs, and he noted the university is a place where the past and future meet. That’s something I’ve also been thinking about.

The liberal arts lives in the present, learns from the past and prepares for the future, all simultaneously. And we especially feel this tug between the past, present and future within the communication discipline. Some of my thinking has been influenced by Tom Standage, deputy editor of The Economist. He wrote two books that I’ve used in the past: “The Victorian Internet” and “Writing on the Wall: Social Media – The First Two-Thousand Years.” I highly recommend them. Don’t worry – they don’t read like textbooks. Standage’s argument is the telegraph, the scroll and many other “primitive” forms of communication are the basis for social media and other media of today.

In the communication discipline, we’re constantly adapting what we’ve learned from our past and using what we’re observing to help us better prepare for the future. It’s not always easy to do. I thought about writing something about Twitter, but realized it would likely be well out-of-date by the time this LYNX issue is published. No matter what ends up happening with Twitter, the conversations about social media and its role in journalism, interpersonal communication, political communication and other aspects of our discipline will continue.

CORRECTION: The spring 2022 issue of LYNX incorrectly spelled Angelina Cebrián’s name.

We want to help all of our students – past, present and future – by continually thinking about how the study of communication prepares one for a variety of life possibilities. I strongly believe both the past and present are necessary to help us better navigate our futures. It’s for this reason, dear alumni, that we need your help. One of my goals over the next year is to learn more from you – whether it be virtual, in-person or through surveys we’ll be sending on how you’ve applied what you’ve learned to your present as well as what lessons you’ve learned that we can impart to our current and future students. We covet your help, and we thank those of you who’ve shared with our students about the kinds of positions you have as well as how you’ve used what you’ve learned. We’d love to hear from more of you so we know how we can better help the next generation of Bobcats.

Michael Dreher Professor of Rhetoric and Chair, Department of Communication