Ever since the first humans managed to grunt at each other to say, “Hey, this berry will kill you but this one won’t,” we have been communicating. Today, we let each other know about berries that kill and other less lifesaving but more interesting things through so many more mediums than were available to our grunting ancestors. It’s a great time to be alive, but (and I’m biased because I’m a comm. major) it’s an even better time to study communications.
In a narrow sense, studying Communications & Media at CMU means that you get to take classes like:
New Media: where you learn what it is that makes online interaction different from face-to-face interaction;
Intro to Journalism: where you get to unlearn all the academic writing skills you’ve spent so long perfecting and relearn journalistic writing with an editor from the Free Press;
Oral Communication: where you get to improve your public speaking skills;
Christianity and the Mass Media in Canada: where you can ask questions like “what does it means to be a Christian media producer?” and,
Radio Team: where you get to use a recording studio and edit interviews to air on CMU’s radio program.
In a broader sense, studying communications and media at CMU means that you’ll learn how to tell stories, and you’ll learn new and creative ways of looking at the world. In the skills classes, everything leads towards becoming a better storyteller, whether through audio editing, journalistic writing, or graphic design. In the theory classes, everything leads towards learning to approach the world with open-ended questions and open minds.
In another, even broader sense, studying communications and media at CMU will help you understand what it means to be a Christian in today’s world.
Communication is deeply tied to Christian theology. In Genesis 1:3, there is a powerful act of speech that starts the whole of creation going, “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.” Jesus is the Word incarnate and the Bible is, technically, a book. Studying communications means that you get to ask questions about the significance of God speaking, why the Bible existing as a physical, paper and ink book is important and how Jesus relates to the evening news.
To study communication is to study what it means to be human in community with other humans, and what better place to do this than at CMU, where faith is at the forefront.
Ayla Manning is one of CMU’s Student Ambassadors
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