SIPA Has A Gaping Hole In Its Curriculum Requirements
I’m a little concerned about the future of SIPA students. Sure, there are concerns about getting a job in this rather frightening job market the class of 2009 is about to enter. Then there are concerns about paying back our loans, which that job market only complicates (GREAT for those of us opting for nonprofit work!). But there is something else I am concerned about.
How many of us in the class of 2009 are going to enter that job market with a decent foundation in media? Certainly some of us are leaving SIPA with some kind of foundation in media, given those who concentrated in International Media and Communications, had a professional focus in Media and Development, or took a class or two. What about the rest?
On the surface, this may not seem important. Media work is the work of media professionals, right? At least, traditionally speaking. How is someone going into finance necessarily going to need media training?
The reality is, almost everyone is going to need media and media training at some point. Here’s a taste of how we know. First, take away the Internet, mobile phones, television, radio, newspapers, computer networks, and online applications. Now, how are you getting your information, and how are you sharing it? Second, name me one job that a SIPA graduate is going to have to do that doesn’t involve getting or sharing information.
Let’s apply this. You are working on a human rights campaign. There’s a good chance your job is to advocate for something. How are you going to do it? Typically, that includes creating a media campaign where you try to get your story into the press, producing films and podcasts telling the stories of people suffering some kind of injustice, and building networks of activists and supporters. You also have to monitor reports of abuses around the world, which can take the form of mining websites, communicating with other human rights agencies, and some form of surveying. Imagine this work without media and online social-networking tools, which are by definition communication tools.
Perhaps you are working in a government agency dedicated to protecting the security of your country. All of a sudden, thousands of protesters appear, as if out of thin air, and begin storming government buildings. You hear that this had to do with something called Twitter, another of many mobile phone and Internet applications people are using to spontaneously and rapidly organize, sometimes to commit serious violent acts. Now imagine trying to contain those protests without understanding how people are using these tools, or the long-term implications of your actions.
Or, let’s say you are a public health worker, and you are trying to monitor child nutrition rates in rural Nigeria, where mortality rates are particularly high. As is often the case in development, your resources are very limited, making it expensive to hire enough staff to go to every door on a regular basis, and you just can’t be everywhere at once. Here’s hoping you’ve caught wind of what they are doing over at UNICEF, which is capitalizing on the mobile phone penetration explosion by using Rapid SMS to have Nigerians report directly to a centralized database through their mobile phones. What else is happening out there with mobile phones and development?
It is very possible that there are SIPA graduates who will use few, if any, media tools directly. But, we must remember that SIPA brands itself as a policy school, and therefore anyone graduating SIPA who is going into policy should have at least a foundational understanding in the policy area they are pursuing. We are quickly approaching a point where all policy areas are significantly impacted by media in some way. This is the Information Age, after all. We’ve reached this age largely because media are infiltrating, and integrating with, every aspect of our lives.
My concern for the future of SIPA grads is that there is currently no requirement in any degree for students to take even a single media class (and remember, “media” and “journalism” are not synonymous-one overlaps the other). If this does not change, there could be serious implications. Graduating students could be ill-prepared for the world they are entering, which is exceedingly media-oriented, and formulate policy with a gaping hole in it. Do we really want policy with gaping holes? (Think Iraq).
Another implication is that SIPA could struggle to remain competitive in international affairs if other schools take the lead in incorporating media into their degree requirements. This would be a shame, given SIPA’s comparative advantage of being located in the media capital of the world.
To reduce the potential of these outcomes, SIPA should take media seriously and institute a media requirement into its degree requirements. Otherwise, it leaves up to chance that its graduates will see the importance of this policy component as they study at SIPA.
Is this a chance we really want to take?
Author’s Note: This is the unexpurgated version of an Op-Ed published in the April 20th issue of Communique.
Photo: Courtesy of elekesmagdi.
Related Posts
- CU Profs Offer Perspectives on Somalia Crisis
- SIPA Debate Over Peace Corps Effectiveness Still Hot
- SIPA Alum Releases Columbia University Calendars
- High Achievers? Student Drug Use At SIPA
More from this author
- How DO we make policy in the digital age?
- WaPo’s Social Media Guidelines: Bad News for International Media Development
- MediaNext: Training Facebook in the Land of Vkontakte
- MediaNext: Convincing Skeptics of Twitter’s Power in Ukraine
Subscribe to this author
As a SIPA student and employed professional I would suggest that while web 2.0 technologies and social networking tools can be useful, a whole class devoted to these might be a bigger investment of time and money than most SIPA students would need. If you really felt that strongly about it you could cross register in the school of Journalism where they spend alot of time on these things, particularly in the New Media Project http://www.journalism.columbia.edu/cs/ContentServer/jrn/1212609473248/page/1212609473229/JRNTabPage.htm
As far as integrating these things into current courses I think the students are more advanced users of many of these technologies than the professors so perhaps a place like the MP or in other student run forums is a better place to experiement with these things.
Andrew,
Thank you for your thoughtful response. I very much appreciate your viewpoints on this.
I have to say, though, I disagree with you about this. I’m not advocating merely learning how to use Facebook and Twitter here. I’m talking about digging in the policy issues underneath these tools. New Media are changing the way that protests and violent actions are being organized, the way development work is being conducted, the way advocacy organizations are advocating for their causes. If I am a SIPA student, am I likely to go over to the journalism school to learn about how blogs are changing the social and political landscape of Iran and how the Iranian government is censoring and filtering these social movements? Am I going to learn about how UNICEF is using cellphones to monitor public health programs and research nutritional needs? Am I going to learn how to build websites and other New Media tools to overcome developing country infrastructural hurdles and the high costs of labor-intensive fieldwork? Am I going to learn about how al Qaeda is using New Media to build its network, spread its message, and coordinate attacks? Probably not. I’m probably going to learn about New Media mostly in a journalism context, right? But what I just listed does not really fall under the journalism environment. More importantly, the benefit of having this taught in SIPA is that SIPA is a place constructed for addressing these fundamental issues. The J-school really isn’t there to look too far outside of journalism. If that isn’t the case, they might want to start seriously rethinking their branding. Along these lines, if I am a SIPA student studying Security Policy, Development, or Human Rights, am I going to want to have to study New Media as they pertain my concentrational interests in a school primarily devoted to journalism? Not that journalism’s bad, but think about the makeup of the classroom. In SIPA, I would be surrounded by people in my field, with similar interests and expertise. In the J-school, I think it is safe to assume most of my classmates would have VERY different needs, mostly journalism-oriented.
(And please, none of this is meant to criticize the J-school, but merely to point out that it serves a different purpose).
In terms of the time and money issue: One, this is the direction the world is heading, and my central argument is that, if SIPA intends to prepare people for where the world is going, not integrating media into its requirements is akin to not adequately preparing its students. Therefore, with students spending well over $100K for a degree that is supposed to prepare them, I think it is worth the time and money. Two, you raise the issue of a whole class being bigger than most SIPA students would need. I have taken several New Media courses at SIPA, and feel like they just begin to get under the surface. New Media as they pertain to the examples I provided above could EASILY fill a class for each example category. I think that everyone would benefit from learning 1. How New Media are being used on a practical level, 2. What the deeper policy issues are, and 3. Actually creating at least some content. That third one may seem trivial at first glance, but in my experience, the best way to really understand a technology is to use it. Moreover, as a media student, I have had a chance to meet a lot of students, and talk media with them. Very, very few of those I met know how to even set up more than a basic blog (if at all), how to set up and use a wiki, how to create and upload an online video, or use a lot of other basic and intermediate Web 2.0 tools that are having a dramatic impact on their industries. And an important reason for this is that very few professors are requiring students to use these tools in their classes, on the whole. When they leave, students don’t seem to know much more in terms of these tools than when they started. Yes, it does seem that students on the whole are more New Media technology literate than professor, but that is not because they are sufficiently literate, and only illustrates my point that SIPA needs to invest more in New Media. They can’t have enough classes if they don’t invest in their professors’ ability to teach them.
This discussion does, however, get inside of a point that I didn’t delve into in my piece. It is not likely that a core class, per se, will address the specific needs of each concentration. Someone studying finance is going to have different needs from someone who studies human rights, most likely. Though, I am not saying that neither would benefit from learning about media as they involve the other. But, to sufficiently prepare each type of student with at least a foundational understanding of media in their field, it would probably make more sense to require each concentration to develop its own media requirement. And the truth is, it’s not that expensive, technologically speaking. That’s why Web 2.0 tools are spreading like wildfire–the cost of publishing has fallen through the floor, for all intents and purposes.
I think SIPA students need to leave SIPA with a foundational understanding of media in their concentration. Otherwise, there’s going to be a gaping hole not only in their degrees, but also their policy.
I feel there are enough “core” requirements at SIPA. I think you [Ben] start acknowledging this in your comment above. A class on Media as you describe is highly irrelevant for those concentrating in Finance or Energy–or at least many of the roles one would work in within that universe. In the 4.5 years I spent working at very large international institutions prior to SIPA, I do not see how a media class would have helped me whatsoever. The key point of understanding communications and information flow and new tools is certainly useful in life, and people can pick that up as part of their education by being student leaders and being involved in other activities–an important part of our education often missed by those looking for “classes” to teach them everything about the world. A required class on Media, as Andrew points out, is a potential waste of resources–but even if it was subdivided by concentrations (as if the concentrations don’t lack enough relevant course offerings as is), this sounds like another “soft” skill class where you would write a paper at the end and really learn nothing. That, to me, is a bigger waste of the $100k.
Ben,
I think the gap that you see in the School’s current curriculum will be partially addressed when the new curriculum goes into effect in Fall 2009. The new curriculum will require an intro to management course for all sipa students, and then after that course, students can choose a skill specialization they want to develop further (quantitative skills, advanced management, or media and communications).
It seems to me that the new intro to management course that will be required of all students should have a brief overview of the role of communications in management & institutions, in part to ensure that all students are exposed to the concepts, and in part to serve as a foundation for those who want to pursue a skill specialization in media. The mandatory ‘intro to management’ course will be developed this summer, and your piece is an excellent argument for why the role of communications in management should be at least a part of a core course.
Rob
Sipa has always had too many distribution (core) requirements. The only thing that anyone should ever have to take classes in at a graduate program are those classes specifically tailored to getting the exact job that the person wants. I see no reason for me to have ad to sit through a class about web pages. I had to take classes in human rights and peace making and peace keeping to meet graduation requirements. I was in the military before SIPA and college. Peace keeping doesn’t work and there are no human rights because there is no global law and there better never be such a thing. Worry about getting people jobs, not about what you think is good for their intellectual well being. If you want intellectual well being, go to the library.
Sean M. Donahue
SIPA 2001
Huh, I’m thinking Sean might have benefited from a SIPA requirement for a course called “How to Have Positive and Effective Public Debate with People You Disagree With”. Seems like there was a more effective way to make those points.
I also think, based on your response, Sean, that you aren’t really processing what I am saying. I’m not talking “intellectual well being” here. I’m talking media, and I am talking policy. I don’t know what you do for a living, but if it involves policy, I would like to see you try it without media. Take away your computer, your cell phone, your Internet connection, your Web pages, your email, your TV, your radio, your newspapers, everything. All media, gone. Now, how are you going to communicate your policy? How are you going to communicate with those impacted by your policy? Taking a plane every time you need to communicate with a group of people is not cost effective.
Next, how are you getting your information when media are gone? Word of mouth?
Third, how are people communicating with one another, spreading information, warping the truth, promoting independence and violence? Which methods of communication are most effective in your position? Which are least? Which are more expensive, which are less? Are you communicating with your target audience using the technologies they are using? Are you using them in the same way they are?
Finally, are you forming complete policy, incorporating media? I’ll use what is happening in Iran as an example. We have seen an explosion of content on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and other Web pages used for communication. These tools are being used to promote action against the government there, as the Iranian government is also going to tremendous lengths to squash Internet expression and organizing there. Our government is telling Twitter not to shut down for repairs because of the important role it is playing in communication in Iran right now. Please don’t suggest for one second that policy in situations like these are complete if there is not a well-informed media component to them.
New Media are changing the way we organize, communicate, protest, destabilize, promote violence, oppress, express, do our banking, keep records for our business, monitor market prices and news, and so on. We have reached a time where we can no longer exclude New Media from policy.
It frightens me how many people in positions of great authority and influence, who form so much of the policy that shapes the world, simply don’t understand even the most basic principles of New Media, how they are changing the way we do all of the things these people are charged with overseeing. How few of these people know how to do anything more advanced than send an email, or click on a link. If you have never studied New Media, how are you going to formulate sound policy around it? How much of your policy is likely to fly in the face of these technologies that are helping so many people to create new opportunities in business, expression, communication, etc? My guess is you probably aren’t aware. Sounds like you haven’t studied this, and that you don’t even want to.
If you think this is just a class about Web pages, you might want to reread what I am saying. And, you seem to have missed my point about getting jobs, when you suggest here that I am more concerned about intellectual well being than getting jobs. This whole piece is one big “I’m worried about SIPA grads’ abilities to get jobs” statement. If SIPA grads are going to remain competitive in the marketplace of jobs, most are going to need to have some level of knowledge in media, particularly New Media, that goes beyond how to create a beer-related event listing on Facebook, or creating a Google calendar.
We are reaching a point where employers are going to be looking more and more for people who have New Media expertise. So, where will that leave all of the SIPA grads who didn’t study New Media, and didn’t come into SIPA with a sufficient understanding of New Media?
But then, in the end, it won’t make me too sad if my competition is lighter in New Media skills. More opportunities for those of us who get it.
Ben,
I think you make a good point that solid understanding of New Media is, and will increasingly be vital, to professionals, in any field, I’d say. The only part of your essay that I disagree with is the medium through which students learn about these new trends and technologies.
I agree with Kash above, who says that being involved in student leadership and other non-classroom activities can teach people far more than sitting in one more class or writing one more final paper on an area that is not fundamental to their degree. I did not learn about procedures on a Board of Directors by taking a class. I learned by actually being on a board for the studeny body when I was an undergrad.
Additionally, New Media is still such an ambiguous term that can define almost any form of digital communication. This encompasses everything from Facebook to Twitter to the iPhone to satellite phones to blogs …, the list is endless. How will you devise a curriculum for 1 semester-long class that will do more than skim the surface of these new trends? Due to the depth of this subject, you would need to devote an entire degree to be able to do more than what 99% of the population do; which is start a blog, post an event on Facebook, twitter your opinion on Iran, etc.
I’ve always felt that the majority of people learn more effectively by doing, rather than passively listening, especially when it comes to recent knowledge or emerging trends. The variety of studeny actiivities at SIPA, I’d imagine, is nearly endless and a student could use any one of these activities to learn more about incorporating New Media into their future careers.
Matt,
I definitely agree with you that it is best to learn by doing, particularly when it comes to New Media. And yes, New Media is a pretty broad topic. But then, most of my classes at SIPA tended to cover broad spectra within whatever field they were dealing with. So, I guess I am accustomed to casting a wide net.
On this topic of doing vs writing a paper: Actually, the New Media classes I took at SIPA required me to actually use New Media. It wasn’t just papers. I wrote a big paper in New Media and Development Communications. But, that paper was an analysis of how a particular new medium was being used. Then, we had to turn around and publish this information on a wiki, and employ various New Media to convey this information. This was part of a larger group project in which each member of our group examined the use of this tool in his or her respective discipline or area of analysis. We were tasked with really digging down into this, looking at the implications of tools being used in this way, trying to think about the potential benefits and drawbacks, provide our own recommendations, and so on. It was more than just regurgitating someone else’s work. And, best part? We had to actually use New Media to communicate this information.
I just don’t think SIPA is, across the board, preparing students to use New Media. I came away knowing how to use blogging technology, Facebook, Twitter, wikis, a wide area of Google programs, YouTube, online video editing and production, widgets, RSS and RSS aggregators, the list goes on, all for professional uses. I can take these skills into almost any professional environment and adapt them to be used for a given discipline. These tools have uses far beyond just writing a personal journal of what you at for breakfast. These are powerful tools for networking, organization, communication, and expression.
Most SIPA students I met don’t know how to do a fraction of this. And what they do know they don’t know beyond personal use. More importantly, they haven’t examined the major policy concerns that these tools present.
I wouldn’t be such a proponent of all of these, except for a few basic reasons. 1. Much of the world is using these tools, and they are doing in ways that are changing the way people connect, organize, communicate. More and more, there are groups of people using these tools for good and for ill. And, in my two years at SIPA, I had to commit myself to taking classes where these issues were covered. My advocating for it to be a requirement is so that SIPA is TRULY preparing people for the world they are heading into. Because I can promise you, your average SIPA student is not all that advanced in these technologies, either in use or policy understanding. Not for professional uses like advocacy, development, security, and so on.
2. These tools I am talking about are free of charge. Sure, to do online video, you need to buy a video camera. And yes, there is an opportunity cost to using them instead of doing something else, as there is in learning and teaching how to use. But, when you compare that to the cost of spreading information through print, TV, radio, and through building your own website, and hiring high priced developers to build you tools you could get elsewhere for free, you put your company, department, or organization in a position where they have to spend more money than they really should. Governments, companies, organizations risk throwing money away to build their own tools. Worse, they won’t truly understand what they are building, nor will they understand what people are already using, or how to engage those people properly.
The real risk here is doing more damage than good by building tools and forming policy that is underinformed. As we have seen in Iran, and other countries, New Media are moving through societies at light speed, and governments are struggling to keep up. New Media (cell phones, internet, you name it) offer the possibility of dramatically cutting costs, and opening flood gates of information that could help people world wide.
And SIPA is going to sit back and say, “You know, we aren’t requiring our students to take a single class in New Media, nor are we going to require them to do more than use email and Courseworks. Yeah, our students are the MOST prepared for the world they are going to lead….” The risk is that people are going to spend a fortune to get this world-renowned education, and yet there is going to be a great big gap in that education for a lot of the people that are going to go shape the world.
Do we really want to leave this up to chance? Do we really want the future of global policy
I absolutely agree that any class teaching New Media should require people to actually use them. Papers aren’t enough. The classes in New Media, fortunately, are already requiring people to ACTUALLY use them. All SIPA has to do is make New Media education a priority, hire some more people to teach them, and make using the technology a requirement.
Will this add cost to the school? Perhaps. Will this mean students will have to lose another class they are taking? Perhaps.
But then, given the massive impact New Media are having in nearly all corners of the world, from the top of society, to the bottom, it is my belief that we are reaching a point where not having even one required class in New Media at SIPA is a far greater loss for the students, and the people who will be impacted by their work.
I did not go to SIPA to become a web page designer. There are technical people to do that. That is what they are for. They are even called web page designers. They like designing web pages. The role of someone with a graduate degree from an elite institution is to provide insights where others have failed to do so and where others have done so but they aren’t the right insights. That is what we are for.
If you want to be a web page designer, go to web page design school. The role of those educated at an elite school in international affairs is to provide our insights on matters where other have failed to do so and where others have provided opinions but their insights are wrong.
Sean,
Are you actually reading what I am saying, or choosing for yourself what I might be saying? The difference is important.
I don’t think I have at any time said that SIPA should teach people how to design a web page, per se.
I didn’t learn how to design a web page at SIPA, in the sense you are speaking of. I did, however, hire someone who was a web design to create the website you are commenting on.
It’s funny that you would have what appears to be some animosity toward New Media, and yet you are reading this page and even participating in the conversation. Without New Media, what’s the likelihood we would, you and I, be able to have this conversation? Or any debate about SIPA’s education? Think of how much time and money would be spent to find each other, call each other, etc. Would we bother? Then how would SIPA gain access to these ideas, this thinking. I have a pretty close relationship with people in fairly important positions in SIPA, and they have told me this forum and these conversations are very valuable to them to gain insight into how some of us feel. Among other things they find valuable in this site and this technology.
You said, “The role of someone with a graduate degree from an elite institution is to provide insights where others have failed to do so and where others have done so but they aren’t the right insights. That is what we are for.”
The Internet is quickly becoming the primary source of information, communication, organization, and sometimes, terrorism, in the world. There is also a tremendous divide between America/Western Europe and most of the developing world in terms of access to the internet, access to information, and knowledge of how to use the Internet to maximize its benefits in developing one’s country to compete in the global information economy. I know this because I have researched this extensively.
Also, I am, as we speak, in Ukraine training journalists and NGOs how to use internet tools, and having now trained over 75 people from five cities, I have a pretty good grasp of how knowledgeable some of the top consumers of new media in Ukraine are. This isn’t the middle of the jungle in the Congo. This is in major cities in Ukraine, a highly developed country as “developing countries” go.
Some other examples: the US State Department is monitoring social-networking sites like Twitter and Facebook closely to keep an eye on what is happening in Iran. http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/06/16/iran.twitter.facebook/index.html. They seem to think it’s important to understand how New Media are being used in politically unstable places.
Meanwhile, time spent on social-networking sites is exploding around the world. Just some data from the US and Europe…. Time spent on Twitter has increased 3700% in the last year in the US. The amount of people on Facebook in Europe has increased 75% to 999%. This includes Russia at 309% (and Russia is a fairly crucial player in the online world, particularly in terms of cyberterrorism, so how much time people are spending on the Internet in Russia kind of matters, for a whole slew of reasons, including cyberterrorism). 23% of the world is using the Internet today, or 342% more than in 2000. And 60% of the world owns a cell phone (another important form of New Media).
I guess New Media’s kind of becoming, um, important.
The Internet, and the larger sphere known as New Media, are revolutionizing communications, development, security, terrorism, medicine, and so on. And yet, from your argument, you are basically saying that studying any sort of policy directly related to New Media is a waste of time.
So, where are these insights going to come from when the next generation of leaders forms policy that affects the globe? Will they have a sufficient understanding of the important role the Internet will play in their policy and their constituents? Or, will they have a great big blind spot? (At this point, I can probably start saying silly things about Sean’s mom, or something, because I’m pretty sure he’s not reading this far. If you are, Sean, thank you. I appreciate it. I should probably give you more credit than I am, except that your responses keep focusing on things I’m not really talking about, and you keep raising points I have already addressed, but you are writing as if I haven’t addressed them.)
And, if you are SIPA, and you want to position yourself as the top school for the leaders of the world to come to so that they can advance their ability to form the most appropriate and effective policy in the world, is it really in your best interest to leave a gaping hole in your required curriculum?
Benjamin,
Look. The world need not be a complicated place. Lisa Anderson makes it that way. There are bad people and there are good people. The mission of the elite[ly] (elitely should be a word and I am submitting it to the world as such.) —The mission of the elitely educated American is to separate the bad people from the good people. That’s what we do. Its who we are. Its what we are. Its why we are. The mission of SIPA is to train those who will staff the foreign services of the world’s nations on the plan. The new order. The democratization of earth. That’s us and at the end of the day, your either one of U.S. or one of them. I assume you’re one of us but, you talk like on of them.
In a moment of inspired differentiation I have come to conclude that we agree on the point that SIPA’s curriculum has issues that need to be addressed. We disagree on the point that you feel SIPA teaches too little and I feel it teaches too much. So, why is it too much? Well, SIPA has a way of complicating things that are much simpler than Lisa Anderson makes them. For example, there is no need to go back to “the literature” to find out what others who weren’t there when historical events occurred have to say about decisions they never got to make. Instead, you teach people to have a good solid sense of value. —You teach them “a way”, a way to think, a way to be, a way to live. You teach them a way of life. When you do that, you get America. So, that begs the inevitable criticism; But Culture. What about culture.
Ben. Democracy is best achieved by a homogenization of culture. That requires a homogenization of values. SIPA fails to achieve this. SIPA fails to be on a single sheet of music. SIPA fails to have a plan. For the plan, we turn to Washington D.C. It is to that American house that we, who make up U.S. elect he or she to have the honor and privilege of leading U.S. through the implementation of the plan. These truths just flew over Lisa Anderson’s head. What SIPA needs in such desperate philosophical, economic and military times is not further broadening of the curriculum. Instead, SIPA needs the kinds of sophistication that can only be achieved through a more narrowing approach towards teaching and learning. The value of any curriculum must be measured solely by its success in implementing the plan.
Your implied suggestion that SIPA teach how to make web pages deviates from the plan. The plan is for the web page designer to make web pages. You now admit that. But you persist to insist that one must be trained on how to use the internet. That kind of skill should be taught in high school, not SIPA. As for as teaching people to ponder the way in which the use of web pages has and will continue to change the manner in which we interact, well, that is beyond the plan. At “this juncture[U.S.:41]” I am forced to shine upon you just one “point of light[U.S.:41]” amongst “a thousand points of light[U.S.: 41]“. What you speak of and appear to thirst for intellectually is training in internet marketing of your reporting. If this is now the case, then I agree, you are not suggesting that SIPA teach web page design and you agree that the people who do that are called web designers. But you are still far off the mark in suggesting that SIPA teach internet marketing. Those people are called internet marketing people.
It is the role ( and the destiny) of the elite to state the body of insight and ideas that must be marketed. It it the role of the marketing people to then dutifully and diligently market those insights and ideas over the internet. The role of the SIPA person: To Know. The role of the web page designer: To Design a web page. The role of the marketing firm: To use the web page to market that which the SIPA person knows, so that all others can know it too. You’re just confused about your role, that’s all. Lisa Anderson has grossly failed to articulate to the world the nature of these duties. Yet, we all know that she agrees with it.
Sincerely,
Sean M. Donahue
Dear Benjamin Colmery,
You need to stop taking my comments down when you disagree with them but have no response. I gave you a very thoughtful point-to point response to your criticisms. Such a point-to-point response is exactly what you claim that you wanted me to do. So, I did just that. But now, you have deleted the comments because you are not prepared to counter comment. This is your shortcoming for not knowing what you think and where you stand on issues.
Sincerely,
Sean M. Donahue
@Sean M. Donahue
Individual authors for The Morningside Post do not have the ability to publish or delete comments. One of your comments (from July 15) was marked as spam by our spam filter. It has been published above.
Thanks,
TMP Editors