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Practice what you preach. Or perhaps it should be practice what you teach. Journalist and communications scholar Carl Hausman is doing just that this spring semester as a visiting scholar at Millersville University.
Hausman is serving as the primary teacher of “Entrepreneurial Journalism in the Multi-Platform Era,” which is being offered as a special topics course for the English department. He is working with Philip Benoit, who teaches journalism and writing courses as an adjunct instructor in the department.
According to Hausman, the overarching goal of the course is to teach students how to set up their own entrepreneurial journalism ventures, utilize new technology to reach worldwide audiences, and integrate a portfolio of platforms into what he calls a “a synergistic mini-media empire, where one platform feeds into another and the whole becomes greater than the sum of the parts. That strategy, in my estimation, is part of the future of news and media entrepreneurship.”
“Carl contacted me with the idea of offering this course about a year ago,” Benoit said. “He had been doing research on digital journalism and its use by journalists who are finding innovative ways to practice their craft outside the traditional models of the journalism profession, using digital technology and platforms.”
Hausman proposed to come to Millersville to develop methods and resources that would result in an academic course that could then be replicated at his home institution and elsewhere. Hausman welcomes the opportunity to work with Benoit, who is the coauthor of several of Hausman’s books.
“Phil is very technically innovative and is the ideal partner for a collaborative venture like this,” Hausman said. “In addition, I had done a program review for Millersville several years ago, offering an external evaluation of the University’s journalism curriculum, and was impressed with the level of technical sophistication and support. So, it seemed like an ideal venue.”
For the classes’ final project, students will formulate a business plan and pitch it in a mock “Shark-Tank” setting to a panel of experts.
Before coming to Rowan in 1997, Hausman served in various full- and part-time positions on the faculty of New York University, where he completed his postdoctoral fellowship. He has written and published more than 20 books covering topics including politics, advertising, media and ethics. He has worked in a variety of media and began work in Internet journalism in the mid-1990s.
His media appearances include “World News This Morning,” “The O’Reilly Factor,” “Good Day New York” and a number of national talk radio shows. He testified before Congress concerning communication and societal issues and he has been interviewed by The New York Times and USA Today.
For more information regarding the class, please contact Philip Benoit at 717-872-3048 or at Philip.Benoit@millersville.edu.
