Annenberg X classes offer students hands-on experience

The Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism is offering a new set of classes this fall designed to engage students in interdisciplinary media studies.

The series, called Annenberg Experimental or Annenberg X, hopes to blend concepts from the fields of media, journalism, communication and entertainment. Courses range from Professor Jonathan Aronson’s class Going Viral to Professor K.C. Cole’s and adjunct professor Roberta Marinelli’s experiential class Environmental Communications, which includes a weekend field trip to Catalina Island.

Each class is 2 units and spans approximately six weeks, packing a large amount of material into three-and-a-half hour sessions once a week. Associate Professor Gordon Stables emphasized the hands-on experience offered in the classes.

“We’re looking for nontraditional ways to get students exposure to the world of media,” Stables said. “It’s designed to be an accent, to help students explore the university.”

According to Stables, the inspiration for the classes came from Annenberg’s Dean Ernest J. Wilson III.

“Dean Wilson really wanted to break down the silos between the different parts of the discipline,” Stables said.

Each professor has the freedom to design his or her class, allowing them to explore subjects that can’t be taught in a traditional 16-week semester, according to Aronson, the director of the initiative.

“We thought, ‘We have all this new technology, all these interesting people floating around, what is a better way to get people training that is useful in the real world?’” he said.

Though the popularity of online content can sometimes be arbitrary, learning to harness the power of popular approval is applicable in a variety of disciplines, according to Aronson. He also sees the skills addressed in the Going Viral class as part of a much bigger picture.

“We tend to see communication as a critical part as how to go about thinking,” he said. “Effective communication teaches you to build on your creativity.”

Aronson also oversees the most popular course, Leadership in Startup Digital Media Ventures. The class is taught by entrepreneurial expert Dinesh Moorjani, a Harvard Business School graduate and current executive-in-residence at Warburg Pincus, a private equity firm. The class is set up to be informational yet interactive as students learn the necessities of entrepreneurship, from basic accounting to wider marketing strategies, by examining and discussing different current companies.

Moorjani, who has never taught a class before, said he is excited to help students cultivate their imaginations in different ways.

“I want students to leave with that practical toolkit, to have stretched their quantitative abilities and imagination,” Moorjani said. “Hopefully, throughout the class, their neurons have been firing and new synapses are forming, preparing them to deal with new situations in a logical way.”

Andrew Poksay, a senior majoring in industrial and systems engineering said the class is invaluable to him as he prepares to launch his own business, an online marketplace for the exchange of surf gear.

“I really appreciate being able to bounce ideas off [Moorjani],” he said.

Moorjani recommends Annenberg X to students who want to increase their capabilities beyond journalism and media studies. Annenberg administrators have said they want to offer students both interdisciplinary and practical education, an initiative they call the Annenberg Advantage.

Stables said that most universities do not house the disciplines of communication, journalism and public relations in the same school.

“Most communication schools don’t have an entrepreneurship focus,” he said. “But for us, being in Los Angeles, it’s a necessary part of what we want our students to learn.”

Stables describes the Annenberg Advantage as the school’s way of preparing students for professional careers by providing services such as practical career counseling.

“We’re really interested in shortening the transition from school to your professional work experience,” Stables said.

Caitlin Plummer, a sophomore majoring in print and digital journalism, agreed. She said the program opens up more options for students upon graduation and show that the school is keeping up with the times.

“Not every student in Annenberg wants to be a reporter or a publicist, and the classes in Annenberg X acknowledge that,” she said. “I think offering courses on real-world skills specific to certain areas of communication is smart; it’s providing necessary information that students didn’t need ten years ago.”

Moorjani sees the classes as having a wider reach into students’ effect on society.

“I hope this will help them learn to create value in society, rather than extracting value from society,” he said.