As I near the end of my first year teaching new media at Hong Kong University, admittedly I'm pretty exhausted. For a journalism school to have only one person on the faculty teaching anything related to online journalism (or anything related to the Internet for that matter) is a bit of a joke in this day and age. Being that person has been, to put it politely, rough. In addition I've been trying to do academic research and writing related to Chinese online discourse and free expression issues (the University here expects faculty to spend half our time on research), remain active in the process to develop corporate standards for privacy and free expression, spearhead the effort to bring Creative Commons to Hong Kong, continue overseeing Global Voices, etc. It's too much for one human being.
I'm looking forward to life improving in 2008. We're bringing in Jerry Foo to teach an advanced web skills class, the fabulous Ben Cheng will join us full-time. We also hope to hire an adjunct instructor who will work with me to teach our required New Media Workshop class in a way that makes more sense for both instructors and students. Click here for the job posting. Here's the text of the ad:
The JMSC seeks an adjunct instructor to teach introductory web skills in a graduate-level required course, "New Media Workshop," for the Spring semester 2008. Language of instruction: English. Commitment: 3-hour course every Monday night (6:30-9:30) for 12 weeks beginning January 14 and ending April 21 (due to intervening holidays and reading week); plus time required for preparation and help with grading student work.
The successful candidate will form the technical half of a 2-person instruction team. The course's aim is to teach journalism students with little technical background how to create works of online journalism. Ideally candidates should have a demonstrated ability to teach such skills as: basic digital photography, Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, basic audio editing and publishing, Soundslides, FTP, basic principles of website construction, elementary HTML, use of different content publishing platforms such as basic CMS, weblogs, wikis, use of RSS and aggregation, etc.
The successful candidate may be considered for other future adjunct and/or full-time teaching opportunities at the JMSC in online and convergent media for the 2008-09 academic year and beyond.
A highly competitive honorarium commensurate with qualifications and experience will be offered. A covering letter with full resumé should be sent to the Director, Journalism and Media Studies Centre, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong or email to clchoi@hku.hk.
Interested or know somebody in Hong Kong who might be? Please pass this on.
I feel your pain Rebecca. I too am the only person of the faculty at the J-School at the University of British Columbia teaching online journalism. So, like you, it has been a challenge to balance demands on my time. The problem is that there aren't that many people with online journalism skills in academia.
Posted by: Alfred Hermida | November 18, 2007 at 02:08 AM
Do you have to speak Chinese?
I'm trying to learn Chinese.
I graduate this December and I might be interested.
Posted by: Patrick Yen | November 18, 2007 at 02:21 AM