When I came to Kent State’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication in the fall of 2004, I’d never heard of the word convergence.

Part of it may have been that I wasn’t nearly as media savvy and interested as I am now. But the major reason was simply most people weren’t really talking about it.

The first “real” journalism class I took was Newswriting in Spring 2006, where we touched on the different platforms, and I remember talking about how media are changing – though I wasn’t so sure I believed it and I don’t remember the word “convergence” being used.

In fact, it wasn’t until fall of 2006, when I took Print Beat Reporting that I really started hearing the word that seems to be the most popular in journalism. And even then, we were doing little more than talking about it.

CONVERGENCE YADA YADA YADA

Today you can’t go to a journalism class without there being talk of convergence. You can’t go in our newsroom without at the least noticing something is a little different, and not just the absence of 40 years of dirt and grime.

But where are we compared to where we were told we’d be?

Associate Professor Gary Hanson, said we’re further than we think we are. “Convergence is a mindset,” he said.

Indeed. While some faculty members and a few students have pushed for an immediate delve into total convergence, it just doesn’t seem possible.

“Too many working parts,” as Hanson put it.

While the most clear and advanced part of our convergence here at Kent State is with student media, one thing many of the staff saw as being absolutely necessary and really being the point of our convergence was the assignment desk in the newsroom.

As the Stater and TV2 (the two main components of KentNewsNet) have worked together, it’s probably the only area in the newsroom that hasn’t been used at all.

MINDSETS VS. SKILL SETS

I think that proves one of Hanson’s points about this whole thing: Convergence is a mindset. There isn’t necessarily a single visual, tangible thing that convergence is.

It’s about building skill sets, if not to have the ability to actually do it, at the least be able to think critically about a story and understand ‘this is best for breaking on TV2,’ or ‘this should be on the Web site immediately.’

Though nearly all classes here are talking convergence, few actually teach its techniques. Most don’t teach how to think about it, but rather just to think about it. Hanson said most of the faculty expected the curriculum to be a little slower to change.

I think we’re doing OK here at Kent State. People I talk to from other universities are surprised with what we’re doing. The standard track classes get us thinking about convergence. Those with a real passion for journalism have the options of taking classes where the abilities are taught and where convergence discussions are commonplace.

So no, we aren’t there yet; there hasn’t been a massive shift as some were saying at the beginning of this movement. But we’re doing a good job getting there.