What is higher about this education? Joel Ward, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Communication, Geneva College, ([email protected]) The question of what higher education demands has recently received notable attention in public conversation. Many have been quick to both defend and deconstruct higher education as we currently practice it in American colleges and universities. As in past decades, arguments have become necessary …

Jesus Christ. . . Documentary Film Maker? Samuel Ebersole, Ph.D., Professor of Communication, Colorado State University, Pueblo ([email protected]) Part I: Cinéma Vérité Cinéma Vérité. Noun: a style of filmmaking characterized by realistic, typically documentary motion pictures that avoid artificiality and artistic effect and are generally made with simple equipment. As a scholar and practitioner who studies media effects and teaches at a state …

Practicing a Theatrical Hermeneutic in Teaching and Performance Paul Patton, Ph.D., Professor of Communication and Media, Spring Arbor University ([email protected]) I left the traditional pastorate at forty years old in 1993. As I began graduate studies in theater and communication, I knew I was no longer getting paid for studying and writing sermons. The time that had been devoted for …

Teaching the “Dark Side” of Communication, Part 3: The How Jeremy Osborn, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Communication, Cornerstone University ([email protected]) In my previous guest blog post, I discussed what the “dark side” of communication is and why it is an important topic for us as Christian Communication Studies scholars and teachers to address.  If you have yet to read that …

Teaching the “Dark Side” of Communication, Part 2: The What and Why Jeremy Osborn, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Communication, Cornerstone University ([email protected]) My “relationship” with the “dark side”[1] of communication began, at least from a pedagogical and scholarly standpoint, in 2007.  I was only three years removed from completing my doctoral program and had spent a great deal of time …

A “Backward Design” Approach to the Integration of Faith and Learning (Part 1) Jeremy Osborn, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Communication, Cornerstone University ([email protected]) When the CCSN first talked to me about the possibility of contributing to the blog, I was both excited and a bit intimidated.  It seems fitting that my posts follow those of Naaman Wood, last month’s guest blogger, …

Analogies: Cultivating a “Thick” Strategy for Thinking Christianly about Communication (Part 4, Final) Naaman Wood, Ph.D., Redeemer University College ([email protected]) My first year in seminary, I was preparing for my Christian theology final, and I discovered a strange possibility within Christian thinking. Almost any Christian doctrine, insight, or practice possessed a transparency or a resonance with many other doctrines, insights, or …

Analogies: Cultivating a “Thick” Strategy for Thinking Christianly about Communication (Part 3) Naaman Wood, Ph.D., Redeemer University College ([email protected]) After my first blog post, a reader wanted some clarity on what I meant by analogy, especially regarding my concerns of redemptive readings of Gran Torino. I paraphrase the reader’s inquiry here: As I understand your argument, Naaman, analogies lead to “good” …