Convergence in Media Education Curricula

Abstract

[EN] The paper intends to investigate current university degree programs in numerous European countries and compare them with offerings in the United States with regard to their suitability to contemporary workplace requirements in the age of convergence. Recent trends in convergence, defined as the merging and growing together of previously distinct industrial branches, professions, devices and skills (Jenkins, 2008) have changed and dramatically transformed the ways people communicate as well as interact with each another. As a consequence, academic and professional representatives are asked to respond to these far-reaching alterations in varying ways. By use of an extensive content analysis, our study intends to analyze to which degree universities in Europe and the United States have started to already offer adequate programs on different educational levels (Bachelor, Master and PhD) in an attempt to provide the kind of media education needed today and in the future. The paper takes a closer look at educational trainings and degree programs offered by post-secondary institutions throughout the world, scrutinizing whether convergence and related terms such as multimedia and cross-media have already managed to gain an (academic) foothold yet