The simple classroom could have been located in any of the
four countries represented in the room, if not for the New York skyline in the backdrop. The dry erase board in the front of the room
was cluttered with social justice terminology.
Half of the 25 people in the room had their arm extended indicating
their desire to speak. This was not a
room of eager students but contingent educators brainstorming about the media.
The conversation started with input from an editor of an
education news agency. The presenter
proclaimed that daily newspapers do not care about social justice and doing
education right. Instead, the media
wants to discuss higher education as a “consumer issue.” Simply stated, the guest journalist
communicated that most media is not interested in the plight of college
teachers.
It is difficult to explain labor issues to a public that
largely is unaware of the existence of part-time professors. The claim from our expert was clear: when
talking to the media teacher victimization is not a popular pitch. After decades of fighting for job security it
is time to retire the adage of the “poor adjunct.”
As the conversation shifted the audience came alive. The room was a flutter with ideas of how to
illuminate the research, artwork, and teaching accolades of adjuncts.
Then, a millennial peered her head from behind her MacBook
and asked the audience to consider her generation. She shared that she was “not interested in
her teachers’ scholarly research” but instead just wanted a “good
teacher.” A room filled with brilliant
educators now had to shift gears to not only change the way they tell their
stories to media and also, consider a younger audience.
Skyline and social justice @ProfessorCCB at #cocalXI #CFA_News #adjuncts #NewFacMajority pic.twitter.com/8C5go9zH7C
— MrNinjaman (@JohnRBoone) August 4, 2014
@SydniDunn @AAUP here's that #COCALXI group photo pic.twitter.com/LK43EPM9KZ
— PSC_CUNY (@PSC_CUNY) August 6, 2014
What exactly is the "old" message that no longer resonates? What should be the "new" message? (If you can specify, without, you know, outing the oldsters.)
ReplyDeleteAdjuncts are exploited through our workload, low pay, lack of benefits. This exploitation is not a message something the media wants to cover. Instead we need to find a way to talk about adjunct issues without only talking about ourselves. The AAUP phrase "faculty working conditions are student learning conditions" is an example of a strong message. There are other national campaigns like Adjunct Actions phrase "The Wall Street Skim" or the idea of the NFM or the "New Faculty Majority." These ideas resonate more with millennial and media than press releases about our position on bargaining. A adjunct union in Canada is using a great branding "Adjuncts are the Pillars of the University." At COCAL we created a brainstorming list of other story pitches that avoid the pitfall of the "poor adjunct."
DeleteTo put it even more bluntly, what media want is traffic. That means reader appeal comes first. If that reminds you of grade inflation for the sake of evals, take some cold comfort in this being now the norm for most journalism. Not upsetting advertisers comes in either neck and neck or a photo finish second.
ReplyDeleteThis is why blogging and social media networks are so important: these are our voices. I enjoyed your #COCALXI tweets, am thrilled you have a blog and will add it my "precarity bloggers" blogroll.
Vanessa Vaile dba @PrecariousFac and blogging from the precarious faculty blog