IMPACT OF MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES ON DIGITAL EDUCATIONAL CONTENT IN MEDIA SECTOR

Abstract

The rapid development of media technologies has tremendously influenced all spheres of human life. In media education, they are widely used for both organization of future media industry workers training, and its content. Being progressive, the media sector makes an active use of the technological capacity to enhance the education efficiency and quality. At the same time, those processes create a tough competitive environment. In the context of the distance learning prevailing in the last few years, higher educational establishments face the emergence of numerous alternative educational internet initiates at the market that may pose a certain threat for the traditional higher education in the future. It is partially driven by reorientation of media industry’s economic models, including a fundamental revision of approaches to monetization and the popularity of the non-commercial independent journalism with its growing employment opportunities. They all urge journalists gain new skills and pursue knowledge from other spheres often unrelated to journalism. On top of that, changing communication channels and higher technological literacy level of young people shape the need to adopt content formats to new realities. Seeking to assert their traditional dominance in the media education market, universities should revisit the content of training curricula and more efficiently use technological tools in the educational process. The current study that is based on the survey of future media workers conducted during 2020-2021 (20 months) made it possible to identify the content formats preferred by students and assess the potential and risks of using them in the future. Described practices of using media technologies by universities allow recommend those of them that could be most efficiently integrated in the educational process. For example, the development of communication channels enabling integration of educational courses and clusters into a single interdisciplinary system both at the level of individual educational units and at the university level seems promising. It would make university curricula significantly more adaptable and competitive in the face of new challenges at the media market and streamline limited resources in the existing circumstances.