It is not just the general public who are affected by this phenomenon. Even practitioners of the creative industries are not immune. Many professionals were born into the industry during the early digital age, pre internet and certainly pre the age of the social networks. Professionalism and maturity are admirable and necessary. However, they are not a safeguard against the rapid changes that the industries are undergoing.
To this purpose, the department established a series of workshops aimed at professionals from the creative industries. Photographers, video editors, sound technicians, scriptwriters, designers, creatives and even administrative staff within the media, to orient them into the world of digital literacy, specifically in the use of the social networks, the communication channels of the future.
Sample screens from the workshops
The 18 workshops, which ran during August – September 2019, were run by staff of the department and lasted in total approximately 100 hours. Using the computer laboratories of the department as well as the personal mobile devices of the participants (in small groups of 5-10 each), the workshops focused on general usage, statistics and the commercialization potential of the tools. These enabled the participants both a theoretical as well as a “hands on” working knowledge of the social tools, thus easing their integration into the new millennium.
Outcome
Response to the workshops was very positive, leading to requests for both further workshops and more specialized ones, even possible inclusion in the department's academic syllabus.
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