After several months of hard work, we are pleased to introduce our new department web site.  It is rich with information about our academic programs, research and media design projects, and the people who make up our department.  Today, I'd especially like to highlight one feature of this new site - our emphasis on "Focus Areas."  We have a diverse and interdisciplinary faculty, engaged in a wide range of media and communication technology related work, including both the design of content for media, and the analysis of uses and implications of communication technologies for people, organizations, and societies.  There are pockets of focused activity, though, where we have developed unique capabilities and are having national and global impact.  These may evolve over time, but at the moment, the following six areas represent important concentrations of research and media design work as well as curricular innovation:

• Information and Communication Technology. The department has offered coursework in the area of information & communication technology for quite some time and now offers specializations in both information technology (IT) and information & communication technology for development (ICT4D). IT-oriented research includes understanding the adoption and use of IT by organizations as well as the role of ICTs for economic development. Several years ago, with the help of some internal investment from the Provost at Michigan State University, our department joined with the College of Engineering and the Honors College to find ways to bring the benefits of information and communication technologies to people in the world's poorest and least developed regions. We have ongoing projects providing access to advanced ICTs in such places as Tanzania, research projects examining how ICTs are used by individuals and micro-enterprises in developing regions, and our ICT4D specialization that prepares students to work in this challenging field. The program culminates in an innovative field experience that we call the ICT Global Corps, a sort of peace corps for students wanting to work with technology in developing regions. It's a life-changing experience for students, and we hope we are making a positive difference in the lives of the people in the areas where we work.
   
• Games and Meaningful Play.  We are now in our 10th year of offering game design courses, making us one of the first programs to offer game design curriculum.  Today, we offer pre-college summer camps and have both an undergraduate specialization and a graduate track in this area, as well as an active game design and research hub in the Games for Entertainment and Learning (GEL) Lab.  Teams of students have won game design competitions, and facutly are supported by grants from such places as the National Science Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for their research on games for learning and health.  We recently hosted the Meaningful Play Conference this Fall for the second time, and it was one of the premier events for people interested in ways to use games for learning, training, health, and cognitive development.
   
• TV, Cinema, and Radio. We are one of the nation's oldest departments preparing students for careers in television and radio, with fully equipped audio and video studios and state-of-the art editing and field production equipment.  We also offer new specializations in fiction film production and documentary studies, and are a partner in the exciting new Michigan Creative Film Alliance. With the explosion in new media platforms, learning how to create compelling media content is more important than ever.  Our students have the nation's longest running cable television program in "The Show" and their work is shown on many cable and public television outlets as well as at film festivals and in online platforms.  At the bottom of our home page, you'll find links to YouTube and Vimeo where student work is showcased, as well as to Spartan TV, an online streaming video station managed by our students.  We also manage IMPACT 89 FM, the winner of the Michigan Association of Broadcaster's college radio station of the year award for the last ten years.
   
• Social and Interactive Media.  Back in the early 1990s, we developed an innovative curriculum that we called "Digital Media Arts and Technology."  Today, building on twenty years of experience, we have an outstanding concentration of courses teaching students how to design content for new media.  Classes cover everything from web design to information architecture, human computer interaction, social media design, animation, and e-commerce.  State of the art labs are fully integrated into our courses, and students have gone on to careers in leading Internet, telecommunications, information technology, and interactive media companies. Faculty members in our department were among the first in the nation to conduct empirical work on Facebook, and today we are considered world leaders in research on social media.  The Social Media Research Lab is a focal point for much of the activity in this area.  Research explores how people manage their online identities, form relationships with others online, collaborate through social media, and benefit from their participation in online social networks. Studies have been funded by the National Science Foundation, USDA, Kellogg Foundation, and other prominent sources. Outreach projects have explored how to use social media for community social and economic development, and how to engage youth with local communities. There are also courses in social media practice and research for undergraduate and graduate students. If you are interested in social or interactive media, this is the place to be.
   
• Health and Technology.  New communication technologies have become essential pieces of our health care system.  For example, new technologies can support delivery of health care to rural and remote populations through telemedicine, encourage healthy behaviors through new media campaigns and health-oriented video games, and enhance efficiency in the health care system through electronic medical records.  Our courses in new media design and social impacts of media help prepare students to contribute to the effective use of communication technologies to improve health care.  We also offer specialized courses in health and technology, and conduct research that guages the effectiveness of communication technology interventions in health care settings.
   
• Economics, Policy, and Effects.  TISM is home to the Quello Center for Telecommunications Management and Law, and our faculty include several of the world's leading scholars on media economics, policy, and effects.  Research projects funded by NSF and other leading agencies explore how the new media landscape has influenced local news production, the economics of new media advertising, the economics of streaming, governance of the Internet, and the impacts of communication technologies on health outcomes, among others.  This past year, the department was the recipient of over $10 million in Federal stimulus funding to help insure access to and productive use of broadband technologies in rural and low income urban areas in Michigan.  We also have courses exploring media economics, media policies, marketing media content, media effects, media company strategies.

It's a great time to connect with the Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies and Media whether you are a student, a researcher, an alumnus, or a professional working with communication technologies.  Please feel free to contact us - we'd love to hear from you.

Chip Steinfield
Professor and Chair