Communication Audit
Overview
The communication and theatre department claims students “will gain a broad range of analytical and practical knowledge in the communication and theatre arts.” In order to do this, students must select one of two majors, communication or convergent media. Students can also choose from seven minors in the department, including church communication, communication, journalism, media production, media studies, public relations, and theatre. Four faculty members lead approximately 25 communication and theatre students. Dr. Melissa Friesen is the chairperson of the department. Additional faculty members are Dr. Gerald Mast, professor of communication; Dr. Zachary Walton, associate professor of communication and Marathana Prothro, assistant professor of communication.
The purpose of this audit is to assess the current perception of the communications distributed by the communication and theatre department and scope the intentions of the communications. This includes determining the strengths and weaknesses of the department and its communications.
Though the department has an up-and-coming student-driven media, its technical facilities are out-of-date. The SWOT stated that the lack of identifiable characteristics and brand consistency within the department made connecting with larger amounts of students more challenging.
Scope
The department produces and distributes multiple types of online and print communications. These include: Communicate and Connect brochure, emails to students, majors/minors course flyer, course packet without descriptions, the Web page on the university website and The Witmarsum.
Communicate & Connect Brochure
The communication and theatre department distributes a department-specific brochure to prospective students as a preview of the opportunities. It adheres to the university’s brand guidelines and is compact and filled with useful information. The brochure is up-to-date with the recent curriculum changes within the department. It also provides general university statistics and information that a high school student would be interested in finding out. This information is given in a visually pleasing way, as well. Despite these useful statistics, including department-specific statistics could prove more valuable to students interested in the communication and theatre department. The inclusion of alumni success stories in the brochure is a good way to show the potential of a prospective student; however, it lacks quotes from the faculty.
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Emails to Students
Four versions of emails directed toward prospective students are available to send depending on a survey/questionnaire that is filled out. This serves as a good way to tell about current students and opportunities they could have as future Bluffton students.
Though these emails serve as good external communicators, they are written in too technical of a language to interest many high school students. Changing the word used to reflect a similar type of language that high school students might use could prove beneficial. Juniors and seniors in high school receive overwhelming amounts of emails from colleges and universities, so if the first sentence doesn’t draw them in, they most likely will not read the entire email. An additional way to make the emails more personable is to have them “come from” a current student, similar to the handwritten letters mailed to prospective students.
Since these emails are sent automatically, they do not have the university brand attached to them. Adding royal purple, university-approved fonts and a letterhead with the academic logo will allow this external media to adhere to brand guidelines.
Majors/Minors Course Flyer
The majors/minors course flyer produced by the department is clear, concise and easy to understand. It is consistent with the university’s brand guidelines and fits on one page, front and back. This flyer provides short descriptions about the two majors in the department and could be a helpful tool to prospective students when trying to absorb and comprehend all of the information given to them during a visit. Adding one or two sentences to each of the minors may assist students in understanding their options. The department should provide these to all visiting students, especially to students enrolled at target high schools who are interested in this type of program.
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Course Packet without Descriptions
This course packet does not provide descriptions of either major or any of the minors. It only partially adheres to the university’s brand guidelines, and it is spread across three pages rather than one, front and back. This packet’s size could seem intimidating and confusing to prospective students. It should be replaced by the majors/minor course flyer.
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Communication and Theatre Department Page on Bluffton University’s Website
The communication and theatre department’s page on the Bluffton University website is currently used for informational purposes for prospective and current students. The pages are up-to-date with the new curriculum and faculty changes. Although it follows the university guidelines, it lacks interactivity, and it is not extremely user-friendly. The pages can also be confusing for viewers.
The Witmarsum
The Witmarsum (The Wit) is “a student-organized combination of the campus newspaper and radio station.” It produces and distributes original content on its website, radio station and social media, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat.
Its website is consistent with the graphic identity of the media outlet, as well as the university brand guidelines. The website also allows students to read articles about their peers written by their peers. It’s also user-friendly for viewers. A problem with this communications outlet is outside of the communication department, it’s not widely known or viewed.
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The radio station, 96.1 FM WBWH, provides unique opportunities for students to produce original content to be aired; however, it is not well-known on or off campus, and its broadcasting distance is limited. Additionally, the genre of music does not appeal to everyone, which could hinder the number of listeners.
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The Wit’s social media presence spans four sites, but each site produces and promotes different types of content. Facebook is a social networking site that allows The Witmarsum staff to further promote their articles, as well as share content by other entities related to Bluffton. The Wit’s Facebook is known for its “witty” comments and captions, but it lacks large amounts of original content that directs viewers back to the website. A common assumption for Facebook is to post one to two original pieces of content per day. The Wit’s page doesn’t follow this pattern.
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The Wit’s Twitter feed is full of original content or “retweeted” content, but most of the said content is athletic-related. This avenue needs to be more well-rounded to appeal to more students, community members, and faculty and staff.
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Instagram is a site that could appeal to a different type of viewer. It lacks original content that could lead users back to the website. A common assumption for Instagram is to post at least three times per week. A way to increase the amount of content produced is to link a story on The Wit’s website to a corresponding photograph. Another way to promote the Instagram account is to allow other students or writers to “takeover” the Instagram for the day. This “takeover” could entice other students to follow the account to see what their friends being featured publicly.
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The Wit’s Snapchat account allows students to see events behind-the-scenes or live. It could be considered the “TV” station for the outlet. The Snapchat account posts many different types of events and activities going on around campus. Making the account more personable by incorporating students actually talking to the camera and not always behind-the-scenes could increase viewership of the account.
What’s Missing
The department could benefit from the inclusion of several additional forms of communications. Establishing a department-specific social media identity could appeal to prospective students, current students, community members, and faculty and staff. Other departments, such as the education and business department utilize Twitter to promote events, meetings, scholarships available, job opportunities and other campus-affiliated activities. This would provide an opportunity to reach out to students in an appropriate setting that is also on a platform they are comfortable with.
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Creating and distributing an infographic or attractive flyer to high school students in target areas could be another avenue of communication to employ. The department could also send these directly to guidance counselors to provide to students they believe to be interested in any type of communication or theatre program.
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The department has a recently renovated the student-driven media on campus, The Witmarsum, but the extent to which that media is externally recognized is low. Showing prospective students the opportunities they could have to create a professional portfolio, and get paid, could be an incentive to draw students to the campus for a visitor to the university for their higher education.
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Though the department is promoting a new convergent media major, it lacks in the promotion photography and videography work available on campus. Distributing information about these areas of interest could pull in a whole new group of prospective students who are not strong in media or speech writing but love using a camera. This could also be connected with The Wit.
Conclusion
The communication and theatre department lacks a unique and easily recognizable identity. It could benefit from expanding the reach of the department in more program-specific way students, schools or target areas. Providing unique opportunities and incentives will make Bluffton University and the department more attractive to prospective students. Finally, the department should capitalize on the on-campus media outlet available for cost-effective advertising and reach to current and prospective students.