About the Course
Course description
A generation ago, students looking to pursue careers in media were likely journalism or broadcasting majors who could aspire to master one platform and work for the same news company for decades.
No more. People don’t consume media in the ways they once did. There are new challenges -- how to regulate misinformation, how to fund big projects -- but also new opportunities. Digital tools are eliminating ‘start-up’ barriers and giving storytellers more control over their fates. Aspiring creatives no longer need to work their way up in a legacy company, hoping to someday catch their big break. You could manage a YouTube channel with thousands of subscribers from your dorm room. Some of you probably already do.
But how do you monetize such ventures? How do you turn a side project or a cool idea into a career?
In Media Entrepreneurship, we’ll explore how you can combine your passion and skills to capitalize on media’s exciting new frontier. You’ll gain the knowledge, tools, and confidence to see “being your own boss” or “launching your own brand” as a realistic career possibility. And it’s not just about you. When you hear the word “entrepreneur,” you might think of a guy pitching an idea to venture capitalists on Shark Tank. But, at its best, media entrepreneurship is an act of service. It’s about building trust, meeting community needs, and expanding whose voices we hear as a society. In this course, you’ll practice conceiving of a media project and working with a team to create a startup business plan. I look forward to working alongside you.
Learning goals
By the end of this course, you’ll be able to…
-
Define media entrepreneurship and the multiple career paths that fit within it. Understand how the media industry is changing to give rise to these paths.
-
Conceive and develop a viable idea for a digital media startup or nonprofit. Know how to:
- Clearly state a value proposition, distinguishing between an idea (something you’d like to do) and an opportunity (something the market needs)
-
Conduct rigorous market and competitor research using Business Library databases
-
Evaluate revenue streams and startup funding options
-
Pitch your project persuasively to investors, partners, or audiences
-
Recognize and articulate the value of your liberal arts education at Notre Dame in entrepreneurial spaces. Picture yourself as an entrepreneur or “intrapreneur” who can generate fresh ideas in response to real community needs.
-
Write, review, and revise a media business plan according to the conventions of the genre. Craft sentences and paragraphs that are grammatically correct and expressive of your company’s identity.
Writing intensive attribute
This course fulfills the University’s Writing Intensive requirement. That means we’ll attune to writing mindfully: as something worthy of our attention like any other portion of the course content. You’ll draft your major writing assignment, your media business plan, slowly over a long period of time, with cycles of feedback and revision built into the process. You’ll learn the conventions of the genre and also how to use the syntax and grammar of sentences to draw out your writing voice. You should expect to dedicate significant time and attention to the writing assignments in this course.
Course materials
Media Innovation and Entrepreneurship, edited by Michelle Ferrier and Elizabeth Mays. This is an open textbook, meaning it’s available for free online. I’ve linked to it throughout the website, but here’s also the URL: https://press.rebus.community/media-innovation-and-entrepreneurship/. All other readings will be available on Perusall or linked here on the course website.
We will use Google Docs extensively throughout this course. You have access to Google Docs through your ND account.
Office hours
Gladly by appointment. Email me to set up a time.
About the instructor
My name is Prof. Chris Hedlin, and I teach in and help direct the Sheedy Family Program in Economy, Enterprise, and Society. The program, housed in the College of Arts and Letters, brings together students of business and the liberal arts to explore big questions about work —questions like, "What makes a job meaningful?" or "What makes an economy just?" My role is to design courses and programs where, drawing on humanities methods, students can discern not only what they want to do with their lives but why.
I got my PhD in English from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and have since taught and researched at Valparaiso University in Indiana and Azusa Pacific University in California. I also worked for a time as a journalist at a local media nonprofit in Pittsburgh.