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July 2016

This month, my focus is on creative scholarship and how BEA is helping those of you on the tenure track who need to make sure your creative work is considered to be as important as research and other types of publication. Let’s start by looking at the tenure system itself.

The tenure and promotion system has two sides. On one hand, it is one of the best perks of being a faculty member. But on the other hand, navigating the process can be one of the most frustrating parts of an academic career, to the point that it forces many skillful and creative colleagues to leave the academy. What makes our field different from most is that our scholarship can take so many different forms, including both quantitative and qualitative research and creative work.

The problem for many of us is that our departments are housed in colleges that focus on research, not creative work, with tenure and promotion guidelines that force people to focus on publishing in traditional (mostly printed) venues. For faculty who have spent half a career creating media content, the expectation that they need to learn both research methods AND the review and publication process is not only daunting, but it can be unfair.

Thankfully, we have models to follow from the liberal arts, where painters, musicians, sculptors, playwrights, and a host of other creative fields have created tenure and promotion guidelines that provide the same type of evaluation of creative work as is done for traditional research. The keys to most of these criteria are peer review and some type of publication, exhibition, or distribution of the creative work.

That’s the background information. Now let’s look at the specifics of how BEA is helping you if your scholarship is the production of media content:

1. Tenure and Promotion Guidelines: The first set of tools BEA has is a set of suggested guidelines for considering creative works in the tenure and promotion process. It almost goes without saying that anyone on the tenure track has to know the guidelines in their unit as well as you know your own area of expertise. And if your guidelines don’t currently provide a mechanism for evaluating creative work alongside traditional research, then it may be time to persuade those faculty who have a vote to change the guidelines to include creative scholarship. You can find our suggested guidelines on the BEA website: http://www.beaweb.org/pdfs/Guidelines_for_Promotion_and_Tenure_2015.pdf

2. Peer Review of Creative Work: One of the biggest changes in BEA over the last 20 years is the creation of multiple processes that provide peer review of creative works. The best known of these is our Festival of Media Arts at the annual convention every April, where hundreds of students and faculty have their work peer reviewed, with the best work being presented at the conference. But just one opportunity a year is not enough, so we have added two more opportunities. This October’s Super-Regional conference will also include a showcase of faculty work, with all submissions undergoing peer review (remember, the deadline to submit is August 1. For more details: http://sc.edu/study/colleges_schools/cic/journalism_and_mass_communications/bea/index.php ) Finally, and perhaps most important, BEA’s Journal of Media Education is going to begin peer review of creative work later this year, allowing you to submit your work virtually any time of the year, with that work being reviewed by a set of judges who are experts in the field. Anyone doing creative work on the tenure track needs to take advantage of all three of these opportunities to make sure that their tenure and promotion file has the same level of peer reviewed content that our colleagues doing research have in their files.

3. Mentoring and Networking: Over the 30+ years that I’ve been involved in BEA, the most useful information for me has always come at conferences where I’ve had a chance to meet faculty who are addressing the same problems and challenges that I am, and then learn from their experience. Countless publications (including my first) and more than half my jobs have come through contacts made at the BEA convention. For those of you being put in the position of defending your creative work to scholars who don’t do the same type of work, it can be helpful to talk to someone who has successfully navigated the process. Remember, you’re not the first person facing this challenge, and the opportunity to learn from others who have been through it is one of the best benefits of being a BEA member.

Here is the big takeaway: BEA exists to serve you and all of the other members. Those of us whom you have selected to lead have the responsibility to make sure we continue helping to meet your needs. So if you can think of anything else BEA can do to help you get recognition for your creative activities, just let me know: .

Augie Grant

President, Broadcast Education Association

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