I recently got my hands on the “Women in Media Industry Insight Report 2024,” and the findings were eye-opening. This report sheds light on the many challenges women face in the media industry—issues like gender pay gaps, lack of promotional opportunities, and insufficient managerial support. It’s clear that we, as a university, have a role to play in addressing these issues and supporting women in media both within our institutions and beyond.

Here’s what I think we need to do:

Enhance Our Curriculum and Raise Awareness

First things first, we need to integrate the findings of this report into our media studies curriculum. By doing this, we can educate future media professionals about the gender disparities in the industry. Imagine courses that include rich discussions on gender equality, career barriers, and the importance of inclusivity in media roles. It’s about preparing our students to be advocates for change right from the start.

Support Research and Advocacy

We should support research initiatives that dive deeper into the specific challenges highlighted in the report. By publishing academic papers and hosting seminars, we can promote wider industry awareness and spark meaningful dialogues on gender equity.

Expand Career Support and Mentorship Programs

One of the most effective ways to support our female students and alumni is through robust career services. We need to expand these services to include mentorship programs that connect students with experienced professionals. These mentors can provide invaluable guidance on career advancement, navigating industry challenges, and seizing opportunities.

Build Strong Industry Partnerships

Let’s not stop at our campus borders. Strengthening partnerships with media organisations can help us advocate for gender equality on a larger scale. By collaborating on projects and creating internship opportunities, we can influence industry practices and offer our students real-world experiences that promote inclusive work environments.

Train and Develop Our Faculty

Our faculty plays a crucial role in shaping the next generation of media professionals. By providing them with training on the barriers faced by women in media, we can ensure they offer effective support and guidance to our students. It’s about equipping our educators with the tools they need to empower their students.

Offer Scholarships and Financial Support

Financial pressures can be a significant barrier for many women pursuing media careers. To combat this, we should offer scholarships and financial aid specifically for female students in media studies. This initiative can help alleviate some economic burdens and encourage more women to enter and thrive in the industry.

Advocate for Policy Changes and Institutional Reform

Lastly, let’s look inward. We need to advocate for policy changes within our university to ensure gender equity in all aspects of academic and professional development. This includes reviewing our hiring practices, pay structures, and promotion pathways to ensure they are fair and inclusive.

A Call to Action for the Media Industry

We can’t do this alone. University institutions, need to echo the report’s call to action for media employers to dismantle barriers impeding women’s career progress. Media organisations must prioritise gender equality by implementing transparent policies, providing equitable pay, and creating clear pathways for career advancement.

Key Findings from the Report

Career Dissatisfaction – 57% of women are dissatisfied or unsure about career advancement.

Negative View of Gender Equality – 56% perceive weak industry commitment to gender equity.

Pay Gap – Women in media earn significantly less than their male counterparts, with a 9% pay gap in the Information Media & Communications industry.

Career Progression – Women’s participation declines from 53% at entry-level to 29% at senior positions.

Let’s make this change happen—together!

Social networking and online collaboration have become the basis of electronic publicity for creative practitioners. For example, Facebook alone allows you to communicate to the masses what you are doing, what events are taking place, and what achievements or recognitions you have been received, etc. Relevant newspaper articles and other print media pertaining to your practice can be scanned and uploaded to your profile or added to status updates, allowing clients and potential clients to view your accomplishments within minutes of publication. Through this and other means, you can create a “buzz” about your creative practice.

Whether on- or offline, the ultimate advantages of networking are growing sales, leads and forming strategic alliances. Yet social networking has many more advantages to help you grow your business. You just need to learn the right techniques.

Social networking opens up new business opportunities all over the world. It can be daunting to dive into the virtual meet-and-greet world but don’t be put off, the advantages are numerous:

Accessibility. In many ways, social media levels the playing field for businesses as it is accessible to everyone, regardless of company size, turnover and contacts.

Range. There is a wide range of social media sites and tools you can use to be more interactive: communicating and exchanging information with customers. This number is growing every day.

Low Cost. Social media tools offer more cost-effective ways to achieve your goals. Most sites are free with the main cost being time spent on updating profiles and interacting with contacts.

Marketing opportunities. You can use social media to create and distribute content and promotional material, such as articles, videos and audio – and all for a fraction of the money it would cost for this content to appear in the press, on the radio or on TV.

SEO. Distributing content via social media provides you with more opportunities to entice others to visit and link to your website. This is a great way to enhance your organic Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) authority.

Research. You can research your competition, customers, or partners.

Collaboration. Easy connections with colleagues, customers, and industry thought leaders, allows you to source feedback, test ideas and manage customer services quickly and directly online in ways not available via traditional media.

Instant communication. Through social media, you can communicate information instantly, regardless of geographical location. If a piece of content goes viral, there is no limit to the amount of people it could potentially reach, all at no extra cost to you.

Building relationships. You can gain return customers and receive referrals by marketing the skills as well as services you offer via social networking.

Measurability. With social media, you can test marketing messages and approaches, gauge user responses and tweak the message accordingly. This is done through the ever-growing number of free, easy-to-use social media measurement tools including Facebook insights and Google analytics.

Increased traffic and subscriber rates. Having a database of subscribers to your newsletter or regular updates is a huge asset.

Word of mouth referrals. The most valuable lead in business is that which has been reinforced through word of mouth from your loyal brand advocates.

Creating a profile. You can benefit tremendously from a social networking profile that contains all the pertinent information that users need in order to evaluate your business.  Your profile may include pictures of you, your team, products, completed projects, as well as logos and contact information.

Effortless messaging. By targeting large audiences with a single click, messages and updates can be sent to all of your followers; just one of the many facets of social networking.

Opportunity to reward loyal customers by providing incentives. You can provide contests, games, and prizes for clients who participate at a reasonably low cost.

Social media platforms offer opportunities for individuals, just like you, to connect and network with their family, friends and colleagues.  Some individuals have used those opportunities to grow their network outside of their immediate community. While growing their network some have achieved personal influence by becoming highly engaged with their community who rely on their trusted content.  These individuals are micro-influencers and they have established a credible and trustworthy social media reputation, usually within a niche. Micro-influencers are typically everyday people expressing their passions and recommendations through sharing their everyday life. 

This could be you!

Have you considered that you may already be considered a social media micro-influencer?

If not, you should.

Whether on-or offline, the ultimate advantages of networking for professionals are gaining sales, leads and forming strategic alliances. Yet social media networking has many more advantages to help you support your professional practice. You just need to learn the right techniques.

In many ways, social media levels the playing field, increasing opportunities for an individual to set up their practice regardless of network size, turnover and contacts. Social media tools offer more cost-effective ways to achieve your professional goals. Most sites are free with the major cost being time spent on updating profiles and interacting with your network.

You can benefit tremendously from a social networking profile that describes your story as a creative professional so that other users can connect with you online, growing your network. Your profile may include links to all your social media profiles, pictures of you, products, completed projects, colleagues and contact information.

By having a clear representation of your story and your professional practice, you will grab the attention of new connections. With a single click, messages and updates can be sent to your network. You can research your competition, customers, or partners; just some of the many possibilities of social networking.

Social networking opens up fresh opportunities all over the world. It can be daunting to dive into the virtual meet-and-greet world but don’t be put off. The advantages are numerous.

It is undeniable that digital technologies and social media have become an important aspect of our lives. Educators are recognising opportunities for professional development on SMP (social media platforms), through informal learning, tacit knowledge and connectionist approaches. Digital technologies have impacted how professionals can engage with learning so quickly that educational providers are still catching up. New modes of learning are evolving with the introduction of new digital technologies, professionals are being empowered to be accountable for their learning experience (Oliver 2019; Williams 2019).

Current scholarship points towards smaller online courses, referred to as Micro-credentials, that provide the learner with an opportunity to target specific learning goals or outcomes. Micro-credentials have emerged as a viable option as professionals captain their own educational experiences and demand more relevant and flexible options, blurring the link between professional development and postgraduate study (James 2018).  I argue micro-credentials are an effective learning modality for creative practitioners to improve their social media literacy but acknowledge there are many unpresented challenges as formal learning methods become informal and students become more connected on SMP.

Micro-credentials have a variety of names including; MOOC’s, nano-degrees, certificates, digital badges, bootcamps (Milligan and Kennedy 2017; Oliver 2019) and are offered in a variety of fields.  For the purpose of my research I am focused on social media literacy scholarship. Scholarship discussing social media literacy is limited and therefore I have broadened my research to include micro-credentials for digital literacy specifically for industry recognition as professional development. Current micro-credentials offerings will be discussed in a future blog.

Micro-credentials have evolved through progressive technology improvements, workforce disruptions, high cost and loss of trust in university degrees. Milligan & Kennedy (2017) state “there are signs that trust is eroding in the utility of the degree”. Oliver (2019) argues that micro-credentials are emerging as a viable alternative to traditional educational institutions.  Several industry reports support this argument as a opportunity to improving Australia’s digital skills (Cunningham et al. 2016; Hajkowicz et al. 2016; Microsoft Australia 2018; Richardson and Milovidov 2017; deLaski 2019; Stewart, Katherine, Salil Gunashekar,…; Bridgstock 2014; Business Council of Australia 2016; Lucas and Smith 2018; Ferguson et al. 2019; Hasan Bakhshi Jonathan M. Downing Mic…; Siemens et al. 2015) . 

Knowledge is being shared and co-created by produsers (Bruns 2007) who are choosing their educational pathway and educators need to ensure their relevancy. Scholars have labeled the process of highly networked knowledge sharing as connectivism (Downes 2005; Siemens 2004).  Learning shifts need to incorporate essential 21st century skills Kivnja (2014) lists the skills in five domains:

traditional skills,

critical thinking and problem solving,

collaboration,

teamwork and leadership,

digital literacy. 

What are your thoughts on the questions I pose here? 

This blog is part of a series supporting my doctoral research.  I explore the nuance application of micro-credentials for professional development as part of my Doctoral project at Queensland University of Technology.

Your feedback or contribution to the topic is very welcome. What is your experience with micro-credentials? Are you a course developer? or been a participant?

Creative professionals perform tasks difficult to scale or to automate and have been recognised in PwC (2018) report as pivotal to the future of work. My research of micro-influencers and  interviews with Australian Influencers revealed an intrinsic demand for creative professionals to have communication skills and knowledge in implementing and using SMP to establish social capital for the benefit of their career and is an attractive proposition for potential employers.  Yet individuals are not prepared for the challenges SMP presents (Lariscy et al. 2009; Macnamara 2010; McKinsey 2013; Novakovich et al. 2017).  Digital technologies are evolving and creating undeniable changes, as new segments emerge the competitive landscape for creative professionals is being redefined.  SMPs are reshaping the way creative professionals do business and interact with clients, networks and customers. The need to produce and curate an SMP identity has evolved and become an essential element of their daily lives but how do creative professionals stay relevant? In a 2018 report by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development it is argued that

‘education can make the difference as to whether people embrace the challenges they are confronted with or whether they are defeated by them’ (OECD 2018).

The world is changing and will continue to change, old methods of sustaining a career as a creative professional are being superseded producing a fundamental need for a paradigm shift. According to Rosen (1983, page 48) digital disruption offers lower entry levels for creative professionals and argues that this has led to greater specialisation and division of labour requiring increased human capital investment. In the context of micro-influence scholars such as Abidin (2016) Duff (2016) and Senft (2013) refer to human capital investment as aspirational labour. An example is the fashion blogger as individuals invest hours into developing, implementing and constructing their SMP identities turning their personal lives into online businesses. A 2019 study of fashion bloggers by Brydges and Sjoholm (2019) highlights the changing spaces and temporalities of aspirational labour online.

Novakovich et al. (2017) highlights a profound lack of understanding regarding the potential SMP has in shaping a professionals journey and the role educators have in closing the gap. Educational scholarship recognises digital literacy as an essential skill and signifies an intrinsic need for scholastic discourse to evolve (Coldwell-Neilson and Cain 2019; Coldwell-Neilson 2017). Recent industry reports examining the impact of rapid technology change and new business models on employment argue the importance of digital literacy as a basic skill (literacy) for those entering the workforce  (Hajkowicz et al. 2016; Cunningham et al. 2016; Karanasios et al. 2019; Grand-Clement 2017; Business Council Australia 2018; Pearson et al. 2016; Adams Becker, S., et al. 2017).

The 2016 report Skills and capabilities for Australian enterprise innovation (Cunningham et al. 2016) investigates how skills are learned “to drive and sustain the development of new products and services that address innovation challenges and capture new markets and consumers”.  A report by Bakhshi et al. (2017) The future of skills: Employment in 2030 found a strong relationship between higher-order cognitive skills and future occupational demand. Lucas and Smith  (2018) found to cultivate digital skills in Australian education, capabilities need to remain a priority in education policy and planning. A 2019 report by Karanasios et al., (2019) for NCVER studied and reviewed digital skills frameworks acknowledges and addresses the gap for Australian workers. The report identified the present focus on improving digital skills is on “primary-secondary education or societal level rather than within the current workforce”.  We need to maintain support for and from well equipped educators, and with the provision of resources and guidance from curricula, frameworks and policies. 

Hase and Kenyon (2007) suggest educators need to change misconceptions and recognise the benefits SMP have to offer suggesting new pedagogical approaches that views “the learner as the major agent in their own learning”. Patsarika (2014) adds to the argument advocating for change in educational discourses from the student as client to students as participants in their learning.  Patsarika (2014)  implications of neoliberalism, has led to education becoming more mobile and moving towards the virtual classroom.  In 2007, Bruns (2007) identified the paradigm shift in user-generated content and knowledge sharing arguing traditional teacher centred learning may no longer have a future. He argues educational institutions must engage in produsage predicting the establishment of produage-based educational institutions.

Social Media takes many shapes and forms which raises a number of problems and issues that to date have not been clearly considered by educational institutions. Social media practices are voluntary, self-generated, skills are acquired informally, largely unregulated and characterised by play and experimentation (Barton and Lee 2012, page 283). Individuals use social media skills of their own volition in ways that suit them for their own purposes. In a study investigating students social media practices and identity for professional practice, Novakovick (2017) reported that in general students lacked agency on social networks and identified a gap knowledge and skills for professional social networking. It is also concerning to note that a Stanford University study (2016) found a lack of critical thinking and technical skills needed. 

Framing social media as literacy is an approach that can help to alleviate some of these problems for educators (Pozzi 2016) but creates an unprecedented and problematic educational environment when combined with current imposed rules, regulations, criteria and procedures of our institutions (Pozzi 2016).  Further, most skills and knowledge required for social media use are tacit, procedural and/or metacognitive and are best learned in a workplace environment rather than the decontextualise classroom (Bridgstock 2014).  My doctoral project establishes social media as an essential literacy for the 21st century and uses vernacular literacies and tacit knowledge concepts to help conceptualise some of the theoretical issues associated with social media capabilities.  During my interviews with Australian micro-influencers vernacular literacies and tacit knowledge were dominant in the processes and strategies of the participants. Literature supports this trend and suggests that future ready students exercise learner agency (OECD 2018) they prefer to learn informally, via communities as well as through reflective practice (2014; Grand-Clement 2017; Coldwell-Neilson and Cain 2019).

The question now is how can educators support creative practitioners to employ social media as a new literacy in a professional capacity?  The busy modern day professional who is self-determined will prioritise their time towards potential opportunities for career growth. They recognise that updating knowledge and skills is a prerequisite for a progressive career path.  The options for gaining skills and knowledge are endless, confusing and not always trustworthy. How does the creative professional choose what skills and knowledge they require? How can they be guaranteed return on investment to justify time away from potential earning? Who are the trusted providers that offer quality learning experiences with course content established for real world demands? Digital technologies have impacted how professionals can engage with new opportunities for learning so quickly that educational providers are still catching up, making the professional accountable for their learning experience and preferred mode of learning (Oliver 2019; Williams 2019). How can educators empower students to evaluate and determine their individual learning preferences?

What are your thoughts on the questions I pose here?  More answers to come.

This blog is part of a series supporting my doctoral research.  I explore the nuance application of micro-credentials for professional development as part of my Doctoral project at Queensland University of Technology.

Your feedback or contribution to the topic is very welcome. What is your experience with micro-credentials? Are you a course developer? or been a participant?