Reaction #2 Prompt

For your second reaction piece, write a reaction (250 words, minimum) to the article titled "The Messy, Confusing Future of TV? It's Here."

Some prompts that may help you include:

Has your own TV viewing behavior changed since the time you were a child until now? If so, how?

In just a few short years, odds are you'll be living out on your own. Will you subscribe to cable TV? Why or why not?

Do you think there's an economic threshold that media consumers won't cross? What is it? $50 per month? $100? $200? What is your own threshold?

Is there anything the industry might do to make it more likely that you'll subscribe to their services to watch content (live sports, scripted shows, non-scripted, news, etc.)?

Please post your responses to Sakai under Tests & Quizzes.

Thanks.

Jack

Review Sheet #1

Review Sheet Quiz #1

Intro to Media Industries

Winter 2018

Understanding Television System(s) in the United States (mostly from blog and class) 

Why do the media exist in the United States?

How are the media in the U.S. different from media outlets from around the world?

Commercial broadcast network system

            - networks

            - affiliates

            - studios

            - syndicators

            - advertisers

Know how each component makes $

Cable/satellite television system (know how cable TV makes $)

Public television system 
 - What are the three ways the Public TV System generates revenue? 

Ad rates for top shows of 2016 season- Have a general idea of how much a 30-second commercial costs for each of the following shows): 
- Top Show Overall: Sunday Night Football
- Highest Scripted Show on Cable: The Walking Dead
- Highest Scripted Comedy on Broadcast: The Big Bang Theory, 
- Highest Scripted Drama on Broadcast: Empire 

Know the major networks and the parent companies of each and the affiliated movie studios for each network. (For example, NBC is a major network, its parent company is Comcast, and its affiliated movie studio is Universal). 

The importance of "built-in audiences" for movie studios 

Articles to be covered on Quiz #1

• Studio Profitability, 2017 Box Office
• "Is the Live Sports Bubble Finally Bursting"
• "The Perils of Promotion: Pricey TV Campaigns, Fear of Change Shackles Movie Spending"
• "Why I Asked My Students to Put Away Their Laptops" 
• Costs of advertising on prime time on the broadcast networks , 2016
• "Is the Live Sports Bubble Finally Bursting?" 
• How "AI" might change Hollywood
• Self-driving cars and Hollywood
• Summer Box Office Bombs
• Real Campus Scourge
• Social Media, Loneliness, and Anxiety in Young People
• 2 Things All College Students Should Know

There will be at least one question from each article on the quiz. As long as you've read and understood the article, the question(s) should be easy. 

Historical and Cultural Context

Historical and Cultural Context

1. LANGUAGE
The birth of spoken language marked a major development in the evolution of our species. By necessity, oral-based societies became very dependent upon their members to have exceptional memories. The challenge was to accurately pass down from generation to generation as much information as could be remembered. That limitation, however, caused our collective knowledge and information base to grow slowly. As hunter-gatherer societies evolved into more complex agricultural societies, our need for better record keeping intensified.


2. WRITING
Two problems needed to be solved before writing emerged: (1) what symbols to use to represent sounds and ideas, and (2) upon what type of surface could these symbols be recorded.

Sign Writing vs. Phonetic Writing
The first problem was solved in two ways: (1) with systems that used graphic symbols to represent objects, sounds and ideas, e.g., Chinese pictographs and Egyptian hieroglyphics, and (2) with systems that used symbols (later known as alphabet letters) to primarily represent sounds; groups of letters made a word and groups of word made a sentence, a complete thought. The Phoenicians are generally credited for creating the first alphabet. The Romans later modified our alphabet to its present 26 characters.

Clay vs. Paper
Writing surfaces evolved. In Sumeria, soft clay tablets were inscribed with wedge-shaped tool. Egyptians wrote on woven papyrus plants made semi-smooth by rock polishing. Greeks used parchment made from sheep or goat hides; parchment sheets could be stitched together to form scrolls. The Chinese made paper from a pressed pulp made of tree bark and fibrous materials; in use by 100 AD, but unavailable in Europe for another 1,000 years.

Social Impact of Writing:

. created a new division among people; those who could write and read, and those who
  could not, the result was an access or non-access to power garnered through knowledge
. facilitated the birth, growth, and maintenance of powerful ancient empire civilizations
. knowledge could be accumulated by preserving and passing it down to new generations
. laws could be codified and applied consistently throughout the land

The Middle Ages

Began with the fall of Rome in the 6th century. Demand for books continues to rise, but the slow, error-prone, expensive, method of hand-copying each manuscript kept supplies minimal.
Monks in monasteries often took a year to copy just one commissioned book. Mistakes were common and cumulative, and there was no standard book filing or cross-indexing system in use.

By 1150, trade routes were expanding, the idea of universities was emerging, strong central governments began forming, and the need to accumulate information continued to grow. Over the years the demand for more books continued to increase, and eventually book production moved from the religious to the secular arena. Helped by the widespread introduction of paper from China, writing shops, or scriptoria, opened all across the European continent. Nonetheless, supplies were still limited by the number of books that scribes could hand-produce.


3. PRINTING
Though early Asian variations of printing existed before Johann Gutenberg, his use of moveable metal type in 1453 revolutionized communication. Printing could become cheap, quick, and error-free.

Effects of the Gutenberg Revolution

. helped standardize and popularize vernacular (everyday) languages (as opposed to Latin),
which in turn helped spawn the growth of nationalism in Europe in the later Middle Ages
. information quickly became more accessible to a wider range of people
. more books fueled the demand for literacy which in turn created a demand for more books
. generated new schools of social and religious doctrines during the Reformation era, such as Martin Luther’s Protestantism
. accelerated the publication of and interest in scientific research
. helped encourage exploration by the timely publishing of maps, geographical information,
and the colorful accounts of early explorers
. had a profound effect on the growth of accumulated knowledge, with more books resulting
in an increased number of scholars and students; helped make possible the Renaissance of the 16th Century
. led to the development of current concept of “news”

Technology and Cultural Change

If we ascribe too much credit for cultural change to a specific technology, we risk viewing social development through the narrow lens of technological determinism, the view that technology drives historical change. A more moderate position might suggest that technology functions with various social, economic, and cultural forces to help bring about those changes.

The introduction of moveable type marked the start of what we generally define as mass communication, a critical event in Western history.



4. THE TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE

Development of the Telegraph

Before the telegraph, messages traveled only as fast as the fastest form of transportation; but with one invention the speed of communication went from 30 miles per hour (train) to 186,000 miles per second (the speed of light). It was the first device that made possible instantaneous point-to-point communication at huge distances. The word telegraph comes from Greek words meaning “to write at a distance.” It was also the first technology to use digital signals—dots and dashes.
Using a device to vary the time an electric current was sent across the wires, the telegraph made point-to-point communication possible by sending codes across the wires. Samuel Morse’s code of telegraphic dots and dashes, still in use today, is the most famous.

Cultural Impact of the Telegraph

. by 1850, almost every city on our Western frontier was linked with other cities
. in 1866, the U.S. laid a trans-Atlantic cable connecting America with Europe

Parallel to the expansion of the railroads, the telegraph helped change the way we moved goods, coordinated services (particularly military actions), and helped speed up communication between buyers and sellers. Because of near-instant communication, market prices between cities were standardized and stabilized. The telegraph also affected the flow of news, making it both possible and a commercial “must” to carry up-to-the-day’s events from far distant points. News stories also became shorter due to the fact that telegraph services charged by the word.

Government and Media

Unlike other countries where the telegraph was seen as an extension of the postal service, and therefore under logical control and operation of the government, the United States followed a model of private ownership and commercial development.

A Change in Perspective

The telegraph changed how people thought of distance; as the new device reconfigured old concepts of space and time, every “there” became a “here.” We began rethinking our world, as mass media writer Marshall McLuhan came to describe it, as a “Global Village.” Thanks to the telegraph system, most countries on the planet became inextricably linked together.

Soon after the telegraph, the telephone began linking people together by voice, eliminating the need to understand telegraphic codes. Its ability to network and offer private communications made it a “must have” in homes and businesses. And just as big business came to dominate the telegraph industry (Western Union), AT&T (which later acquired Western Union) quickly became the giant of the telephone industry.


5. PHOTOGRAPHY AND MOTION PICTURES

Early Technological Development

Two inventions were needed to make photography a reality:

. a way to focus light rays from a subject onto a surface
. a way to permanently store (and copy) those images

In the 16th century artists discovered that they could project an inverted image of a subject in the end of a dark box through a pinhole at the other end of the box, a device called the camera obscura (dark chamber).

In the 1830s, two Frenchmen, Joseph Niepce and Louis Daguerre, found a way to capture images on glass plates treated with silver iodide. Early photos (called Daguerreotypes) required long exposure times, and made them particularly suitable for portrait work. At about the same time William Fox Talbot, from England, found a way to store images (and subsequently produce multiple copies) on paper. In the 1890s, George Eastman introduced and marketed his new box camera, the Brownie, thus making photography accessible to the masses.

Mathew Brady

Brady was the first to capture war—in this case our Civil War—on film, giving a more accurate, rather than glorified, record of what war was actually like. Though most of his glass plate negatives were lost, enough survived to show generations then and now the real horrors of warfare; his pictures, and their impact on the public, were a forerunner to what television would show us 100 years later in the Vietnam war.

Photography also affected art, dispensing with any need art may have had to accurately depict the real word. Photography freed artists to interpret the world and events in new and unique ways. Photography itself became its own art form, however, and spawned such noted photographers as Alfred Steiglitz, Margaret Bourke-White, Edward Steichen, and Ansel Adams.

Photography’s Influence on Mass Culture

Once in the hands of the masses, photography enabled people to create a permanent record of their personal histories. Printing advances made it easy to publish photographs in magazines and newspapers, creating a new profession—photojournalism. The 1920s saw a surge in time-saving devices, and the spread of photographic news added to that movement; Americans could now see, rather than have to read, newsworthy events. Printed columns soon decreased while space devoted to pictures increased; the movement later gave birth to such popular picture magazines such as Life and Look. Partly as a result, our definition of news became visually biased; news became that which could be shown.

Pictures in Motion

Helped by the advent of three great social movements (industrialization, urbanization, and immigration), the demand for film entertainment flourished in crude store-front theaters around the 1900s. By 1910 there were over 10,000 of these nickelodeons, which helped create the motion picture industry.

Motion Pictures and American Culture

Eventually, only the large companies who could afford to produce feature length films survived. They soon dominated the production, distribution, and exhibition of movies. The film industry killed Vaudeville and forever altered our concept of leisure time activities. In part due to photography and the  mass appeal newspaper, a mass culture of idolized film stars, movie images, and popularized portrayals of model “American” values and cultural icons was created.

Film gave impetus to a perceived need to study what impact motion pictures (and later other media) might have on the public psyche; the 1930s Payne Fund was one of the first serious efforts to investigate the media’s potential effects. During the 1930s film also injected itself into journalism in the form of newsreels, ten-minute short takes of various news, sports, weather, and human interest stories. Dying out in the 1950s under pressure from TV news, the newsreel format continues to influence the conventions of present day TV news formats.

6. RADIO AND TELEVISION BROADCASTING

A byproduct of electromagnetic research in physics, the advent of radio (or wireless as it was first known) in the 1910s made it possible for one source to send a message to multiple receivers. In World War I military planners quickly saw radio’s applicability to warfare, thus encouraging both research and development in the medium while at the same time ending some long-standing patent wars that had delayed radio’s development.

Broadcasting

Radio’s one-to-many communication format, known as broadcasting, was the first medium to bring sports, music, talk, and news into the American living room. Manufacturing radio sets, the original profit motive for radio, was soon replaced in the 1920s by advertising (selling air time, or rather supplying audiences to businesses for a fee).

Radio growth was so frenzied, however, that the government was forced to intervene in 1927 by establishing the Federal Radio Commission to regulate radio’s technical side. In 1934. the FRC was replaced by the Federal Communications Commission; after that, the government opted to take a hands off approach to radio content, leaving radio’s fortunes in the hands of business.

Paralleling an era of newspaper consolidation, two national radio networks (later three) emerged. Radio content quickly moved toward mass appeal programs, which provided huge audiences for major advertisers. During the 1930s, economic pressures from the Great Depression forced many out-of-work Vaudeville performers to enter radio, thus increasing the level of professionalism and appeal of network programming. In the late 1930s, radio journalism came into being as a new and strong news medium and strongly rivaled the newspaper industry.

Cultural Impact of Radio

. radio helped popularize different kinds of music
. radio introduced a new entertainment genre, the soap opera, which by 1940 accounted for
some 60 percent of all daytime network programming
. radio was first medium to introduce mass content aimed at children, thus recognizing
children as a viable commercial market
. radio was first to introduce situation comedies, a program genre that’s become a staple on
television
. radio news came of age in the 1930s-40s as a result of serious world events.
. radio personalized news, giving rise to trusted and well-known news celebrities
. radio changed how Americans spent their free time – by the 1930s-40s, radio had become
the prime source of American entertainment and news in usually during the early evening hours, later known as prime time.

Television

Halted during WW II, television’s growth surged during the prosperous era of the early 1950s. Pent up consumer demand fueled spending (and thus TV ad dollars) following the war years. Sales of TV sets took off (it took only 10 years to be in 85 percent of U.S. homes), and an increasing amount of American leisure time was now being spent in front of the TV set.

Cultural Impact of TV

Television is in 99 percent of all households, and the set is on for over seven hours a day. It’s become our third largest time consumer (third only to sleep and work), and in the process it’s transforming almost every aspect of our culture, from politics, to religion, to news, and to the way we learn.

Today we routinely expect live coverage of events from anywhere at anytime. Time and space no longer seem important, and we have all come to share a national, even global, consciousness through the common visual icons provided by television—the Japanese Tsunami, the Arab Spring, President Kennedy's funeral, the Apollo moon landings, the Challenger explosion, and the planes striking the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, etc.


7. THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION

Nicholas Negroponte, MIT’s Media Laboratory Director, summed up the digital revolution as the difference between atoms and bits. Information, once solely comprised of atoms (material goods such as paper, film, tapes, and CDs) and which moved to and from the marketplace relatively slowly, is rapidly being replaced by the instantaneous transfer of bits—electronic zeros and ones.

Digital technology is a system that encodes information—sound, text, data, graphics and video—into a series of on-and-off pulses, denoted as zeros and ones. Once digitized, information can be easily copied and transported at extremely low costs. Digital technology and the Internet have triggered a revolution in the way information is stored and transmitted.

Digital technology is now mainstream (Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, DVR, Digital TV, HDTV, Hulu, etc.).


Social and cultural implications of the digital age are considerable.
. many of the creative arts have embraced digital technology.
. the notion of what “community” means may have to be rethought, with relationships that
can be formed on the basis of needs and interests rather than locale
. consider what the digital age might mean for politics; perhaps representative democracy
could be rivaled by a digital democracy made possible by direct and instantaneous links
between the people and their government.
. there’s the problem of the digital divide, or the problem of the “have” and “have-nots”—
those who can afford the technology and have the training to use it, and those who can’t
and don’t.

8. WIRELESS HANDHELD MEDIA

Smart phones, laptop computers, and tablet computers share common characteristics:

. they are linked together using wireless technology
. they are portable and allow users to access information from anywhere
. they are interconnected and allow users to hook into the worldwide phone network or the
Internet
. they combine features of mass communication and interpersonal communication

These devices will eventually merge into one, and have the potential to transform traditional media drastically and to alter American culture. Some of the changes we've already seen include:

. they have changed the practice of journalism, replacing pencil and paper as the tools of the
trade, and allowing reporters to send text, audio, and pictures from the field
. many media organizations are distributing content to wireless media
. wireless mobile media have taken on some of the surveillance functions of the media
. they facilitate mobile parenting
. they have "softened" the concept of time
. on the downside, they allow people to coordinate illegal activities, they can impair driving,
they can create social annoyance, and they cost money – will the digital divide increase?


CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS

. it’s difficult to accurately predict the ultimate use of any new medium.

. it appears that the emergence of any new communication advance changes but does not make extinct those advances that came before it.

Functions of Mass Media

Perspectives on Mass Communication

Models to guide how we think about mass communication processes. Examples of paradigms include the functional and the critical/cultural approaches. Paradigms are helpful because they:

. provide a perspective from which to examine mass communication
. generate concepts to understand media behavior
. help us identify important components or elements in the process


FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS


In is simplest form, the functional approach holds that something is best understood by examining how it is used. In mass communication, this means examining the uses that audiences make of their interactions with the media.

The Role of Mass Communication

. different media provide different primary uses.
. macroanalysis considers what functions the media provide for society as a whole.
. microanalysis considers what functions the media provide for the individual.

Functions of Mass Communication for Society

For society to exist, certain communication needs must be met. These needs existed long before the advent of mass media. As society became larger, these functions became too large to be handled by single individuals. We should consider the consequences of performing these communication functions via the mass media. Some of these consequences are harmful or negative and are called dysfunctions.


Surveillance.
Refers to role media plays in relaying news and information. There are two main types. Warning (beware) surveillance: occurs when the mass media warn us about impending dangers such as storms, economic declines, military threats, etc.; also used to warn of long-term dangers such as diseases, pollution, population growth, etc. Instrumental surveillance: information that is useful and helpful in everyday life such as movie schedules, stock quotes, sports scores, fads, new products, how-to pieces, etc. Note that not all examples of surveillance occur in the news media; instrumental surveillance often comes from a wide variety of other media sources.

There are several consequences of relying on the mass media for surveillance:

. news (accurate accounts as well as mistaken ones) travels further and faster than ever.
. news of events comes to us second-hand and is usually not personally verifiable; as such,
we’ve come to place our trust in media, or grant the media credibility.
. as a dysfunction, media surveillance can create unnecessary anxiety
. being featured by the mass media may give individuals or issues status conferral, a belief
by the audience—justified or not—that simply being featured is a sign of importance.

Interpretation.
Refers to role media plays in giving meaning and significance to events. Gatekeepers provide interpretations, comments, analysis, and opinions on various events so as to give the audience a better understanding of the event’s relative importance to society.

There are several benefits of relying on the mass media for interpretation:

. audiences are exposed to a wider range of often contrasting viewpoints
. allows us to weigh all sides of an issue before deciding on our position
. gives us a greater depth of expertise upon which to draw conclusions

There are several potential consequences of relying on the mass media for interpretation:

. no guarantee that media interpretations are accurate or valid
. individuals could become overly dependent on media interpretation and lose the ability to
analyze situations or think for themselves

Linkage.
Brings together various elements of society that are not directly connected. The linkage can be based on common interests, usually matching wants with needs, e.g., buyer with seller; dating services; lost and found; Internet outlets such as e-Bay, WebMD, chat rooms, newsgroups, and listservs.

Transmission of Values (socialization).
Refers to ways in which an individual comes to adopt the behavior and values of a group. Individuals exposed to media portrayals of certain types of behavior and value systems are likely to grow up and accept them as their own, and thus pass along these values from one generation to another.

There are several consequences of relying on the mass media for socialization:

. helps stabilize society by creating common bonds between members in terms of shared values
and experiences
. bear in mind that the values and cultural information presented in the media is usually selected
by large groups that encourage the status quo.
. the media can also transmit values by enforcing social norms

Television may play a special role in socialization:

. of all mass media, television has the greatest potential for establishing common social values
. by age 18, the average person has spent more time watching TV than doing anything else
except sleep
. dysfunctions can occur if youngsters watching violent content are socialized into accepting
violence as a means of problem solving
. TV serves as a source of knowledge (accurately or not) about occupations and role models
. many TV images of minority groups reflect the stereotypes held by majority population (Whites)


Entertainment.
The importance of this media function has grown proportionately to the rise in our collective leisure time, and we are spending increasing amounts of that leisure time being passively entertained by all forms of the mass media.

There are several consequences of relying on the mass media for entertainment:

. most entertainment content is designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator of taste
. being passively entertained may inhibit our ability to actively entertain ourselves


How People Use the Mass Media


At the individual level, the functional approach is called the uses-and-gratifications model. This model holds that audience members have certain needs or drives that are satisfied by using both non-media and media sources. Media uses are generally broken down into four categories: cognition, social utility, diversion, and withdrawal.

Cognition.
The process of coming to know something, which is closely parallel to the surveillance function. On the individual level, there are two different types of cognitive functions:

. using media to keep up with current events
. using media to satisfy a desire for general knowledge

Diversion.
Using the media to “get away from it all.” Types of diversion include stimulation, relaxation, and emotional release.

. Stimulation involves seeking some sort of emotional or intellectual mental activity.

. Relaxation involves seeking relief from sensory overload. The type of content is not
the defining factor, because different people find different media material relaxing.

. Emotional release involves seeking some type of emotional catharsis, generally by
creating a vicarious participation in, or empathy with, a situation (fictional or otherwise)
depicted in the media.

Social Utility.
Seeking social integration or affiliation with others, generally by using the mass media as a common denominator of experience. Social utility can manifest itself in several forms, including:

. Conversational currency: Provides a common ground of information and experiences, which can be used to strike up a conversation

. Parasocial relationships: develop when individuals develop feelings of kinship or
friendship with media characters (fictional or not).


Withdrawal.
Using media to create a barrier or buffer zone between oneself and other people or activities.

Content and Context.
It’s important to remember that it’s not only the media content that determines media use, but also the social context within which the media exposure occurs. For example, when going to the theater, the content of a film may be perceived as having less value than the opportunity to socialize with one's peers.

The functional approach to studying mass media makes several assumptions:

. Audiences take an active role in their interaction with various media, and people's needs
provide motivation for media use.

. The mass media are not the only sources to satisfy people's needs; for example, relaxation can be achieved by taking a nap.

. The uses-and-gratification approach assumes that people are aware of their own needs and are able to verbalize them. The approach relies on survey methodology.

2 Things All College Students Should Know (from Time.com)

EDUCATION

2 Things That All College Freshmen Should Know

Leo M. Lambert and Peter Felten, Elon University / The Conversation

Over the next several weeks 18.4 million students will be headed to colleges and universities in the United States. They, their families and taxpayers are making a monumental investment in the futures of these students, believing, correctly, that an undergraduate education is foundational to success in a global and knowledge-based economy.

Many students arrive in college without a clear sense of purpose or direction. That is to be expected. A significant part of the undergraduate experience, after all, involves grappling with big questions about professional, personal and civic identity. Who am I? What do I want to do with my life? How can I contribute to my community and the world? The best students pursue these questions with vigor.

But many others come to college with too little appreciation for the vast opportunities before them, gloss over foundational curricular requirements as merely hurdles to be cleared, show far too little drive in developing a plan to make the most of their educations and focus too heavily on the party scene.

Analyzing data from a study of more than two dozen institutions, sociologists Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa conclude that many students “enter college with attitudes, norms, values, and behaviors that are often at odds with academic commitment.” And many universities reinforce these beliefs by building lavish amenities and marketing themselves as something akin to a resort with a curriculum.

An undergraduate education is simply too precious an opportunity to squander or to approach halfheartedly. And while college should ultimately prepare graduates to make a living, it can be – it must be – far more than that.

The good news is that there are simple yet powerful things students can do to ensure that they have a transformative undergraduate experience, no matter where they go to college.

In our book “The Undergraduate Experience,” drawing on decades of work and scholarship in higher education and also interviews with leaders and students from many institutions, we identified what matters most for students.

Two factors are most important.

Take responsibility for learning

Too often students (and others) think learning is a simple process of taking knowledge from the professor during class and then returning it, unharmed, on the test.

When sociologist Mary Grigsby interviewed scores of undergraduates at a large midwestern university, many students echoed the words of one who told her:

“I hate classes with a lot of reading that is tested on. Any class where a teacher is just gonna give us notes and a worksheet or something like that is better. Something that I can study and just learn from in five [minutes] I’ll usually do pretty good in.”

Real learning – that is, learning that makes a significant and lasting change in what a person knows or can do – emerges from what the student, not the professor, does. Of course, professors are critical actors in the process, but students are the ones doing the learning.

To take responsibility for their own learning, students need to move past what psychologist David Perkins has called possessive and performative understandings of knowledge, where learning is about acquiring new facts or demonstrating expertise in classroom settings.

Instead, meaningful learning emerges from a proactive conception of knowledge, where the student’s goal is to experiment with new and unexpected ways of using what he or she is learning in different settings. This requires students to see themselves as the central actors in the drama of learning.

Whether students choose to take the stage or sit in the balcony matters immensely.

When students jump into learning, challenging themselves to stretch and grow, college is most powerful.

Reflections from an Ohio University engineering student show what this looks like:

“[My goal for my senior] year was to try to do things that maybe I’m not good at already so that I can learn to do these things. I will have to do this once I have a job so avoiding projects that are uncomfortable for me now won’t help me NOT avoid them when I’m a part of the work force.”

Develop meaningful relationships

The relationships students form in college also have a profound influence on their experiences, shaping not only who they spend time with but how they will spend their time.

When scholars asked graduates at Hamilton College to think back on their undergraduate years, these alumni pointed to specific individuals (often professors, coaches or classmates) who shaped their paths.

Again, as with learning, students need to move beyond the familiar to find meaning.Students typically think first about relationships with peers. These are essential, of course. Finding friends and cohort groups can be reassuring, but scholars have found that students who interact frequently with peers who are different in significant ways (racially, ethnically, religiously, socioeconomically and so on) show more intellectual and social growth in college than those who don’t.

And peer relationships are not only about fun. Decades of research have demonstrated that students who study together learn more and more deeply. As the mathematician Uri Treisman reported in a classic study of undergraduate calculus courses that has been replicated in other disciplines, students from many different backgrounds are more academically successful when they

“work with their peers to create for themselves a community based on shared intellectual interests and common professional aims.”

Relationships with faculty also are highly significant.

A large 2014 survey by Gallup and Purdue University revealed that college graduates who believed they had a professor who (1) cared about them as individuals, (2) made them excited about learning and (3) encouraged them to pursue their dreams reported being far happier and more successful than their peers years after graduation.

A recent graduate of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte’s Levine Scholars Program, a prestigious scholarship for academically talented students interested in civic engagement, told us how the mentoring of sociologist Diane Zablotsky transformed her view of herself:

“I arrived at UNC-C shy and uncertain. But Dr. Zablotsky taught me how to go and get what I wanted. She made me do all the work, but coached along the way and helped me develop great confidence in myself.”

What matters for all students

Critically, what we’re describing here doesn’t apply only to privileged, 18-22-year-olds at elite institutions.

A study at the University of California, Davis reinforces this finding by demonstrating that engaging in mentored undergraduate research beyond the typical requirements for biology courses is particularly significant in preparing African-American undergraduates to successfully pursue graduate study and careers in the sciences.In fact, Ashley Finley and Tia Brown McNair, scholars at the Association of American Colleges and Universities, have shown that high-impact educational experiences like internships, undergraduate research, capstone courses and study abroad have particularly positive outcomes for students who traditionally have been underserved in American higher education.

Results from the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) also show that institutional prestige and financial resources do not determine the quality of student opportunities:

“Institutions with lower selectivity profiles can and often do offer experiences with faculty that are at least comparable to those at more selective institutions.”

As the NSSE director notes: “Doing those things may not cost any more than not doing them.”

Powerful education, in other words, is available to all students at all institutions, if they intentionally choose experiences that are challenging and relationship-rich.

Acting on what matters most

Douglas Spencer, a 2016 Elon University graduate and now young alumnus trustee, captured what’s at stake in recent remarks to fellow students.

Doug described coming to campus without a strong sense of who he was as a black man or of what he might do with his life. Then, challenged by friends and professors to think more deeply about his own identity, “I unlocked some sort of hidden energy I did not know I possessed.” He began to read not just for class, but (even more) in his free time. Inspired by this reading and his other studies, and echoing W.E.B. Du Bois,

“It became clear to me that the only way I would find real success was if I learned to thrive in times of uncertainty.”

Colleges and universities play an outsized role in shaping the lives of individual students like Doug.

Indeed, we, as educators, cannot recall a time when it mattered more for higher education to cultivate students capable of acting entrepreneurially, ethically, cooperatively and creatively to address complex problems in local, national and global contexts.

That starts with students beginning the academic year ready to act on what matters most for their own learning.

Leo M. Lambert is President at Elon University and Peter Felten is Assistant Provost for Teaching and Learning and Executive Director, Center for Engaged Learning at Elon University