B.Comp.(CM)
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Introduction
Since the mid-1990s, we have witnessed the
phenomenal growth of the
Internet. The Internet has had a
tremendous impact on key aspects of our
daily life, including commerce, information dissemination,
communications,
education, and the empowerment of individuals
with new forms of expression.
The increasing adoption of digital
media in print, broadcast, and the world-wide
-web (WWW)
is profoundly changing the nature of human expression, earning,
and communication. Art can now be created
digitally. Learning can be
accessed electronically.
The combination of the Internet, media technology, and mass
communication
techniques also ushers in
an era of mass customized communication. The Internet
facilitates
mass communication by allowing the same digital information to
reach
any part of the world and to be
easily accessed by a large number of end-users.
The web can also employ sophisticated computing
techniques to flexibly
customize information to the needs of
individual users. Thus, end-users need no
longer remain
as end-consumers of information.
Multimedia literacy together
with the skills of design and content creation empower individuals
with fresh
avenues of individual as well
as artistic expression. At the same time,
organizations continue
to utilize the WWW to disseminate corporate,
governmental or institutional information.
Unlike
traditional broadcast media, the Internet offers conventional
push technology as well as interactive pull technology for
information dissemination,
thus allowing a spectrum of communication possibilities ranging from
pure broadcast to mass customized to individually personalized
communication.
Effective content design and use of digital media allows
individuals, groups,
and organizations to leverage the
technology to maximum effect.
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Goals
The
goal of this program is to address the fast emerging discipline
of digital
media and
its effective management and communications. It is
a
multi-disciplinary program that integrates
content design and mass
communication techniques with the Internet,
WWW,
and digital media
technology. It wil have long-term significant
impact in our life and offer
challenges in both academic research
and curriculum design.
The
program aims to produce computing technologists with a
good
knowledge of artistic design and human communications. At a
minimum,
students will acquire skills
to
contribute in the:
creative generation and effective communication of
digital information
for mass yet customized communications;
and
development and application of enabling computing technologies for
mass and personalized
communications.
The program will
expose
students to both the computing and design cultures in early
stages
of their study. It is designed as a collaboration
between the School of Computing,
the Faculty of Arts and Social
Sciences, with participation from
the University Scholar's Program.
The program aims to build on the
strength of NUS in pursuing multi-
disciplinary academic research
and teaching.
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Overview
This
program aims to train students in the technological
underpinnings
of Internet technologies as well as the required skills of media design
and content
creation tempered with a proper understanding of
the
social
sciences. Therefore, the program has been designed to achieve an
integrated foundation in all these aspects.
Since this program involves
aspects of computing and the arts and
social sciences, it can be viewed
from two perspectives:
Foundations of IT: This refers to the computing basics required
to
understand, architect,
and extend the Internet-based systems.
Information encoding, information customization, content-repurposing:
The encoding,
such as the XML, is required for information to be
mass
communicated on
the
Internet and WWW. The customization
refers to
the personalization of
information individuals / groups
which the
technology allows, and repurposing refers to
customization of
info.
to the heterogeneous
networks (wired and wireless)
as
well as the
plethora of
end-device (static and mobile with varying display
plus
communication
capabilities).
Text, multimedia information analysis and processing: These refer to
the
technological
basis of the various digital media (text, image,
graphics,
audio and video) and
the various types of processing,
such as data-rate
transformation, summarization etc.
Entertainment technology: This refers to technologies required to
develop
interactive games
and virtual reality systems.
Internet architecture: This refers to the technical aspects of the
Internet
including
networking, client-server
architecture, and issues related to
scalability, reliability
and
availability.
Foundation (sociology): This refers to the required social
sciences
foundation to
contextualize the use of media for communication
by
individuals
and groups in
human society.
Human-Computer Interaction: This refers to the human-centered
design
of intuitive and
flexible interfaces for people to
communicate via the
end-devices of
the Internet fringes.
Writing, and Media Design for Mass Communication: This refers to
the
required
arts
background, which enables the creative
use of digital media
for the purpose
of
expression and communication. The media
considered
nbsp; include
hypertext, audio,
image/graphics, and video.
Mass Communication on Internet: This refers to the theoretical
and
empirical principles
of mass communications on the WWW.
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Prospects
The
program targets industries in the knowledge-based economy,
including entertainment
industry, information and news service
organizations, publishers, government
agencies, public relations
services in
organizations, advertising and
media relations, consultancy,
educational
institutions and R&D organizations.
New careers in the knowledge-based
economy increasingly require
expertise
and in-depth understanding of
multiple disciplines.
The
graduates from this programme
will therefore be well placed to:
(a)
lead R&D and technical development efforts in media and
information
related
projects;
(b)
provide technical expertise and support in large content design
and
creation
team;
(c)
engage in marketing and technical support of media related products and
services; and
(d)
last but not least, assume the role of knowledge, media or
information
specialists,
typically required in new knowledge-oriented organizations
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