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As we wrap up our six part series exploring the American University of Nigeria's global impact, we want to introduce you to the media Department, helping us bring the stories to life.

Tonight we talked to the Communications and Multimedia Design Chair and professor to learn how these students create stories that change society.

I'm so happy you're joining us.

I'm from Los Angeles.

This is KLCS PBS.

Welcome to everybody with Angela Williamson and innovation, Arts, education and public affairs program.

Everybody with Angela Williamson is made possible by viewers like you.

Thank you.

And now your host, doctor Angela Williamson.

The students in the Communications and multimedia design department have been very helpful while we're here at the American University of Nigeria.

They have been working with us behind the scenes.

Now, I'd like to introduce the chair of this department.

Thank you so much for being here.

Thank you for having me.

Before we get into talking about the vision for this department, please tell our audience your name and background.

Also two.

How long have you been here at the American University of Nigeria?

Thank you so much.

Once again.

My name is Joseph Schuler.

Ashanti, and I've been in a u n for over 12 years now.

I am the, president, chair of the Department of Communications and Multimedia Design.

I am a product of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.

Yes.

Which was one time, one of the leading universities in Nigeria and still is also a product of, Manchester Metropolitan University and also a product of Syracuse University.

As chair of this department.

What is your vision for this department?

Also two why is it important to have this as the global impact?

I have had a long history of working in the civil service before joining the university system.

Before I came into academia, I was actually a civil servant involved in development work.

I've had in ministries, ministerial departments, and we've done a lot of development work.

Some of them, we do not achieve the kind of impact that we sought to.

So, we decided to look at it academically.

And when I found myself in one of the universities, I've been around several universities in this country.

I always try to get the department of Communications to view development as a challenge, to view communication as a vehicle for development.

How is it a vehicle for development?

Wow.

Because whatever you want to do, why would I want to bring about social change?

Would you want to sell a product?

Whether you want to develop interpersonal relations, whether you want to advertise a product, you need cognitive what you do.

And in this particular era, we live in the era where there's a lot of social upheavals, problems.

People are people's lives, are devastated because of insurgencies, because of all manner of disasters.

Where do we stand as communicators?

How do we deploy our communication skills to find solutions to these problems?

We know that research has shown that there are specific strategies that communicate to marketers have to use.

They have to learn certain skills which they will apply for effective change in this kind of situations.

Here at a, we focus on developing communication strategies that will bring about rapid development, particularly in the aftermath of the insurgencies.

We found communication to be a very powerful tool.

Now, how do you explain to a child why we must fight wars?

How do you explain to mothers why they have to lose their children in insurgencies?

You need communication skills to do that.

Now, in the process of doing this here at a U.N., we engage with that.

And I have been part of the Tela.

We have been part of the feeder read programs.

We develop instructional strategies for them.

We develop some content for them.

And then along the way, initiated a graduate program that is designed specifically to train skilled communication personnel who will go and intervene in this crisis areas effectively using contemporary communication strategies.

What do you think is the most important communication strategy that you are teaching the students here, especially in the graduate program.

That they understand we people feel.

We teach them strategies like participant observation, research.

You have to go and engage with the context and not do a post facto investigation of what has happened.

You have to be part of the process.

So it's more like qualitative research, qualitative research.

Absolutely.

Explain that for our audience who don't have PhDs yet.

What qualitative research is the kind of research where you have to be part of the event?

Was our students develop those skills and they're able to apply that in the field.

They're able to understand the minds of the victims of these disasters.

And therefore intervention becomes more effective.

So when you develop this intervention, you can use maybe graphic arts, you can use video.

Other types of what we we will talk to your instructor in the next segment.

But you can use these other strategies to implement what you're talking about right.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

That is why we call ourselves multi media.

We deal with different kinds of visuals and images, use graphic design videos, animation texts and so on.

Our students already right from the undergraduate, learn to combine all this to put out effective messages out there.

But at the graduate level, they go beyond that.

They have to conduct what they call situation analysis.

Explain to our audience situational analysis.

Well, you know, every situation of crisis differs.

All right.

They're caused by different factors.

But the and the and the cultural factors, the political and economic factors, social factors that affect these are all different in different communities.

So the challenge is to go in there and understand the characteristics of the factors that exist in each community.

We talked about this, but you said something, and I've heard this over and over again in every interview.

Social factors.

Does the social factors differ per different, audiences that you have because you have several different audiences just surrounding the university?

Well, we live in a culturally sensitive society.

That's where the difference comes.

Now, this program at the graduate level is called communication for Social and Behavioral Change.

Wow.

It recognizes that social behavior differs from one culture.

Welcome to another.

So effective intervention can only happen if you go in their research and understand what their customers desire.

That's the only way you can relate to people.

That's the only way you kind of understand what they are doing and why they're doing it.

This is what if monographic research becomes very critical for our students.

Students?

Do they actually go into these different cultures and live there?

I mean, how how do they approach that research?

Yeah, that is really qualitative research at its best.

You guys, you have to live amongst them.

Understand the way they feel.

Sometimes you have to learn some of their cultures and traditions.

All right.

And again acceptability.

It's only then that they can open up and tell you exactly how they feel and why they feel the way they do.

It is then that intervention programs can be effective.

Research has shown that a lot of aid that goes into these communities from a distance doesn't do much.

Why not?

Because the people's problems, what they worry about, are not addressed.

And what do they worry about most?

They worry about their livelihoods.

They own about their farms that have been taken over.

They're worried more about peace of stability.

And most of the time when you give out aid in terms of food and other things, it does not address that problem.

People who have run away.

I give you an example, please.

I have had to interview a woman who run away from the northeast during the insurgency.

How did it happen?

When Boko Haram struck, she was at home with her children.

Her husband was at work.

So everybody started running.

They lost contact with the husband.

She now took the kids run somewhere and got a ride down to Yola.

The husband took to his heels into the bush.

They never met again.

Has one died?

Somewhere along the way, he was killed in the bush.

Now, what kind of aid would you give a mother like that?

And the children?

Suddenly.

Food.

Food is not the problem.

No it's not.

How do they overcome this kind of trauma?

I mean, that impacts her mental health.

Yeah.

And so how do we look at that from a communication strand.

And look at it from a little bit of psychology.

Look at the social needs.

Look at how are we going to resettle them.

People leave their homes.

They want to get back to their homes.

Few of them want to remain here.

If you've been here, I don't got time to see.

Yola was flooded by IDPs all over the place.

Children, youth, women moving around just aimlessly.

How many of them want to go back home?

So it's a complex, problem.

The program we have now at the graduate level is designed to address these issues using communication strategies.

How do you stop these people on the street and get to understand their mindsets?

So that we can help them better.

Help me be there.

But how to do it?

It's a new it's a different ballgame altogether.

If you are unable to communicate with people, you will not understand what the problem is.

How does having the Communications and Multimedia Design department in Yola set you apart from any other university?

This program is unique in several ways.

First, the multimedia design components you can't find anywhere in Nigeria, Secondly, of course it fits.

the American education, which gives them liberal critical thinking and so on, is well embedded in the CMT program.

And what is more, we train them to be very practical in their outlook about life.

No student does any project that is not community driven, that doesn't have a community focus.

Or the community issues.

Oh yes, you must address a problem that is traceable to the community or to development somewhere in Nigeria.

In Africa, we do not encourage our students to do new track projects because we tell them, look, you are going out there as a problem solver and that attitude of problem solving begins here.

So we train them right from the beginning to think about problems that are real and concrete in the communities, in the societies.

So they develop that attitude from here and they carry it all.

And if you're talking about entrepreneurial thinking, I think our students are at the forefront of it because many of them, in fact, develop what kinds of businesses they are going to do even before they leave here.

We encourage them to do that through their capstone projects, through their senior research projects.

They do that extremely well.

Many of them go back to head their parents businesses, but they transform it right here before they go back.

One more thing I'd like you to say before we end our segment, what is your personal vision for this graduate program?

What would it do?

In one sense?

I want us to arrive at a point where we are UNICEF's biggest partners, right?

In finding solutions to development and such, and see children problems.

You know, Unicef focuses on aid and development for children, but you cannot do that without going through the parents.

What you do for the children, you're also doing it for the families.

So it's all interwoven together.

We want to be UNICEF's biggest partners in this part of the world.

That you that Unicef is beat is bigger than anything that's been around for, for over since 1946, I think.

And they operate in over 200 countries.

So we are fortunate to be selected to partner with them in this part of the country and want to take advantage of it.

And I think you should be a part of it, and you should be a big part of it.

Thank you so much for your time, and to take the time to explain what a UN's Communication and Multimedia Design department is doing to make this community a better place, and also to impact our world.

Thank you so.

Much.

Thank you very much.

We'll be right back.

I don't remember how it started.

Don't do that.

Our back and forth.

It always came back.

They.

They said.

Dad, you probably don't remember what you told me.

That was perfect.

But I heard every word.

Welcome back.

I'm with one of the instructors from the Communication and Multimedia Design department.

He has been so helpful in helping us get the crew for our shoot here at the American University of Nigeria.

Thank you so much for all of your help during these last six episodes.

You're welcome.

Before we start to talk about the department in general, why don't you tell our audience your first and last name and you have a long history with AEW in?

They want to hear about that too.

My name is Emanuel Best.

Lesa and I, well, I don't really have so much of foreign experience or stay, but when I was a little boy, I think I was in the United States with my parents, in Missouri.

University of Missouri.

Columbia.

But most of my schooling was here.

Yeah, I school the University of Missouri, and currently I'm running my PhD in University of Justice.

And how long have you been with this department?

Currently, I think I've spent about two years.

But then I was an adjunct for some time, you know, but now, currently just two years, basically.

And why is it important that students learn not only just the basics, and we'll talk about the technical ability and the aspect of it, but the basics of also using these skills in the community to make it a better place.

For me, I think living is all about making impact on the lives of people and the society.

If you're not doing that, then why are you living?

You understand?

So, communication and just helps you to do it easier.

It makes it easier for you to touch the lives of people, to touch the society, to make an impact, leave your imprint and leave an in communication.

We kind of train them to do that.

You know, some there was a saying that goes, you cannot not communicate.

In other words, you are you're always communicating.

You are.

Yeah.

Verbally or non-verbally or communicating.

And so it's important for them to really develop these skills to affect lives and to just make a difference in life, I think.

Isn't that what life is about?

It is.

And so let's talk about these capstone projects that you have going right now.

Please describe some of these projects, because we want our viewers to see what these students are doing because they've been behind the scenes.

All right.

First of all, capstone is a course that is designed to cap all your activities as a student.

You know, all the things you've learned, all the things that you've acquired, the knowledge, the skills.

Capstone gives you an opportunity to exhibit it.

So you go out there and you produce.

It could be a television show.

It could be a production, it could be an event, it could be a community service.

But the one thing we always do in aone is that we try to encourage our students to go look for a problem and solve it using the capstone course.

So the capstone is the students showing us what they will keep doing after school.

What impact would you make?

Because for us in AEW and we're passionate about that, we're passionate about churning out students that will not just go and be one of the graduates or one one of those students that have graduated from the university, and then they bear the name BSc or BA, but rather they're going out to actually be something, you understand.

So that's what capstone is about.

And then this is the opportunity for them to to show the world what they will be doing.

So the world would be expecting that same thing from them continuously.

So tell me about a few projects that you've been working with students on right now.

You can even tell me their names, especially if they've been working behind the scenes with us.

Yeah.

Currently we have students working on female basketball teams.

We have students, a certain student doing a movie.

Yes, there's a movie shoot, and then we have, students doing something on housemates and their challenges.

And then, we've had students also go out to teach literacy.

You know, in Nigeria, we have a challenge of, computer literacy skills amongst students while the government is trying to providing computers.

But then for those pupils and students to really learn how to use the computer, how to be proficient in them is a challenge.

So out there, students of ours that have gone out to teach that there are student of ours that have gone out to see, dilapidated structures in schools and fixed them, walked on them, provided books, provided a lot.

Some of them have gone out to orphanages, provided food stuffs, shared clothes.

I mean, they just do a whole lot.

Sometimes I wonder how they even get it done.

It's just so much.

What is your vision for this program and how it operates in the future?

The vision I have for this program is actually multi-dimensional, and the first place I want to drive it to a point where the productions of these students would be excellent.

I mean, enough to compete anywhere across the world, good enough to compete.

And in, I mean, they could submit their entries into, like, festivals and then maybe even win some of those awards.

And, so we also want to get to a point where these students activities or programs are being showcased.

We could invite the, the, the community for them to come and see what they're doing, you know, so that they actually learn from them.

And then also, they could be like, role models for other schools as well, other schools to incorporate this kind of program.

I think A1 is the only school that does this kind of thing in Nigeria.

So we want I my vision is for them to be to stand out, keep doing it and then challenge others.

Now that's one dimension.

Now another dimension is in the aspect aspect of we as we talked about the studio, we have studio, we have some equipment, but we're hoping to upgrade our equipment, you know, hopefully to get more folks, get more 4K cameras, get more lighting.

Reorganize the studio into better, a more better facility where anyone that comes here will see that and feel, oh, this is a world class studio.

This is a world class studio.

So that's where we want to go to.

We want to see how, our students can begin to churn out products that are very good, like, Netflix should be coming to shop from us, you know, and Prime, Amazon Prime should come and shop from us, would have a lot of content because of the students, projects, etc..

So those are the visions, the visions that I have for, capstone and much more.

How did you prepare your students for all of the behind the scenes to work on an American television show, a public affairs show?

The good thing is that from when students come in, they have, basic courses like, radio two basic radio, television and, film courses.

And then, so they get to learn some things there.

And then of course, during their capstone, we still prep them a little bit and most of them are already hands on.

They can operate cameras.

They can, set the lights on their own.

They've gone they've gone severally to go out to, to conduct interviews.

They have interviewed our president.

And I think he was impressed.

One time when they went, I just watched them.

They set the lights, they set the cameras, they roll the cameras, they organize themselves.

So they basically organized themselves.

We didn't need to do anything.

You know, it's believed that if you train your children well, you don't need to bother with how they will behave when they're old.

So it's like that for us.

They already they they're already good.

Some of them are even better than us.

Our time is almost done.

But before we leave, I want you to tell us the vision that you have for the Communication and Multimedia department.

One of the basic visions that I have for this department, especially our students, is because they produce very good content.

I'm hoping that they could, begin we could open up the school to a festival and maybe invite film filmmakers from Hollywood, from other parts of the world, you know, to come around and part of this film festival and maybe collaborate also with the department, because we have a students doing amazing works, you know, shooting beautiful movies.

We have, a hotel that is world class, you know, we have a very nice pool there.

It's a place where filmmakers would love to be, you know, so it's a vision that we have to establish something like a film village within the school, a film village, organize a film festival.

Already we have, a club that organizes, films and trips, on campus.

And we have done works with them.

We've been, we've been organizing film festivals, but now we want to expand it to other people, to other schools, to other societies, other countries in the world, especially Hollywood.

We're hoping that filmmakers from there can come around, be a part of this festival and, be a part of what we are doing in CMD department because we have screenwriters here.

I myself, I'm a screenwriter, I do, I write good screenplays, I trust my work and my students do excellent work themselves.

Do you need to see some of their scripts?

Scripts.

So this is this is the vision that I have, especially a film festival opening it up to the international community.

And I have a title, the American University of Nigeria International Film Festival.

And yes.

Perfect.

Oh, I'm buying that already.

Perfect, perfect.

Think.

Yes, yes.

I cannot wait to come back and screen my 2025.

I think I may have a short documentary by then.

Or really?

Yes.

Well, about the American University of Nigeria.

Oh, beautiful.

Beautiful.

Yeah.

I would love to have that on and showcased on that, day.

So our audience knows.

Yes, definitely.

Thank you so much for your time.

But also I just a special thank you to all of your students for helping us put these episodes together.

They're wonderful.

They're wonderful.

They are tremendously talented and they know the meaning of community.

So yeah.

Thank you.

They do.

Yeah.

Thank you very much too.

And thank you for joining us on everybody with Angela Williamson.

I hope you have enjoyed all six episodes at the American University of Nigeria.

It has been wonderful to be here and talk to the lovely people at this university.

Viewers like you make this show possible.

Stay in touch with us on social media to continue this conversation on Good Night and Stay well.

Hi, I'm Angela Williamson, host of everybody with Angela Williamson.

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