I’m speaking to 300+ students at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) tomorrow morning, so I’ve been thinking about advice. I’m going to talk about unbundled media, but the last slide is titled, “What does all this mean to me?” After all, these are students who are in the catch-all “Communications” school. They deserve to know the truth.

When all is said and done, I believe the most important quote of the 21st century (so far) is from Michael Powell, former FCC Chairman. “Application separation,” he said, “is the most important paradigm shift in the history of communications, and it will change things forever.” Bigger than the invention of the printing press. Bigger than radio or television or the internet itself. This is an enormous challenge for all of us, but especially for those in school.

Think about it. We no longer need the infrastructure of any communications form to BE that communications form. We can ride existing infrastructure. Terry’s Daily News has the same rights, privileges, opportunities and responsibilities as the New York Daily News, because we both ride the same infrastructure. This is the fuel of the unbundled, personal media revolution.

People go to college to get a job these days, whereas they used to go to get a degree. That’s especially problematic for those in a communications program, because this is a time of incredible volatility in the media, public relations and marketing worlds. A career path that made sense five years ago may not make sense today. Everything is changing, thanks to Powell’s “application separation,” and I think it is both good news and bad news for students.

The downside is obvious. You can’t count on anything anymore. You may be the best looking, smartest, most articulate potential news anchor in your class, but there’s no assurance whatsoever that we’ll need anchors down-the-road. The mass market is dying and along with it, all those “how-to” rules that we used to take for granted. What we used to think were immutable core values of journalism are even under attack.

But the upside is that we’ve entered a new age of creativity and opportunity, one that has never before existed. How often does a generation get to invent its own communications paradigms? How can you not be excited by that?

So the challenge to communications students everywhere is how far are you willing to go to get involved in this reinvention? Will you participate or sit back and wait for others to write the book?

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