Colorado Mesa University (CMU) students studying mass communication are a particularly lucky demographic, as there are many professors in the department that, according to their students, are nothing shy of excellent.
Elaine Venter is one of those professors.
Venter brings a broad skill set to the classroom, since she has a diverse educational background from studying a wide range of topics, from public relations (P.R.) to international studies. Venter told The Criterion that she was always interested in marketing and advertising as well, which is another realm of knowledge that she’s able to incorporate into the classroom.
Something that gives Venter an edge is her experience in social media. Social media, being a fairly new phenomenon, has permanently changed the way mass communication, and frankly, the rest of the world operates. She got very active with emerging social media outlets and has developed an expertise of sorts that is very resourceful to mass communication students.
“I kind of do a little bit of everything. I’m very interested in media studies (how race, gender, or sexuality are portrayed in media) along with digital media, and how digital media is changing how we perceive and interpret our media today,” Venter says. “I’ve always been active in social media. And I’ve always had a love for P.R. and marketing.”
According to Maddie Hager, a sophomore mass communication student at CMU, Venter’s wide range of expertise is what makes her classes so engaging. “Venter is the absolute best. Her understanding of social media and her connections to the real-life marketing world make her class very relevant.”
“Everyone has some sort of relationship with media, whether that be books, video games, or movies; everyone interacts with it in some way,” Venter emphasized. “Media is always somehow in our lives, and it can have an effect on people, and we need to understand what that effect is and how much of an effect it really has.”
Noah Stahlecker, a senior CMU mass communication minor, shared a similar opinion to Hager. “Venter is a unique professor, which makes her my absolute favorite. I think I’ve learned more from Venter through her stories than anything else.”
After discussing the pleasant atmosphere Venter has established in her classes, each student shared one trait in common that they liked about the professor: her passion.
Professor Venter truly does care about what she is teaching and how her students are perceiving it. She’s a self-described “media nerd”, which means that she is always up to date on all things in the media world that may be relevant to her students.
“Doing and creating media is a creative process, and we as professors are simply here to help students achieve what they want to achieve,” Venter told The Criterion.
Venter’s legitimate concern for her students’ success hasn’t gone unnoticed by her students. As a result, Maddie Hager had a little advice she wanted to share with members of the CMU community. “Without a doubt, if you can take a class with Venter, you should.”
