I've wondered what brought my Communications professors towards teaching the different aspects of the communication field. This week, I interviewed Professor Harwood, who is one of my Communications professors at SC State University.
He was named Professor of the Year in the Department of English and Communications in March 2023 for the 2022/2023 school year. Last fall, Harwood published a new book, his fith book titled "Stories from the Underground: The Churchyards of Charleston" which you can buy at his Amazon's author site.
He also has a blog which you can vist at http://mybirdseyeviews.blogspot.com/
Professor Harwood has taught at SC State since 2014
Professor Harwood's book signing in Orangeburg at the Broughton Street Cafe
Q: What led you to become a communciations professor?
A: This was something that I never thought I would do or plan to do when I was younger in my career. It was when I started working at the college of Charleston in public realtions, I had been in broadcast journalism and my most latest recent position was at Channel 5 television in Charleston. That's what brought me to South Carolina. I was there for only a year or two but I really liked the Charleston area. I wanted to stay in Charleston, and I saw an ad in the newspaper that the College of Charleston was looking for a public realtions person. So I thought, wow, I never thought of public relations but the job description sounded like something that appealed to me, that I could do, so I thought ok, I'll apply for that.
Long story short, I got that job and ended up working there for 12 years in public relations at the College of Charleston, but early on, probably in the first year or so, I was apporached on campus by Dr. Nan Morrison who was chair at the English Department. At that point, communication wasn't a full blown major at CUC like it is now. It was a minor under the umbrella of English. I didn't really know Dr. Morrison, but she knew a little bit about my background coming from tv news. She approached me and asked, "Would you ever be interested in teaching a college course here on broadcast journalism?"
I never thought about it, and when I thought about it I said, "Oh sure, I'll give it a try." So for several years, I had my regular staff position. My courses always had to be Tuesday and Thrusday at 5:30 to 6:45, and I did that for several years teaching Introduction to Broadcast News, Advanced Broadcast News, and Radio and Television News. It was an opprutunity that presented itself.
Q: Were you interested in communications in your highschool years?
A: It was almost like a process of elimination. Writing was something that, since I was in gradeschool, I think I put effort into it and my teachers repsonded. I'd get compliments that I wrote well, so I kinda thought about maybe sports journalism. It really wasn't until I started looking at colleges that it narrowed down to either study communications or journalism.
Q: Does anyone in your family also have a job in comunications?
A: My younger brother actually followed me to Radford University and Virginia Commonwealth University. He also got a Mass Communication's Degree at VCU but he never worked full-time in that career. He ended up making his way to California after he graduated and worked at a post office in Southern California for 28 years or so, and he recently retired. My sister worked as an airforce officer, and she worked with her airforce base newspaper.
Q: What has been your favorite aspect of the communications field?
A: I would say that all aspects because I've done differnet things throughout my career. Starting out as a tv news reporter, even before that working in radio when I was in college in Richmond working in a radio station assiting the news director, a lot of technical things as far as recording and editing, typing scripts. Then television, news, being a reporter and then an anchor, and then working in public relations as I mentioned at the college of Charleston, and then having the chance to teach these things that I worked in for a number years. I have loved all aspects of the communications field.
Q: Besides majoring in communications, was there any other major that you considered in college?
A: I was always interested in History, especially American History. I took a lot of history courses especially at VCU. I don't know if I had enough to minor in it offically, since I never persued it, but I did taka a bunch of history classes. I would say that if Mass Communications wasn't my major, then it might have been History beacuse I always did really well in the History courses. Those coureses helped raise my grade point average overall.
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