Friday, September 25, 2009
In Response to People Who Don't Believe Me
Dramaturgy in H[ollywoo]D: "When I was college, I had the extreme pleasure (*Note of Sarcasm*) of taking a Statistics class for Humanities majors. I never understood why Humanities majors needed to take statistics, but I was told it was for research purposes. I didn't believe it until I started looking at what research opportunities were available out here."
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9 comments:
This sounds like a very cool job to have if you like to research and like tv. It's interesting that this job description reminds him of the need to take a statics in college. I would never think of a dramaturg to need that kind of skill, but I guess if you want to expand outside of theatre research it will probably be very helpful.
I've been toying with the idea of taking a statistics class. Not just because it is recommended by graduate programs, but because, like Brianna mentioned, something that could turn out to be extremely useful. There are so many classes we take at CMU that we refer to as "unimportant" just because they're not in the school of Drama. We are an extremely focused bunch of individuals, but we do need to realize the value of the other classes offered and taken at CMU. You never know where you'll be in 10 years, so why not take a class outside your comfort zone that could turn out to benefit you in the years to come?
I am really glad that this was put out there. I agree that other classes at CMU have a lot to offer. (granted, i don't live only in the SOD) But i do think its always good to take something out of your comfort zone, like Stats. Stats is a class that really helps with analyzing data, and showing you what types of information you can purse out. I'm glad Brianna's putting her class to good use!
Statistics is a very important subject that far too many people avoid. It doesn't sound very exciting but with an understanding of statistics you can quickly see the absurdity of statements like "preferred by 53% of the public (margin of error 9 points)". Too many claims out there are "backed up" with some of the most questionable statistics I've ever seen but the general public never seems to question them, they just accept them because the numbers as printed seem to match the conclusion, or at least that's what they tell you. Given the opportunity, take a stats class. It'll pay off in the end.
I think any class we can find the time to take that's outside of SOD is useful, even if it's useful merely because it's different from what we usually learn. In this program, it's easy to forget that there's a whole world out there, and it pays off to require skills and knowledge that you may not currently think you will need to employ. The hard part about it is that drama classes have such a higher priority than non-drama classes that sometimes you end up not putting enough effort into the non-drama classes.
I've always been a little surprised that their isn't a campus wide math class requirement of some kind because it would force people to take really useful math like statistics. I got a very watered down version of statistics in high school, and even the probably simplistic things I learned from the class are helpful when thinking about things that vary from hockey season standings to the failure/defect rate on certain products. Always thought their should be a "math for drama students" course/course recomendation of some kind, especially for PTMers.
Sometimes although we do not understand why certain things are ion the curriculum, we end up needing it the most. In a lecture once, an anthropologist said that once he entered into field work, all of the "useless" stuff he learned in grad school began looking really good. Universities have been doing this longer than you have, so they know it's important.
This is a good example of our need to broaden our education although we may always want to work in one field. You never know what skills you may need to the same job. Depending on where you are, and what kind of environment you are working in, you may need to use a lot more skill and knowledge than you may usually be expected to.
My roommate is a psychology and decision science major and the vast majority of her time is spent doing research so incredibly different from our own. I'm used to "research" referring to reading and collecting information; my roommate does tons of this, true, but the vast majority of her time is spent with data collection and analysis.
In part of the entertainment industry as commercialized as Hollywood (this is no value judgment - just a statement), analysis of potential audiences and markets often decides whether or not a project is greenlit. The math and statistics aren't necessarily what's useful here; it's the ability to understand the impacts our creations and demands of our audiences.
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