Speaking with a Professor: Was He the Key to His Students’ Success?

Professor Todd Holmes has been teaching at CSUN since 2017, long enough to watch roughly 2,000 of his students cross the stage for graduation. However, was he the key to their success? 

Todd Holmes teaches for the Cinema Television Arts (CTVA) department at California State University Northridge (CSUN). Holmes is currently the Associate Professor of Entertainment Media Management and the lead professor for that option. He teaches classes such as Strategic Media Management, Audience Analysis, and Electronic Media Advertising.  He is the professor many students must take in order to graduate with a CTVA degree. 

Before Holmes became a professor, he worked in numerous sales positions for 15 years in broadcasting and telecommunications. He was a senior account executive for WGFL, the CBS affiliate for North Central Florida. Holmes has been published in the Journal of Media Business Studies and has presented award-winning research papers at national and international media conferences. Holmes continues to be an industry consultant and project manager for Nielsen, measuring the media consumption habits of college students.

Holmes obtained a Bachelor’s in Business Administration in Marketing from James Madison University in Virginia in 1995. He then majored in Mass Communication at the University of Florida for his Master's degree in 2008 and his Ph.D. in 2015. He was also a lecturer of Telecommunications at the University of Florida for 5 years.

Holmes initially did not pursue a career in higher education but enjoyed guest lecturing. His parents, who were in higher education, influenced him to become a professor. Holmes notes that his college experience helped him find sales and media advertising jobs. Even though his employers did not require a degree, he was a more desirable candidate. Going to school allowed him to stand out amongst his colleagues; having education experience before entering the work field allowed Holmes to have experience other employees did not have. 

 “Analytical skills and problem-solving skills that was one thing that undergraduate school did for me…and working in groups and diverse communities,” said Holmes

 Holmes is an educated and qualified employee for both sales and higher education positions. But how many of his students have become successful since his classes and their time at CSUN, and does he believe they were successful because of him?

Holmes is proud that he still keeps in touch with many of his past students. Even if they are just connected on LinkedIn, he can watch them get new jobs and earn promotions. When post-graduate students contact him for help finding job opportunities and setting up interviews, he is happy to connect them with people he knows. 

“I can help connect them with people…and be a resource. I encourage students, don’t be shy; ask your professors about those kinds of things.” said Holmes.

Professor Holmes says that most of his students go on to work in the entertainment industry if that’s what they want to do in the end. CSUN has the most expansive alum network for careers in the entertainment industry.  

“Ultimately, or so I’ve been told by multiple people in the field, is that there are more people working in the industry from CSUN than any of the other schools, including USC and UCLA.” said Holmes. 

Professor Holmes said giving his students accurate and current knowledge of the field is something the department is constantly trying to work on. It is impossible for schools to stay on top of the ever-changing market in the curriculum they teach and the degree paths they offer. Especially in the entertainment industry, technology advances much more rapidly than jobs do. For example, for students graduating in 2023 who started school in 2019, TikTok was barely a social media platform, and now it has over 600 million downloads creating millions of jobs. 

“Keeping up with the latest developments and the connections of the industry are extremely important… and understanding that there are certain base hard and soft skills that students need to have that will prepare them for a range of different careers, no matter what direction they go,” said Holmes.

He says that no matter a student's career, they will write something, work in a group, and even research. Apparently, tedious weekly reading assignments and terrible semester-long group projects actually are meant to help students in the long run. 

A new era of technology is coming with AI, which has already started a shift in the job market. It can be a powerful tool as long as it stays in its own place,” Holmes explains. He believes the capabilities are exciting, but AI should not excavate the human connection and hopefully not eliminate too many jobs. “You can use it to generate some ideas, but then, you still do want to go about doing the work yourself…We don’t want to rely on it too much. For creative work, it is important that the human element drives everything.”

For CTVA students, Holmes believes he prepares them for the job interview by imparting them specific basic entertainment industry knowledge. 

“Your level of confidence is going to increase the more of a background you feel that you have.” He mentions that many entertainment employees must do research in their jobs. When his students write research papers for his assignments (Professor Holmes does assign many extensive research papers), he can give them a leg up from their colleagues. 

Holmes enjoys bringing industry guest speakers to his lecture classes to allow his students to hear from the experts themselves. He also shows students that there are jobs beyond producing or directing. Part of his job is preparing students for careers by showing students all the jobs they are qualified for. 

Holmes constantly tries to improve the EMM curriculum to prepare students for careers. He is doing this by teaming CTVA up with the journalism department to use their data for the audience analysis class. Additionally, he was able to give his students a basic understanding of analytics tools, such as Hootsuite, and get some of his students certified in analytics. But he said that the technical area of the curriculum always needs improvement. This summer, he will revise his curriculum to include newer forms of media, such as social media and streaming platforms. In the future, Holmes would like to host college-wide events with panels and guest speakers regularly. 

Changing the curriculum takes time, and Holmes is trying to adapt to the current changes. And even though he is doing what he can to help his students, he reminds them that it is up to them to take the extra step to be successful. 

“The most important thing we can do in higher education is to teach students to teach themselves, provide them with skills that they can learn throughout life, and realize that when they graduate from college that the learning isn’t ending, it's just beginning,” said Holmes.