Journalism professors ask students to live-tweet REM cycles

In an attempt to advance their social media emphasis, Marquette journalism professors have come together to assign all their students a live-tweeting project in which those students will provide real-time updates of their sleep.

The assignment is a response to criticism that the curriculum refuses to evolve. It is, journalism professors say, the next step for new media.

“We are doing something revolutionary,” said Rosemary Thyme, a professor in the College of Communication. “Most, if not all, live-tweeting up until this point has been during consciousness. We are going a step further.”

The project will have students live-tweeting what happens during their Rapid Eye Movement cycles, something that has them concered in terms of difficulty.

“It sounds kind of hard,” said Erik Fairman, a College of Communication sophomore. “Usually when I sleep, I’m, you know, sleeping and not awake doing homework.”

Fairman said he was excited and then slightly disappointed when he heard that the college was taking the journalism curriculum a step forward.

“I thought maybe we were going to do some real, hands-on reporting or maybe learn more about journalism ethics or interviewing and researching techniques and tips,” he said. “But I guess this is sort of, kind of okay too, but not really at all.”

Other ideas the college had included assigning students to live-tweet their own walking patterns throughout the day, live-tweeting other live blogs live and the very bold idea of live-tweeting literally every possible observation and thought made in a 24-hour period, which is being reserved as a potential final project for certain classes.

As previously rumored, there is also the possibility that Marquette will rename its student newspaper “The Marquette Twibune” and its student television station “Marquette Twelivision.” The Twibune would, in that scenario, cut both its print and online versions and publish its articles and columns purely as tweets. A similar change for Marquette Twelevision will likely not happen, however, as it is utterly impossible to broadcast a video live in a series of tweets.

Journalism professors could not be reached for comment when asked whether life itself should be replaced by Twitter, as they appeared to be too busy live-tweeting the question asked to contemplate an answer.