While media in education has obvious benefits in clarifying information, journalism and business have been using media to grow since forever. They use it in a different way, however.

Likely, when you see an ad on TV, you can quickly tell if it's meant for you based on the color, audio, content, and so on. It's likely not something you think consciously about. Style in graphics help us gravitate towards what we want to see or buy.

How does this help in education?

There isn't a direct benefit, but indirectly the propagation of ideologies, emotions, and ideas are amplified, allowing more vivid, and engaging workflow. Education without style is like a dating site without pictures. It's not as fun.

Abstract image of girl with lines over her face

The problem with media requirements

A second point. Obviously this article isn't very long. Because advanced degrees train students to meet word counts and so on. This promotes work that is hard to read and full of filler, which makes academics less available for the majority. Sometimes too much of one media is a problem.

The solution here lies in the fact that the problem is obscure. The reason word counts are necessary is because no actual problem is being solved with length. In project-based learning, results of their proofs are all that's required because that's what really matters. If we want academics to be useful, then we should have them practice useful tasks.

As far as the function of papers, being either analysis and/or proposals and/or summations, which are necessary and important, what matters is the content and quality, not the effort or length. As such, grading criteria needs adjustment.

I hope you find this article helpful in helping to refocus on what matters in education