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SmallerMUNCIE, Ind. - Ball State University is launching a new institute to strengthen journalism education and appreciation of the First Amendment by using the power of digital technology to reach middle and high school students.
Funding for the $600,000 project comes in nearly equal parts from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Lilly Endowment Inc. and Ball State. University officials are seeking a director to lead the institute. The director's initial goals will be to create extensive digital curriculum materials and resources as well as run high school convergence workshops.
Convergence is the practice of sharing and cross promoting content from a variety of media through newsroom collaborations and outside partnerships, a growing response to meeting consumer demand.
"Significant gaps exist between the digital nature of today's news media and the level of technology employed in schools," said Scott Olson, dean of the College of Communication, Information, and Media. "We need to make sure a new generation is growing journalists for the sophisticated newsrooms of our future."
The university is building upon the programs already put in place through the Lilly-funded iCommunication initiative, a $20 million grant that is supporting several cutting-edge programs including the Center for Media Design, a new testing, research and assessment center, and NewsLink, a converged newsroom project that will be operational by the fall.
Supporters of establishing the new institute include the Student Press Law Center, Radio and Television News Directors Foundation, Quill and Scroll International Honorary Society for High School Journalists, and Young D.C., a youth publication.
"To best serve the public, journalists must understand their legal rights and responsibilities in this new technological arena," said Mark Goodman, executive director of the Student Press Law Center, a nonprofit organization that provides free legal assistance to student journalists. "This program will put members of the next generation at the top of their game."
The institute will also serve the growing needs of converged newsrooms across the country as middle and high school students choose their career paths into college.
"This institute will not only help teachers and students, but it will ultimately help the newspaper industry with its readership and diversity needs by developing the next generation of student media leaders," said Marilyn Weaver, chair of Ball State's Department of Journalism, where the institute will be housed.
The $220,000 Knight Foundation grant to Ball State is part of the foundation's ongoing $10 million high school initiative, which has created more than 200 online publications and student newspapers, especially at schools serving large numbers of students of color. The initiative is coordinated from a Web site at www.highschooljournalism.org.
Ball State will convene summits among those active in scholastic journalism and educators who set standards for media literacy, civics education and humanity education in the nation's schools, according to Knight Foundation officials.
"We expect the institute to play a key role in our high school initiative, which hopes to revive student journalism and give America's high schoolers a greater appreciation of the role of news as the glue that holds democratic communities together," said Eric Newton, director of journalism initiatives for the foundation.
Funding for the $600,000 project comes in nearly equal parts from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Lilly Endowment Inc. and Ball State. University officials are seeking a director to lead the institute. The director's initial goals will be to create extensive digital curriculum materials and resources as well as run high school convergence workshops.
Convergence is the practice of sharing and cross promoting content from a variety of media through newsroom collaborations and outside partnerships, a growing response to meeting consumer demand.
"Significant gaps exist between the digital nature of today's news media and the level of technology employed in schools," said Scott Olson, dean of the College of Communication, Information, and Media. "We need to make sure a new generation is growing journalists for the sophisticated newsrooms of our future."
The university is building upon the programs already put in place through the Lilly-funded iCommunication initiative, a $20 million grant that is supporting several cutting-edge programs including the Center for Media Design, a new testing, research and assessment center, and NewsLink, a converged newsroom project that will be operational by the fall.
Supporters of establishing the new institute include the Student Press Law Center, Radio and Television News Directors Foundation, Quill and Scroll International Honorary Society for High School Journalists, and Young D.C., a youth publication.
"To best serve the public, journalists must understand their legal rights and responsibilities in this new technological arena," said Mark Goodman, executive director of the Student Press Law Center, a nonprofit organization that provides free legal assistance to student journalists. "This program will put members of the next generation at the top of their game."
The institute will also serve the growing needs of converged newsrooms across the country as middle and high school students choose their career paths into college.
"This institute will not only help teachers and students, but it will ultimately help the newspaper industry with its readership and diversity needs by developing the next generation of student media leaders," said Marilyn Weaver, chair of Ball State's Department of Journalism, where the institute will be housed.
The $220,000 Knight Foundation grant to Ball State is part of the foundation's ongoing $10 million high school initiative, which has created more than 200 online publications and student newspapers, especially at schools serving large numbers of students of color. The initiative is coordinated from a Web site at www.highschooljournalism.org.
Ball State will convene summits among those active in scholastic journalism and educators who set standards for media literacy, civics education and humanity education in the nation's schools, according to Knight Foundation officials.
"We expect the institute to play a key role in our high school initiative, which hopes to revive student journalism and give America's high schoolers a greater appreciation of the role of news as the glue that holds democratic communities together," said Eric Newton, director of journalism initiatives for the foundation.
