Grant to help journalists upload new digital skills
Students will be invited to attend multimedia workshops at USC.
Ariel Edwards-Levy
Issue date: 9/27/07 Section: News
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The Annenberg School for Communication received a $2.4 million, five-year grant to fund programs that will teach professional journalists how to adapt to the digital age.
The grant, from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, will be used to sponsor programs and seminars through the Knight Digital Media Center, a partnership between the Annenberg School and the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.
The Knight Foundation first began funding journalist training programs at the two schools in 1999 through the Western Knight Center for Specialized Journalism. The schools were originally chosen because of their track record of good training programs, high standards of excellence and ability to recruit diverse groups of journalists and work closely with news organizations, said Eric Newton, vice president of the journalism program at the Knight Foundation.
The center was renamed in 2006 to reflect its new focus on multimedia and digital journalism. Newton said the center shifted gears after seeing an "astronomical" rise in demand for multimedia seminars, with as many as 200 applications for 20 slots.
"The entire industry is interested in change and how to adapt to a digital media environment," he said. "It seemed obvious that we needed to expand - and expand substantially - if we were going to help the news community make the transition into the 21st century."
The two grants will serve different purposes. At USC, the focus will be on developing leadership and management skills for the digital era and producing online content, said Vikki Porter, director of the Knight Digital Media Center.
The grant will "train journalists in best practices, timely topics and how you cover them in cyberspace," said Porter, who supervises professional development programs for new media journalists at Annenberg.
The grant also will fund seven new media seminars for professional journalists each year for the next four years at USC, Porter said.
The grant, from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, will be used to sponsor programs and seminars through the Knight Digital Media Center, a partnership between the Annenberg School and the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.
The Knight Foundation first began funding journalist training programs at the two schools in 1999 through the Western Knight Center for Specialized Journalism. The schools were originally chosen because of their track record of good training programs, high standards of excellence and ability to recruit diverse groups of journalists and work closely with news organizations, said Eric Newton, vice president of the journalism program at the Knight Foundation.
The center was renamed in 2006 to reflect its new focus on multimedia and digital journalism. Newton said the center shifted gears after seeing an "astronomical" rise in demand for multimedia seminars, with as many as 200 applications for 20 slots.
"The entire industry is interested in change and how to adapt to a digital media environment," he said. "It seemed obvious that we needed to expand - and expand substantially - if we were going to help the news community make the transition into the 21st century."
The two grants will serve different purposes. At USC, the focus will be on developing leadership and management skills for the digital era and producing online content, said Vikki Porter, director of the Knight Digital Media Center.
The grant will "train journalists in best practices, timely topics and how you cover them in cyberspace," said Porter, who supervises professional development programs for new media journalists at Annenberg.
The grant also will fund seven new media seminars for professional journalists each year for the next four years at USC, Porter said.
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