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With a gift of at least $3.5 million, the School of Journalism and Mass Communication is planning to revolutionize its approach to teaching.

The focus of this change will be a 24-hour digital student newsroom that will experiment with non-traditional ways to report news and move the school’s focus toward actual publication.

While no firm decisions have been made for the newsroom’s construction, the school’s faculty are actively planning how it will function.

“The goal is to use it as a way of creating innovation,” said Jean Folkerts, the school’s dean. “Because it’s not the daily community morning newspaper, we can be a little more experimental, work on some new things, work with people with different areas of expertise and develop some new models for the industry.”

Folkerts placed an advertisement online for the position of executive producer for the newsroom, which will be funded by a portion of the $3.5 million dollar gift by the estate of alumnus Reese Felts.

The ideal candidate, according to the advertisement, would be an industry innovator with newsroom management and programming experience along with design and video knowledge. The producer will also be teaching one course a semester related to the newsroom.

Folkerts said she hopes the room will be operational by fall 2010. The executive producer hired will be instrumental in equipping the room and planning the project.

“We’d like to have somebody here by Jan. 1,” Folkerts said. “That way, that person could start working things out.”

The school has already designated Carroll Hall room 11 in the journalism school’s basement to house the newsroom.

Professor Don Wittekind, a member of the committee overseeing the newsroom’s construction, said the room was likely chosen because it has outside access.

Folkerts said the newsroom’s goal will be to publish work created in classes. She said students from all tracks will contribute content to a Web site.

“It’s going to bring the potential for publication for every piece of content that is produced in the school,” Folkerts said.

Many students said they were cautiously optimistic about the new project.

“I think it has the potential to be really cool and useful for students as far as getting real-world experience and having access to that kind of facility,” said Adrienne Wollman, a junior journalism and Spanish double major.

A portion of the $3.5 million will also fund research projects in the school. Folkerts said initial projects will look at audiences and what types of media are most effective in reaching them.

“Those sort of initiatives are extremely important right now given the current state of the media,” Wollman said.


Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.

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