Media College News

Left to right: Regan Blaha, Social Square Anchor; Shannon MacNeil, Main News Anchor; Anderson Small, ESPNU Sports Anchor; Shelby Davis, Main News Anchor; Julia Mellet ESPNU Sports Anchor.

Author, speaker and syndicated columnist Linda Arnold (BSJ, 1976) was inducted into the West Virginia Business Hall of Fame on August 28. She was honored at a ceremony and reception at The Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, along with fellow honorees Andrew J. Paterno, CEO of Centurion Insurance Services, LLC and Brad Smith, chairman and CEO of Intuit.

Arnold is the founder and former chairman and CEO of The Arnold Agency, a multi-state agency with offices in West Virginia, Montana and Washington, D.C., specializing in healthcare marketing, telecommunications, banking, energy and franchised business. Prior to founding her agency, Arnold was the director of communications and press secretary for John D. Rockefeller IV during his time as governor.

The WVU Reed College of Media and the WVU College of Creative Arts have developed a new major that combines journalism and communication with art and media design.

The Interactive Design for Media major, which launched in fall 2018,will teach students how to tell compelling stories through graphics, animation, video, audio, mobile apps and other forms of emerging media. The program will provide students with fundamental journalism skills, such as writing, media ethics, and audience-development and give them hands-on training in creative subjects, such as animation, coding and web design.

The West Virginia University Reed College of Media is launching the next phase of its community branding initiative with the naming of Pineville, West Virginia, as its latest community partner.

In January, the American Electric Power Foundation awarded the College of Media a $250,000 educational grant to support and sustain “ BrandJRNY,” a community branding initiative launched by the College of Media in 2015 with a grant from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation. The initiative is designed to help revitalize West Virginia communities by identifying and promoting their unique qualities to encourage economic development, boost tourism and increase community pride. College of Media faculty and students work with stakeholders to develop a research-based brand campaign for each community, and communications and creative deliverables. Past community partners included Matewan, Grafton and Whitesville.