Media College News

100 Days in Appalachia, a media outlet incubated at the West Virginia University Reed College of Media’s Media Innovation Center, continues to expand with two new grants that will have a big impact on how the program educates both students and the nation’s media. The digital publication is a collaboration with West Virginia Public Broadcasting(WVPB) and The Daily Yonder, of the Center for Rural Strategies.

100 Days has garnered a national reputation as a go-to source for real stories coming out of Appalachia, told by the journalists and community members living and working there. What started as a way to combat stereotypes in the first 100 days of the Trump administration has turned into an ongoing, evolving project that is not only changing the way our country perceives the region but is also experimenting with new digital storytelling and community engagement techniques.

Two West Virginia University Reed College of Media students are dedicating their classtime to learn about how to generate positive social change through their respective undergraduate programs. The Advocacy and Public Interest Communication program merges various academic fields’ science-based insights about strategic communication for sustained behavioral change into one degree.

Maura Flynn and Julia Hillman took their first APIC course together, working toward criminal justice reform in West Virginia under the leadership of assistant professor GeahPressgrove. While Flynn and Hillman are passionate about different social issues and have different undergraduate backgrounds – Flynn studying journalism and leadership, Hillman studying public relations and political science – the two found their niche in the advocacy class.

With more than 15,000 miles traveled in just two weeks, College of Media and John Chambers College of Business and Economics students immersed themselves in the cultures, media industries and technologies of Tokyo, Japan, and Seoul, South Korea.