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 UniversityReed 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.