Media College eNews

Chelsea Fuller (BSJ, 2011) was twelve years old when she met civil rights icon John Lewis at Paschal’s restaurant in Atlanta, Georgia, the unofficial headquarters of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement. Fuller had been traveling with her mother, Marjorie, and a group of students from Knox College to landmarks throughout the south to learn about and celebrate Black history in America.

“Representative Lewis spoke individually to every person in the room,” Fuller said. “I was a budding writer who loved my people, my history and my culture. He told me ‘there's nothing more powerful than telling stories and there's nothing more powerful than loving and being committed to your people.’”

West Virginia University Reed College of Media students and faculty were recognized in two national competitions this month.

EcoCAR Mobility Challenge awards

A new fully online bachelor’s degree program at West Virginia University will give students complementary business and communications skills suitable for careers in the marketing, advertising and public relations fields.

The Bachelor of Science in Integrated Marketing Communications degree is an interdisciplinary program where students will take courses in marketing through the internationally accredited John Chambers College of Business and Economics and courses in advertising and public relations through the Reed College of Media, home of the nationally renowned M.S. in Integrated Marketing Communications.

West Virginia University Reed College of Media students are gaining valuable, hands-on experience reporting, producing podcasts and creating marketing and promotional materials from home this summer, thanks to a new partnership with local businesses and generous sponsorships from College alumni and friends.

The Coronavirus pandemic forced many companies to rescind in-person summer internship opportunities for College of Media students. In response, the College was able to offer a limited number of virtual internships to returning seniors.

West Virginia University Reed College of Media students and faculty won five Telly Awards this year in categories that included storytelling in online commercials, non-broadcast social issues, social media video, and immersive and mixed reality.

Telly Awards are the international, premier honor for outstanding local, regional and cable productions. The 2020 competition had more than 13,000 entries, which were judged by hundreds of industry experts. Now in its 41st year, the Telly Awards recently added categories in immersive and mixed reality, diversity and inclusion, and social impact. Silver and Bronze Telly Awards, respectively, are the most prestigious honors given.

Even though COVID-19 closed WVU's campus in early March, students in the Reed College of Media continued with their hands-on, project-based coursework from afar. They explored new ways to interview, report and produce stories, leading to publication for two studentsin a statewide media outlet.

Journalism students Kayla Starcher and Maxwell Shavers produced stories as part of a podcasting class with teaching associate professor Emily Corio.Students transitioned to cover the impact of coronavirus on theirhometowns for thefinal episode ofHigh Street Beat,the class’s three-part, 20-minute collaborative show.

100 Days in Appalachia, a media outlet incubated at the West Virginia University Reed College of Media’s Media Innovation Center, was the only newsroom in West Virginia selected for a grant from the Facebook Journalism Project (FJP) to support local coverage of COVID-19.

The COVID-19 global pandemic forced universities across the nation to rethink commencement ceremonies and move celebrations online. West Virginia University held its first virtual commencement ceremony, and the College of Media recognized graduates, including the first from the Sports and Adventure Media major, through social media and a new online yearbook.

On May 16, WVU held Mountaineer Graduation Day, an onlinecommencementexperienceforMay 2020 graduates. While the ceremony was unlike any in the history of the University, it still featured key elements of the traditional May ceremony. Provost Maryanne Reed congratulated graduates, President E. Gordon Gee gave a keynote address and conferred degrees, and students moved their tassels to the left before singing “Country Roads” from their homes all over the world.

Five journalists from across the country were awarded NewStart fellowships to study Media Solutions and Innovation at the West Virginia University Reed College of Media. NewStart and the new one-year online master’s program were created in partnership with the West Virginia Press Association (WVPA) to train the next generation of community media owners and publishers.

Funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation supports the five fellowships, and although the fellowships are no longer available, applications for the master’s degree program are still being accepted.

Stay-at-home orders and social distancing measures are in place all over the United States in an effort to protect the physical health of millions of Americans, but the COVID-19 pandemic is also taking its toll on mental health.

According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), one in five Americans live with a mental health condition, and with the current global crisis, they face additional challenges, making communicating about mental health more important than ever.