North Carolina Central University Department of Mass Communication Lecturer Brett Chambers recently completed advanced training in multimedia news production at the 2019 HBCU Digital News Workshop sponsored by the Dow Jones News Fund.
The training program, which covered the latest trends in digital newsrooms, was offered to select faculty at historically black colleges and universities and took place July 22 to 28 at Western Kentucky University.
“It is an honor for this department and the university when our faculty members are selected to participate in exciting professional development opportunities,” said Calvin L. Hall, chair of the Department of Mass Communication. “Our students benefit tremendously from the information faculty bring back to enhance their courses.”
During the workshop, participants joined teams of three or four to produce a comprehensive news website in a week. The professors also each signed a pledge to coach their students in applying for a DJNF Student Internship.
Workshop leaders guided the faculty participants through steps to create a full-scale digital newsroom project – from story planning, to photo editing and data visualization.
The program is supported by a grant from Dow Jones and covers all expenses for participants, including transportation, lodging, meals and training equipment.
The Dow Jones News Fund, formerly known as the Newspaper Fund, was organized in 1958 to improve the quality of journalism education and expand the pool of well-qualified applicants for jobs in the news industry.
The fund also sponsors summer high school workshops to promote careers in journalism for students who face barriers to pursuing such careers and offers internship programs in areas of business reporting, digital journalism, real-time news wires and sports copy editing.
