Loyalist breaks news on new media centre
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Breaking news!
Loyalist College opened its new Digital Media Centre and launched the new Trent-Loyalist journalism program Wednesday.
Featuring a 10,000-square-foot newsroom that includes video editing “suites,” a television studio, interview and audio production booths and meeting rooms, the new media hub at Belleville's community college now house various media programs, as well as the new Trent-Loyalist journalism program.
Loyalist president Maureen Piercy noted the self-financed $1.9-million project was one of Loyalist's priority. She said the focus for students and faculty remains telling stories “effectively.”
“This project is a priority part of our strategic mandate agreement that we've submitted to the Ontario Government,” she said, a few minutes after opening the new media centre and launching the university/college partnership journalism program, along with Trent's president Steven Franklin.
“The media programs are a showcase and long have been for Loyalist, internationally renowned. This is one of our renewal projects. This was the next one (after opening its Sustainable Skills, Technology and Life Sciences Centre in June 2011) on our list of priorities.”
Marisa Dragani, former CBC national reporter who now guides the next generation of journalists at Loyalist, offered opening remarks by underlining how the journalism industry has changed and evolved over the years.
"The industry is changing so much with cutbacks and layoffs, but now really is the golden age of journalism," she said.
"With the advent of new and exciting technology, such as social media, telling stories to a brood audience is in our heads as journalists and it's never been like this before."
Trent University students participated in the live opening from Peterborough through video feed, where the university hosted a similar opening ceremony to unveil its 'Trent Bureau of QNet News,' Loyalist's award-winning and student-produced community online news service.
Together, Loyalist and Trent used Wednesday's unveiling to introduce a new version of QNetNews.ca.
The Trent-Loyalist journalism program enables students to earn a joint-major bachelor of arts or bachelor of science in journalism and another discipline of their choice from the Peterborough university, as well as an Ontario college advanced diploma in 'journalism-online-print and broadcast' from Loyalist.
Depending on the discipline, students can complete the combined program in four or five years of full-time study.
During their first year, Trent-Loyalist journalism students enrol at Trent and study there during the traditional academic year. Upon successful completion at Trent, students come to Loyalist for the first of two summer institutes where they will learn the “art” of news story telling through a variety of platforms, from print, video, audio, online to social media.
“The media landscape is changing and our students are on the cutting edge of how the news is now gathered and distributed,” said Jane Harrison, dean of media, arts and design at Loyalist.
Through “strong story telling” — the heart of the new program, said Franklin — graduates are expected to be able to find work as writers, reporters, news photographers, editors, freelancers, web content providers, editorial assistants, videographers and news anchors.
Harrison added skills developed through the new program “can also” lead to careers in public and media relations, as well as educational, raining or industrial production.
In addition to Trent-Loyalist journalism, a variety of Loyalist's journalism-related programs, from broadcast engineering technology (three years), journalism-online-print-broadcast (three years), photojournalism (two years), sports journalism (one year) to television and new media production will use the state-of-the-art newsroom's facility.
The integrated newsroom project was designed and brought to life through a collaboration between Loyalist's journalism advisory committee, which includes representatives from Shaw Media, Rogers Communications, Bell Media, CBC, CTV, Corus Entertainment, Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail and National Post.
“It's an exciting new model for journalism education in Ontario that combines rigourous academic standards with hands-on training from media industry experts,” said Piercy.
“We know our graduates are leaders and innovators in the industry, in the journalism business and this is the kind of facility you need to have these days.”
jerome.lessard@sunmedia.ca
Trent-Loyalist journalism Program: How do students divide their time between Trent University and Loyalist College:
Year 1: Trent-Loyalist journalism students enrol at Trent and study there during the traditional academic year. Upon successful completion at Trent, students come to Loyalist for the first of two summer institutes. Once at Loyalist, they learn how to tell stories on a variety of platforms, from print, video, audio, online to social media.
Year 2: Students return to Trent and continue to pursue their degree, while staying connected to Loyalist via the Trent Bureau of QNet News' website. Following successful completion of their second summer institute, students have two years toward their degree and one year toward their advanced diploma.
Year 3: Students spend their third year at Loyalist, where they complete the second year of the journalism program, then receiving transfer credits toward their degree.
Year 4 (and sometimes fifth year): A blend of thesis projects, capstone projects and courses where required. Students conduct research and/or trails that satisfy the nature of their studies at Trent and produce news and information programming on a variety of platforms for targeted audience. The framework for the final years is customized based on each student's combined disciplines.