$12,000 grant awarded for news set in Ezell's studio
Janel Shoun |
Lipscomb University’s Department of Communication recently received a $12,000 grant from the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation to build Lipscomb’s first designated television news set in its brand-new studio, completed this past fall.
The news set, located in the Bill and Dot Mullican Studio in the Ezell Center, is expected to be complete this summer and will benefit not only Lipscomb students, but also high-schoolers statewide who attend Lipscomb’s summer journalism camp, by offering more real-world broadcasting experience than they have ever had before.
The $12,000 grant will be used to build the first of three potential sets in the studio; a sports set and a virtual set are planned for the future. This grant will pay for a lighting grid with a dropped ceiling, overhead lighting, electrical circuitry and construction of the news desk. The department has already purchased two new Panasonic high definition cameras to use in the studio.
Lipscomb students will use the set to produce an on-campus newscast, and the set and broadcasting studio will greatly expand students’ opportunities to learn and diversify in a field that is increasingly requiring employees to have more than one media skill, said Jimmy McCollum, chair of Lipscomb’s department of communication.
“It’s important for students to have an array of skills, as it’s not just television reporters who need to be able to use a video camera these days,” McCollum said. “Now more and more newspaper reporters are being asked to bring along a video camera when they cover a story. More and more news outlets, no matter the medium, are posting videos on their Websites.
In that same vein, the Lipscomb communications department has created four new concentrations designed to prepare students to excel in the “multi-media” professions: organizational communication with tracks in consulting/research and production and media technology; and multimedia with tracks in leadership and production.
“These new concentrations will allow communication students to move into areas as diverse as communication specialists and corporate trainers to multimedia producers for newspapers or television,” McCollum said. “The new studio and these new majors will keep Lipscomb graduates on the cutting edge of an ever-changing field.”