Richard Jones at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism
Wed, 11 Jan 2017 15:28:00 GMT
A University of Huddersfield lecturer was recently the only academic from Europe to earn a prestigious fellowship in the US examining the future of journalism and entrepreneurship.
Richard Jones recently spent a week at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University in Phoenix.
He was one of 15 fellows who underwent an intensive week of sessions as part of the Scripps Howard Journalism Entrepreneurship Institute, aimed at helping journalism lecturers to develop their own modules in the field. Other fellows came from universities across the US, Mexico and the Middle East.
Guest speakers included veteran tech journalist and Backchannel founder Steven Levy, author and academic Professor Jeff Jarvis of the City University of New York, and former Twitter and Reddit executive Mark Luckie.
Internationally-renowned new media author Dan Gillmor, a Professor at the Cronkite School, led the Institute. He said: “The Scripps Howard Journalism Entrepreneurship Institute spreads the concepts and the spirit of entrepreneurship to journalism programs across the country and around the world.”
The event was funded by the Scripps Howard Foundation, the philanthropic arm of a major US media company. Its CEO Liz Carter said: “The rapid pace of change and disruption in the journalism industry requires the examination and development of new concepts and revenue models. The college environment is fertile ground for the sort of innovation necessary to meet this demand.”
Richard started the 3rd year module Journalism Innovation in our Journalism and Media department in September and it has proved popular with 52 students taking it. They are working in groups towards creating start-up media companies for their final assessment.
Richard said: “It’s important that universities stay at the cutting edge of their subjects, and journalism is no exception. I’ve come back with a stack of ideas and contacts that I’m really looking forward to sharing with the students."
