April 26, 2006

Getting It

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is launching the Knight New Media Center, a project intended to help American journalists adapt to rapid change, and to advance news values in the digital age. The Knight New Media Center will be jointly operated by the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California and the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, and, according to the press release, it "aims to fill two major gaps in journalism training." At UC Berkeley, the Knight New Media Center will offer customized week-long "boot camps" in multimedia reporting for traditional print and broadcast journalists. At USC, the center will offer seminars for new media journalists to learn how to better cover specialized topics.

"The Knight New Media Center will prepare journalists to succeed in the 21st Century," said Eric Newton, director of journalism initiatives for Knight Foundation, announcing the center's launch at the American Society of Newspaper Editors convention in Seattle. "This initial grant is made in anticipation of great achievements and of even greater grants in the future."

I'd love to find a way to enroll in one of those week-long "boot camps" in multimedia reporting.