School of Journalism and Media student Eliza Noell shooting at Macmillan Publishers office in New York City for Land Grant Films’ Shooting for an A: Video Games and Education documentary.
The College of Communication and Information officially launched The Media Center this summer as an initiative to provide more high-quality, real-world experiences for students.
“Working at the student and professional outlets in CCI during college is an invaluable experience for students,” said School of Journalism and Media Professor and The Media Center Director Nick Geidner. “They gain real-world experience in a supportive learning environment, where they are able to grow and hone their skills before entering the job market.”
Currently, The Media Center is made up of seven media properties. This includes properties that were originally housed in CCI:
- Land Grant Films, a student-engaged documentary production program
- The Volunteer Channel (TVC), a student-run television station
- WUTK Volunteer Radio, a student radio station
Over the past couple years, the college welcomed additional media outlets. In September 2022 three outlets from the Office of Student Media joined the college. They were:
- Ablaze, a student-run feminist magazine
- Lumos Media Services, a student-run creative services company
- The Daily Beacon, an editorially independent, student newspaper
Then, in July 2023, East Tennessee’s NPR member station WUOT-FM moved from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville’s Office of Communication and Marketing into CCI.
Geidner said this growth prompted conversations about how the college can best support each entity, the students, and the community they serve. This resulted in the creation of The Media Center, a college-level administrative unit with the goal of supporting each of the media outlets and helping them reach their individual goals as media brands.
“Additionally, we hope to leverage the resources of the college and university to increase the reach and quality of the outlets, while maintaining editorial independence,” Geidner said.
Coordinated Coverage
One of the benefits of The Media Center is it can help grow and enhance the media landscape in Knoxville and East Tennessee. Geidner said the center allows for more coordinated coverage on important community issues, thus providing the public more impactful storytelling.
“Because of the unique structure of The Media Center and its placement within the state’s land-grant university, we are positioned to do in-depth and collaborative reporting in a way that traditional media organizations are not able to,” Geidner said. “We plan to use this opportunity to work with media partners in a way that elevates reporting in the state and helps serve the land-grant mission of the university.”
The Media Center piloted this concept in the spring of 2024 as entities collaboratively reported on the housing crisis in Knoxville. Students from TVC, WUTK, and Lumos Media Services also came together as a live event production team to capture Milk Man & The Big Band’s performance at Yee-Haw Brewing Company.
This fall, in cooperation with the School of Journalism and Media (J&M), The Media Center will continue efforts to provide more coordinated coverage on local issues with The Election Project. The project will focus on covering the 2024 general election.
J&M and The Media Center will also be collaborating with the Baker School for Public Policy and Public Affairs and local media partners to report on the election, culminating in live coverage on Election Day.
Leveraging faculty expertise
The Media Center plans to leverage faculty expertise to support the students.
J&M Assistant Professor Shannon Scovel and Tombras School of Advertising and Public Relations Assistant Professor of Practice Colin Piacentine were named as The Media Center’s inaugural faculty fellows to help add to the student experience and strengthen media organizations.
Scovel will mentor incoming freshman reporters at The Daily Beacon who are interested in news writing and reporting. Piacentine will mentor the student advertising staff and work to expand The Media Center’s advertising sales program.
Other faculty members are serving in mentoring roles with different media properties to help students develop. This includes Edward J. Meeman Distinguished Professor and The Daily Beacon alumnus Gene Wojciechowski (`79), who is advising the student newspaper; Assistant Professor of Practice and alumna Brittany Tarwater (`09), who is working with TVC; and Professor Erin Whiteside, who is advising Ablaze.
“The media professions are built upon a ‘learning by doing’ model and, by emulating that, we are setting our students up for success,” said J&M Director Amy Jo Coffey. “The Media Center serves this purpose for us in CCI, enabling students to gain endless professional-level experiences under one roof and across campus that complement their classroom learning and critical thinking skills. Our faculty are gifted practitioners, whether journalists or documentarians, and we are leveraging our partnership and curricular integration opportunities with the media outlets to ensure our students are ready for the job market on day one.”
To learn more about The Media Center, visit cci.utk.edu/the-media-center/.