Twelve journalism instructors from U.S. Hispanic Serving Institutions will travel to the U.S., Mexico border region to participate in the ninth annual Dow Jones News Fund Multimedia Training Academy in June at the University of Texas in El Paso.
Thanks to a grant provided by the Dow Jones News Fund, Borderzine organizes this annual workshop training geared to multimedia journalism instructors who teach in institutions with a large minority population.
Here is a list of the 12 instructors who were chosen and their institutions:
- Daniel Evans, Florida International University
- Mary Jo Shafer, Northern Essex Community College
- Lillian Agosto-Maldonado, Universidad del Sagrado Corazon
- Julie Patel Liss, Fullerton College
- Nicole Perez Morris, Texas A&M-Kingsville
- Kelly Kauffhold, Texas State University
- Sara V. Platt, University of Puerto Rico
- Geoffrey Campbell, UT Arlington
- Jesus Ayala, Cal State Fullerton
- Lorena Figueroa, El Paso Community College
- Darren Phillips, New Mexico State University
- Dino Chiecchi, UT El Paso
The week-long multimedia-journalism academy has a proven track record of eight successful years helping journalism educators acquire a new skills in digital storytelling that they can use to help prepare prepare the next generation of Latino college journalists.
“The trainers at the academy understand what educators need to learn about new and emerging technologies to better prepare their students for the fast-changing future” said Linda Shockley, Deputy Director of Dow Jones News Fund. “This quality of instruction at absolutely no cost to participants and their universities is priceless.”
The goal of this experience is to learn and practice news reporting using a variety of digital equipment, software programs and platforms. Participating instructors are expected to translate this learning into training for their students, making them more competitive in the media industry.
The selected participants come from different teaching backgrounds, specializing in print, photojournalism, broadcast and other platforms. As technology is changing so rapidly, it is essential for college instructors to expand their knowledge and increase their skills to teach multimedia journalism effectively. Current media organizations are looking for journalists who know more than just write, take pictures or do video.
This hands-on training also gives instructors a real life experience of how involved and time-consuming a multimedia production can be, and it gives them a chance to collaborate with peers that are struggling with the same challenges.
The program director for the academy this year is Kate Gannon, digital content manager for Borderzine.com. Zita Arocha, Borderzine director and founder of the program, is an advisor.
