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Convergence Studio Set to Open in Spring
The School of Communication’s new convergence studio is expected to be up-and-running for the spring semester by January 14.
Dean Heider said the studio is on an “incredibly tight” construction schedule but will be open by then. The opening event, however, will not be until March or April since winter events aren’t the best idea, Heider said.
Access to the studio will be more limited than the rest of the School of Communication since it will serve so many different functions within the school. Both students and student organizations can ask to schedule use of the studio. The school’s radio station, WLUW, will have an area within the studio. Also, The City News Bureau course taught by Professors Jack Smith and Paul Zimbrakos and, TV News Casting, a new course taught by Professor Leona Hood, will both utilize the studio for classes.
Part of the studio will include a bullpen similar to an actual newsroom, which will be the classroom for the City News Bureau course. Students will have individual desks within the bullpen and TV screens will line one of the walls, broadcasting news stations such as CNN.
The TV News Casting course will use the studio to produce a newscast online. The web cast won’t be a normal half hour news segment featuring weather and sports, Heider said. The students will decide what content to include in the web cast. The course is designed to address the question of what the future of TV news will be, Heider said.
“We’re trying to push the envelope a bit,” he said.
Heider said the school wants to grow and expand both courses over the semester.
Students will be able to hear and see WLUW radio shows in production from the street. The radio station will also feature band performances during the week.
The news desk and backdrop will be on rollers for “maximum flexibility.” The backdrop will be made up of colorful panels, not a typical city view of Chicago or a giant Loyola logo. The backdrop can be changed four or five different ways, Heider said, or can be moved to show a view of the street. “We didn’t want what everyone else is doing,” Heider said.
Some other features of the studio include a news ticker on the outside of the building, green screen, control room with a large flat screen with multiple inputs, lobby separate from the rest of the studio so people walking in and out do not disturb the classes and two offices. One of the offices will be for the school’s new director of technology, Jamason Chen, but the other hasn’t been filled yet.
The new studio isn’t the only new and exciting addition to the School of Communication, however.
The school launched the Center for Ethics and Digital Policy this fall. The center will aim to be a national voice for ethics in digital policy, Heider said. The dean said the center wants to convene a lot of discussion about ethics, both nationally and internationally, as well as to develop codes for bloggers and other facets of digital journalism.
“Loyola is the perfect place for that,” Heider said.
Adrienne Massanari is the director for the center and Professor Bastiaan Vanacker is teaching a course on digital ethics in the spring. Heider said that about half of the school’s faculty is interested in working with the center.
The School of Communication also has a new blog that is being updated with new content every day. Twelve faculty/staff contributors write for the blog so far. The dean said that the blog was created to help make the SOC website more interactive. The website is also updated with new stories every week written by a student web reporter each semester; it will soon feature profiles of all of the school’s faculty members as well. The school will also incorporate the use of flash on the website since the University Marketing and Communication department recently obtained new infrastructure software for all university web pages.
“We’re trying to make the website interesting, fun, and dynamic without violating the university’s brand image,” Heider said.
Faculty spent the past year completely reexamining the school’s curriculum. The school just passed a new program for the AD/PR major and new core requirements for the entire school. The school is currently working to update courses, keep classes that are great, and add new ones, the dean said. The school is working on a new masters program that they hope to have up and running in two years. The school is also discussing with the Fine Arts department about cross-listing visual communication classes.
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