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Innovation is Focus of Hampton Digital Media Center

Brett A. Pulley, dean of the Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications at Hampton University, said he wants to create an environment where students can “foster innovation and foster creativity around digital media.”Brett A. Pulley, dean of the Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications at Hampton University, said he wants to create an environment where students can “foster innovation and foster creativity around digital media.”With the recent announcement that Hampton University is establishing a Center for Digital Media Innovation, the Hampton, Va.-based historically Black institution joins a growing number of U.S. colleges and universities that have developed specialized academic centers and degree programs to prepare their students to become innovators in journalism and digital media production.

The center, as Brett A. Pulley, dean of the Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications at Hampton, has envisioned it, should prepare students to be “among those who are pioneering the future of the media industry.”

“People are innovating and creating [digital media] platforms and I need our students …to be among the young people who are in the game and among those who are innovating,” Pulley told Diverse.

Last month, the Miami-based John and James Knight Foundation announced the foundation is providing a $245,000 grant to get the center established at the Scripps Howard School this fall as a two-year pilot program. The center’s programs will enable students to work on digital media research projects, build digital media tools such as mobile device apps, develop digital media business plans, and attend cross-disciplinary classes.

In addition, the university will develop partnerships with media corporations and place students in digital media internships and jobs. The program will be available to an estimated 15 to 20 students each semester during the two-year pilot period.

“I, really from the time that I arrived here [as dean], have been talking about the need for us to create an environment, which is what this center will do, where we can foster innovation and foster creativity around digital media,” said Pulley, a Hampton alumnus and a former New York Times national correspondent who became the Scripps Howard School dean in 2012.

“When we talk about the growth and expansion and proliferation of digital platforms, we’re talking about the tremendous amount of wealth that’s being created and that’s been created in a very short period of time,” he said.

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