High-Tech Media Lab Established at Howard
By Ronald Roach
WASHINGTON
The Microsoft Corp., donating software and $70,000 in cash for the purchase of computer hardware and furniture, has joined with the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) and the Howard University Department of Journalism to launch the Converged Media Lab for journalism students at the university. The new lab combines broadcast, print, advertising and public relations studies and provides one of the most advanced converged journalism curricula available at a historically Black college or university.
The multimedia facility, which is a refurbished classroom modeled after open newsrooms, contains broadcast monitors and 10 workstations with computers, printers, scanners and digital graphic design equipment. The lab is equipped with high-tech tools that will serve the 367 currently enrolled journalism majors. The innovative classroom is linked to the NNPA’s newsroom. The NNPA is an organization that serves the nation’s Black-owned newspapers.
