Teachers: Apply to Participate in a Face-to-Face Conversation with a Journalist

We're pleased to announce a new news literacy program that helps connect classrooms with journalists via video conferencing. 

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New Journalism Program Receives $42,000 Grant from the McCormick Foundation to Lead Virtual Conversations with Hard-to-Reach Journalists

FORT MYERS, FL -Florida Gulf Coast University’s newly created journalism program has been awarded a $42,000 grant from the Robert R. McCormick Foundation to launch Face-to-Face: Conversations with Journalists. The grant will allow high school, undergraduate and graduate students from across the United States to talk virtually with journalists who have covered news in hard-to-reach areas. 

“These are journalists whom students would never otherwise meet,” said Lyn Millner, who leads FGCU’s journalism program and who created the project. “Students will learn how these reporters make decisions, verify information and report the truth—especially in challenging environments.”

FGCU will partner with Poynter’s News University in St. Petersburg, Fla., and with Stony Brook University’s Center for News Literacy in Long Island, NY, to produce the Face-to-Face conversations. Millner and new associate professor of journalism Rick Kenney will develop companion teaching resource materials as part of the project.

“We welcome FGCU to our grantee portfolio,” said McCormick Foundation Journalism Program Director Clark Bell. “News literacy anchors our strategy of building a more informed, news-literate and engaged citizenry. We expect the FGCU-Stony Brook-Poynter collaboration will make a major contribution to the effort.” 

Face-to-Face is part of a national news literacy education movement, which FGCU has brought to southwest Florida. FGCU is one of only two higher-education institutions in Florida that are formally involved with Stony Brook’s Center for News Literacy. 

“Poynter NewsU is excited that these conversations will be a resource for teachers from around the world,” said Howard Finberg, News University’s Director of Interactive Learning.

The first Face-to-Face conversation will be held in January 2012. High schools and universities may apply to participate in a Face-to-Face conversation at Poynter’s NewsU: www.newsu.org/fgcu_face2face

For more information contact Lyn Millner at (239) 590-7257 or lmillner@fgcu.edu.

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About Florida Gulf Coast University

Florida Gulf Coast University, a member of the State University System of Florida, is a comprehensive university created to address the educational needs of the rapidly growing Southwest Florida population. FGCU continuously pursues academic excellence, practices and promotes environmental sustainability, embraces diversity, nurtures community partnerships, values public service, encourages civic responsibility, cultivates habits of lifelong learning, and keeps the advancement of knowledge and pursuit of truth as noble ideals at the heart of the university’s purpose.

About the Robert R. McCormick Foundation

The Robert R. McCormick Foundation is committed to fostering communities of educated, informed and engaged citizens. Through philanthropic programs, Cantigny Park and museums, the Foundation helps develop citizen leaders and works to make life better in our communities. The Foundation was established as a charitable trust in 1955, upon the death of Colonel Robert R. McCormick, the longtime editor and publisher of the Chicago Tribune. The Robert R. McCormick Foundation is one of the nation's largest foundations, with more than $1 billion in assets. For more information, please visit www.McCormickFoundation.org.

About Poynter’s News University

Poynter’s News University (http://www.newsu.org) offers training to journalists, journalism students, teachers and the public through more than 225 interactive e-learning modules and other forms of training. It has more than 195,000 registered users in 225 countries.

The Poynter Institute trains journalism practitioners, media leaders, educators and citizens in the areas of online and multimedia, leadership and management, reporting, writing and editing, TV and radio, ethics and diversity, journalism education and visual journalism. Poynter's website, (http://www.poynter.org) is the dominant provider of journalism news, with a focus on business analysis and the opportunities and implications of technology.