Students and faculty alike are looking forward to the new Convergent Media Center being constructed on west campus.
The fall of 2018 is scheduled to bring big changes for the Department of Communications Studies at Azusa Pacific, specifically for the journalism and public relations (PR) majors. A new space, the Convergent Media Center, will be opening on west campus.
The Convergent Media Center will be where the cinematic arts lab used to be in the Mary Hill building behind Darling Library on west campus. It will give journalism and PR students the opportunity to learn in a space uniquely crafted for hands-on experience.
This kind of process usually takes about 12 to 18 months to find funding. Dozens of people have worked on making this space possible, including the Office of University Advancement and IMT.
However, no space could have been planned without the support of donors such as the Ahmanson Foundation, which donated $300,000 in funding for the space.
Professor Kent Walls, the lead advisor of integrated student media, explained the need for this new location on campus. Walls said that upon his arrival at APU, student media was very spread out. There was the Clause office on east campus, KAPU next door in the Cougars Den and a shared TV sound stage on west campus.
“We were kind of all over the place in regards to the setup from a journalism perspective. So we assessed for a year and put some plans together. That’s when we moved into a temporary space this year,” Walls said.
This temporary workspace aided the transition of all the separate journalism entities on campus into one convergent media outlet, ZU Media. Student media has become more integrated and this approach demands a more unified space, hence the Convergent Media Center.
“We have made a lot of progress over just the last twelve months with the rebrand of student media in general on APU’s campus. We have created an environment that is much more reflective of the real world, but we’re not quite there yet,” Walls said. “Now we have to make another ten steps forward as we continue to push the boundaries of what you are actually expected to do in the real world, which is to turn around content at a very high level very quickly.”
All of the faculty involved in the use of this new space are looking forward to the advanced learning that students will gain through the Convergent Media Center.
Journalism professor Jessica Sherer expressed her hopes for this new learning environment.
“I’m looking forward to having all of our student media training happen in one place. I think this will allow for better collaboration among students and faculty, and make content production more efficient and effective,” Sherer said. “The Convergent Media Center will allow us to train journalism and PR students in a state-of-the-art facility for these high-level professional demands.”
The Convergent Media Center will have more square footage and upgraded technology. A student may be recording something in the soundproof studio while a professor teaches a class just outside. Neither of these activities will interfere with the other, creating a flexible and easy work environment.
The students themselves are anticipating the completion of this new space. Sports journalism major Sterling Bennet, who works for ZU Radio, is excited for what next semester holds, specifically for Zu Radio.
“Having a one room studio with multiple other places to do things at once will be great. We can live broadcast and also record a podcast to put up online. It’s not reaching the audience only live. It’s reaching them past the date which we recorded it,” Bennet said. “We won’t have to hold back with our content.”
Professor Ismael Lopez Medel, who heads the PR major, shared his expectations for the space as well.
“When the newsroom happened, we realized it is a good idea to join forces to convince everyone of the need for the newsroom,” Medel said. “The idea will be that we have a space where students can go and work on their own, that allows for conversations, workstations, and client presentations. All that space is something we could use [to help students grow].”
Journalism students, PR students and faculty are all looking forward to the creation and use of the Convergent Media Center come fall.
“As a department, we are incredibly grateful for the community of APU and what they provided to ultimately accomplish out goal,” Walls said. “Our goal was to create this Convergent Media Center that would be something that would transform journalism and PR students’ experience here at APU.”
Construction on the new center is anticipated to begin the day after spring graduation and will be completed by the start of the fall semester.