The School takes great pride in the outstanding professional training opportunities we offer our undergraduate students. An average of over 375 students per year complete an internship for academic credit through the School of Communication. The PRactice, our student-run public relations firm, runs traditional and social media public relations efforts for both paying and non-profit pro bono clients, with 70 students participating on average each term. And the Lantern, for over 120 years the student voice of the Ohio State University, continues to provide cutting-edge training and experience for our journalism majors and other students who opt to work in the Lantern newsroom.
The award-winning Lantern is unusual among college newspapers—while independent editorially, and receiving no direct funding from the nniversity, it is a “laboratory newspaper.” This means writing for the Lantern is integrated into Journalism major classwork. It is also cutting-edge, in that it is not just a newspaper anymore: it is a 24/7 multimedia online news operation, with millions of hits each year from all over the world. This provides students with the experience of integrating traditional written news stories, audio-visual content and social media in an online environment, which are among the hot skill sets in today’s communication marketplace. Visit www.thelantern.com and take a look! Even better, sign up for the email edition. Just click the link in the upper left corner of the Lantern webpage.
To support these activities, we have recently formed an Advancement Board of outstanding alumni (see the article on the Board and its members in this issue.) The Advancement Board has been formed under the inspiring leadership of Sandy Hermanoff, who is profiled in this issue as well. You’ll be hearing more about their activities and initiatives as their efforts move forward in the months and years to come.
In other news, the School welcomed two additions to our faculty. Matt Grizzard comes to us from the University of Buffalo, where he was an assistant professor. Professor Grizzard has an outstanding scholarly record and is an expert on how media content influences audience moral judgments. Olga Kamenchuk is a new associate clinical professor. Professor Kamenchuk has an exceptional record in international audience and market research, and in addition to providing expertise on international communication, is taking a leading role in our efforts to provide state of the art training in industry research methods. Undergrad majors at the School, if they choose, can take courses in industry research methods, media planning, and social media analytics, positioning themselves for outstanding opportunities in a growing marketplace for such skills.
In addition, accolades for the School’s outstanding research performance continue. For the second year in a row, the Academic Ranking of World Universities placed Ohio State’s School of Communication as number one in the world.
The School is an exciting, dynamic place, committed to excellence. Learn more about us, visit our website, follow us on social media and subscribe to the Lantern. We look forward to remaining in touch!
Best wishes,
Michael Slater
Director
