Through its Media Studies Program, iCommunication will offer student media production awards through the Virginia Ball Center.
A new initiative drafted to explore and assist the growth of digital media technology in the Midwest has been adopted at Ball State. iCommunication: The Media Design Initiative is funded by a $20 million Lilly Endowment Inc. grant and has three components: the Center for Media Design, the Global Media Network and the Media Studies Program.
Through its Media Studies Program, iCommunication will offer student media production awards through the Virginia Ball Center.
Awards will be presented to four teams who formulate a proposal that uses digital media, construct a proposal and exhibit motivation for the task. The teams that are selected will earn $20,000 to produce their project.
The teams can be formulated by students or faculty members. Individuals who recruit team members will serve as a team leader and will construct the project. The main objective for the projects is to eventually pitch and sell it to a publishing company.
Each team should have a production manager, team leader, technology staff and content providers. The production manager is responsible for the non-creative issues. The team leader will be the initial designer and provide motivation to other team members. The technology staff will be in charge of maintaining the equipment, and the content providers are required to write, design and act.
Every team will have an academic advisor who can play a big role in the production or only consult. There is no minimum or maximum amount of participants. Interested individuals can join the iCommunication online
community at www.bsu.edu/web/abjohnson/icommgrants.htm
The deadline for the application is Dec. 13. Students will be notified Jan. 6 of the final selection. The teams will essentially work from January to December.
Individuals who are selected will begin on the project during the spring semester. Distribution and marketing will occur during the fall semester.
In the last phase of the program, students will submit the project to potential clients.
"Every student today needs some knowledge of technology in his or her field," said Beverley Pitts, provost and vice president for academic affairs. "The iComm project will give students two avenues to not only learn more about technology, but to apply it in creative ways.
"One of those avenues is through the development of new courses. The other avenue is the student projects through the grants available through the Virginia Ball Center. I'm very pleased that a grant of this magnitude can be used to benefit students directly. I look forward to some wonderful projects coming from students. Many are already underway."
Participants will gain valuable, marketable experience working on a high-quality new media project, Pitts said.
Students will earn independent study course credit arranged on a case-by-case basis. A stipend, as determined by the projects' budget, will also be available. Networking opportunities, as well as grant programs, for this and other projects are available via the iCommunication initiative.
"The exciting thing about these projects is that we are giving students a chance to stretch out, test their abilities and learn new things," said Fred Johnson, who will serve as the task master for the project. "I'm excited to see what the student teams produce. I'm also excited about mentoring these teams as they complete their projects. There's a great satisfaction in watching a massive project come together. A project like this starts as an idea, turns into a plan, and finally grows into this big, full-bodied, exciting groundbreaking product."
Because of the Lilly grant, iCommunication Student Media Awards will receive $100,000 per year for the next three years for new student projects. In four years 16 projects will be completed.
The $20,000 given to each project will be utilized to pay for the costs, including design, planning, production, marketing and traveling. Each team will construct a budget including a stipend for four team members.
"There are several very interesting projects being worked on right now, but we can't know which ones will actually be chosen for funding," Johnson said. "In content, these potential projects range from the musical to the literary, from urban planning to high-end audio. There are film ideas, there are virtual tour ideas; there are dramatic performance ideas."
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