The Scripps Howard Journalism Entrepreneurship Institute, which started Wednesday and will conclude on Sunday, “immerses participants in the concepts and practices of entrepreneurship,” said Liz Smith, outreach director at the Cronkite School.
Led by Dan Gillmor, the founder of the Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship, the institute brings together 15 professors who have had deans or chairs of their schools’ journalism programs commit to at least one year of journalism entrepreneurship education. The professors were chosen through an application process.
Sixteen journalism entrepreneurs also participate as speakers, stimulating conversation among the visiting professors.
“(Gillmor) created something that didn’t exist through the digital media entrepreneurship capstone,” Smith said. “The institute is one more way to make journalism education better for schools across the country by introducing (visiting professors) to our unique program.”
Battinto Batts, director of the William R. Harvey Leadership Institute and a professor at Hampton University in Virginia, attended the institute to learn how take some of his own experiences with startups and learn how to apply them more directly to the classroom, with help from his peers.
“(The sessions) have been affirmative of some of the ideas I’ve had about where the industry is going and what is and isn’t working,” he said.
With his 20 years of experience in journalism and 10 years teaching, Batts said he recognizes some of his students have an astute understanding of where the business of journalism is and already have a passion for entrepreneurship.
“I asked myself, how do you make someone an entrepreneur? How do you instill that passion within them?” Batts said. “Being in a lab, experimenting with their ideas — that’s what brings it out.”
Scripps Howard Foundation President and CEO Mike Philipps first brainstormed the idea for the institute with Cronkite School Dean Christopher Callahan at a journalism conference in Denver. Philipps said the partnership with the Cronkite School only seemed natural.
“This school isn’t like other schools that have a foreboding future of the industry,” he said. “The Cronkite School is ahead and far-sighted, reimagining what journalism will be like in the coming years.”
Philipps said the institute helps professors learn how to awaken students’ passions and bring them journalism entrepreneurship education in ways they can express themselves.
“If one of (the professors’ students) goes out and invents something, our investment will be repaid twofold,” he said.
Students don’t only have to succeed in the “gold standard” of entrepreneurship by starting their own companies, Philipps said; they can have an entrepreneurial attitude when approaching their stories or beats by thinking outside of the box and doing more than how it has always been done.
Philipps said he believes the timing couldn’t be better to be in journalism, especially for students with the right attitude.
“What a fun opportunity — that is, if you don’t mind taking a risk,” he said.
Contact the reporter at ssteffan@asu.edu
