Training for professionals

Our faculty works with clients looking for media consulting services. Below are some recent examples of the services we provide. If you or your organization are interested in hiring our faculty to assist in training activities, please contact Dr. Judy VanSlyke Turk, the School's director, at 804-827-3707.

Public relations and media training: Adjunct faculty member Bill Oglesby provided training for executives of several state agencies to prepare them for media interviews.
Convergence journalism training: Jeff South and Debora Wenger teamed up to provide training in journalism convergence to two Media General newspapers — in Bristol, Va., and Florence, S.C., — that are beginning to partner with local television stations and Web sites to deliver news packages that include print coverage, broadcast coverage and supplementary information on the Web.
Dr. Ernie Martin conducted training on business communications with The Martin Agency, a local ad agency and part of the IPG network. The focus of the training was improving the strategic communication to external vendors and clients as well as internal communications amongst lateral divisions.
South, an associate professor in the school, assisted in a workshop given by the Virginia Public Access Project, a nonprofit organization that maintains a comprehensive database of state-level political donations. The workshop was held in one of the school’s multimedia computer labs.
Fourteen reporters from major news organizations across Virginia attended a workshop at the school to learn how to analyze campaign finance data. The training was conducted by David Poole, executive director of the Virginia Public Access Project. The workshop attracted reporters from The Washington Post, the Virginian-Pilot, the Roanoke Times, the Richmond Times-Dispatch and the Associated Press.