News Story

A new partnership between The Media School at Indiana University and the IU Department of Intercollegiate Athletics will significantly enhance coverage of IU sports while providing students with access to unique sports media facilities, including the recently established Mark Cuban Center for Sports Media and Technology.

The partnership will involve close collaboration between the Cuban Center, the National Sports Journalism Center, The Media School’s technology team and student interest groups relating to sports media on campus.

Housed in the west side of the future Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall, the Cuban Center will provide Media School students with work opportunities, internships and instruction in the use of advanced sports media technology. Students will produce high-quality professional content for IU Athletics, including live event broadcasts for all 24 IU sports, virtual reality videos for fan experience, athlete instruction, recruiting videos and social media, video board displays and team-specific shows.

“We’ve always had excellent opportunities for our students to be involved with producing sports media,” said James Shanahan, dean of The Media School, “but this opportunity ramps up those opportunities in terms of number and technical sophistication. It will surely strengthen IU’s reputation as a national center for excellence in sports communication.”

Fred Glass, IU vice president and director of intercollegiate athletics, said he appreciates the partnership with The Media School.

“Helping to provide real-world opportunities for the many talented students of The Media School is consistent with one of our top priorities to be integrated with the broader university,” Glass said. “We cannot thank James Shanahan and The Media School enough for helping make this historic and unique partnership possible.”

Adhering to Cuban’s vision, the center will be open source and student-driven to help students prepare for their careers. While IU Athletics will engage the broader campus community in the work of the Cuban Center, it will depend especially on its partnership with The Media School to produce new, enriched coverage of IU sports.

“In the few months since the announcement of the Cuban Center, we have been overwhelmed by the spirit of collaboration, enthusiasm for the project and the enormous wellspring of ideas brought forth by our friends at The Media School,” Associate Athletic Director Jeremy Gray said. “I cannot wait for IU Athletics to utilize the many talents of their incredible students.”

The primary areas of the partnership between The Media School and IU Athletics are:

• Big Ten Student U: A joint venture between the Big Ten Network, IU Athletics, Radio-TV Services and The Media School, Big Ten Student U offers students experience in broadcasting, directing and production, while providing live event coverage of sports that historically have received little airtime on traditional media outlets.
• IU Athletics video services: The Media School and IU Athletics will partner on video and broadcast services for all 24 sports in the IU roster. This partnership will involve student training, student content production and technology sharing, as students are trained to produce everything from weekly team updates to marketing and promotional videos.
• Social media services: The two entities will combine to expand and improve upon the social media offerings of IU Athletics, allowing students to become involved with the professional use of outlets such as Facebook, Instagram, Periscope, Twitter and YouTube.
• Advanced video technologies: Students will take a leading role in operating new video technologies funded through the Cuban Center, including multi-camera angles of each game from freeD Replay Technologies, creation and production using virtual reality cameras and software, and use of ORAD Virtual Studio.
• Creative content: Students will be engaged in the creation of fan-focused content across multiple platforms, including Web writing, online audio and video, documentary filmmaking, photography, media relations and graphic design.

The partnership will enhance The Media School’s mission of providing a well-rounded education to sports media students through a combination of rigorous, ethics-grounded coursework and hands-on experience.

In addition to the partnership with IU Athletics, The Media School’s sports media opportunities include the relocation of the National Sports Journalism Center to the Bloomington campus, as well as affiliations with student media outlets such as the Indiana Daily Student, IUSTV, WIUX and IUSportCom.

Galen Clavio, associate professor of sports media at IU Bloomington and director of the National Sports Journalism Center, said the range of experiences available to sports journalism students will reflect ongoing changes in the profession.

“Students in sports media are as likely to be applying for jobs with college athletic departments, professional franchises or entities like NFL Network and MLBTV as they are with traditional media outlets like local television stations and newspaper,” Clavio said. “This partnership helps to give students valuable experience in media areas that don’t fall under traditional journalism, and it’s a great fit alongside the wonderful student journalism opportunities already on the Bloomington campus.”

The National Sports Journalism Center will serve as a conduit for information relating to the partnership, informing students of available experiences and providing workshops for the training of interested students.

“For students interested in careers in sports media, be they in content creation or in production, the opportunities presented by this partnership with the Cuban Center are unparalleled,” Clavio said. “Our students will have access to cutting-edge technologies, particularly in the area of production, which will make them extremely competitive in the sports media workplace of tomorrow.”