The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University has launched a new signature professional immersion program based at ASU’s California Center in Los Angeles that allows students to specialize in content creation.
The Cronkite School’s L.A. Content Studio teaches students how to build their own media brand and partner with existing brands to tell stories through innovative content creation. Students learn how to develop a content strategy, create compelling digital, video and social content, and measure and monetize content.
The studio also provides students the opportunity to collaborate with the Cronkite School’s Narrative and Emerging Media program to implement virtual and augmented reality and other immersive storytelling techniques and to assess the impact on audience engagement.
Cronkite alumna Rachel Kane, an award-winning social and digital media expert, serves as professor of practice in digital content for the program. Kane has extensive experience working in new media, leading production and editorial teams, launching and marketing new brands, and developing social media strategies for some of the largest and most well-known entertainment companies in the country.
She is founder and creative lead for Well Liked creative agency in Los Angeles, and previously served as senior director of digital video with Paramount, executive director of content development with Warner Bros and entertainment and senior editor with CBS Interactive. Kane began her career as a reporter with The Los Angeles Times.
“The Cronkite School teaches students to be amazing storytellers. The L.A. Content Studio gives our students yet another way to leverage those storytelling skills. Rachel Kane brings an incredible background at the highest levels of storytelling along with a passion for teaching and mentoring our students,” said Cronkite assistant dean Brett Kurland.
Students in the Content Studio are thriving under Kane’s leadership. Anthony Ravasio has taken his Twitter presence focused on college football to a new level, garnering more than 580K impressions on his account this June, and catching the eye of potential employers like Barstool Sports. TJ. Hayes’ series on sports rivalries, Enemy Territory, has increased his interactions on Instagram by an incredible 913% since he enrolled in the program. And Katie Goodwin took her podcast about women in golf, Against the Grain, to Pebble Beach for a special episode on the U.S. Women’s Open golf championship.
“The LA Content Studio represents a new and exciting period of growth in the Cronkite School’s long history of innovative communications programs,” said Kane. “I couldn’t be more thrilled to lead ASU’s talented students into the dynamic frontier of digital and social content creation and storytelling.”