This upcoming fall, OU journalism students will have the opportunity to engage in an experiential learning opportunity through a new student-run advertising firm. The preliminary firm will be located on the first floor of the Sing Tao Center, and it will be fully student-run with guidance from an agency professional.
Eddith Dashiell, E.W. Scripps School of Journalism director, and Craig Davis, a strategic communications professor, are involved in the firm's planning process. Their goal is to create a hands-on learning environment for journalism majors on the strategic communication track, similar to how those on the news and information track can get involved in student-run publications or broadcast clubs.
“We want this to mimic the advertising and PR profession and we want students to work on real projects,” Davis said. “That's something that's been tested in academia, and it works.”
The Sing Tao House was built in 1996 to accommodate the Institute for International Journalism. The center is named after the Sing Tao Publishing Company in Hong Kong, China, which provided most of the funds for the building.
Currently, the first floor of the Sing Tao House holds the Contemporary History Institute, but since it is not a part of Scripps, it is moving to a new space, making room for the advertising firm.
Scott Titsworth, Dean of the Scripps College of Communication, spoke on his original motivation for approving the advertising agency.
“We hadn’t put any money into strategic communication, and that was a place where I thought there was potential for enrollment growth, really good faculty members and really committed students,” Titsworth said. “So, what I did initially was I formed a task force that involved alumni, current students and faculty.”
In the past, OU had a student-run agency called 1804 Communications, a branch of the Public Relations Student Society of America, or PRSSA. The difference between 1804 Communications and the new advertising agency is that students will be working with national clients consistently over several years with professor guidance.
Also, a class will be offered for students to work in the firm and earn credits.
“This is just another opportunity to provide an experiential learning experience outside of working with University Communications and Marketing,” Dashiell said. “This is different as it’s part of our curriculum, and our faculty has a job assignment which is running this ad agency.”
The class is listed as JOUR 4900 Special Topics in Journalism – Scripps Media Agency and will be open for enrollment in the 2024 Fall Semester. It will be taught by Charles Borghese, a new faculty member with the journalism school who was previously a senior-level member of an advertising agency in New York.
The class is mainly intended for strategic communication and visual communication students to combine their expertise; however, it will be open as an elective for students across Scripps and other colleges.
Students who are not enrolled in the class can still gain experience at the advertising agency and use the space, but they will not acquire credits for their work.
“The faculty that have been working directly with us, and they want (the advertising agency) to be a place where students that are in that field can have a place just to hang out,” Titsworth said. “You're not always going to be enrolled in the class, but you might be inside the Sing Tao House working alongside (similar) people.”
Renovations on the first floor of the Sing Tao Center are underway and expected to be completed by the 2024 Fall Semester. During that semester, students will incorporate the development of the agency into their experiential learning.
“Part of the process of learning is how you pitch certain clients, how you do RFPs, how you win that business,” Dashiell said. “So, Professor Borghese may want you all to participate in that first before the agency takes off.”
Journalism faculty are eager to see what students do with the advertising agency and how they can use this experience to further themselves careerwise.
“I'm excited because of the energy that the faculty are bringing to it; it's contagious when you hear them talk about it,” Titsworth said. “From the way they're bringing their passion to it, this is going to end up being a great experience for the students.”
