Morehouse College’s journalism program is adding a production facility for students interested in reporting, sports broadcasting and digital media. The Atlanta college held a program launch and ribbon-cutting ceremony this week for the new multimedia center, built with support from Michael Jordan and Jordan Brand.
A Hub for Digital Storytelling
The Morehouse Multimedia Center offers students hands-on training in digital storytelling, sports broadcasting, podcasting, filmmaking and emerging media technology, using professional-grade equipment, according to CBS Atlanta. Center director Emani Saucier described the facility as part of Morehouse’s effort to prepare students to help shape the future of media, the report said. Jordan Brand supported the buildout and had previously committed more than $1 million in 2021 to scholarships and academic programs for Morehouse students studying journalism and sports-related fields.
That 2021 gift was part of a much larger commitment. Jordan Brand's contribution was one piece of a 10-year, $100 million Black Community Commitment initiative launched in 2020 to combat systemic racism through education, narrative change, social justice and economic justice, according to The Maroon Tiger. The same initiative sent a parallel $1 million grant to the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting to fund investigative training for underrepresented reporters, announced alongside the Morehouse gift.
From Minor to Major
Morehouse launched its journalism major in 2022, per the CBS Atlanta report — a formal expansion of a program that traces back much further. The journalism track was originally created in 2007 after filmmaker Spike Lee, a 1979 Morehouse alumnus, and the late sportswriter Ralph Wiley recognized a dearth of Black voices in sports journalism; Lee contributed $400,000 of his own money, according to Morehouse College.
Former NBA star and Turner Sports analyst Charles Barkley added his own $1 million gift to the journalism and sports program in 2015, ahead of Jordan's investment, Morehouse College notes. The college's Board of Trustees formally approved a 30-credit-hour Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism in Sports, Culture, and Social Justice, elevating what had been an 11-year-old minor into three specialized tracks covering sports journalism, arts and culture, and social justice journalism.
Bridging Classroom and Career
Mikki Harris said the center will provide practical training to complement students' classroom education, calling it the bridge between critical thinking and professional practice for students, per CBS Atlanta's report. The facility also gives faculty members tools to digitize research and share it with wider audiences. Content created with the center's equipment generated more than 1 million social media views in August alone, according to figures Morehouse reported.
The payoff is already visible in the college's alumni numbers. Morehouse has reported that nearly 120 journalism program alumni currently work in media and sports, with more than 60 graduates going on to earn advanced degrees in the field. Earlier tallies from Morehouse College showed the pipeline had already produced industry names like Gerren Gaynor, managing editor at TheGrio.com, and Mark Anthony Green, former special projects editor at GQ magazine, with more than 80 program graduates working in media and sports fields by 2021.
Why the Push for Representation Matters
Newsroom representation remains part of the broader discussion about who reports the news. A Pew Research Center analysis examined racial and gender diversity among U.S. newsroom employees.
There is clear appetite among Black audiences for more diverse bylines. A separate Pew Research Center survey found that 40 percent of Black Americans consider it highly important that news stories about race and racial inequality are reported by Black journalists, while 26 percent said it is highly important for local community news to come from Black reporters.
Journalism students at Morehouse gain portfolio experience through the college's student news organization, The Maroon Tiger, and its broadcast unit, Tiger TV. Founded in Augusta in 1867, Morehouse moved to Atlanta in 1879; it is the nation's only private HBCU dedicated specifically to educating men, one of 99 HBCUs operating in the United States as of 2022, and counts Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. among its most prominent alumni.
A Program With Regional Reach
The journalism program also serves students beyond Morehouse. The college says students at fellow Atlanta University Center Consortium members Clark Atlanta University and Spelman College can cross-register for its journalism courses as electives, according to Morehouse College.
