Welcome to the School of Journalism and Media

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 24, 2016)  The University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Telecommunications, housed in the College of Communication and Information, will have a new name. To better reflect its majors, it will soon be named the School of Journalism and Media.

This change stems from the separation of the integrated strategic communication (ISC) major to its own department in the fall of 2015. As ISC moved away from the School of Journalism and Telecommunications, the school needed a new name.

Lars Willnat, the new director of the School of Journalism and Telecommunications, supports the proposed change.

“The name change was mainly driven by the fact that we changed the name of one of the two bachelor programs from 'Telecommunications' to 'Media Arts and Studies' a few years ago,” Willnat said. “It therefore made sense to change the name of the school as well.”

Changing the name of the school reflects the updates that come with time, while still honoring the rich history of majors that have existed for many years.

“It reinforces the importance of both journalism, the oldest discipline within the college, which began at UK in 1914, and media arts and studies, which has is own long history at UK, having evolved from a radio and television program, to telecommunications, and now media arts and studies,” said Beth Barnes, former director of the School of Journalism and Telecommunications.

“In addition, I believe that the school’s new name nicely reflects the fact that we are educating the next generation of media professionals, including multimedia journalists, digital content creators and media scholars,” Willnat said.

After completing the process with full approval by all parties, the name change was officially approved during the Feb. 19, 2016, Board of Trustees meeting and will take effect July 1, 2016.

MEDIA CONTACT: Gail Hairston, 859-257-3302, gail.hairston@uky.edu