UNLV's Hank Greenspun School of Communication and UNLV-TV have formed a partnership with CNN that will benefit UNLV students by providing them access to news footage, scripts, and other material from the news network.
As part of the partnership, UNLV has acquired satellite downlink and decoder equipment from CNN's world headquarters in Atlanta that will allow students and faculty to make use of daily CNN Newsource feeds.
Turner Broadcasting, CNN's parent company, also has provided the Greenspun School with access to its worldwide Internet update system that will let students obtain scripts and a variety of other support materials for use along with the actual news video that will be provided.
"We're proud to be affiliated with an outstanding news organization such as CNN," said UNLV Provost Douglas Ferraro. "This agreement will provide our students with many valuable opportunities."
"This is a terrific partnership for UNLV," said Dennis Mazzocco, an assistant professor in the Greenspun School. "Our students will benefit tremendously from having access to the professional news video and support materials CNN will provide.
"This certainly will be useful as we move forward with plans to institute a daily news show on UNLV-TV next year. Our students can use this national and international footage to supplement the local stories we will be doing," he said. "Additionally, students and professors in other disciplines such as political science and sociology may find the CNN material useful. We certainly are willing to work with others on campus to find ways to help them use these valuable resources."
David Henry, director of the Greenspun School, said, "The Hank Greenspun School of Communication is grateful to CNN and Linda Fleisher for making available virtually unlimited access to the network's newsfeed. Enhancing our student training should, in turn, help ensure the long-term quality of broadcast journalism.
"UNLV's Dr. Dennis Mazzocco, who initiated conversations with CNN, and Dr. Barbara Cloud, who provided essential administrative support, deserve great credit for their work in bringing about this valuable agreement," Henry said.
Mazzocco said one benefit of the partnership is that it will give UNLV students an entree to CNN personnel in Atlanta and could lead to exciting internship and job opportunities. He noted that through CNN students also will be linked to Time-Warner, the company that owns Turner Broadcasting.
UNLV joins more than 200 schools nationwide participating in the CNN Newsource in the Classroom program. CNN Newsource is the world's most extensively syndicated news service with more than 500 network affiliates and independent television stations in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico.
For additional information on UNLV's participation in the program, call Mazzocco at 895-4376.
