Poynter Selected as Partner for Fulbright Program

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., June 5, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Poynter announced that it has been awarded a contract by the Institute of International Education (IIE), to provide training in digital storytelling and other presentation skills for worldwide participants in the prestigious Fulbright Program.

The Fulbright Program grants more than 8,000 awards annually to students, scholars, researchers, teachers, artists, and professionals dedicated to responding to critical global issues. The Fulbright Program is sponsored by the U.S. State Department and is administered by IIE, an independent not-for-profit organization that facilitates educational exchange programs.

"Fulbrighters are among the best and brightest the world has to offer, and Poynter is honored to be selected to work with them," said Poynter President Tim Franklin. "This training will help those scholars better tell their own stories of exploration about some of the world's most interesting and pressing issues."

The online training for Fulbright grantees will include videos and a certificate program tailored specifically to the Fulbright Program. The tutorials will be offered through a Fulbright-branded area on Poynter's News University site (NewsU) and topics will include:  photography, video, social media and blogging, presentations and public speaking.

The partnership builds on previous workshops Poynter has led for Fulbright participants, which included a storytelling and social media workshop held with the Fulbright-National Geographic Digital Storytelling Fellowship in 2014. Poynter will participate in this workshop again this month in Washington, D.C.

The training agreement with Fulbright is the most recent in a series of other training alliances with major companies Poynter currently has in place. They include partnerships with the Gannett Co., The Associated Press, Journal Media Group (formerly the E.W. Scripps Newspapers), McClatchy Co., and Pioneer News Group.

In addition to those comprehensive partnerships, Poynter also has done training in recent months for NBC News, the CBS Local Stations Group, Schurz Communications, American Press Institute, the World Bank and the United Nations.

About The Poynter Institute: The Poynter Institute for Media Studies is a global leader in journalism education, and a strategy center that stands for uncompromising excellence in journalism, media and 21st century public discourse. Poynter faculty teach seminars and workshops at the Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla., and at conferences and organizational sites around the world. Its e-learning division, News University,www.newsu.org, offers the world's largest online journalism curriculum in 7 languages, with more than 400 interactive courses and 325,000 registered users in more than 200 countries. The Institute's website,www.poynter.org, produces 24-hour coverage of news about media, ethics, technology, the business of news and the trends that currently define and redefine journalism news reporting. The world's top journalists and media innovators come to Poynter to learn and teach new generations of reporters, storytellers, media inventors, designers, visual journalists, documentarians and broadcast producers, and to build public awareness about journalism, media, the First Amendment and protected discourse that serves democracy and the public good.

About the Fulbright Program: The Fulbright Program is the U.S. government's flagship international educational exchange program and is supported by the people of the United States and partner countries around the world. Since 1946, the Fulbright Program has provided more than 360,000 participants from more than 155 countries with the opportunity to study, teach and conduct research, exchange ideas and contribute to finding solutions to shared international concerns. 

Poynter Contact: Kim Tobin
Marketing Communications Strategy Manager
[email protected]
727-553-4707

State Department Contact (for general Fulbright information):
The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs
[email protected] 
202-632-6452

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150413/198076LOGO

SOURCE The Poynter Institute