A $50,000 grant allowed the dean of the School of Communications to hand pick a new professor for Elon University. Dianne Finch, former Bloomberg reporter and multimedia manager for the Knight Foundation’s Science Journalism Program at MIT, will be coming to Elon in the spring of 2013.
“Dianne was clearly the top choice,” said Paul Parsons, dean of the School of Communications. “I interviewed four or five people on the phone, and when I spoke to Dianne, I had a feeling she would be a great teacher.”
Elon's award of the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism grant enabled the university to hire Finch for the semester. Elon was allowed to hand-select the desired professor from a list of applicants to the program.
Finch was interested in fully investing herself in teaching at Elon, unlike other professionals who desired to teach around personal schedules, according to Parsons.
[quote]“Elon is reputed for having an engaged student population. Knowing that the class will be active and involved in reporting is exciting for me as well as for the students."[/quote] -Dianne Finch
Finch will teach two elective courses titled Covering Business in an Information Age and Business Reporting. Her courses focus on the intersection of business and journalism. The classes seek to make students more comfortable covering business stories, while giving them a broader foundation, Finch said.
“By accepting the scholarship, we’ve committed to continuing business journalism,” said Parsons. “Business drives the economy of a nation. These courses will help business students understand the news media as well as making young journalists more confident with business stories.”
Coming to Elon was Finch’s first choice out of the three possible schools.
“Elon is reputed for having an engaged student population,” said Finch. “Knowing that the class will be active and involved in reporting is exciting for me as well as for the students.”
Finch said she is also excited to come to Elon due to the diversity in courses offered, her passion for the subject and the interest in multimedia reporting.
“I love reporting and story telling, and when I work with students who share such enthusiasm, it is a win-win situation,” Finch said. “I was also pleased to hear that Elon's journalism school is teaching all forms of multimedia and has newsroom-like studios. “
Finch said she believes her previous position as a multimedia manager of the science journalism program at MIT, her experience reporting for Bloomberg and the Associated Press and working as an IT director in Japan have all prepared her to pass on her experience to students and allow them to fully understand the importance of business journalism.
“Business overlaps with just about any beat: healthcare, science, environment, government policies and regulations, labor and international trade practices, lobbying, international relations and other areas,” Finch said. “Journalists who understand the fundamentals of how businesses operate and why have an edge over the reporters who shy away from it.”