New media training centre for Wellington

New media training centre for Wellington

The Whitireia New Zealand Media Training Centre will be officially opened in Wellington this week by the Minister of Tertiary Education Hon. Steven Joyce.

The new Media Training Centre in the former Wellington Workingmen's Club building in the Cuba precinct will be a one stop shop for all Whitireia media teaching elements. Recording studios, production suites, and other media related activities have been brought into one location to provide state of the art facilities for students studying Journalism, Radio, Writing or Publishing programmes at Whitireia.

"The idea of a Media Training Centre has long been a vision for Whitireia," said Don Campbell, Whitireia New Zealand Chief Executive. "It was first flagged by a previous Deputy Chief Executive of Whitireia, Marjorie Truong, in 1986 when our first Journalism course, a five-day introductory course introducing more Maori and Polynesians into journalism, was launched. It's great to be launching this centre in our 25th anniversary year".

The last four years has seen significant growth in the quality and range of programmes taught and the centre will cater for over 200 full-time students in the media disciplines of Journalism, Publishing, Writing and Radio.

"With more than 100 journalism students coming through our doors each year, Whitireia will match the Auckland Institute of Technology as New Zealand's largest Journalism educators," said Jim Tucker, Journalism Programme Manager, Whitireia New Zealand. "Through our online news portal 'NewsWire' our journalism students specialise in news distribution and their stories are read by CNN, ABC and across New Zealand on Scoop. With this, we are forging to the front of internet news" he said.

Also in this centre will be unique writing and publishing programmes. The Diploma in Publishing is an industry endorsed qualification that places graduates with every publisher throughout New Zealand. These students are sought out by publishing houses. The Creative Writing programme has strong links to film script development. It is well known for mentoring students to complete scripts and for the awards achieved.

The New Zealand Radio Training School, a Private Training Establishment recently acquired by Whitireia will become an integral part of the new media centre. The new Diploma in Radio Journalism, the only course of its kind in New Zealand, will complete the line-up of exceptional programmes on offer at the new Media Training Centre.

NiuFM a live national radio station operated by Pacific Media Network has opened its Wellington studio in the media centre. "NiuFM's presence complements the media focus of the Whitireia New Zealand Media Training Centre" said Mr Campbell. "Pacific Media Network were looking to boost their presence in Wellington and our centre and reputation were a natural fit" he said. Radio Tana, New Zealand's largest foreign/English language station, which broadcasts to the Indian community, will soon join NiuFM.

A photo journalism competition, "a news day in the life of Wellington" is being run by Whitireia New Zealand to mark the official launch. It will run for 24 hours, starting at midday on Wednesday and closing at midday on Thursday. For full terms and conditions go to www.whitireia.ac.nz.

The launch is on Thursday, at the Whitireia New Zealand Media Centre, 107 Cuba Street, Cuba Mall, Wellington City.

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