In January 2016, the WVU Reed School of Media and Communication’s Media Innovation Center opened its doors, and ever since, the students, faculty and guests who enter are asked one question: What is possible?
For the last 10 years, the MIC has fostered an environment where creative thinkers tackle the big questions and consider the story forms, distribution mechanisms, economic models, user behaviors and policy implications for media in a future ecosystem.
In honor of this milestone, the WVU Reed School is hosting 10 Years of Media Innovation, a weeklong celebration that includes an open house and public forum, as well as the return of the Innovators-in-Residence program, where industry pioneers work with Reed students and faculty. The week of events is supported by the Ogden Newspapers Seminar Series.
The public is invited to an open house from 4-5 p.m. Tuesday, March 24, at the Media Innovation Center, followed by a panel discussion, “Humans, Machines and the Future of Storytelling: What’s Next in the AI Media Landscape” from 5:30-6:30 p.m.
“The WVU Media Innovation Center continues to drive immersive innovation for our faculty and students. This is where we conduct experiments with industry innovators, engage students with the communities we serve, and where we collaborate across disciplines with other innovators on campus,” said Dana Coester, a Professor of Journalism and Creative Director for the MIC.
The MIC, housed on the fourth floor of the Evansdale Crossing building, features a flowing, open layout designed to foster creativity across disciplines and ideas.
“The Media Innovation Center has allowed us to expand programming and experiment with different mediums and techniques that we just didn’t have space for in Martin Hall,” said David Smith, an Associate Teaching Professor of Journalism.
Smith joined the WVU Reed School faculty in 2013 and has been working in and around the MIC since it opened, teaching courses in visual journalism, brand storytelling, drone journalism and augmented and virtual reality (AR & VR).
“The open space of the MIC really has encouraged open-mindedness and collaboration,” Smith added.
Teaching Assistant Professor of Journalism Jesse Wright graduated WVU’s journalism program in 2000, back when it was still the P.I. Reed School of Journalism and nearly all classes were held in Martin Hall, before coming back to work with the WVU Reed School in 2020.
The first time he stepped into the Media Innovation Center, it felt like a full circle moment. Both sides of the WVU Reed School were now fully represented.
“We have this founding steeped in history, being in the oldest building on campus. Martin Hall represents understanding our roots and the fundamentals of journalism that go along with that. The Media Innovation Center expands those ideas. It looks to the future of journalism and how we can best serve our students through innovation,” said Wright.
Expanding across campus not only helped the School scale its offerings—adding new majors and launching new publications like 100 Days in Appalachia—but also opened opportunities to work with other units.
“I’ve collaborated with people in Education, Business, Health Sciences and more. I don't know if that would have happened without the MIC. It’s acted as a magnet,” Smith said.
Over the last decade, the WVU Reed School has fostered forward-thinking by inviting industry professionals to work with students and faculty as part of its Innovators-in-Residence, where top media professionals leading change in the industry come to the WVU campus to create new curriculum, experiment with new technology, and equip students and regional media with new skills to tackle current—and anticipated—challenges in the industry.
“This program brings into our classrooms people who are on the cutting-edge, who are changing the way our field works, who are developing new things right now,” said Wright. “We bring them to campus, so our students are learning from people they wouldn’t normally have interacted with for another 5 to 10 years.”
“We don’t just teach theory,” said Smith, “but there’s a difference between practical classroom lessons and learning from someone who is actively working on these issues or with these tools in the field.”
As part of its 10 Years of Innovation celebration, the Reed School welcomes back the Innovators-in-Residence program for spring 2026. This semester’s IIRs will focus on AI and engage leaders in journalism and strategic communication who are exploring new tools, experiments and practical use cases for AI in these fields.
Ryan Restivo founded YESEO, a free Slack app that helps journalists with search engine optimization best practices. He will work primarily with Wright’s classes to look at the ways artificial intelligence can help journalists not only survive, but thrive, in an internet-based ecosystem.
“The building blocks of how you tell a story are relevant now and will still be relevant in the future. It's just about how we use this other technology to help us tell those stories better and in different ways,” said Restivo.
Restivo created YESEO during his Reynolds Journalism Institute fellowship to help newsrooms generate headlines and populate social media posts and newsletters. Through JournalismAI’s Innovation Challenge, YESEO partnered with a non-profit newspaper, The Oglethorpe Echo, to expand the AI tool to help new staff easily find sources, contact information and quotes in the paper’s archives.
“I've always connected to how we use technology to help people solve their problems and do their jobs better. I try to use the skills I've built over the years to support as many people as possible in how they work and do their jobs,” Restivo said.
“That said,” he added, “you don't want to just take what any of these AI systems produce verbatim and plop it in anywhere. There are ways that you can use these things to help you in your day-to-day life, but at the same time you want to have an understanding of what it is and how it works.”
The second IIR working with students this semester is Dan Fisher, Executive Producer, Director and Principal at Bottle Rocket Media, a video production company and motion design studio. Fisher has spent decades working in media and television, including a stint as the lead creative editor for “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”
Fisher will work with Smith’s classes to explore the way artificial intelligence can be used as a tool throughout the creative process, from ideation to production.
“AI is the next big thing,” said Fisher. “It’s not evil, though it will cause disruptions. But used properly, AI is an incredible tool. There are a lot of ways to use it to maintain the integrity and quality of content that we provide.”
AI can be used to help curate research, generate script ideas, make video editing more efficient or reveal a new perspective.
“People tend to have an all-or-nothing take on AI, but I could have a project where the only thing I use AI for is a temporary voiceover. Now, I can experiment in any direction and with any accent. Just that one use of it makes my post-production process smooth sailing, and I know that at the end of the day, I’m still going to use a real human for the final product. Using that tool allows us to be more creative.”
“My entire philosophy about all technology, but especially AI, revolves around critical thinking and media literacy,” he added. “Particularly in the media field, it's only going to work if we think critically. Watching something and taking it at face value was already tricky before AI. Now, it's really important for people to take a deep breath and consider what they're watching.”
On Tuesday, March 24, from 5:30-6:30 p.m., the public is invited to hear from these Innovators-in-Residence as they participate in the panel discussion, “Humans, Machines and the Future of Storytelling: What’s Next in the AI Media Landscape.” Restivo and Fisher will be joined by special guest Erica Osher, VP of Labs at National Public Radio. Teaching Associate Professor of Journalism Ashton Marra will moderate the discussion.
As part of the 10 Years of Media Innovation celebration, the WVU Reed School is also hosting an open house beginning at 4 p.m. prior to the panel discussion. Tour the Media Innovation Center and meet with faculty, who will demonstrate some of the experimental work that has led the way in journalism and communications over the past decade.
For more information, visit mediainnovation.wvu.edu.