FAMU’s School of Journalism and Graphic Communication will soon be the new home to a 24-hour Black News Network.

Black Television News Channel plans to begin airing in more than a dozen cities starting in February 2018. The network's focus is based on creating a space for African-American’s to be more informed about what is happening in the Black community.  They also want to focus on dismantling the single-story and stereotypes used to illustrate the Black community.

This partnership between BTNC will also be a great opportunity for FAMU J-School students to gain knowledge and experience working with industry insiders. This major change will also create an estimated 100 jobs for the Big Bend area.

Robyn Murrell, a Fall 2016 Graduate of FAMU’s School of Journalism and Graphic Communication had this to say about FAMU being home to the BTNC,

“I love that FAMU now has its own network. It’ll be a great addition to an already superb journalism program. The network will greatly impact the future of black journalist coming out of FAMU because it's providing students with real life work experience on campus. Also, this network will show the world the quality of an HBCU education. It takes a certain caliber of students to run a network and an even more talent faculty and staff to prepare them.”

Estimated to attract 33 million viewers upon launch, this partnership is definitely going to spark some interest in students who want to attend an HBCU and go into the communications field.

Mayor John Marks of Tallahassee said, “I really feel so proud to be a part of what I know is going to be revolutionary as well as evolutionary.”

More HBCU’s are taking strides to make their campus’ interactive spaces for their students to learn and grow more than ever. Howards partnership with Google is incredibly important to the growth of minority faces in the tech industry, and the introduction of the BTNC will prove to allow students to collaborate and have a say in the way African-American stories are being told.