The JRI is a unit of the School of Communication, Information and Library Studies. It also has university-wide concerns and cooperates with other units of Rutgers in joint projects linking the institute's expertise with the needs and concerns of the mass media. The institute has particularly close ties to the Department of Journalism and Mass Media and the Master's program in communication and information studies at SCILS.

The institute offers seminars, workshops, conferences, symposia, visiting lectureships, research and special fellowship opportunities. Professional development opportunities for journalists and other media professionals are a high priority. Students and faculty cooperate in courses, research internships and work-study programs. The institute develops curriculum-related projects at the undergraduate and graduate levels as part of its professional continuing education series. In the past, the JRI offered undergraduate research scholarships in a program originally developed with seed money from the Times Mirror Foundation and the New Brunswick Provost and with the John H. Cook and Laurie Ackerman scholarship funds.

The JRI has extensive experience training print and broadcast journalists and assisting universities with curriculum development in Poland. It carried out projects to assess needs of media organizations in Poland, the Czech and Slovak republics.

It has sent teams of U.S. media specialists to train media professionals, and invited journalists from Eastern Europe to study at Rutgers. The institute established a media resources center in Warsaw with funding from the International Media Fund.

Important projects in Eastern Europe were conducted with a grant from the Florence and John Schumann Foundation. The JRI assisted:

• Jagiellonian University in Krakow to create a School of International Journalism
• The Higher Business School in Novy Sacz in media studies programs
• A consortium of universities in creating a public radio station, Academic Radio Krakow.

It is assisting other media professionals and universitities in Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic States, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia. The institute has supported print and broadcast journalists as Visiting Research Fellows from Poland, Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Slovak Republic in cooperation with the International Media Training Center of the Voice of America - U.S. Information Agency.

In addition to its activities in Poland, Spain, Russia and Bosnia, the institute has conducted training
programs for Central and East European journalists on the Rutgers campus and at USIA's International Media Training Center (IMTC) in Washington under multiple sponsorship. The Institute is also conducting a continuing education program for journalists in South Africa. In addition, the
Institute conducts international research and education on the impact of convergence and technological change on journalism.

The JRI has worked with the VOA to develop multimedia materials to train journalists in health and medical coverage in Latin America. The institute assisted in the development of CD-interactive materials in the health and medical field to train university students and professional journalists.

The JRI has devoted attention to the impact of the mass media on:

• the civil and criminal justice system
• environmental and life-quality issues
• urban and metropolitan affairs
• minority concerns
• government and public policy
• culture and the arts
• issues of aging
• mental health concerns
• information policy over a broad spectrum

It has conducted funded projects in most of these areas.

With support from the Merck Foundation, the JRI established the Merck Science Journalism Student Awards program which brings faculty and students from major universities to Rutgers each year for seminars with top scientists and journalists who specialize in health and science coverage. A report of the first three years of the Merck Science Journalism Awards Program is available in a printed monograph and via the Internet. Merck Science Journalism Program

The JRI conducted major evaluations of professional journalism training and mid-career study programs funded by the Knight Foundation and the German Marshall Fund. The institute helped found statewide programs for high school journalists and journalism advisors, and a program of awards for business/financial journalists.

It has run a series of practical training seminars for the New Jersey Press Association. Its media and law activities included a three-year "Press, Bar and Bench" program in cooperation with the New Jersey Supreme Court funded by the S.I. Newhouse Foundation. It initiated the Hugh J. Boyd visiting lectureship funded by the Home News.

Its interests in health and media coverage have been supported by major grants from The Record newspaper in Hackensack, New Jersey and The New York Times Foundation. Development of professional training and new media technologies projects has been supported by a grant from the Asbury Park Press.

Funding Sources

The institute's funding has come from:

• The International Media Fund
• The U.S. Information Agency
• The Florence and John Schumann Foundation
• The New Jersey Health Products Council
• The S.I. Newhouse Foundation
• The Merck Foundation
• The Times Mirror Foundation
• The American Broadcasting Company
• RKO-Television
• WWOR-TV
• MCA Corporation
• The CIT Group
• Johnson & Johnson Co.
• The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
• Dow Jones News Retrieval
• The Dow Jones Newspaper Fund
• The Society of Professional Journalists (SDX/SPJ)
• Community Services New Jersey Division on Aging
• Human Services New Jersey Division of Mental Health and Hospitals
• The Asbury Park Press
• The Record of Hackensack
• The Central Jersey Home News
• The New Jersey Press Association