Here’s to supporting Black journalists across the nation!

On May 13, Gayle King — co-host of CBS This Morning — announced that ViacomCBS will provide scholarships to future journalists in an effort to increase the representation of Black journalists in newsrooms across the country, according to a press release provided to AfroTech.

The University of Southern California (USC) Annenberg School of Communication and ViacomCBS have joined forces to make things happen for future Black journalists that want to further their education within the field.

The ViacomCBS HBCU Diversity in Journalism Scholarship will cover yearly tuition costs for graduates of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to enroll in one of USC Annenberg’s journalism master’s programs.

In an announcement during USC Annenberg’s virtual celebration for its Class of 2021, King revealed the plans of the new scholarship and spoke to ViacomCBS’s commitment to not only supporting and uplifting the next generation of journalists but providing them with the resources needed to survive and thrive as well.

“This new scholarship demonstrates ViacomCBS and USC Annenberg’s commitment to elevating Black excellence in journalism as well as a tremendous investment in supporting the diverse representation we all seek in the industry,” said King in the announcement.

With HBCUs making up only three percent of the country’s colleges and universities and enrolling 10 percent of all African American students, they are responsible for nearly 20 percent of all Black graduates throughout the nation.

According to the News Leaders Association’s latest Newsroom Diversity Survey, Black journalists currently represent 7.12 percent of the overall salaried workforce amongst the newsrooms that responded. This is slightly a two percent increase since the 1999 survey.

The $1 million endowment that supports the scholarship initiative strives to remove the tuition cost barriers standing in the way of HBCU students’ desire to pursue graduate studies in journalism.

Applications are currently open and are now being accepted for USC’s 2021-22 academic year.

For more information on the ViacomCBS HBCU Diversity in Journalism Scholarship and all eligibility requirements, click here.

Check out King’s announcement below:

USC Annenberg

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