The Indiana University Board of Trustees announced Thursday that James Shanahan will become the founding dean of the university's Media School.
Shanahan is a professor and associate dean of the College of Communication at Boston University.
"We have the potential to unlock many voices throughout the university," Shanahan says in a statement. "Our job is to find and tune those voices, allowing for greater freedom of expression, more diversity of expression and more meaningful messages that contribute to the common good."
Shanahan will spend the next few months meeting with faculty researchers and practitioners, finalizing the curriculum, developing ideas for graduate programs and implementing new tracks and specialty areas to be housed in the Media School.
The Media School combines the former journalism program, telecommunications department and portions of the communication and culture department.
The stated goal of the program is to prepare students for 21st century media careers.