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Murphy Hall is a state-of-the-art facility for teaching and research of journalism, mass communication and new media studies. A $10.5 million renovation of the building, originally built in 1939, was completed in January 2000. View map of Murphy Hall.
The first floor includes the central office, adjunct faculty offices, Student Services Center, Minnesota Journalism Center, a 150-seat auditorium, and the Murphy Hall conference center. Multimedia classrooms, faculty offices, offices for student organizations and a vending machine room are on the second floor. The Institute for New Media Studies, the Research Division, faculty offices and graduate student offices are on the third floor. The Silha Center for the Study of Media Ethics and Law, faculty offices and additional graduate student offices are found on the fourth floor.
Murphy has more than 27,000 square feet on five floors that include:
A significant feature of Murphy Hall is the convergence of graphics, news writing and broadcast labs in a single space, the Digital Media Studios (DMS).
The DMS features:
View the DMS page for more information on lab policies, schedule, reserving time and available equipment.
The Digital Information Resource Center (DIRC)/Sevareid Library is adjacent to the Digital Media Studios. The DIRC/Sevareid Library is designed to be a high-tech information center with multimedia resources needed for instruction and research.
In addition to housing the collection of the Sevareid Library, the DIRC is equipped with both traditional and digital resources for integration into classes and use by students.
The DIRC/Sevareid Library has:
The state-of-the-art Conference Center is the showpiece of Murphy Hall. It serves as an outreach resource for internal and external groups for conferences, workshops and other activities.
The Conference Center features:
The Conference Center also has a reception area (the historic Heggen Room), catering kitchen and registration desk with a plasma screen for electronic displays.
Another major asset of Murphy Hall is the focus group research suite, located on the third floor. This suite is part of the SJMC Research Division and the Institute for New Media Studies efforts to promote and support graduate-level experimental research. It has a reception area room, conference room, an observation control room, three testing rooms, and a small kitchen. Additional features of the research lab include an eye-tracker machine available with advance notice and by check-out. A mobile game lab cart is equipped with the latest in electronic game-playing devices for use in game simulation research studies.
Of the three testing rooms, one is setup as a small observation room in between for observing subjects in the other two. Each of the three testing rooms has two computers each installed with MediaLab and reaction time software.
The SJMC is one of five stakeholders in the Usability Services Lab, housed in the Walter Library Digital Technology Center. The other stakeholders are:
As a stakeholder, the SJMC has access to state-of-the-art lab equipment, including sophisticated eye-tracking technology. The partnership provides all stakeholders with a full array of resources, technology and testing areas for conducting usability and media effectiveness research. As part of the arrangement, the SJMC makes the focus group room in Murphy Hall available to the other stakeholders upon request.
The SJMC is one of the very few journalism and mass communication schools with this level of access to state-of-the-art usability and eye-tracking equipment. Graduate students have availed themselves of these resources as have SJMC faculty. The INMS, as part of its Digital Story Effects Lab project, has also used the facilities to conduct intensive research into new story forms and their impact on news audiences. The availability of the lab has made several grant proposals more feasible and attractive to potential funders.
