Examples of UNC’s Online Student Journalism

Written by Ryan Thornburg January 8, 2010 2:25 pm EST No comments

With a new semester about to begin on Monday, I wanted to share some of the work done by some of the students in UNC-Chapel Hill’s JOMC 463: Newsdesk (PDF) class last semester. The assignment was this: Do an online profile of a person or organization using interactivity and multiple media. They were limited by producing the story in a somewhat wonky version of a Drupal-based CMS that I had set up for the class.

The bottom line is this: most of this student work was very good, and it’s important to show industry and other journalism students how we’re preparing the next generation to lead change in newsrooms. Students are young and therefore their work is not perfect, but it can be awfully good. Here are three examples, and the reason that each gives me hope for the future of journalism.

Vote: Online Journalism Textbook Title

Written by Ryan Thornburg December 16, 2009 12:52 pm EST 3 comments

Alright, wise crowd. I need you to show me what you’re made of.

I’m writing for college students a book about online journalism. The book connects the traditional elements and values of journalism with new ways of telling stories and engaging audiences. It will start with a discussion of online news values and elements and the unique characteristics of the online news audience. Then it’ll take readers through the gamut of digital media skills and tools, and wrap up with a section that talks about how to make sensible use of the tools to create journalism that’s more engaging and relevant.

But… what should I call it? Please vote below and then leave any comments here.

Notes From a Semester

Written by Ryan Thornburg May 6, 2009 5:03 pm EDT No comments

The semester at UNC-Chapel Hill is done and the students in “Public Affairs Reporting for New Media” have put together a wonderful resource for learning about and engaging in efforts to curb the state’s high dropout rate.

You can read my notes about their work at http://www.ncdropout.org/node/415
or visit the site’s homepage at http://www.ncdropout.org.

Among the pieces I’ve enjoyed the most are the online journalism tutorials that the students themselves created based on their own experiences hashing through their first efforts and multimedia, interactive, on-demand news story telling. You can see their tutorials here.

NCAA Basketball, the Tar Heel, and Citizen Media

Written by Ryan Thornburg April 6, 2009 10:05 am EDT No comments

The NCAA basketball game tonight in Detroit between the Tar Heels of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Michigan State Spartans brings us a good illustration of the relative strengths of print and online news.

Innovative Student Journalism in the Works

Written by Ryan Thornburg March 25, 2009 11:49 am EDT No comments

The students in JOMC 491: “Public Affairs Reporting for New Media” are developing some bang-up stories and tools. For anyone interested in the future of news, in North Carolina civic life or in education policy, their projects are worth reading … and engaging.

More here.

New Media Rochambeau: Twitter-Facebook-Email

Written by Ryan Thornburg February 17, 2009 10:20 pm EST No comments

You want a look at the future of breaking news? This is it.

Budget Cuts Begin to Hurt

Written by Ryan Thornburg February 10, 2009 4:52 pm EST No comments

After extolling the virtues in post after post of UNC’s computer based training as a wonderful resource that’s free to every student, the University announced today that it would be shutting the site down on Feb. 28.

The move was done “in order to achieve the level of budget cuts currently mandated.”

The full announcement and address to send letters after the jump.

Site Critiques and Story Ideas

Written by Ryan Thornburg February 4, 2009 9:03 am EST No comments

Our Public Affairs Reporting for New Media class is transitioning from the first to second phase of the semester, and I’ve blogged about it a bit more over at http://www.ibiblio.org/newsdesk/apples/sp09/blogs/ryan-thornburg

In the first phase, we’ve been cramming on learning more about the topic of dropouts in North Carolina and also cramming on learning the tools and techniques of online journalism. We’re now starting to think about some of our initial content creation.

In two blog posts, I summarize our critiques of other online news projects as well as our initial brainstorm of story ideas.

Newsdesk, Day 1

Written by Ryan Thornburg January 15, 2009 9:13 pm EST No comments

The other class I’m teaching this semester is “Newsdesk,” a capstone convergence lab class for journalism students at UNC. Here’s the syllabus.

The idea of creating an online newsroom from the ground-up has been a bit of a tough sell. I have four takers this semester.

I’m most excited about the possibility of collaborating with other classes and other local media. There is also one national partnership I’m looking forward to announcing here soon.

We kicked things off today with a discussion of how people read news online and how it is different from the way they consume news in print. I’ll be blogging more about it over the next three months. You can follow along here.

DIY Online Newsroom: Budget Edition

Written by Ryan Thornburg January 14, 2009 5:06 pm EST No comments

Starting an online newsroom at a journalism school isn’t exactly the same as starting one in the world outside those friendly confines. First, the staff tends to pay us to work there. Second, there’s usually a pretty substantial technical infrastructure already in place.

That said, there are still technical hurdles to overcome before we can start doing good journalism. Let me give a brief rundown of where we stand on technology on this third day of classes.