Tag: SJSU

The Carnival of Journalism Revival Traveling Medicine Show

Ryan SholinLeave a comment

A couple years back, a sprawling cadre of journalism bloggers (myself included) participated — at least, for a few months — in a blog carnival.

Now without getting into the sordid details of what makes a blog carnival, and [INSERT CRACK ABOUT HOW NOBODY BLOGS ANYMORE BECAUSE YOU ALL HAVE THE TWITTERS AND WHATNOTS], it was a relatively pleasurable experience. A topic, a deadline, and the shared experience of a bunch of people writing about the same thing at the same time.

Superfluous Creative Commons stock photo of the 2009 Alameda County Fair, by WHardcastle.

And it’s back, thanks to Digidave’s revival:

One of the Knight Commission‘s recommendations is to “Increase the role of higher education…..as hubs of journalistic activity.” Another is to “integrate digital and media literacy as critical elements for education at all levels through collaboration among federal, state, and local education officials.”

Okay – great recommendations. But how do we actually make it happen? What does this look like? What University programs are doing it right? What can be improved and what would be your ideal scenario? Or is this recommendation wrong to begin with?

Big question!

I’m planning to attack it from a completely hypothetical angle, outlining what a proposal for a San Jose State University School of Journalism & Mass Communications partnership with the Mercury News might look like, although my knowledge of both institutions tails off violently after 2007 or so.

We’ll see. The deadline is in 10 days, so I have a few minutes to gather some thoughts, or even (shocking as it may be) new information.

Grad school update: I think I’m done

Ryan Sholin11 Comments

For those of you keeping score, I started blogging, more or less, when I started graduate school at San Jose State University back in early 2005.

As of Monday, April 6, 2009, I’m finished with my M.S. in Mass Communications at SJSU’s School of Journalism & Mass Communications, after turning in my project report and presenting my findings to the department and my peers in the program.

ReportingOn, my Knight News Challenge project, did double duty as my Master’s project, and the scope I presented in my report covers the first iteration of ReportingOn, through Feb. 1, 2009 or so, when the development of the next version began.

When I have some time (ha!), I’ll put a screencast equivalent of Monday night’s presentation up here, although it will be harder to get across all the good and important questions that the faculty and students asked.

Congratulations to all my friends and peers at SJSU who presented their research on Monday, and of course, to all my friends from MCOM 210, 250, 270, 290, and 295 — you know who you are.

Meanwhile, development of the next phase of ReportingOn continues.  I’ll have more news about it soon.

Spartans, you rock my world

Ryan Sholin1 Comment

I spotted a tweet today from Steve Sloan that reminded me there was some sort of awesome road trip going on, wherein San Jose State student journalists are on their way to the inauguration by way of the South, reporting on landmark events in the civil rights movement.

Their reports are being run on CNN — I spotted them on the office screen this afternoon.

http://www.ireport.com/themes/custom/resources/swfplayer/mediaplayer.swf

Diana Diroy (who seems to be taking a break from making soulful images and words in the Far East) has a behind the scenes piece of the students in action up on her blog.  She says:

“Its been a crazy, busy, emotional trip…. Students are blogging, photographing, and producing video/multi-media packages for CNN, KTVU, etc…”

Check it out.

Daniel Sato, another Spartan, has details up about the trip, a link to the blog, and notes on where you can donate to help with the students’ expenses.

Suzanne Yada recommends you grow a pair

Ryan Sholin4 Comments

From Suzanne Yada’s resolutions for journalism students in 2009, this bullet point:

“Grow some cojones.
Let me level with you. The world doesn’t need more music reviewers or opinion spouters. The world needs more people willing to ask tough questions. The first step to reversing journalism’s tarnished image is to have the guts to dig for information the public can’t easily find themselves, and be an advocate of unbiased, straightforward truth.”

A damn fine idea.  Knowing the classrooms and newsrooms she’s working in, it makes even more sense.

Bonus link: The Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University is hiring a “Database Journalism Professor.”

If you’re not playing, you’re just working.

Ryan Sholin1 Comment

Daniel Sato is one of a circle of photojournalists I met at San Jose State University while I was spending a lot of time there working on my (still-but-not-for-long) unfinished graduate degree.

Now that whole crew has spread out from the Bay Area across the country and in at least two cases, into Southeast Asia.

Here’s Daniel’s latest post about his work for a school in Bali.  The looks-like-fun experimental flip book audio slideshow is embedded below as a video:

When was the last time you made journalism that looked like this much fun?

Go out and play…

Links that redefine news

Ryan Sholin14 Comments

Wednesday night, I’ll be speaking with Steve Sloan’s New Media class at San Jose State University.

I’m planning to show off some of the best of your work.

Yes, you.

I’m looking for online news sites and projects that stray from the traditional definition of news.

I’m assuming these journalism students get enough Gloom & Doom handwringers from other sources, and I have no intention of discouraging anybody from getting into this business, which needs all the help it can get.

So, here’s a list of links. Add your favorites in the comments.

I’m really just scratching the surface here, and notably absent are any multimedia tools and examples.  Add your favorites in the comments.