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Detroit Free Press receives Brechner Freedom of Information Award
Paul Anger, editor and VP of The Detroit Free Press, is receiving the Brechner Freedom of Information Award for the reporting that helped lead to Detroit Mayor Kwane Kilpatrick being ousted for lying under oath about firing three police officers. Anger provided these observations from this reporting experience: – The public wants to read news. […]
In-lecture interview helps students prepare for writing assignment and think about their own financial future
One of the most important goals in Writing for Mass Communication is helping students learn how to conduct effective interviews. Almost three-fourths of the students have never conducted an interview. They may have been interviewed themselves — for a job or for a scholarship — but they haven’t conducted interviews. Most of the students are […]
Faculty gets to see Center for Media Innovation and Research
The faculty finally got through the locked doors and into the CMIR this afternoon for a faculty meeting. Dean John Wright is talking about the Center, saying he wants to hear how faculty could use it for teaching and research. “This is your Center.” Wright says he thinks the Center’s grand opening will be this […]
Field trip to local bookstores provides valuable learning experience
So what can you learn about magazine management in Books-A-Million and Borders that you can’t learn in a classroom? Lots. When Linda Hallam told me that she and her Magazine Management class were going on a field trip to local bookstores, I told her, “What a great idea.” Linda is a doctoral student in the […]
Textbook cover needs to reflect contemporary media — both the reporters and equipment
Even though I do find Carole Rich’s Writing and Reporting News to be a very effective textbook — and so do the students (see previous post) — I do have a few suggestions for improvement. One is the book cover. Designing a cover for a media textbook is a challenge, as so many different media […]
A wet newspaper versus news delivery on a smart phone
An interesting old media/new media story for me today. I find my copy of this morning’s Gainesville Sun in my driveway — soaked. The paper was in one plastic bag, but the bag had ripped when the paper was thrown onto the driveway and then had landed in a large puddle of rainwater. I called […]
Bump app lets you transfer contacts between iPhones or Androids
A useful part of attending the SJD midwinter meetings is learning about new ideas to try — personally and in my teaching. You can see from my blog posts during the meeting that I have a list of Web sites and software to check out. I’ve already downloaded a new app — Bump. It’s free […]
GoToMeeting and Wiggio enable groups to have productive meetings without face-to-face meetings
In the discussion about how to save money, several suggested cutting back on face-to-face meetings and using online meetings. One suggestion was Wiggio. Cheryl Pell uses Wiggio with several groups, including a journalism education group. She uses Wiggio to send e-mails and text messages to the group and sharing documents and links. The group site […]
Steve Antley, Lakeland Ledger designer, offers advice about newspaper design (which includes online)
Steve Antley, design director for The Lakeland Ledger, shared pages he has designed and discussed how decisions are made on how to visually present a story. Most of his discussion was about design were about the print product, but he did mention a few coordinated effort between the print version and the online product. Breaking […]
Julie Dodd 