SBS is churning out multimedia sites left and right. Last month it was “Goa hippy tribe” and this month it’s “Dragon Children,” a site focused on Chinese-Australian students within Australia’s education system. This topic became controversial after Amy Chua wrote the jaw-dropping article “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior” in the Wall Street Journal and was subsequently called ‘Tiger Mom.’ Regardless of what you believe, education (and lack thereof) is an important story to be told and lends itself well to multimedia.
Education Week, a non-profit education newsweekly, recently celebrated its 30th anniversary this September. As a multimedia producer for a company that focuses on very technical data and studies in education, it’s always challenging to visualize the information our reporters produce.
Regina McCombs recently emailed me about an upcoming seminar from August 25-27 at The Poynter Institute that II readers may be interested in attending. Titled “Programming for Journalists / Journalism for Programmers,” attendees will gain a concrete understanding of how programmers and journalists can work effectively together to visualize data-rich content, such as the upcoming 2010 Census.
Earlier this month I stumbled across a site for journalism students at the Cronkite School of Journalism & Mass Communication in Phoenix, Arizona. Taught by Dr. Leslie-Jean Thornton, I am amazed to see all of the resources she provides and the skills she uses to connect with her students. By using blogrolls, twitter hashtags and a growing list of resources and inspirational examples, she has created a well-rounded learning environment for her students. If you are a professor, I encourage you to use this site as inspiration. If you are a professional, use it as continued education. Finally, if you are a student, use the resources as supplemental material to leverage your education.
I was recently asked to be a part of the 2009-2010 News21 project at UNC. Funded by Carnegie and Knight, this initiative worked with eight participating Universities to push the barrier in terms of multimedia storytelling on a wide range of topics. I finally got the time to look through each project at length, and am excited to hear what you think about my analysis on these inspirational projects.
Twelve UNC students are spending their summer working on a News21 project, titled “Powering a Nation.” News21 is a part of the Carnegie-Knight Initiative and involves faculty and students from five participating universities. According to their Twitter bio, UNC’s project examines “the quest for energy in a changing USA.”
University of Miami graduate student Andrea Ballocchi Coudeu posted a link on Facebook to a blog, VisualJournalism, that features projects by the school’s visual journalism students. Maintained by Kim Grinfeder, this is a great resource to promote students’ work, as well as to educate professionals about Miami’s visual program. I wish every Journalism school was utilizing Twitter, blogs and Facebook groups to promote their class projects …
