Stories by Cedarville advanced reporting students give them enterprise reporting experience

Students write three enterprise stories in a specific topic area (a beat, if you will) in the Advanced Newswriting and Reporting for Print class I teach each spring at Cedarville University. They also were required to produce a multimedia element to accompany the story.

The goal for the applied part of the class has three aims:

1. Get them off campus and into the community.
2. Find stories that are relevant and meaningful.
3. Feel like a real journalist.

Here are links to four stories recently written for the class.

Jenni Hodges, a senior in the public relations concentration, is writing about food. Her first story is about a new bulk foods store that just opened in Cedarville. Check out the photos too.

The next three students are part of the convergent journalism concentration.

Emily Finlay chose to write about local history. Her first story gives some insight into some of the history that surrounds the historic Cedarville Opera House.

Anna Dembowski took on the difficult topic of human trafficking. Her first story describes how the efforts at a local transitional home for women has a broad effect on the community. Check out the info graphic she made with an online tool.

Kathryn Sill is on the business beat and telling readers all about Young's Jersey Dairy, an iconic local landmark. Her first story looks at what it's like for a Cedarville student to work at Young's. And she used the YouTube video editor to create a slideshow about one of the students.

Paywalls, growing mobile audience and ethics

The Richmond Times-Dispatch in Richmond, Va., announced a paywall that is getting attention. A print subscription with all-digital access is $19. But digital only is $21. That's different than most.

I assume this is a test market for the abundance of papers in that region now owned by Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway company. My old paper, The Roanoke Times, is in that group. Perhaps the day will come soon when I have to pay catch up news from my old hometown.

A Poynter story has more to say about this venture.

Expect to pay a bit more for the digital-only Richmond Times-Dispatch as paywall goes up. @RTDNEWS http://t.co/2JjLh65Sdb
— Poynter (@Poynter) October 30, 2013

The big guys like ESPN are well positioned to meet the growing mobile demand. But so many are not.

ESPN's digital audience is going mostly mobile; your favorite news outlet may be next. http://t.co/tQmFajkMZ0

— Nieman Lab (@NiemanLab) October 30, 2013

For students studying or about to study ethics, this Poynter site might be a great resource for you.

Great ethics resource from @poynter http://t.co/oj7Vyu5haH

— Journalist's Toolbox (@journtoolbox) October 29, 2013

'Journalism will never die'

A great read here from a journalism student at DePaul. Yes, journalism is a viable career. Now is actually a good time to start that journey. There are new digital ground floors to get on.

One of my students, @melaniealissa, wrote this piece for Business Insider about Hope for journalism's future: http://t.co/gaxQ9oYMtE #ona13

— Journalist's Toolbox (@journtoolbox) October 19, 2013

As a sports journalists I love statistics. Not always as enamored with numbers in other news areas, but this Poynter article makes some good points.

What do journalists need to know in using stats? Nate Silver has a list. http://t.co/CVKIeP41Xm @fivethirtyeight

— Poynter (@Poynter) October 19, 2013

Journalism news today from Twitter

It is my goal to share a handful of tweets most days to interesting news from the news industry. This first one is about getting our news sites to be more visual. The idea can't hurt.

.@washingtonpost launched a news blog called "Know More" driven by visuals. Will this be the new journalism? http://t.co/Uw5zeZtzpq

— 10,000 Words (@10000Words) October 11, 2013

It seems a day doesn't go by without a list of Twitter tips popping up.

7 Habits of Highly Effective Twitter Users http://t.co/XIS6hwCxha by @klout

— Buffer (@buffer) October 14, 2013

Here's a great list to keep you busy all day. At a glance I am familiar with some sites, but not all. Probably be Christmas break before I can get to them all. Some much changes so fast that it is impossible to keep up. Excerpted from the post before you start scrolling the list: The exponential growth of Internet connection speed and accessibility has ushered in a journalistic renaissance, fusing art, reporting, and storytelling into a single pursuit.

105 Vital Sources for Journalists to connect with the new media landscape >> http://t.co/zsZ5GtuCk8. #jour363

— Journalist's Toolbox (@journtoolbox) October 14, 2013

I used to know an old sports editor who worked at the Washington Star.

Carl Bernstein's next book is about his cub reporting days at the Washington Star (yes, the Star). http://t.co/fSUh2a4q5f

— Romenesko (@romenesko) October 14, 2013

Cedarville students producing meaningful stories

When students begin to produce stories -- either written or through video or photos or some other means -- that go beyond the obvious, you realize they are beginning to see the bigger picture of what journalism can be.

In my advanced reporting for print class, it is starting to happen. We are studying "The Elements of Journalism" this semester as we always do in this class. Yesterday we discussed Chapter 8 (Engagement and Relevance) and the idea that the best stories are meaningful, relevant and engaging. The element of this chapter states "Journalists must make the significant interesting and relevant."

Learning to find deeper themes and meanings in stories will help all students and working journalists distinguish themselves as reporters. It's a learned skill that takes much practice.

My students this semester have certainly not arrived, but I am seeing steps in that direction from each of them as they apply themselves to the task.

Once I get these stories graded and they post them to the portfolio sites, I will post the links.

Teaching bootcamp a real education

When you become a professor they don't hand you a how-to manual. So I have learned by trial and error the past three years. That won't change, but I believe the week I am in the middle of at the University of South Carolina's convergent journalism teaching bootcamp will improve the trials and reduce the errors.

The most difficult part of teaching is trying to teach and convince students that there are many ways to tell stories and that they need to learn beyond their preferred style.

• It is important for students to understand that storytelling is still at the heart of everything a journalist does no matter the medium. My job is to teach that concept and expose the students to different forms and teach them to choose the best ones.
• No matter the class, I realize I need to instruct students in producing stories in different mediums. That is the only way they will do it. The ones who find something they like outside of writing for print will, I hope, begin to use those skills for the student newspaper and website.
• And I need to be doing this kind of reporting as well on my own website. That will take a lot of work and planning, but I realize I have no choice.
• At Cedarville, we want to raise up multi-skilled journalists who can write great stories for print and produce interactive stories for online.
• I am discovering this week that learning and teaching basics in producing audio slideshows, audio stories, video stories and creating websites is simpler than you think.

The challenge is immense, but with good students and prayer it is possible.

And I can't recommend this yearly program enough to journalism educators.