Showing posts with label journalism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label journalism. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 1, 2021

Dakota Gange set to take over as next editor-in-chief at The Commuter

LBCC journalism student Dakota Gange will be the next editor-in-chief of The Commuter, the college's award-winning student newspaper. 

Dakota Gange

The college's Student Publications Committee appointed Gange on May 27. She will succeed current Editor-in-Chief Katie Littlefield, who will conclude her tenure as the newspaper's top editor with the last edition of the school year June 2. 

Over this past year, Gange has served as the newspaper's Student Voice Editor, highlighting various issues facing students, from the pandemic and homelessness, to paying for college and sustainability. She also has collaborated with LB's student government to highlight the advocacy efforts of other student leaders on campus.

In appointing Gange, members of the Student Publications Committee applauded the enthusiasm that Gange brought to her interview for the position, her successes this past year as Student Voice Editor, and expressed confidence that she can build on the success that Littlefield and her team had this school year. The committee is comprised of LBCC students, staff and faculty. 

In applying to be editor-in-chief in the coming year, Gange told the committee, "Writing is my way of bettering the world around me, myself included. It’s how I further reach the public, and further grow myself. Through this career, I can share the stories of those who otherwise might not have a voice, or go unheard. It’s the truth I’ve always sought after, and a way to reach out to others. I want to hear people; I want to listen to their truths, and I want to communicate with them. I thrive on these opportunities."

On the role of the newspaper, she wrote, "We have a duty here to report on important topics revolving around LBCC and the surrounding community. It’s our job to find the truth out there, and bring it forth to the light. We exist to better understand, inform, and report on various topics for our readers."

She credited Littlefield with initiating the kind of journalism she wants to continue at The Commuter: "Littlefield has shined a light on the importance and involvement of the student voice/body, and I passionately plan to continue her work/wish. Through finding student stories, we can better listen to their needs. This year we have had a paper full of diversity, and I plan to continue that through the student voice."

As editor-in-chief, Gange will lead a team of reporters, photographers, editors, graphic designers and others who produce The Commuter, which publishes weekly editions during the school year in addition to its website, a weekly newsletter and various social media. 

Those who would like to contact Gange or get involved at the newspaper are encouraged to email to commuter@linnbenton.edu or dakota.gange.2771@mail.linnbenton.edu.

For more information about journalism at LBCC, contact The Commuter's faculty adviser, Rob Priewe, at priewer@linnbenton.edu. To see more work by students in LBCC's journalism program, see their blogs at robpriewe.blogspot.com.

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Thursday, April 2, 2020

A New Term, and a New Routine at LBCC


My students' grades had been posted and Spring Break had begun ... sort of.

Instead of sitting on the grass beyond the outfield fence of Hohokam Park in Mesa, Arizona, I was sitting in my living room in Oregon. Instead of watching the Chicago Cubs play the Oakland A's in a major league baseball spring training game, I wondered what else in my life was about to change
because of the coronavirus.

Nearly two weeks later, the answer is ... a lot!

I didn't travel to Arizona for spring baseball, and right now there's no telling whether baseball -- or any other routine activity -- will return to "normal" anytime soon. I've barely left my house but for some exercise (running and walking), one trip to the grocery store and two stops for take-out pizza.

The bulk of my past week has been devoted to converting all of my typical face-to-face classes at Linn-Benton Community College into online-only experiences for my journalism and marketing students. And I'm working with the school newspaper staff of The Commuter to map out a strategy for shifting the attention of the weekly newspaper to its website and social media.

I'm becoming a Zoom video master and realizing all I took for granted in the luxury of working with students on campus each day.

I'm learning a variety of new skills and getting even more organized than I thought I was before.

Most of all, I'm looking forward to the start of Spring Term, a new routine, and the work that I love at LBCC.

Play ball!
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Sunday, April 18, 2010

Jeff Jarvis Explains It All!

At long last, here is that Jeff Jarvis lecture in the spirit of TED.

As noted a several weeks ago ... it's an interesting speech on education, media, innovation, Google, collaboration ... and it starts with the "What Would Google Do?" author declaring, "This is bullshit."

Here's a couple excerpts from the rest:
I tell media that they must become collaborative, because the public knows much, because people want to create, not just consume, because collaboration is a way to expand news, because it is a way to save expenses. I argue that news is a process, not a product. Indeed, I say that communities can now share information freely – the marginal cost of their news is zero. We in journalism should ask where we can add value. But note that that in this new ecosystem, the news doesn’t start with us. It starts with the community.
And...
We must stop our culture of standardized testing and standardized teaching. ... In the Google age, what is the point of teaching memorization?

We must stop looking at education as a product – in which we turn out every student giving the same answer – to a process, in which every student looks for new answers. Life is a beta.

Why shouldn’t every university – every school – copy Google’s 20% rule, encouraging and enabling creation and experimentation, every student expected to make a book or an opera or an algorithm or a company. Rather than showing our diplomas, shouldn’t we show our portfolios of work as a far better expression of our thinking and capability? The school becomes not a factory but an incubator.

It's a good speech that picks up on many of the concepts Jarvis continues to tout on BuzzMachine, his various talks and, of course, in "WWGD?"

-rp-

Monday, March 22, 2010

Social Media for PR Pros Working with Reporters

A friend and local public relations professional sent me a Facebook message asking my opinion on a couple of questions she was considering for a newsletter article she was writing about social media, public relations and working with reporters.

She asked:

1. How have relationships changed between reporters and public relations professionals over the last decade?

2. What tips would you offer to a public relations professional to interact with reporters and build a trusted relationship?

Here's my response:

In this age of social media, public relations professionals have more authority – and responsibility – than ever before. This includes their relationships with news reporters and other media professionals, who they now outnumber.

With smaller newsrooms and tighter deadlines, reporters are even more reliant on public relations professionals to provide quick and accurate details about breaking news events or background information for longer-term stories. Reporters are working at breakneck speed these days to post stories online, so making immediate contact with knowledgeable, responsive PR pros is essential. Where once there existed a more clearly separate reporter-source relationship, today it’s all about collaboration.

Just as journalists are feeling more pressed to deliver, public relations professionals are under increasing pressure to stay “ahead of the story,” whether responding to an incident involving their company or setting the news agenda. And with extensive social media networks and information distribution channels of their own, they no longer have to rely solely on the news media to “get the word out.”

Meanwhile, customers as well as news and information consumers no longer have to depend on the media to find out what’s going on. Here’s where the job of public relations professionals becomes most critical, and must be most transparent. Customers want the facts and they want them now. They are savvy enough to recognize spin. And with their own social media networks, they will punish businesses and public relations professionals who mess with them. Who can afford having a Facebook campaign launched against them?!

With this in mind, here are some tips for public relations professionals looking to build a stronger relationship with the media:
  1. Take full advantage of all the social media tools out there – Facebook, Facebook fan pages, Twitter, blogs, YouTube, Google maps, Flickr, Web sites, podcasts, wikis … and don’t forget old standbys such as e-mail.
  2. Make reporters part of your personal and professional networks: become Facebook friends, invite people to become Facebook “fans” and Twitter followers.
  3. Dedicate time every day to updating and maintaining your social media presence, making your media contacts aware of important business and industry news and articles, along with bloggers, Web sites and other “insider” resources they can use to inform readers.
  4. Don’t neglect old-fashioned face time and telephone calls. Take advantage of informal “meetups” and other opportunities to connect outside of typical business “transactions.”
  5. Be ever proactive, anticipating news and be ready to take immediate action.
What’s changed over the past decade? Building and maintaining a strong relationship with media professionals remains as important as ever. What’s changed primarily are the tools available, and the speed at which you are expected to respond.

A really good resource is the book “Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust” by Chris Brogan and Julian Smith. In addition to Chris Brogan, I’ve listed several other good marketing/public relations blogs in the “New Media” and “Eye on Marketing” sections of this blog (look to the right).

-rp-

(Photo credit: "News Reporter" by Truthout.org, courtesy of Flickr/Creating Commons)

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

New Term Focuses on Feature Stories

With the start of a new term this week at Linn-Benton Community College came working with a talented group of aspiring feature writers. Two dozen students are enrolled in Feature Writing (JN217).

As they embark upon their reporting and writing quest, they would welcome story ideas from around campus and around the community. Several of the students are interested in pursuing stories on the college's new "pay to print" process, baby boomers coming back to school, parking challenges and campus construction. If you have ideas for additional stories, please leave a comment.

(Today students launched their own blogs, many of which can be viewed below in the column to the right.)

I'm looking forward to working with the students this term and seeing their work published in The Commuter, LBCC's student newspaper and online site.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

A Checklist for Modern Journalists

Feeling ambitious this summer? Now is as good a time as any to develop the skills you will need to be a better journalist. Or to break into the business if you're just out of college or soon to be looking for a job in the media.

10,000 Words has compiled a list of 30 things a new journalism grad should do this summer to make her/himself more marketable. Actually, this is a great list for any journalist who wants to thrive in the new media. Some of the more interesting and challenging tasks on the list include:
5. Become a part of a crowdsourcing project

6. Improve at least 5 Wikipedia entries

10. Create and maintain a Delicious account with at least 50 links that you find interesting

16. Learn another programming language besides HTML (e.g. XML, PHP, MySQL)

17. Create an avatar and use it on all your social networking profiles

22. Interview 10 people using a video camera

23. Create a map mashup using a CSV file
If this seems daunting, then write up No. 30 and tape it to your computer: Remind yourself why you want to be a journalist.

For more, see "The New Visual Journalist" on Mindy McAdams' blog, Teaching Online Journalism. Among those she interviews is Colin Mulvany, a photojournalist/multimedia producer at The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Wash. As he notes:
“I firmly believe there will be no more just reporters or just photographers. We all need to have crossover skills. The Web demands it.”
-rp-

Photo credit: "Creative Commons Creativity Poster" by maven, courtesy of Flickr.com

Sunday, March 29, 2009


On the eve of teaching journalism Spring term at LBCC comes a story, no, a plea in The Nation for an American future that includes a robust media that upholds the promise our Founding Fathers made by including "the press" in the First Amendment.

It takes a while to get to the provocative stuff, but hang in there, the piece by John Nichols and Robert McChesney pays off in the end. The premise is this: Democracy depends in part on a strong "Fourth Estate," and it's up to the government of the people, for the people to give journalism a fighting chance, even if the media has shot itself in the foot, the head and anyplace else you'd care to mention. The authors conclude:
The technologies and the economic challenges are, of course, more complex than in the 1790s, but the answer is the same: the democratic state, the government, must create the conditions for sustaining the journalism that can provide the people with the information they need to be their own governors.
They suggest (Dare I say it?) government subsidies in the form of tax credits for newspaper subscriptions, grants to college media (to educate a new-and-improved next generation of real journalists, not media celebrities), and general fund support to turn failing for-profit newspapers and television stations into non-profit community information providers, not unlike NPR and the BBC.

It's all well-intentioned and thought-provoking, though I'm skeptical today whether it's a solution. I plan to discuss aspects of the article with my classes this term.

Once again, thanks to my OSU journalism colleague Pam Cytrynbaum for bringing this article to my attention. And to OSU journalism instructor Peter Ogle for the great comic, wherever it came from...

-rp-

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Spring Training for Journalists

E-learning (right page)

Looking for something to do over spring break? How about learning a new multimedia skill?

A good place to start would be a new post on 10,000 Words -- "Essential Multimedia Tutorials and Resources for Do-it-yourself Training."

The list includes some of my favorites, including Mindy McAdams' "Teaching Online Journalism," "Common Craft" and the Knight Digital Media Center.

Have fun.

-rp-

(Photo credit: "E-learning" by mushon, courtesy of Flickr.com)

Saturday, January 24, 2009

The State of Journalism: 6:26 p.m. Jan. 24, 2009

Reuter's Got Mojo (that's mobile journalism)

One of my students posed these questions on the "state of journalism" for another one of his classes at LBCC:

1. What do you think is the biggest challenge facing journalism today?


The biggest challenge facing today’s journalists remains the same as ever: Gathering, analyzing, organizing and disseminating information for the benefit of readers and citizens in a democracy. Just like other industries, the media goes through periods of upheaval, change and innovation. We’re seeing that now, especially in the economic struggle of newspapers. From a consumer point of view, however, information has never been so plentiful. The challenge for those in the media is adapting to the technological and economic realities of the new millennium and satisfying the unprecedented demand for information.

2. How has the economy put pressure on journalism to adapt?

The media benefited from an immensely profitable economic model throughout the 20th century. Nothing in this world is guaranteed, however. And while they were enjoying healthy profits, the media – newspapers in particular – weren’t innovating aggressively enough or investing in serving the next generation of news consumers. For the past decade TV has been quicker to adopt new technology and adapt to the demands of its customers, whether incorporating the latest in video technology or expanding online.

3. What can students entering journalism do to avoid extinction?

As in any profession, journalists – whether veteran reporters or those just starting out – must stay current in their skills and knowledge. Those now in college not only must become well acquainted in the tasks and traditions of journalism, but they also must master rapidly evolving technology. It used to be that new journalists could find work if they excelled in writing, editing or photography. These days they have to be able to excel at all these tasks in addition to all aspects of online journalism, from writing and maintaining a blog to shooting, editing and posting video reports.

4. What are the benefits of journalists being forced to learn multitasking?

Journalists capable of mastering all the tools available for gathering and disseminating information always have been in highest demand. That hasn’t changed. Just as the most successful newspaper reporters learned how to incorporate the skills of radio and television journalists, today’s young reporters need to be knowledgeable about all these mediums as well as online. Those who can maintain the utmost versatility will continue to capitalize on all the opportunities the media has to offer.

5. What's the best advice you ever received as a journalist?

Practice, practice, practice. In the broadest sense, this means get out of the office, ask questions, get answers, and share what you learn. Journalism isn’t that difficult. As with anything else, the more you practice the better you become. The more stories you write, the more interviews you conduct, and the more photos you take, the better journalist you will be.

Note: To paraphrase Charles Dickens: “These are the best of times, these are the worst of times…” While some aspects of the media are struggling to redefine themselves and their economic reality, I believe it’s never been more exciting to be a journalist, especially a young, college-age journalist. The opportunities for applying the research, analysis, writing and presentation skills of a journalist have never been in greater demand.

-rp-

(Photo credit: "Reuter's (sic) Got Mojo" by inju, courtesy of Flickr.com)

Monday, December 22, 2008

Why We're Teaching Students to Blog

At LBCC we're jumping into blogging with both feet. We're primarily doing it because it is one of the skills that the next generation of journalists will have to master, especially as the media gravitates more toward the Internet and all the various platforms (i.e. blogs, social networks, Twitter).

Alfred Hermida of Reportr.net lays out the case for colleges to teach blogging in this post on MediaShift. As he notes:
"The blog has emerged as a powerful platform for journalists to provide context, analysis and interpretation, often including behind-the-scenes information that does not fit into the structure of a traditional news story. It has also provided journalists with a way to communicate with readers in a more conversational and informal tone, rather than in an abstract voice of authority."
We started blogging last term in the News Reporting class. The results were mixed, with some students picking up on the assignment while others struggled to get into the routine. Some of the results can still be seen in the "Student Blogs" section of this blog.

Winter Term we'll be expanding blogging to both the Feature Writing and Photojournalism classes. In Feature Writing the students will choose particular topic areas on which to focus throughout the term, while the Photojournalism students will use the blog as sort of an ongoing portfolio of their work, including background about their various photo projects.

I'm looking forward to both these term-long workshops.

(Photo credit: "What No One Ever Tells You About Blogging" by andyp uk, courtesy of Flickr.com)
-rp-

Sunday, December 14, 2008

LBCC: Sign Up for Winter Term Journalism


Winter term will be busy at LBCC when it comes to journalism. Three classes are on the docket:
  • Feature Writing (JN217): Sure the lead and nut graf still matter, but we're not stopping there. We'll venture into commentary, reviews and other fun explorations, including expanded blogs. MWF 11-11:50 a.m.
  • Photojournalism (JN134): Taking photos for print and online publication. Going beyond landscapes to show people in action... WF 9-10:50 a.m.
  • Media & Society (JN201): Take a tour of the media, where's it's been (Newspapers are so last millennium!) and where it's going (What? You don't have a blog?!). TR 9-10:50 a.m.
The number of seats available is shrinking fast. Don't be left out. To register online, start here.

-rp-

(Photo credit: "Paparazzi 1" by JAG1, courtesy of Flickr.com)

Friday, November 21, 2008

Tips for the Social Networker in Every Journalist

These fine reminders on "social media" for journalists come courtesy of Alfred Hermida at Reportr.net:
  1. Be human: Mass media was based on the notion of reaching millions of people with one message. As a result, that message often came across in an impersonal, corporate voice. Social media provides an opportunity to be more personal, informal and conversational.
  2. Be honest: Be transparent and open about what you are doing. Social media is about genuine relationships and anyone trying to fake it is likely to be found out very quickly.
  3. Be involved: Journalists should not approach social media by thinking, “how can I use this for a story”. Social media should be part of your job, not an add-on or something to be used for a story and then abandoned.

My advice to journalists is to be part of the social web, to live the social web.

Well put.

Hermida is leading a seminar today on social media best practices at a day-long event organized by CBC Vancouver. I'm looking forward to the follow-up. Meanwhile, check out the workshop blog.

-rp-

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Crowdfunding: The Next Era of Journalism?

How much would you pay to hire a journalist to report and write a news story that matters to you and your neighbors? Several groups are now experimenting with "community-funded journalism," which relies upon online donations to enlist the skills of a journalist.

Several interesting write-ups on the concept can be explored, starting with a post by Mark Glaser on MediaShift, who begins:
Bands do it. Filmmakers do it. President-elect Barack Obama made an artform out of it. "It" is crowdfunding, getting micro-donations through the Internet to help fund a venture. The question is whether crowdfunding can work on a larger scale to help fund traditional journalism...
He puts the spotlight on two efforts, one in San Francisco called Spot.us and the other in Northfield, Minn., called Representative Journalism, which is funding one reporter to cover the town of 17,000 residents.

Spot.us was the subject of a New York Times article in August. Crowdfunding may not be the answer to newspapers' revenue ills, the article notes. Then again, nothing else seems to be stemming the tide of newspaper cutbacks and layoffs.

As New York University journalism professor Jay Rosen notes in that story:

“The business model is broken. We’re at a point now where nobody actually knows where the money is going to come from for editorial goods in the future. My own feeling is that we need to try lots of things. Most of them won’t work. You’ll have a lot of failure. But we need to launch a lot of boats.”

-rp-

(Photo credit: "Reporter" by alex-s, courtesy of Flickr.com)

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Eugene Weekly: Newspapers Don't Get It!


On the heels of a New York Times article stressing the imperative of newspapers and the rest of the media to change or perish comes a good shout-out by Eugene Weekly in its weekly Slant column. It began by noting the recent SPJ conference, "Building a Better Journalist," and continued:
"Excellent presenters from around the Northwest focused on how news organizations can reinvent themselves. Lots of talk about Web sites, blogs, YouTube, Twitter and new 'economic models' for success, but little discussion about how journalism itself is to blame for the financial woes of traditional media. Give the public lively, compelling, relevant content and they will stick with you. Give people superficial, predictable stories and recycled press releases and they will flock to something more stimulating, such as Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Bill Maher , or conservative talk radio. National content in print form is yesterday’s news, so political junkies turn to interactive political Web sites."
As I shared this take with students in my Media & Society class at LBCC nods of agreement spread around the room. After all, they don't read newspapers, but they are media consumers and big on the Internet.

Eugene Weekly concluded: "Newspapers need to rise to the challenge with better content, rather than dumb down and pander to their shrinking advertiser base."

For more on this topic, see my blog, "Journalism: A Return to Its Partisan Roots?" from earlier this week.

-rp-

p.s. Fans of U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio and his no-nonsense approach in Congress will find much to like in his Q&A with Eugene Weekly.

(Photo credit: "Reading Over His Shoulder" by Point-Shoot-Edit, courtesy of Frickr.com)

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Journalism: A Return to Its Partisan Roots?

Last week students in my Media & Society class engaged in a discussion of journalism's partisan roots, discussing how many newspapers in colonial America got their start from political parties and "radicals" who opposed the King of England. They were interested in the tale of John Peter Zenger, whose arrest for "seditious libel" and subsequent release paved the way for the First Amendment, freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

Later they talked about journalism's conversion to "objectivity" in the early 1900s, and the continuation of that mantra to today. Then we got into a discussion of Bill O'Reilly, Keith Olbermann, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.

"Not a lot of objectivity there," they agreed. However, they also agreed that these "journalists" have developed a healthy following, if not always a healthy adherence to "objective" reporting. And the students seemed to agree that these journalists have generally fulfilled their mission in serving their respective audiences.

For example, the students readily agree that Stewart and Colbert are satirists more than journalists. Nevertheless, they have succeeded in raising awareness during the presidential campaign and have spurred many young people to get involved in politics. And that's a good thing.

So I just saw a post on Social Media discussing the apparent return of partisan journalism. The post was based on a New York Times article, which notes that many news outlets can attribute their success and growing audience to their own partisanship that is on display for all to see.

While these partisan news outlets grow in stature and audience, newspapers are withering, in part I think because their readers aren't particularly interested in their claims of objectivity. They know where the newspaper's staff stands on the issues, and that's great if readers agree. If not, why bother when they can get the news from someone who shares their political outlook.

As my students reinforced, perception guides much of what we do, why should news consumption be any different? People will trust those they perceive have similar biases. Maybe it's time for newspapers to stop with the charade of objectivity, call things as they see it, stir things up, and perhaps they'll rediscover an audience of eager readers.

Friday, October 31, 2008

LBCC Students Share Tales of Journalism

About a half dozen students from Linn-Benton Community College ventured to the SPJ conference -- "Building a Better Journalist" -- last weekend at the University of Oregon.

What did they think? In addition to picking up various tips from the pros on reporting, interviewing and writing, they were inspired to do better journalism.

As they discovered, despite some recent media woes, this is an exciting time to be a journalist with opportunities opening up all around them, especially on the Internet.

But don't just take my word for it. Check out blogs by Lydia Elliott and Max Brown. To find out what other young journalists are thinking, take a look at their newspaper, The Commuter, and its lively blog list. Finally, students in LBCC's news reporting class have been experimenting this term with some blogs of their own.

All of them reflect the enthusiasm that's motivating our next generation of journalists.

-rp-

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Better Headlines for the Search Engine Era




When it comes to getting your news story seen and read, writing a clever, enticing and informative headline still makes all the difference, whether your story is on the front page of the newspaper or vying for space on Google News.

A panel of journalism and online experts discussed the difference between "traditional" journalism and online news Saturday at the University of Oregon as part of a day-long conference, "Building a Better Journalist," organized by the Oregon and Southwest Washington Chapter of SPJ.

"News Google Can Use" featured Rachel Anderson of Anvil Media in Portland; Rob Smith, editor of the Portland Business Journal; and UO journalism professor John Russial.

While print publications can still attract "eyeballs" with clever headlines along with attractive photos and graphics, online journalists have to keep search engines foremost in their thinking. More specifically, headlines and story content must focus on nouns -- the traditional people, places and things -- that are going to land content at the top of the Google search list.

So, for example, a vague headline that proclaims "Candidate's supporters crash opponent's visit" doesn't stand a chance of being noticed against one that lets readers know "Merkley supporters crash Smith's Oregon campaign visit."

"You just need to think about it from a different perspective," said Anderson, who gave session attendees a crash course on search engine optimization, including emphasizing keywords in headlines as well as stories.

Why does it matter? Because online you need eyeballs to drive revenue, and the higher your content rates on various search engine lists the more likely readers are to click through and see ads that accompany the story.

Russial, who teaches editing and headline writing, reminded the audience that coming up with quality headlines that attract readers hasn't changed with the advent of the Internet. "Writing headlines is not trivial. You have to put some thought into it."

In many instances, he added, straight-forward "search engine headlines" are better simply because they tell the news. That should be a good reminder for all journalists, regardless of their medium.

Overall, about 100 people attended the conference, including journalism professionals and students from around the region.

Friday, October 3, 2008

LB Students Launch Their Blogs - Cool!


ALBANY, Ore. -- Students in Rob Priewe's News Reporting and Writing class at Linn-Benton Community College embarked on a bold new adventure this week, creating blogs that they will use during the term to share their thoughts about journalism, writing, current events and ... whatever.

It's the first time LBCC journalism students have used blogs as part of their curriculum, Priewe noted after class Friday.

"I'm excited to see where this experiment takes us," he said.

Student blogs come on the heels of the student newspaper, The Commuter, launching a new Web site over the summer. Both projects fit into the larger goal of better preparing young journalists for careers in the fast-changing media, Priewe said.

He's got 12 students in his News Reporting class, which meets three times a week on the Albany campus. While the students are very familiar with MySpace, Facebook and other aspects of the Internet, most of them are new to blogging.

That didn't deter them, however, from jumping right into it with their first posts. Some of the students commented on their first week of classes, while another offered an opinion about whiny sports fans. One student even had a comment quickly turn up from afar, making the students even more curious about the medium.

"We're still working on some of the ground rules," Priewe noted. For now, the mantra is simply "don't post anything you wouldn't want your mother to read."

Check out the "JN216 Blogs" to the right, and you can see for yourself what the students come up with.

(Photo credit: "STS115: Moments into the Launch of Atlantis" by mocr, courtesy of Flickr.com)

-rp-