Study multimedia in Italy, N. Ireland this summer

The Institute for Education in International Media is still accepting applications for its 2008 multimedia journalism programs in Italy and Northern Ireland this summer. The application deadline is March 15; applications that come in after that will be considered on a space-available basis.

I taught in the program last summer and can testify students had a great time and learned a lot about multimedia storytelling.

Students spend four weeks studying digital storytelling, photography, video and Web design and produce a multimedia Webzine about the local community. (For examples of past projects see InCagli and InArmagh.)

The Italian program is based in Cagli, a charming town nestled in the foothills of the Apennine Mountains. The program has come to Cagli every summer since its founding in 2002. In Ireland, students live and study in Armagh on the Irish Republic's border, two hours from Dublin, three from Galway, and one from Belfast.

The program welcomes students from all universities and disciplines.

Highlights of the program:

* Earn six undergraduate credits (through Marquette University) or six graduate units (through Gonzaga University) in communication
* Study with experienced faculty plus top media professionals (3:1 faculty-student ratio)
* Live in furnished apartments in Cagli or a youth hostel in Armagh
* Combine hands-on professional experience with academic learning
* Travel independently on three-day weekends (additional faculty-guided travel opportunities may be available)

Dates:

Cagli, Italy: 5/27 – 6/24
Armagh, Northern Ireland: 7/22 -- 8/19

Costs:

$4,999 + airfare for 6 undergraduate credits from Marquette University
$6,500 + airfare for 6 graduate credits from Gonzaga University
Prices are subject to change based on market fluctuations.

For info and application visit ieiMedia or email CagliProject@gmail.com or ArmaghProject@gmail.com.

Colorado State rejects Gannett proposal

A proposed deal between Colorado State University's student-run, nonprofit Rocky Mountain Collegian and the Gannett-owned Fort Collins Coloradoan is off, according to news reports.

"We had one conversation with the university out there," Gannett spokeswoman Tara Connell told the Daily Free Press, the student newspaper at Boston University. "They said it's not for us, the paper isn't for sale. End of story."

In January, Colorado State University President Larry Penley sent an e-mail to the campus community confirming rumors that university officials had met with the editor and publisher of The Coloradoan, the local Gannett paper, to discuss a possible partnership. Read more about it in this earlier post.

You can read The Rocky Mountain Collegian's coverage of campus discussions on the future of student media at the university here.

New blog on investigative reporting for students

If you're interested in investigative reporting check the Center for Campus Investigations, a new blog created by Marcy Burstiner, an assistant professor of journalism at Humboldt State University.

The blog offers a week-by-week, step-by-step plan for carrying out an investigation at a campus newspaper, from forming an investigative team to outlining the story to developing sources to visualizing the story.

Burstiner, who teaches investigative reporting and advises The Lumberjack at the Northern California university, is collecting investigative projects done by campus newspapers. If you have something to share send it to her at mib3@humboldt.edu.

Feb. Story of the Month: How She Got That Story

Jessica Chou, the UCLA Daily Bruin photographer who produced The Underground Students, a package of stories, photos and audio slide shows on undocumented students, shared how she got the story in an e-mail interview this week. The package was named February Story of the Month. Chou is a fourth-year history major.


What inspired you to write the series?

What inspired me to start this series and what inspired me to continue it were two different things. I initially found out about the issue when I was shooting the mock graduation protest IDEAS (a support group for undocumented students) held on campus for the Daily Bruin -- and to be honest, I didn't quite know what was going on. But there were certain things that they said in their testimonials that kind of stuck with me -- and in terms of financial struggles, it was something I was able to relate to. So I started paying attention. And I think I always knew that the overall, general immigration debate never quite made sense to me, I just didn't know why. In retrospect, I think the two came together really well -- here was something I can personally relate to, perhaps now the immigration debate can start making some sense.

But being a photographer, and wanting a great photo essay for my portfolio, I started contacting the only name I remembered from the top of my head, Ernesto Rocha (one of the students I covered in my profiles). I had the whole photo essay imagined in my head, and I was going to do it in a week. It was totally shallow. I finally got a response from him a few weeks later, and he told me about a hearing (for the D.R.E.A.M. Act), a radio show, and some rallies he was going to be a part of, and invited me to come along.

I remember when I was at the hearing on May 19th (2007), I was thinking "whoa...okay, there is something going on here...this is REALLY something..." I felt pretty foolish thinking about trying to get my story in a week -- then I really would've been one of those reporters who just wanted a story but missed the whole point.

But what inspired me to continue the story in the way that I did was this issue in itself. Looking at this as an outsider, embarrassingly enough, I was pretty shocked at how these students are “just like us!” Their individual stories and their collective efforts are incredibly humbling, and it only made me realize what our immigration policies are doing to REAL people, and how much of that isn’t reflected in our current immigration debate. It’s easy to talk about solutions in legal and economic terms, but it’s precisely this human value aspect that has made it really hard. It’s an incredibly multi-dimensional issue, and I think I just really wanted to address that part of it, or if it’s already understood, then I want to make sure it’s not forgotten within any discussion of the issue.

Tell us about how you found your sources and got them to open up to you.

I briefly mentioned how I came upon my sources, and it was really through my introduction with Ernesto…and it just started from there. I met more and more students from a lot the political activities that were going on for the D.R.E.A.M. Act. In terms of them opening up to me, it was easy. They were the ones who were talking about the issue. All I had to do was pay attention. I think they saw that, so they were willing to talk more. But if they weren’t already speaking up, I highly doubt there would’ve been a story for me to pursue. It probably helped that I was in some sort of position to make that recognition a bit more public than to just my immediate friends.

What were some of the difficulties you faced in reporting the story?

I think I was just really concerned with making sure that I wouldn’t be victimizing these students. The stories shared can be so overwhelming sometimes that it can be hard to look past the difficulties they are facing, but the point is that they were doing something about. When you’re reporting about a community of people, you’re not only presenting them to the public, you’re representing them as well, whether you like it or not. I wanted to make sure the story would present and represent them in the most honest light possible, victimizing them wouldn’t have done that.

You shot photos and wrote the stories. Talk about the challenges of doing both.

I think with photos, you’re able to make decisions after you shoot and look at how your story will materialize -- you see the story as you go along. In writing, at least to me, you kind of have to have that ready in your head: observed, digested and ready to explain…totally not me. That was a pretty weird twist trying to do both, but the decision for me to write the stories didn’t come until the end.

It only took me a week to write the stories (in comparison to photographing and interviewing the students for almost a year), but it felt painfully slow. It was also my first time writing, so I was pretty nervous-- thank goodness for my uber-talented editor, Robert Faturechi, who actually wrote the investigative piece on the preferential treatment at UCLA’s orthodontics program which I believed was featured as story of the month on your blog. I think he would be the common denominator for successful stories.

In terms of photographing and interviewing the students during the year…the challenges were really about judgment calls. Do you put your camera down now? Is it appropriate for me to follow this person here? Should I give this person some space before I approach him/her again? You just feel for it as you go I guess. But hands down, I still I like photographing better.

Anything else you'd like to say?

I guess I just want to say that I’m really glad that the story received the attention that it did, and that people are not looking at this issue lightly. There are many other students facing similar challenges, and these were just particular situations of a collective struggle. All the students who I have talked to, but weren’t profiled, helped me immensely in understanding this.

I also don’t think I could’ve have finished this if it weren’t for Robert, my editor, and Alene Tchekmedyian, the online assistance editor -- who stayed up for two days straight helping me produce the audio slideshows. They definitely grounded me in making sure I knew what I wanted out of the package, and it was way more than a one man effort that these stories came out.

Has your newspaper produced a great series, story, photo story, multimedia or interactive graphic you want to share with others. Submit it for Story of the Month consideration by e-mailing it to collegenewspaper@gmail.com. Keep in mind this is not a contest; it's simply a way to highlight examples of innovative, investigative and in-depth student journalism.

Googlize your student newspaper

Want your student newspaper's stories read by people around the world? Make sure your Web site is included in Google News.

That was one piece of advice Josh Cohen, business product manager for Google News, had Thursday for students and advisers attending the Associated Collegiate Press National College Newspaper Convention in San Francisco this week.

"Make sure it's easy for us to crawl the page," he said.

You can check if your newspaper's Web site is already included in Google News by going to this page. If your site isn't included you can recommend it for inclusion here.

Google News aggregates headlines from more than 4,500 English-language news sources worldwide, including many college newspapers.

And if you don't already use Google News alerts for your reporting, start now. It's a great way to keep up to speed on what's going on.

You can, for example, register a Google alert for your college or university. Whenever your school (or whatever word or phrase you specify) is in the news, you'll get an email from Google. You can register for Google alerts to come weekly, daily or as it happens.

To keep up with news on college newspapers, for example, I have daily Google alerts on "college newspaper," "campus newspaper" and "student newspaper." They help me monitor what's going on in the world of college media.

You can create a Google alert here.

Campus Press Update

The Campus Press, the University of Colorado-Boulder student newspaper that caused a stir with a column that called for a war between Asians and whites, has suspended its opinion section pending approval of an opinions policy.

In a statement on its Web site, the newspaper said it is "in the process of organizing an open, public forum to address diversity sensitivity in our news coverage in which we invite students to voice the direction they think the publication should go. The Campus Press staff is rewriting the publication's ethics policy, which will include addressing diversity issues in our coverage."

In addition, "The Campus Press Web site will be redesigned to clearly separate our opinions from our other sections, and a disclaimer will be added to every published opinion from here after."

In a letter to the campus community posted on the newspaper's Web site Friday, Opinions Section Editor Amanda Pehrson reflected on a community meeting held Wednesday to discuss the column and racism on the campus.

"I still believe that we can use the recent events as a means to move forward," she wrote.

Meanwhile, Max Karson, the student who wrote the controversial column, published a guest column in the Daily Camera, the community paper in Boulder, on Friday defending himself and expressing his frustration at the reaction to his piece.

“Sometimes it’s necessary to offend in order to provoke thought about difficult subjects,” Karson wrote. “For example, in my ‘Asians’ piece, I poked fun at Asian stereotypes for the purpose of mocking racist white people who never bother to understand or even consider Asian cultures and race relations at the University of Colorado."

He goes on to say, "My job as a journalist is to create that open dialogue by amplifying the voices of students -- even students with racist or other hateful ideas that I disagree with."

Localize this: LA Times questions rape stats

The Los Angeles Times ran a fascinating opinion piece Sunday challenging the oft-quoted statistic that between one-fifth and one-quarter of young women will be raped by the time they graduate college.

Whether you buy the story by Heather Mac Donald or not, it's one virtually any college newspaper could localize.

"If the one-in-four statistic is correct, campus rape represents a crime wave of unprecedented proportions," the article says. "No felony, much less one as serious as rape, has a victimization rate remotely approaching 20% or 25%, even over many years."

MacDonald's conclusion: The rape crisis doesn't exist.

To localize the story, student newspapers could run MacDonald's theory by campus police officials, women's studies and criminology professors, college women's and feminist groups and campus rape crisis centers.

It's almost certain to be a well-read, much discussed story.

Student editors take readers behind the scenes

The Campus Press, the student newspaper at the University of Colorado-Boulder that started a firestorm by printing a column that satirically called for a war between whites and Asians, ran a news story Monday explaining how the controversial column came to be published. (See earlier post for background.)

The story, written by staff writers Rob Ryan and George Plaven, lays out step-by-step what happened, including comments from editors who felt they were left out of the process. It's an interesting approach to dealing with a public relations fiasco at a student newspaper. Generally student and professional newspapers just deal with their errors in an editorial or opinion column and with news stories about reaction.

The article is the lead story on the newspaper's Web site, right under an invitation to readers to write a letter to the editor about the controversial column.

Also in the paper this week is a letter signed by nine editors who were not involved in the decision to run the column and who thought it was wrong.

"Many of us -- we do not speak on behalf of the entire Campus Press staff -- disagreed with the publishing of the opinion," the editors wrote in a opinion piece entitled "A letter from some different editors." "It was a mistake and we do not stand behind the decision to publish the opinion."

The letter and the article offer readers a glimpse behind the scenes of the newspaper, providing transparency at a difficult time for the newspaper staff.

What do you think of the way The Campus Press dealt with the fallout from the column? Post a comment here.

Controversial column sparks outcry, call for training

The staff of The Campus Press, the student newspaper at the University of Colorado-Boulder, will undergo diversity training, improve coverage of diverse communities and meet other measures outlined Thursday by university officials in response to a column published Monday that satirically called for "war" on Asians and Asian-Americans.

In the column, entitled "If it's War Asians Want," writer Max Karson said Asians hate whites. "They hate us all. And I say it's time we started hating them back. That's right-no more 'tolerance.' No more 'cultural sensitivity.' No more 'Mr. Pretend-I'm-Not-Racist.' It's time for war."

Though presumably meant as satire, the column stirred a firestorm of controversy that prompted community meetings and a resolution by the student government.

On Thursday, the student Legislative Council at the university unanimously passed a resolution formally opposing the column and another controversial opinion piece, "No hablo ingles," that ran the day before. On Friday, community and campus members met to discuss the article and ways to fight racism.

The chancellor of the University of Colorado-Boulder, the dean of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication and the editors of the student newspaper all issued apologies for Karson's column.

"The column was a poor attempt at social satire laden with offensive references, stereotypes and hateful language," University of Colorado Chancellor G.P. "Bud" Peterson said in a statement. "It was not properly labeled as either satire or commentary, and readers were left with the impression that the author spoke for the collective staff and leadership of the Campus Press, and perhaps even the University of Colorado."

In their apology, the editors of The Campus Press noted that the column offended many people.

"Karson's opinion is satire and is a commentary on racism at CU published in our opinion section, not presented as fact or incitement, and not published to intentionally incite controversy. We apologize for any ambiguity of the satire that may have been misconstrued."

In a statement released Thursday, Paul S. Voakes, dean of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Colorado-Boulder, lays out an action plan agreed upon by campus administrators and student editors:

* Beginning immediately, The Campus Press will provide enhanced coverage on the campus controversy the paper has sparked, which will include an open forum for commentary on the issue, for as many days as are warranted by ongoing reader interest.

* The Campus Press will work with SJMC Diversity Coordinator Dave Martinez to establish a Student Diversity Advisory Board, composed of non-journalism-majors who represent a broad swath of interests on the campus. The board’s purpose will be to provide editors with regular feedback from students with a diversity of backgrounds.

* The Campus Press will invite a number of student organizations to meet face-to-face with the editors, to discuss any specific concerns.

* The Campus Press will adopt an Opinions Policy, with standards and procedures for determining the acceptability of opinion columns or other reader-generated content.

* The Campus Press will schedule a series of diversity awareness workshops for the entire staff, in concert with the Office of Diversity, Equity and Community Engagement, and with participation of professional journalists of color.

* The Campus Press will schedule a series of workshops for opinion writing and editing, to be presented by experienced professional opinion editors.

"I’d like to reiterate that The Campus Press is the School’s teaching publication, and I believe the events of this week have provided all of us ... with a wealth of “teachable moments,” Voakes said in the statement. "I’m confident that the current crop of editors has begun to develop a new, more nuanced understanding of the delicate balance between absolute free speech and journalistic social responsibility."

Karson, the student who wrote the column, is no stranger to controversy; in 2007 he was arrested and barred from classes after saying in class that he could understand why the gunman at Virginia Tech would shoot fellow students, according to news reports. He also wrote a controversial newsletter called The Yeti, according to a 2006 article in The Daily Camera.

February Story of the Month

OK, so we've fallen down on the job of selecting Stories of the Month. We're resurrecting the feature to showcase The Daily Bruin's "The Underground Students" series on undocumented students in higher education.

The series offers a sensitive and nuanced look at undocumented students struggling to survive and get an education at UCLA.

The series includes:
-- Two audio slideshows by Jessica Chou and Alene Tchekmedyian, Part I and Part II

and these stories and photos by Jessica Chou:
-- Deportation of father leaves son challenges
UCLA student has to run family business, pay taxes, take care of brother between classes
-- Struggling with noncitizen status
Hardships of being an undocumented immigrant force student to work long hours to finish school
-- Living the green card dream
Attaining legal citizen status opens educational, vocational doors for UCLA alumna
-- Student sees beyond immigration status

Check it out. We'll try to get an interview with Jessica Chou next week.

Share your thoughts about The Underground Students package by posting a comment here.