A national journalism project supported by a number of foundations recently announced it is releasing the results of a project to news organizations throughout the country.
News21 is an investigative journalism project that incorporates online media in its reporting. It recently released more than 60 multimedia projects and stories, which represent the work of journalism students around the country.
The program is based at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, and represents a partnership between the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation of Miami.
News21 is in its fourth year and is part of the foundations’ Carnegie-Knight Initiative on the Future of Journalism Education, which works to train future journalists around the country.
"Journalism schools have an even larger role to play in this time of dislocation and change in the news industry," Susan King, Carnegie Corporation vice president, said. "Students need to be well read and digitally skilled, and if News 21 proves anything it is that these students excel on both fronts."
This year’s News21 projects focused on the theme of "Changing America," and featured stories on a variety of topics, including the national energy grid, voter data and the changing face of Allensworth, Calilfornia. Students, who were supervised by experienced professionals, had 10 weeks to complete their projects.
In working on their projects, students tackled numerous media, including video, slideshows, motion graphics, time-lapse maps and micro-blogging websites like Twitter. A national database was also created, allowing journalists to share information about cities.
Schools that took part in the project include: Arizona State University; Columbia University; Northwestern University; the University of California at Berkeley; University of Maryland; University of North Carolina; the University of Southern California; and Syracuse University. Harvard University, the University of Missouri, the University of Nebraska and the University of Texas at Austin also took part.
Recently, the University of Missouri got one of the largest gifts in its history from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation. The university’s Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute received a five-year, $15 million grant from the foundation.