Sources: Angela Powers, 785-532-3963, apowers@k-state.edu;
and Sam Mwangi, 785-532-3960, scmwangi@k-state.edu
Photos available. Contact media@k-state.edu or 785-532-6415
Note to editor: Michael Scott Douglass is a graduate of Olathe South High School.
News release prepared by: Andy Badeker, 785-532-6415, abadeker@k-state.edu
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
K-STATE JOURNALISTS HELP HATCH NATIONWIDE DIGITAL NEWS INCUBATOR
MANHATTAN -- A recent grant will help students at the A.Q. Miller School of Journalism and Mass Communications at Kansas State University take "participatory journalism" beyond the blog.
K-State will share the $230,000 Knight Foundation award with six other journalism programs across the country. The goal is to establish national network of "innovation incubators" through which college students can develop and distribute new forms of participatory community journalism.
"Participatory journalism is when you have citizens contributing news content," said Angela Powers, director of the A. Q. Miller School. "We've always had this in the editorial page. Now traditional media organizations provide citizens with blogs and other forms of interactive formats to enable anyone to be a gatherer of news.
"The dilemma lies in how professional news organizations can maintain their quality, which requires substantial resources, and still make a profit with so much nonprofessional, free information available," she said. "Our students will be working to come up with a new model for news that will address these issues."
Sam Mwangi, an assistant professor of journalism and mass communications, will administer the program for K-State.
"New information technologies have disrupted traditional journalism models," Mwangi said. "No one knows what journalism will look like in the future. Our challenge in this project is to come up with creative and innovative ways of doing journalism using new communication technologies in a way that engages citizens.
"We are excited to be a part of a project that seeks to revitalize journalism by placing citizens at the center of the news-writing process."
K-State students selected for the project are Heather Hickerson, senior in print and electronic journalism, Douglass; Tina Deines, graduate student in journalism and mass communications, and Michael Scott Douglass, senior in electronic journalism, both of Manhattan; Matt Sundberg, senior in radio-television, Roeland Park; Shane Howard, junior in electronic journalism, Tonganoxie; and Rebecca Perez, senior in print journalism, Wamego.
"With this award, our students have the opportunity to voice their opinions at the national level to help shape the delivery and content of news of the future," Powers said.
The group's first meeting took place last week in Ithaca, N.Y., at Ithaca College's H. Park School of Communications, which initiated the project and will distribute the grant money to cover student expenses.
The other participants are the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Kansas, as well as the journalism programs at the University of Las Vegas, Michigan State University, Western Kentucky University and St. Michael's College in Vermont.
The Knight News Challenge -- open to anyone, anywhere -- offers $25 million over five years in awards for news experiments that use digital media to build communities in specific geographic areas. The first year's winners, ranging from individuals to corporations, were chosen from among 1,650 applicants after recommendations by a panel of experts in digital media. They are to receive a total of $12 million, including several multiyear awards.
The awards were announced May 23 at the Interactive Media conference and trade show in Miami, sponsored by Editor & Publisher and Mediaweek magazines.