Newhouse School of Communications
The Young and The Wireless: News 21
August 31, 2009
10 Newhouse student reporters traveled the US in search of stories this summer. They were among the first college students in the country to complete an innovative multimedia journalism project.
The students' journeys were fueled by the News 21 program, funded by the Knight and Carnegie Foundations. Together the two news industry titans created a multimedia initiative dedicated to the future of journalism education.
Eight key colleges, including Syracuse University, were chosen to dispatch student reporters. Four associate schools sent additional students to provide tech support at the "incubator schools."
The students chosen at each News 21 university enrolled in a spring class where they researched and planned their project's topic. The Newhouse School group chose to cover technology's impact on young Americans. SU's showcase website is called "The Young and the Wireless."
Newhouse News and Online Journalism Professor Steve Davis explains the Newhouse News 21 concept: "The whole idea was to explore the way technology is changing the way young people live, work, play, study, and basically communicate."
The Newhouse News 21 reporters, a mix of undergrad and graduate students, were paid $750 per week to scour the country for stories. The Carnegie-Knight Initiative covered all travel, food and lodging expenses. As soon as each two-student team hit the ground in their assigned locale, they began calling contacts, videotaping interviews, shooting still photos and blogging.
In order to cover a true cross-section of Americans, the students chose to follow a model created by the Christian Science Monitor. The newspaper worked with a demographer on covering the 2008 presidential election, and created what's known as "Patchwork Nation." The Nation is a tool designed to glean information from communities that represent the whole nation.
"They created a proven model for diversity," Davis says. Each of the 11 communities the students traveled to has a characteristic population -- minority, religious, military, elderly, rural, urban, etc.
The stories News 21 students found are rich and varied. Seven siblings in Arizona share one laptop. College students in Louisiana develop platforms for an IPhone applications. An Oregon mom would rather text, while her son still likes to talk on the phone. A young girl in Philadelphia, assigned a laptop and digital camera for classes, misses using pencils and paper in school.
The summer program began in mid-May. The students took three trips, each lasting two weeks. In all, Davis says, students spent six weeks on the road and four weeks in Syracuse. Professors Ken Harper, Bruce Strong and Steve Davis taught and guided the News 21 reporters and are working with them now to launch "The Young and the Wireless" website. The site officially debuts this September.
Click on the screen to watch a video of Newhouse's News 21 reporters at work.
