By ASHLEY D. ANDERSON
J Alumni News staff
Futuristic.
Awesome.
Finally!
Students and faculty members have used those words to describe Harold and Marian Andersen Hall, the building that put the University of Nebraska on the cutting edge of college journalism.
The College of Journalism and Mass Communications moved its headquarters from Avery Hall to Andersen Hall in August.
Andersen Hall’s features include a newsroom designed for print, video, audio and Internet media, the KRNU radio station, television news studios and radio and television production laboratories. The advertising department uses a computer graphics lab, a client presentation room and rooms for conducting focus groups. The basement houses a 120-seat lecture hall and auditorium and photo labs, including an electronic darkroom.
The building also contains distance learning classrooms, conference rooms, a graduate center and an office for student organizations.
Nancy Mitchell, advertising department chairwoman, said Avery Hall created physical divisions among the advertising, broadcasting and news-editorial departments because they were located on different floors. That isn’t the case in Andersen Hall, where students share equipment and several broadcasting professors have offices next to news-editorial or advertising professors’ offices. The offices border the newsroom, classrooms and student commons areas.
Senior advertising major Joshua Koenig said studying in Andersen Hall gave students a confidence boost.
“I like the atmosphere and the energy it radiates,” Koenig said. “It gives students a new perspective on how great their major is instead of how outdated it is.”
The move couldn’t come soon enough for the college, which had outgrown Avery Hall. The space in Avery Hall was designed for 600 students, but nearly 1,000 students were enrolled in the college by 2000. The college’s computer and radio station equipment also was outdated.
The University of Nebraska Foundation came to the college’s rescue in 1996 when it purchased the Security Mutual Life Insurance Co. building, 200 N. Centennial Mall, for the college. The NU Foundation named the building Andersen Hall in honor of Harold and Marian Andersen, long-time supporters of the university who raised more than $1.9 million toward the purchase of the building, which cost $2.5 million.
When the foundation purchased the building, Dean Will Norton Jr. and Associate Dean Linda Shipley saw an opportunity for the college to use the newest technology to educate its students.
A converged newsroom topped their wish list, Shipley said.
In a converged newsroom, print and broadcast journalists can share story ideas, interview sources together and borrow each other’s photos and videos. The departments produce their own publications and newscasts but also can combine their work for an online publication. For example, video and audio clips may accompany news stories.
Norton’s and Shipley’s vision became reality this semester in a one-credit class to produce NewsNet Nebraska. The site will include breaking news stories, video and audio clips and advertisements.
Charlyne Berens, news-editorial department chairwoman, said her goal was to create a publication that would be updated every four hours, making it more current than The Journalist, the weekly newspaper produced by advanced editing, reporting and photojournalism classes. The Journalist is published during the last seven weeks of the semester, but NewsNet Nebraska will be produced throughout the semester.
Shipley said collaboration between print and broadcast media was becoming common in professional newsrooms throughout the country. Before designing NU’s converged newsroom, news-editorial professors Berens, George Tuck and Daryl Frazell and broadcasting professors Jerry Renaud and Rick Alloway toured the newsroom used by the Sarasota, Fla., Herald-Tribune and its companion cable TV station to observe how converged newsrooms operated.
Faculty also toured the journalism departments at the University of North Carolina and Abilene Christian University, which were making curriculum changes to incorporate the new technology available to journalists.
Although many universities use converged newsroom technology, Shipley said, NU’s journalism college is one of the first to place print and broadcast departments in the same space.
NU’s newsroom, located on the second floor of Andersen Hall, houses the KRNU radio station, editing and production rooms for radio and television, a computer lab and an electronic darkroom where students scan and edit digital photos. Thirteen television line the south wall of the newsroom, each tuned to a different channel, so students can stay up to date on breaking news.
Jerry Renaud, broadcasting department chairman, said students would become better journalists by working in a converged newsroom.
“We want broadcasters to understand that writing is just as important as how the information is put together,” Renaud said. “At the same time, print (journalists) learn what goes into producing a newscast.”
Converged newsrooms don’t remove print journalists and broadcasters from their specialized abilities, Renaud said, but give journalists flexibility, which is invaluable during crunch times.
Berens said large and small publications were using converged newsrooms, and NU’s would prepare students for the real world.
“We think students need to be exposed to the skills and philosophy of working together,” she said. “It’s all news, and good reporting is going to cross over.”
Renaud said he agreed.
“Good reporting is good reporting, and good writing is good writing,” he said. “It’s just a matter of being able to adapt to a certain style.”
Faculty who teach advanced reporting and editing classes will modify their courses’ content so news-editorial and broadcasting classes can work together on projects like NewsNet Nebraska.
Renaud said the change would be exciting but challenging. For example, portions of a photojournalism class may be eliminated so students can learn videography skills and vice versa.
Last spring, a depth reporting class taught by Renaud and news-editorial professor Joe Starita experimented with combined newsgathering. Print students produced the magazine “Reflections on the Little Bighorn, 125 Years Later,” and broadcasting students made an hour-long documentary on the same topic.
For six weeks, class members compiled background information on Lakota war chiefs Crazy Horse and Gall, Lakota spiritual leader Sitting Bull and members of the U.S. Army, including Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer, Capt. Frederick Benteen and Maj. Marcus Reno.
During spring break, the 12 students traveled to Mari Sandoz’ grave, Fort Robinson State Park and parts of South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana. When the group wasn’t riding in a van, students were photographing and filming the scene or interviewing Lakota tribe members and descendants of those affected by the Battle of the Little Bighorn. The students spent the remainder of the semester writing stories, sidebars and facts boxes and editing video.
Renaud said broadcasting students improved their writing skills while working on the project, and news-editorial students learned about the challenges broadcasters face.
The experience taught Renaud that print and broadcast journalists have more similarities than differences.
“We’re all trying to get information to the public in an interesting fashion, but we’re doing it differently,” he said.
Mitchell said advertising courses wouldn’t change much, but better technology has made the courses more professional.
“Students should be able to walk into a job,” she said, “and perform at a professional level because the technology won’t surprise them.”
On the third floor of Andersen Hall, advertising students use a computer graphics lab and a client presentation room that has a sound system, Internet connections, Power Point technology and a DVD player. Eventually, students will produce and edit commercials in a television studio.
Product research will be conducted in focus group rooms that have one-way mirrors, allowing clients to see and listen to the group’s discussion.
Bailey Lauerman and Associates, a 31-year-old Lincoln advertising agency, donated $25,000 to create a Bailey Lauerman Student Commons Area, which will be used for presentations, group meetings and socializing.
Koenig said Andersen Hall provided a more realistic atmosphere for advertising students than Avery Hall did.
“It reflects how advertising agencies actually look,” he said. “I think it’s important to give students a general feel for how their future workplaces will work.”
Although the college changed dramatically in August, Mitchell said the new technology and surroundings wouldn’t change the mission of the advertising department or the college.
“We tried to preserve things that have served us well over time,” she said. “The technology is important, but the main emphasis is on teaching the basics — and what a great facility to do it in.”