By Jeremy Engelberg
J Alumni News staff
The UNL J School is blazing an educational trail with the inception of NewsNetNebraska. Students from all three of the school’s departments now have the opportunity to work together in a classroom setting, learning from one another as they explore the idea of convergence in the field of journalism.
NewsNetNebraska is an on-line news source that is regularly updated and maintained by journalism students working together in a freshly created class. The server, which went live March 1, gives advertising, broadcasting, news and photojournalism majors the opportunity to share skills in reporting, editing, visual communications and commercial communications. “The idea is to give students the opportunity to work in a converged newsroom,” said Mike Stricklin, a news professor who served as an instructor for the NewsNetNebraska course along with Professor George Tuck during spring semester.
The primary motive behind NewsNetNebraska is to meet the needs of news employers who are looking for people with diverse skills and the ability to take on multiple tasks. In the past, a reporter would gather facts on a breaking news story for one specific medium. However, in present-day situations, the reporter in the field will need to be able to prepare the story for whichever type of media channel needs the information. As soon as the story is available for print, the text can be up-linked via satellite and sent to other media channels within the news organization for dissemination.
The idea of building students’ knowledge in other areas of the journalism realm is not the only concept behind NewsNet-Nebraska.
“We want students to gain an appreciation for all of the aspects of journalism,” said Mike Goff, an advertising professor and promotional advertising director of NewsNet-Nebraska during spring semester.
Goff explained that while students take pride in their own specific major, it is important for them to realize that each one of the departments in the college of journalism relies on one another for their own existence.
“Newspapers cannot support themselves on subscriptions alone,” said Goff. “They rely on revenue generated through advertising.” The same is true of television or radio stations.
In NewsNetNebraska, the idea of convergence begins to take shape. By working together in one setting, journalism majors will see how their own specific curricula fit into the grand scheme of the media world. As the students work together, each has a chance to go into the field and experience the different realms of journalism. For example, if students were assigned to cover a breaking news story on campus, a news-editorial major may go out into the field with a broadcasting major to obtain the information and then shoot tape to go along with the story. The students will then return to class and put the written story along with the video and audio clips on NewsNetNebraska.
A drawing point for visitors to the NewsNetNebraska site is that it serves the UNL community.
“We want to generate more action within the UNL community,” Stricklin said. News stories on the site will pertain primarily to the university, and different departments and groups within the UNL community will be able to place advertisements designed by the students free of charge. Students and faculty will also select a site of the day, showcasing a unique Web site pertaining to the university.
“There are literally thousands of fascinating Web sites within the unl.edu domain,” Stricklin said. “Each day we’ll feature an interesting site within the UNL community.”
NewsNetNebraska will be an aid to students and the university community alike. The site will offer students the opportunity to report and edit stories as well as add streaming audio and video clips of various news events. Students from all journalism departments will get hands-on experience in a newsroom setting, all the while providing the university community with a channel for communication.