What Kids Can Really Do

The group What Kids Can Do recently completed an inspired program involving three Chicago high school classes. The McCormick-supported project asked participating teens to identify a profession that interested them. Student then interviewed and photographed professionals in the selected field. The results can be reviewed online at http://www.whatkidscando.org/featurestories/2008/06_practice/index.html.

The Web site includes:
The narrative and photographs that resulted from students’ interviews with adults
An audio slideshow of students reflecting on the importance of practice and hard work
A curriculum overview of WKCD’s process in developing this project

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McCormick Hosts Ethnic Media Leaders

The recent “McCormick Ethnic Media Conference: Strategies for Growing the Sector” brought some 30 leaders from across the nation to Chicago to discuss strategies, obstacles, lessons learned and impact of the work they do. The conference featured a public panel Friday, June 20 on “The State of Ethnic Media: Boom or Bust?” This public discussion was moderated by Community Media Workshop’s Thom Clark and featured Sandy Close of New America Media, Cristina Azocar of the Center for Integration and Improvement of Journalism at San Francisco State University and Juana Ponce de Leon of New York Community Media Alliance. Here are video excerpts from that lively exchange:

• Thom Clark of CMW introduces the panel and discusses the results of his organization’s research into Chicago’s 200 ethnic news outlets (click here)
• Panelists discuss challenges facing ethnic media
(click here
• Juana Ponce de Leon discusses the vibrancy of the ethnic media in a city where 40% of residents are foreign-born (click here)
• Cristina Azocar discusses the research conducted by SFSU on opportunities and threats to EM nationally (click here)
• Sandy Close on the role and strengths of EM (click here)
• Sandy Close on EM and advertising potential (click here)
• Closing comments on MSM v EM v the death of journalism (click here)

A highlight of this event was a spoken word performance by Esther Ikoro and Adam Gottlieb of Young Chicago Authors (click here)

Photo above by Demetrio Maguigad of Community Media Workshop

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Covering the Virtual World

We agreed to meet with Washington State University's Brett Atwood while he attended this week's New Media Academic Summit in Chicago. At the end of the chat, Atwood was informed that McCormick Foundation's Journalism Program would fund his proposed Specialized Reporting Institute on covering virtual spaces. The conference is tentatively planned for October on WSU's campus in Pullman, where Atwood teaches new media at the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication. For more information about this intensive practical training on covering the virtual world of 3D web spaces, contact batwood@wsu.edu.

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Semi-Pro Journalism

The always insightful Jay Rosen offers his thoughts about the rise of semi-pro journalism, which were inspired by a Personal Democracy Forum panel. The NYU professor says today's press freedom landscape is shared territory with professional and amateur zones. The result is a cluster of open systems, closed systems and trauma in the press.

Rosen oversees Beatblogging.org, a McCormick Foundation-funded project that explores how journalists can use online social networks to improve beat reporting.

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Digital Diversity Wins Honors

Bringing together a diverse set of community news voices online in a visually-appealing, organized way ain't easy. Or cheap.

But the Twin Cities Media Alliance, a McCormick-funded nonprofit in Minnesota, shows you can bring together the work of more than 50 community ethnic media news outlets, dozens of citizen journalists and others, along with some great multimedia and blogs, to serve a local audience. It recently won the 2008 Page One (first place) award for Best Independent Web Site from the Minnesota Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ). The judges cited the great design of the Web site, along with "local content that is relevant...sleek and colorful design."

You can check it out yourself at: www.tcdailyplanet.net.

The site was re-designed in 2008 with local designers with the help of McCormick funding. Given the profusion of hyperlocal and citizen journalism Web sites, perhaps the Daily Planet will influence others seeking to make their sites more interactive and useful to their audience.

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Walking the Walk

The McCormick Fellows aren't just paying lip service to the multimedia landscape, they're putting themselves behind the lens.

The group of nearly 90 high-powered minority media executives recently launched their first foray into online video. You can catch their responses to the question: "Where are we today when it comes to diversity in the newsroom?" at http://www.mtfellows.org/video.asp

Expect more on this topic from the group at UNITY this year, where it premiers its own documentary about the media's diversity progress since the 20th anniversary of the Kerner Commission. The commission, which released a final report in 1968, was created upon the order of President Johnson to investigate the causes of 1967 race riots. It claimed the media didn't present an accurate portrayal of the riots and conditions leading up to them.

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