Next-Generation Reporters Innovate on the Web

PHOENIX, Sept. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- News 21, the national investigative reporting
project with leading journalism schools, is making available a record amount
of content - more than 60 multimedia stories and projects - to Web sites,
broadcasters and newspapers around the country.

The projects, produced by top journalism students under the direction of
seasoned professionals, focus on the theme "Changing America." The students
cover everything from the crumbling national energy grid to life decisions
being made by young, college-educated urban adults. They spent the summer
researching and reporting on their topics and creating innovative and
interesting ways to display their work on the Web.

All News21 content is free and available at http://news21.com.

This is the fourth year of the national News21 initiative. Previously, major
distribution partnerships have been arranged with news organizations such as
The New York Times, Forbes, CNN, NPR, PBS and The Associated Press. This year,
Gannett Digital and McClatchy-Tribune News Service will be among those
distributing News21 content.
News21, headquartered at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass
Communication at Arizona State University, is a joint program of the Carnegie
Corporation of New York and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation of
Miami. It is part of the Carnegie-Knight Initiative on the Future of
Journalism Education, a nationwide effort to train a new generation of
journalists capable of leading and reshaping the news industry.
"News21 shows that great journalism schools have a role to play in the future
of news," said Eric Newton, vice president of the Knight Foundation's
journalism program. "The proof is on the Web for all to see - students doing
solid, in-depth journalism in new, interesting ways."
Susan King, Carnegie Corporation vice president, said the Carnegie-Knight
partnership "stresses our two foundation priorities: innovation in news for
Knight and deeper intellectual standards at university-based journalism
schools for the corporation.

"Journalism schools have an even larger role to play in this time of
dislocation and change in the news industry. Students need to be well read and
digitally skilled, and if News 21 proves anything it is that these students
excel on both fronts."
Schools involved in the project included ASU, the University of California at
Berkeley, Columbia University, University of Maryland, University of North
Carolina, Northwestern University, the University of Southern California and
Syracuse University. Students from four associate schools - Harvard
University, University of Missouri, University of Nebraska and University of
Texas at Austin also contributed.
In addition to reporting in-depth on their stories, students tackled the
boundaries of Web innovation. Among other things, they developed video players
that allow users to interact with content in new ways and created a working
prototype of a national database for reporters to share hard-to-find data
about cities. They used everything from motion graphics and time-lapse maps to
Twitter feeds, video, slideshows and text to tell their stories. Their
innovations are explained at news21.com/innovation-roundup.

Students had 10 weeks to report and produce their stories.

"Our strategy with the News21 students is to task them to tell complex stories
in ways other young people might find interesting and relevant," said Jody
Brannon, News21 national director and a Cronkite School professor of practice.
"This summer, in an intense two and a half months, their experiments produced
some approaches that do just that."

Photojournalist Jose Castillo, an associate fellow from Texas who joined the
University of Maryland's summer program, studied voter data to see what it
reveals about race and identity in America.

"In 2008, we elected a black president, and I was intrigued by how this
speaks to who we are and how we've changed over the last 100 years," he said.

Castillo settled on telling the story Allensworth, Calif., a community founded
in 1908 by a black man seeking his fortune, which has evolved into a town with
a majority Latino population. To tell the story over time, he used an
experimental interface that lets the user to "step to the side of the story"
while providing a biographical sketch of the video subject.

Chrystall Kanyuck, a graduate student at ASU's Cronkite School, said the
program taught her a lot about what journalism can and should be.

"The high standards stretched me as a journalist and as a person, and the
program gave me the opportunity to produce the kind of collaborative project
journalism that many newsrooms don't have the budgets for in this economy,"
she said.

Jennifer Carroll, senior editor and vice president Gannett's ContentOne, said
the students' work will be distributed to 85 newspapers and 19 television
stations as well as affiliate Web sites across the country.

"Our partnership with News 21 and Arizona State University ensures we stay
tied to cutting-edge ideas and contributions from the best and brightest
student journalists," Carroll said. "We are impressed with the depth, quality
and scope of the students' work."

For more information, contact Jody Brannon, News21 national director, at
jody.brannon@news21.com or at 602.496.5165.

About Carnegie Corporation of New York
Carnegie Corporation of New York was created by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to
promote "the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding." For
more than 95 years, the corporation has carried out Carnegie's vision of
philanthropy by investing in non-profits that reflect his two major concerns:
international peace and advancing education and knowledge. To learn more,
visit carnegie.org

About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation promotes journalism excellence
worldwide and invests in the vitality of the U.S. communities where the Knight
brothers owned newspapers. Since 1950 the foundation has granted more than
$400 million to advance journalism quality and freedom of expression. The
Knight Foundation focuses on ideas and projects that create transformational
change. To learn more, visit knightfoundation.org.

Related Links

National News21 Projects http://news21.com
Cronkite School Leads News21 Program
http://cronkite.asu.edu/news/grant-070708.php
Carnegie Corporation of New York http://www.carnegie.org/
Knight Foundation http://www.knightfoundation.org/

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SOURCE Arizona State University

Julie Newberg of Arizona State University, +1-480-727-3116,
julie.newberg@asu.edu