STUDENTS IN THE NEWSROOM

Through community partnerships, students are immersed in newsrooms alongside reporters and editors.
BY SARAH HOWARD

PHOTO BY NICOLA LOSIK

SJMC students in a news meeting with Terry Sauer, the Star Tribunes assistant managing editor for digital operations.

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 Clips. When youre in journalism school, thats the magic word. Youre told time and time again that you cant leave school without clips. But given the chicken-and-the-egg phenomenon of being published (you need clips to get clips!), how do students get their work published? The answer comes for many through partnerships between SJMC and Twin Cities news organizations. These opportunities give students the chance not only to gain clips but also to work in newsrooms, experience beat reporting and work oneon-one with editors. Field-Based Practicums Immerse Students In Newsroom The Pioneer Press Practicum began the trend in 1998. For 15 years this class has allowed students to work among editors in the St. Paul newsroom. In fall 2012 students had a total of 247 bylines. The students get such great experience at the Pioneer Press, said SJMC lecturer Gayle G.G. Golden, who developed and still leads the practicum. Theyre immersed in the newsroom, attending meetings and are sent out on their own to do reporting. In 2004, the Star Tribune followed suit, led by SJMC instructor and former Star Tribune reporter Chris Ison. On the model set up by the Pioneer Press Practicum, students work in the newsroom with editors and are put on a beat. Students are spread around the newsroom, Ison said. In spring 2013, students worked on the health, sports and suburban teams. The student

staff also included a photographer and two students creating video content for online applications. The first-hand experience with editors becomes a key takeaway for the students. I was never more than 10 feet from my editor, said SJMC senior Rachael Krause, who worked with Pioneer Press political team leader Phillip Pina in fall 2012. My editor was a cheerleader for better writing, she said. He taught me how to write quick, but do it right. Being within the newsroom is what makes this experience so significant for students. You always feel like youre a piece of the pie, said Krause. I was able to hear editors reporting on the phone and building relationships with their sources, which was unbelievably helpful. Working alongside editors also gives students a safe place to ask questions and learn. There was a great mentoring aspect that was a huge benefit of working in the newsroom, said 2012 graduate Urmila Ramakrishnan, who worked with Pioneer Press public safety editor Hal Davis in fall 2012. Everyone knows youre there to learn, she said. There is a built-in safety net for you to ask questions and get the most out of learning from professionals in the trade. The partnerships are not only valuable for students, but, also for the editors. This is a fantastic program that allows young journalists to get real-life experience working at a major newspaper, said Suzanne Ziegler, editor of the Star Tribunes

Minneapolis team of reporters. Her intern in spring 2013 was SJMC senior Brian Arola, who covered several controversies in Minneapolis, including the Megabus parking lot dispute. That story ran as a B1 display and was top-read online for about 24 hours, she said. It goes to show how valuable these young journalists are. We are delighted to work with them. Both Golden and Ison say that Practicum classes are vital for journalism students who want to work in news. These students do really well in the job market, Ison said. They come out of the class ready to go to work. Case-in-point is Joseph Lindberg. The 2010 graduate worked in the Pioneer Press newsroom in 2009 with Watchdog editor Debra OConnor to create a series about unemployment rates. As a team they created the content for the series, then Lindberg created the website and interactive elements. Following graduation, he became the government reporter at the Faribault Daily News, thanks, in part, to his experiences at the Pioneer Press. Going into a job interview and being able to talk to an editor about concrete newsroom experiences youve had is so important, Lindberg said. They get a sense that youve covered projects under pressure and you know how to work on deadline. Two years later, Lindberg was hired as the Pioneer Press breaking news reporter and shortly thereafter found himself working alongside a new crop of practicum students. Its kind of surreal, he says.

Newsrooms Move Digital In 2010, students enrolled in Jour 5131: In-depth Reporting began working with MinnPost. By the end of the semester, they had produced four in-depth stories that examined topics such as the underfunding of the Minnesota Public Defenders Office and how the recession changed the gender make-up of the state and national workforce. Building on this success, in 2011, MinnPost received a grant from the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation to hire a full-time reporter to work with journalism students. That year, features centered on such topics as Adderall use in high schools, the lack of training for language interpreters in medical settings and organic farming. The project . . . not only benefitted the students by helping them develop their journalism skills, it has also benefitted the community by providing information and raising important issues, said MinnPost managing editor Roger Buoen. In 2012, MinnPost received a grant from the Northwest Area Foundation to work with students to create a series about subprime lending. Throughout the fall semester students were devoted to the topic, compiling data and writing in-depth arti-

In fall 2013, the Brovald-Sim Community Journalism Practicum is merging with the Murphy News Service. The practicum, which allows students to work at community newspapers around the Twin Cities metro, is combining with the Murphy News Service model, in which students produce stories to be used in newspapers and websites across the state. This takes two great programs and creates an even more powerful singular tool for training students to best prepare themselves to land those all-important first jobs out of college, said senior fellow J. Keith Moyer, who will oversee the class. cles. MinnPost reporter Sharon Schmickle, along with Ison, worked with the students to create these features. It was a wonderfully constructive and instructive process, Schmickle said. The editing and polishing was very hands-on. Going through stories line by line really combines everything that we value in journalism and ensures that stories are accurate and presented clearly. The online space allows for longer, more in-depth stories, Ison said. Students have to dive deep into these topics and, on top of the writing and reporting, the student produce all of the graphics and photos. Students Create Multimedia News In fall 2012, another new partnership hit the ground running, this time with Minnesota Public Radio News. A small group of students enrolled in the Pioneer Press Practicum went to MPR News to work on a dedicated, semester-long project about English language learners in Minnesota. This was an issue that MPR News wanted to explore, Golden said. Teaching the World in Minnesota investigated the role that non-native English speakers have in Minnesota schools. MPR News editor Bill Wareham served as real-life editor to the students and oversaw the process. We spent the first few weeks doing research and exploring how we could best do this project, Wareham said. It was a very organic process. The students made up of not only journalism majors, but also a computer science major and an aerospace engineering student with an interest in photography did the reporting, writing, sound recording, photography and web design for the project (see the finished product at z.umn. edu/sjmcmpr). We really wanted to use all of the platforms available, Wareham said. We did some things with this project that we hadnt done yet in the newsroom, Wareham said. Its a good, solid piece of work that we can continue to use and link back to. And in coming years, MPR News wants to continue the project to deepen coverage of non-native Minnesotans. For many, these opportunities become about much more than just clips. These partnerships not only help student journalists become multidimensional reporters, they also allow editors to help shape the next generation. The editors nurture the students and love working with them, Golden said. The editors are impressed with the level of skills our students have and how they are ready to hit the ground running, Ison said. I learned a lot from the students, Wareham said. They work with a different mindset than career reporters and were often willing to put in extra hours. Schmickle agrees: Working with student journalists is so refreshing for me, she said. Watching them grow as journalists is so enjoyable.

SEE THE STUDENT WORK

PHOTO COURTESY OF MINNESOTA PUBLIC RADIO NEWS

See student work from the Pioneer Press, Star Tribune and MinnPost at: http://sjmc.umn.edu/studentWork/ newswriting.html

See Teaching the World in Minnesota on the MPR News website at: http://z.umn.edu/sjmcmpr 10 Murphy Reporter SPRING 2013

The student team that created Teaching the World in Minnesota for MPR News. From left: Anthony Kwan, Frank Bi, Michael Zittlow, Alexandra Sobiech and Alexander Holston

PHOTO BY SARAH HOWARD

Taylor Selcke works with editor Amy Nelson at the Pioneer Press

Murphy Reporter

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In the wake of recent school shootings, communication researchers explore why people use Facebook to connect and pay their respects
Post Photo / Video

Grieving Online

These Facebook groups bring a visibility to the grieving process in a way that wouldnt have been possible before social media, said Thiel-Stern. Thiel-Stern says that one can look to the Uses and Gratifications Theory for an explanation. The theory says that people have an inherent need to use, in this case, a certain type of technology to gratify themselves. The gratification in this case could be that the person is truly trying to connect or that this is their own personal way of grieving or memorializing. For many, social media becomes a vehicle of self expression. People tend to reach out for support during moments of tragedies, Gloviczki said. We all see terrible moments and these moments really encourage us to think about what it is that makes us human, and its this desire, I think, to connect and find the good in one another.
Portraits of shooting victims by graphic artist Cecily Willis, posted on the In Loving Memory of Sandy Hook Elementary Victims Facebook page.

Original artwork by Keith Favazza displayed on the In Loving Memory of Sandy Hook Elementary Victims Facebook page.

Peter Gloviczki

By Sarah Howard

Graphics by Nicholas Khow

do, said Thiel-Stern. When tragedy happens and when people are already accustomed to connecting on Facebook, it seems like the default thing to do is to tell someone about it and have a conversation about it. Like those now created after so many tragedies, the Sandy Hook memorial pages serve as a way for users to create a community around the event. Members share posts, photos, drawings, videos and online memorials. Through all of the sadness in the aftermath of the event, there can be occasions where people come together, Gloviczki said. It provides a kind of glue to bring together communities that might have otherwise not even recognized one another.
Places Recent Places

In 2007, Peter Joseph Gloviczki (Ph.D., 2012) noticed a trend. After two people in his life died much too soon, he saw that people were turning to Facebook to talk about their grief and express condolences. Facebook Groups were forming and messages were being written on walls, often within moments of the tragedy. As a graduate student at SJMC, Gloviczki wondered how people react to tragedy on social media in new and old ways? What characteristics of social media allow them to grieve? So he dove into his dissertation research about the 2007 shootings at Virginia Tech and how individuals engaged with social media to discuss the event and its aftermath. According to Gloviczkis dissertation, the group reached 185 postings within 36 hours of the shootings. At one time it had more than 3,000 members. Virigina Tech was so significant because Facebook was so college-oriented at that time, said assistant professor Shayla Thiel-Stern, an SJMC faculty member and Gloviczkis co-adviser. Most of the users were college students and the fact that this shooting took place on a college campus, it really spoke to Facebook users. The connection between school shootings and social media is again relevant in the wake of the recent attack at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., where a lone gunman shot 20 first-graders and six teachers on Dec. 14, 2012. Within moments, Facebook groups started to form, including R.I.P. Sandy Hook Elementary School Children, which has more than 1.4 million members, and In Loving Memory of Sandy Hook Elementary Victims, with more than 357,000 members. Turning to social media in times of tragedy is now a common coping mechanism. It really has become a natural thing to 12 Murphy Reporter SPRING 2013

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This trend is sure to continue. People are used to connecting on social media now, said Thiel-Stern. The trend is moving toward more visual expression, as seen in the Sandy Hook Elementary remembrance groups where some members share memorial art. Right now we see mostly text expressions, but I wouldnt be surprised if we see more interactive forms of expression, like videos and photos, said Gloviczki. He also points to location-based expression, since so many users connect to social media through mobile devices. When we think about our own forms of telling the story and increasing the richness, I can see location-based and video tools becoming increasingly popular.
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Peter Gloviczki is an assistant professor of communications at Coker College in Hartsville, S.C.