How is mainstream media helping with media education: An example from Waco, Texas

In the last couple of years, mainstream media has figured out that its future lies in part with figuring out how to engage youth with civic affairs and . . . the news (however the news evolves). Here's a column from the Waco, Texas, daily -- which is owned by Cox Communications of Atlanta, about what they're doing.
-- bill densmore

http://www.wacotrib.com/opin/content/news/opinion/stories/2007/09/30/093...
http://www.wacotrib.com/services/content/services/aboutus.html

HEADLINE: Ken Sury: From print to small screen
PUBLISHED: Sunday, September 30, 2007
By Ken Sury
The Waco (Texas) Tribune-Herald

The Waco Tribune-Herald is positioning itself for the future, and were getting todays tech-savvy younger generations involved. These are transforming times in newspapers. While were not about to abandon a print product any time soon, we realize that more people especially those under 40 are getting their information and news online and getting it now. The newspaper industry is trying to move to the forefront of this trend.

But despite today's high schoolers and college students being plugged into their iPods, laptops, MP3 players, cell phones and so on, were having to get the word out about our Web site wacotrib.com the old-fashioned way, with billboards, newspaper ads, TV and radio spots . . . even word of mouth. Thats where I come in. Among my duties as community editor is reaching out to schools, civic and church groups, and you, explaining how the Tribs online presence gives you the tools to get information to us, and in turn, to Central Texas and beyond.

Where students were once introduced to the world and journalism through offerings such as The Weekly Reader, the Trib is engaging its future readers through internship programs, Web access and school-based periodicals. This semester the Trib has launched a visual journalism internship with Texas State Technical College. Our first applicant, Kaci Enlow, has been helping coordinate the many digital images that our staff photographers and freelancers shoot.

We are working with Kaci to give her real-world experience during her 15 weeks here and provide her with exposure to the photography, videography and graphic design aspects of putting out news at the Tribune-Herald.

The Trib also has begun a partnership on a new e-journalism program with McLennan Community College. It will feature an MCC-focused Web page on wacotrib.com and give student journalists the chance to become skilled in gathering and writing news, developing the Web site and learning journalism ethics. That program will begin in the spring. We are reaching out to high schools. Were using a full-out blitz in covering Friday night football games. We have specific pages for Waco, University and Midway high schools on our Web site. Stories about the schools, photographs and video can be found there.

Thirty high school students from Teen Leadership Waco recently visited the Tribune-Herald during Media Day. It was telling to learn that while most of them knew about wacotrib.com, many hadnt visited the site. Bruce Kabat, our assistant managing editor for online, took them through wacotrib.com. They were amazed at the variety of features that appealed to them: football game photos, cheerleader pics, weekly polls to pick the funniest fan or best flying tackle, and more. Fun videos such as In Like Quinn and The Em-Zone proved popular.

But we hope they start coming to the site for more than entertainment. We are about to begin working closer with Waco High in an effort to bolster students interest and involvement with wacotrib.com. We hope students will provide content to their page, make it a place to tout their achievements, share poetry and artwork, blog about their lives, and show video clips of school activities. But they need to embrace it, which will help pave the way for the future of online journalism both for them and the Trib.

Something a bit more traditional is starting at Hillcrest Professional Development School. Content editor Paula Blesener and managing editor Becky Gregory are heading up production of a school newspaper. Fourth- and fifth-graders will work on the after-school project, but its designed to involve the entire campus.

We face new challenges in making the newspaper relevant to our readers. The ever-increasing cost of newsprint forces us to reduce pages. The ever-shrinking time that people spend reading the newspaper is a concern, too. Online, however, the only limitations are our imaginations and maybe your computers connection speed. The future of journalism remains bright; its just that the glow may be coming from a computer screen.

You may reach Ken Sury at 757-5750 or ksury@wacotrib.com.

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