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New media and old media at UT
Posted By katie allison granju
A blogger compares Tennessee Journalist to The Daily Beacon’s online efforts:
There is no institutional memory at the Tennessee Journalist. It’s a Web-centric publication dedicated to exploring and developing new ways of story telling. That’s why the Tennessee Journalist gets this week’s College High Five.
Too many college publications use the Web as digital archive of their print product. One would think that college media would be edgier, more modern and less risk averse than their MSM cousins. That’s fundamentally false. College media is often far more risk averse and even further stuck in a bygone era.
Most college media sites are even closer to their print counterparts than the typical newspaper Web site. It really makes no sense for a bunch of 18-22 year olds to be making a print-centric publication when all of their peers overwhelming consume content on the Web.
That’s a shame. College is a time for experimentation, pushing the boundaries, discovering new things and not being afraid of failure (it’s a lot less costly to fail in college than it is after graduation). If there was ever a place for journalists to take risks and try things that may not work, it should be in college media. College is the perfect time for failure.
That’s why I love the idea of a Web-centric college media publication. Not everything the Tennessee Journalist creates will be a hit. Some of it will surely fail, but at least they are trying something new.
I guarantee that a publication without an institutional memory will have a better chance of getting things right on the Web and creating some real gems. And a publication like the Tennessee Journalist (founded in 2006) will prepare students much better for the reality of 21st-century journalism.
One only has to compare the differences between the Tennessee Journalist’s Web site (built using Django, so you know the site has a modern CMS that rocks) to the archaic after thought known as the The Daily Beacon’s Web site (the independent student newspaper at the University of Tennessee).
This is high praise for the great work being done by Dr. Jim Stovall (he’s the driving force behind UT’s online journalism efforts), and he deserves every bit of it. UT is lucky to have Stovall on the faculty, and the students are lucky to have a great platform like Tennessee Journalist in which to learn and experiment and grow as journalists who will work in a new media world.
(Hat tip to Jack Lail)
Mar 7th, 2008
