Journalism school and Newsy.com partner for two classes
The classes will offer students a chance to experience the online global community.
Published Oct. 24, 2008
With two new classes that began this fall, the School of Journalism and multi-perspective Web site Newsy.com entered a partnership.
On Wednesday, Newsy founder and MU graduate Jim Spencer spoke about the company and the new classes.
Spencer said Newsy offers an unprecedented global and macro point of view. The site collects video news from various media outlets worldwide and then analyzes and compares how multiple sources report the same story.
"That is something that news junkies have done for a long time, like my dad," said Alexandra Wharton, Newsy's vice president of marketing and community. "Most people don't have two hours to do that, so we are offering two to three minutes' easily digestible video clips. That's how people who are 35 and younger want to consume news today."
Wharton said the idea to bring Newsy to Columbia was proposed by Spencer because he knew how important it would be to involve students from the journalism school.
Spencer said journalism students deserve the same opportunities as other students at top universities. The office is near the journalism school on Elm Street, located above The Uppercrust.
The two new classes are global online marketing and advertising, which is taught by Wharton and advanced global converged news, taught by George Schellenger, Newsy's vice president of content and production.
"In my class students are learning about tools to analyze and track traffic to see what types of videos are popular with what type of audience," Wharton said. "The class is learning how to create a buzz online, how viral marketing works by using social networking sites like Facebook, social media sites like Digg and communication platforms like Twitter."
Spencer said the advanced global and converged news class will cover researching global news sources, writing for the Internet, editing in Final Cut Pro and Web page production and development.
Convergence chairwoman Lynda Kraxberger said the response from students about the new classes has been positive. She said the idea behind Newsy fits in well with the ideas of the convergence program and offers students the opportunity to experience a non-traditional newsroom.
"It would be as if one of our newsrooms was starting from scratch, and the people are so invested in it," Kraxberger said. "Students are not taking the class because it is a requirement, students are taking it because it is something they are interested in."
Kraxberger said the two new classes and the experience in the Newsy newsroom can be seen as a supplement for students interested in international news and for those who have studied abroad.
"Having experience in an international setting and coming back, Columbia seems pretty small," Kraxberger said.
Kraxberger said though there is no way to know how the partnership will turn out, the results so far has been favorable.
"It was really sort of a gamble, you don't know the first time you do something whether it's is going to be a winner for students," Kraxberger said.
The two new classes will have Friday lecture sections and two four-hour lab sections when students go to the Newsy offices to work.
