Students out to save the news biz

Here’s the reason for my slow posts this past couple weeks, as I and other faculty herded  students from seven universities to the Online News Association conference in Toronto to present youthful and innovative visions for the future of news.

First, a video of students from each of the three projects from MediaGiraffe.

I’m a little partial to the third project, Tandem, which was created by the team I coached. Besides five awesome students from University of Nevada, Las Vegas, team Tandem had magnificent representatives from Ithaca College, Michigan State University, Kansas State and Western Kentucky University. The other projects also included wonderful students from St. Michael’s College and the University of Kansas.

Here’s a link to the Poynter Online column by Joe Grimm about the students’ projects.

And if you really want to hear a nifty presentation, put this one in your iPod and take a listen.  (OK, I said I was partial — I’ve been living with this project since May!)

We’re halfway into it and now, and seeking media partners to implement each of the ideas. I think they’re going to rock!

But most important, for this cockeyed optimist who got into the news bidness to change the world, here’s the point of the project, straight from the Knight Foundation grant proposal:

“Create new ways for people to communicate interactively to help people better understand one another in geographic communities, share know-how and generate passion in solving local problems.”

Back to basics — doing some good for the world!