Documentary multimedia

UNC launches News21 multimedia project

Twelve UNC students are spending their summer working on a News21 project, titled “Powering a Nation.” News21 is a part of the Carnegie-Knight Initiative and involves faculty and students from five participating universities. According to their Twitter bio, UNC’s project examines “the quest for energy in a changing USA.”

This year’s project is led by UNC professors Laura Ruel and Don Wittekind. Ten master’s students and two undergrads were selected for the project and have built the site from ground-up — picking the topic, researching and reporting the stories, and producing the Website. So far, the site includes bios and a blog for each student.

One post that struck me was by student Sara Peach, which I believe does a great job describing their goals for this project:

“The news about the journalism industry is often dire. The rise of the Internet has contributed to a death spiral in traditional media as classified advertising and other revenue streams have evaporated. But the Internet also offers opportunities for experimenting in new and better ways of practicing journalism.

Since January, our team has been thinking about how we can best use the tools of the Internet for journalism. How can we involve our audience? How can we be more transparent? How can audio, video, 3-D graphics and Facebook applications expand the reach and power of our stories – or become the stories themselves?

We still don’t have all the answers. But as we carry out this experiment, we’ll be blogging about our experiences, including our successes and failures.”

Another interesting post describes their research into skinning the video player. I’m sure they would love your feedback on the design!

Follow their work throughout the summer on Twitter, and become a fan of their site on Facebook. Content will continually be updated on the site as their reporting progresses. Good luck UNC team and I look forward to seeing your work!

Other posts that might interest you:

• UNC tackles After Effects for News21 promotional video
• Analysis of 2009 Carnegie-Knight journalism sites
• University of Miami students promo projects on VisualJournalism blog

© 15 June 2009 Innovative Interactivity (II).