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454 Moore Hall, Mount Pleasant, MI, 48859 [email protected] the Alumni Newsletter VOLUME 4,Headliner ISSUE 1 SUMMER 2008 The new state-of-the-art Caponigro Multimedia Lab, being installed this summer in Moore 424, will have 18 student workstations and a mediated station for the instructor as well as video-conferencing and virtual classroom capabilities. Inside the Headliner PAGE 2 PAGES 4-5 PAGE 9 PAGE 11 A note from the department Students launch e-zine China Daily experience Elliott Parker retires after 30+ chair; broadens worldview years at CMU PAGE 6 2008 JRN Hall of Fame details Five inducted into Hall of Fame PAGE 10 PAGE 12 PAGE 3 PAGE 7 Hartman teaches at King Saud Hearst Visiting Professionals Curriculum evolves Terry Foster is Alum of Year University include John Zogby 2 Headlinerthe A letter from the Department chair Dear Alumni: of Caponigro Public Relations, Inc., and mon- follow on the department’s efforts to grapple ey from the university, will be completed by with convergence and on the student-created I hope you are enjoying summer. the start of the fall semester. and –produced e-zine, Grand Central. Here in Mount Pleasant, work began in Once the lab is in place and the new media/ Thank you all for your continued interest in May on the construction of the state-of-the- online journalism major curriculum approved and support of the department. And a special art Caponigro Multimedia Lab on the fourth by the Academic Senate, the department will word of thanks to Eric Baerren, a 1993 CMU floor of Moore Hall. implement courses for the new major. journalism graduate and now a self-employed Designed by the architectural firm, the Among the courses in the new major are freelance writer in Mount Pleasant, for writ- Smith Group, Detroit, the new facility will Introduction to Online Journalism, Advanced ing the stories in this edition and Ken Mc- combine the latest hardware and software for Online Journalism, Computer-Assisted Re- Donald, a 1987 graduate and CMU journal- multimedia instruction with virtual classroom porting, Multimedia Reporting, an Online ism instructor, for his design work. and video-conferencing capabilities. Journalism Practicum and Online Journalism Best wishes, The lab, funded by a gift from Jeff Caponi- Internship. gro, a CMU alumnus and founder and CEO I hope you will enjoy reading the stories that Maria Join us Oct. 25 as we induct the 2008 class into the CMU Journalism Hall of Fame The inductees include: p p Michelle Bearden (1976 graduate) Mike Green (1975-1980) p p Sheila Gruber McLean (1982 graduate) Jim Reindl (1978 graduate) p p Randy Lovely (1986 graduate) Richard Milliman (Honorary) Also honored will be the: 1978-79 CM Life staff on the 30th anniversary of their Pacemaker award(Tony Dearing, editor-in-chief ) The sixth annual Tickets are $60 banquet will be held Order them: p Oct. 25, 2008, at the online at Centralboxoffice.cmich.edu p Soaring Eagle Inn & By mail: Conference Center Hall of Fame Tickets (formerly the Holiday Attn: Jennie Vickers Inn) 436 Moore Hall, CM Life p 6:00 p.m.: Welcoming Mt. Pleasant, MI 48859 May be paid by check (payable to CMU) preception p p 7:00 p.m.: Dinner By phone: 8:00 p.m.: Induction (989) 774-3493 ceremony May be paid by credit card (American Ex- press, Visa, Mastercard and Discover card) Headlinerthe 3 The hallway outside of the Caponigro Multimedia Lab on the fourth floor, Moore Hall, will have a new seating area along- side multiple plasma TV screens. SPOTLIGHT ON NEW MEDIA Curriculum evolves to meet changes f you were to ask Professor Dennis Jef- plications. Media outlets offer blogs for quick not forgetting the fundamentals, Jeffers said. fers what he thinks the media will look hits and breaking news. Journalism-related Students will still need to know how to write Ilike in 18 months, he’d probably answer, blogs and websites pose the question of how well, follow Associated Press style, how to “I don’t know.” to make use of social networking sites such as craft strong ledes, and the importance of ac- But, Jeffers said, that’s not necessarily a Facebook and Twitter. curacy. “Facts are facts,” he said. reason for concern. Tomorrow, Jeffers said, tools will be avail- But, it will also require training students in The reason for this able that exist today only in the imagination. ways that meet the needs of industry. It’s not kind of uncertainty is But, it’s nothing new. a great deal different from the old days, when that no one has a firm “It’s like moving from the typewriter to the students were required to pass a typing test, idea of what kinds of word processor,” Jeffers said. Jeffers said. technology will be avail- The act of tying all of these elements to- able then, or how media gether is called convergence. Because technol- Convergence influenced the new media companies will be able to ogy is rapidly changing, it’s not a static thing. curriculum the department is getting ready to use those distinctive ele- “It’s an evolving process,” Jeffers said. roll out and can be seen in new courses. The ments to do what good Dramatic changes in the media have journalism department’s new media/online journalists do. blurred what were obvious differences between journalism major will be offered in spring 2009 “It’s always going to the various media. The move of readers to the after it is approved by the Academic Senate in Dr. Dennis come down to, ‘what is Web has made it so that all media outlets offer fall 2008. Journalism students made progress Jeffers the story,’” said Profes- video, audio, text and blogs. in convergence this spring through Grand sor David London, who “Distinctions almost don’t matter any Central e-zine, a student-run Web-only mag- heads the department’s more,” London said. azine that blends together stories, photos, and curriculum committee. His committee has What does matter is the bottom line. multimedia. To check out Grand Central, go been working on the new media curriculum “Essentially, what it really means is gearing to http://www.grandcentralmagazine.com. since April 2005. up for what the consumer wants,” he said. Convergence also is a concept designed to It used to be that a journalist would sit at For journalism schools, that means keep- be elastic enough to remain relevant while go- a typewriter and bang out a story. Today, jour- ing abreast of developments in what media ing into a future that can be summed up with nalists make use of video, audio and text ap- outlets can do on the Web, but it also means just a question mark. 4 Headlinerthe Members of the Grand Central team are (left to right): Row 1 – Sophie Hays, Mike Fuksman; Row 2 – Anthony Orlando, Julie Demers, Kristen Newhouse; Row 3 – Kim Walz, Ben LaMothe, Sara Bohan; Row 4 – Kent Miller (faculty adviser), Josie Schimpf, Carisa Seltz. Since this photo was taken, Ben LaMothe (editor-at-large), Josie Schimpf (director of p.r. and marketing) and Anthony Orlando (sports editor) have graduated. SPOTLIGHT ON NEW MEDIA Staff of 70 students launches e-zine he video cuts on to a darkened, Online News Association to provide students public relations and modeling for the maga- blurred picture. A female voice talks with an opportunity to get experience in on- zine’s Style section. Tabout being born blind, and how she line journalism in a format that leans heavily The students came from a variety of dis- relates to the world. Fade out, and fade in “I on magazine-style storytelling. It has an eclec- ciplines. Although many of them were jour- credit God with making me who I am.” tic blend of subject matter, ranging from tech- nalism students, Grand Central also included It is the first of four chapters about Cheryl nology to fashion to sports. among its staff students studying political sci- Wade, a Midland-area newspaper reporter Its staff numbered a total of 70 students, ence, fashion and even education. who was born blind. Her story is told on and the range of their jobs was broader than The idea was to give students experience in Grand Central magazine, CMU’s new stu- what most people might traditionally associ- online media, which is something employers dent-run, Web-only publication. ate with a student publication, said Ben La- increasingly seek. Grand Central magazine, or e-zine, was Mothe, Grand Central’s first editor-in-chief. Each weekly edition was filled with up to launched in the spring semester by the jour- There were students working as photographers nalism department’s newly created Central and writers, but there were also students doing Continued on Page 5 Headlinerthe 5 Continued from Page 5 Grand Central Puts CMU in Top Ten Multimedia Ranks 14 feature stories of between 500-1,200 words in length, some of them dealing with topics that were anything but fluff. One story, for -in Grand Central, the journalism department’s multimedia e-zine, secured 10th place stance, dealt with violence in youth sports. nationally for CMU in the first annual Hearst Intercollegiate Multimedia Competition So far, each edition requires about 25-30 this spring. Cumulative points for the multimedia entries from Grand Central submitted hours of formatting, LaMothe said, before it by students Dan Stew- goes live on Thursdays. After the predictable art and Neil Blake shot wrinkles are ironed out and a more consistent CMU into the top ranks process is established to fill the site with con- behind the University of tent, LaMothe said the idea is to start stag- North Carolina, Chapel gering content so that it is refreshed during Hill, which won first the week.