Journalism report cites Cronkite School as exemplar program

A new national report highlights ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication as an exemplar program that has adjusted to a changing industry landscape by increasing coverage of local communities in conjunction with local media.
 
The report – Shaping 21st Century Journalism – was published by the New America Foundation, based in Washington, D.C., and calls for journalism schools to help local communities engage and access information as the media industry adapts to an ever-changing market. It uses several ASU initiatives as examples of quality collaboration between journalism schools and their surrounding communities that can help fill a void left by struggling local media.
 
Specifically, the report cites Cronkite News as a good method of “university-based community journalism,” which allows students to produce content under ASU faculty supervision that is later distributed through industry news outlets. The report states the program succeeds at “creating an online space to serve as a repository of original journalism for the benefit of the community surrounding the university.”
 
“Journalism education programs have an opportunity to become 'anchor institutions' in the emerging media ecosystem,” said Tom Glaisyer, a Knight Media Policy Fellow at New America’s Media Policy Initiative. “Many schools have long embraced elements of this vision, but satisfying the information needs of communities will require many more schools to take on the challenges of engaging communities through the creation of meaningful local accountability journalism.”
 
The report also notes ASU’s sponsorship of the Cronkite Institute for High School Journalism, “a consortium of programs that provide support and training for high school journalism students and their teachers” as well as its “new media lab,” a program aiming to help develop multimedia applications for media companies as examples of how journalism schools can work to help shape the future of the adapting industry.
 
The PDF version of the report can be accessed here.