I also count on people in the community to give tours, provide some background information or point students to good sources. I see my job as managing the students’ learning experiences, pro- voking critical thinking, and reinforcing good practices and skills. If you’re interested in starting your own community newsroom and have nobody to help, my suggestion is to start small. The im- portant thing is how the students can learn to think and learn on the go. Students can learn new technical skills very quickly with online tutorials, and if needed, so can you. Learning business management or technical skills is easy
nowadays. Your institution may have many resources available, but never forget that there are many associations (ahem, SEJ) and or- ganizations that offer specialized workshops on almost every topic. I’m always taking online courses and attending workshops at con- ferences, even on topics that I feel confident, just to see if there is anything new I think might benefit my students.
Tips on building your own community-based bureau
Every institution and location will have its own limitations and advantages, but this list of the things you need to succeed should help. 1. You. Just make sure this counts as part of your job descrip- tion, either as an actual class or a course-load reduction. If you are a tenured or tenure-track faculty you can also make it part of your service and research agenda. 2. Students. NNB is a mandatory class, so I have it easy. I am also using grants to fund graduate assistants and interns through partnerships. If your class is not mandatory, you will need to proac- tively recruit students. 3. Location. It’s not an embedded community newsroom if it is not embedded in the community. Our old newsroom became too small for the students. While we were looking for a new one, we had to meet on campus. That had an impact on productivity and unfairly penalized commuter students with jobs. We managed it, but it works better when students can simply walk around the com- munity they are covering. 4. Time. If your newsroom starts as a class like NNB, the time of the class matters. In my first semester, we started class at 8:00 a.m. Not many newsworthy things happen at 8:00 a.m. I moved the class to Wednesdays from 11:00 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. People are way more talkative during lunchtime. 5. Partners and projects. The best thing about NNB is that my students are constantly working with experienced journalists and ed- itors. We do special projects with local media outlets and have their reporters and editors either lead the project or help with training. 6. Money. Another advantage of working with good partners is that they can also help you with grants and funding. A project that has real impact in the community in collaboration with a re- spected media partner is better for both the granter and the students. Partners can also help with other needs in case your institution is not very helpful. Office space, computers, etc. can be easily nego- tiated with a partner that shares your vision. 7. Outcomes. Make collecting data part of your research agenda to gauge the impact the initiative has on students and in the commu- nity. This will also help with funding and, I hope, with promotion.
Bernardo Motta is a former environmental communicator and
lawyer, and is now an assistant professor of community journalism and media theory at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg.
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23 SEJournal Fall 2016
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