RJI Fellowships
Developing storytellers strengthens community
Originally published on The Columbia Daily Tribune website Journalism should strengthen the communities it serves and help the members of those communities lead better lives. Journalists believe an informed citizenry leads to a stronger democracy, that they should speak truth to power, give voice to the voiceless, stand up for the average man and woman, … Continued
Missouri high schoolers in Talk Story, Write Story offered more than $700,000 in scholarships
Originally published on The Columbia Daily Tribune website Leaving his wife and baby asleep, Erik Potter slipped away into autumn darkness every Monday and Friday morning to drive to Hickman High School, where an early-bird secretary buzzed him in. With just 90 minutes available in an empty conference room, Potter and senior Vy Le always … Continued
Program fits nicely with schools’ focus on access
Originally published on The Columbia Daily Tribune website In the Columbia Public Schools, we believe our students are our kids. We believe every one of our kids is entitled to A.E.O. — Achievement, Enrichment, and Opportunity. Three simple words, and each one denotes access. Access to a great teacher who will nurture and develop our … Continued
The possibilities are endless
Originally published on The Columbia Daily Tribune website Looking back on this academic year, I am most proud of my time with the Talk Story, Write Story program. I knew it was going to be a huge inaugural undertaking but had no idea how much this scholarship effort would consume my life. From Day One, … Continued
Reynolds Journalism Institute announces 10th fellowship class
Eight fellowships have been awarded for the 2016-2017 academic year by the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute. The projects range from emerging technologies and watchdog journalism to community engagement and navigating new business models. This year’s RJI Fellowships were selected from 369 applicants worldwide. Each spring RJI leadership identifies journalists, technologists, entrepreneurs, business strategists and … Continued
RJI Fellow alumnus leads team launching new social debate application
Team members behind a newly launched social debate application didn’t believe people had an adequate place online to share opinions about the latest news events and gauge support for their views. This led Advance Digital’s incubator Alpha Group to create The Tylt, which lets people vote on news topics such as Apple’s refusal to unlock … Continued
How to make online news ‘brain friendly’
Online news can work with or against the brain. When RJI Fellows Alex Remington of The Washington Post and media researcher Paul Bolls applied brain science principles to news design, readers’ comprehension, recall and engagement increased. We interviewed the researchers (audio below) to learn how to make articles “brain friendly.” It’s all about the “reading path,” says Remington. “Classify the … Continued
Art in the newspaper: Love, guns and kiwis
The goal of my fellowship at the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute is to explore how journalists might find new uses for and maximize the dormant advantages of analog media by “thinking like artists.” As an artist who happens be a former Associated Press reporter, I’ve thought often about ways these two professions overlap — … Continued
Wide world of content
I have to admit that I’m a bit of a hypocrite. One of the reasons I built my online news aggregation platform Reportory two years ago was my great frustration in paying for multiple, nonpersonalized (neither the content nor the ads) wasteful print newspapers and news magazines. I cancelled all of my print subscriptions and … Continued
Volunteers and community newspaper boost local teens’ chances of winning college scholarships
They arrived early on a Saturday morning — not the usual hour for teenagers — and found the only open door along the quiet, cavernous hallway of an empty Hickman High School in Columbia, Missouri. Stomping snow from boots and rubbing chilled hands together, they found us in the media center and sat down, one … Continued