The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Wired Campus

May 12, 2008

ABC News to Open 5 University News Bureaus

ABC News will open five on-campus, multimedia news bureaus in the fall, Reuters reports.

The news organization will establish “online and broadcast technology” news bureaus at journalism schools at Arizona State and Syracuse Universities, and the Universities of Florida, North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Texas at Austin. The move is intended to bring younger viewers and reporters into the fold.

Students selected as campus bureau chiefs will be given special multimedia training at ABC News’s headquarters in New York.—Catherine Rampell

Posted on Monday May 12, 2008 | Permalink |

Comments

  1. It seems to me that the ABC staff might get some training from the university students in multimedia rather than the converse. The real challenge for ABC would be the management of local content in competition with blogs and wikis.

    — Thomas Siu    May 13, 06:57 AM    #

  2. And where is the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism in this project? It’s still one of the best in the business, and it should be included in this project.

    — Mike in Kalamazoo    May 13, 07:45 AM    #

  3. and the Medill school of journalism at Northwestern U — in a MAJOR metropolitan area???

    — bb    May 13, 09:56 AM    #

  4. It’s unclear as to what the criteria were for selecting these schools. Who knows. The educated folks at Missouri might have thought this was a bad idea. Maybe they would prefer to teach ABC rather than the other way around, as Thomas suggests.

    However, one might think that the Medill school would have been an ideal candidate for partnering with ABC because Medill is moving away from teaching journalism and toward training for advertising, marketing, and technology-based typing (bloggers, etc.).

    — HL Morgan    May 13, 10:24 AM    #

  5. Mizzou already has a well established relationship with NBC, and the J-School makes it a point to have their students working on local news coverage—not campus news. I think those two factors would limit their interest in the ABC experiment.

    — S Clark    May 13, 11:39 AM    #

  6. 6. I think their idea is really about free or reduced cost labor. #1 is right. ABC could learn something from the students.

    — B.Peeling    May 13, 12:00 PM    #

  7. Don’t forget Washington State University where ABC got Keith Jackson and CBS got Edward R. Murrow.

    — LJ    May 13, 12:07 PM    #

  8. I think it’s incorrect to say Medill is moving away from teaching journalism, at least as I read alumni publications. Medill has always had advertising, PR, etc. but their journalism program appears vibrant and thoroughly engaged in 21st century hands-on techniques. Maybe even too much so for some!

    — TBD    May 13, 12:53 PM    #

  9. Ummm … Texas gave us Cronkite, Liz Carpenter, Moyers and the Parker-Popes, sportswriters Jaime Aron and Clarence E. Hill Jr., not to mention photographer John Moore (has he won a Pulitzer yet?).

    — GRF    May 13, 03:40 PM    #

  10. Where is the Middle Tennessee State University’s College of Mass Communication which is home to two ACEJMC-accredited programs – The School of Journalism and the Department of Electronic Media Communication? It seems to that ABC News should take a geographic approach (as well as quality) to making its presence felt rather than going for the big names – which seems to be the case here?

    — John Omachonu    May 13, 05:02 PM    #

  11. What a quaint little discussion. It’s very “lord of the flies”. Put ABC bureaus in any local community college. It won’t matter that much—has anyone seen their numbers—talk about a precipitous drop…

    — Pat    May 14, 10:19 AM    #

  12. Five bureaus open. One year passes. Five bureaus close.

    — Roberto Gonzalez    May 14, 10:23 AM    #

  13. Alex,
    UF is getting a news Bureau, it may be cool for Dani to consider it.

    — Adis Beesting    May 14, 10:54 AM    #

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