Students learn about real-world journalism by working with "Detroit News" editors

Assistant Professor of Journalism Tom Stanton, an award-winning journalist, is one busy man. In addition to coordinating the Neal Shine Media Center and advising The Varsity News, Stanton has pumped new life into UDM's journalism program.

Among the highlights is a collaborative effort with The Detroit News that has allowed UDM students to work directly with online editors Michael Happy and Jonathan Morgan. This pilot program focuses on community coverage of underrepresented neighborhoods around the UDM campus. "Several students are covering the neighborhoods near McNichols and Livernois, doing the kind of localized reporting that is unusual for a major metro daily newspaper," says Stanton.

In addition, the students, who are all communications majors, contribute to a blog on The Detroit News web site, which can be accessed at detnews.com. This type of journalism may be the next media trend, according to Stanton. "Journalism is undergoing massive changes, and the future is online journalism," he says. "Here, the students get a chance to participate in one vision of the industry's future while working with two smart, pioneering editors."

The specific genesis of the program is unclear. "I don't recall whether editors Michael Happy and Jonathan Morgan approached me or I approached them," Stanton says. "But I had heard about the interesting work they were doing, trying to resurrect an east-side neighborhood — actually getting involved in a community near City Airport and helping to revitalize a park near Van Dyke and Six Mile roads. Their hands-on involvement runs counter to journalistic tradition. Their innovative efforts have attracted attention from journalists across the country, and I'm thrilled our students have the opportunity to work with them."

The class meets weekly at The Detroit News building. In addition, the editors interact with the students throughout the week between classes as they have questions or problems. "We try to run the class like a newsroom, so we discuss stories and story ideas and do peer editing in the class," Morgan says. "Assignments go through a series of steps that try to replicate the process in a newsroom — idea generation one week, rough draft the next week, then final story the week after that."

The focus on neighborhood journalism is intentional, according to Morgan. "The neighborhood blog is an attempt to use social networks and citizen journalism not just to find new ways to publish news, but to find new ways to report stories and include the broader community in creating news," he says. "We are teaching community journalism classes as a way to do a few things. One thing is to teach students about old-fashioned community journalism, which is dying off as the companies that own small community daily and weekly papers decrease the staffs of those papers, and now have even begun to fold them entirely."

There are other lessons to be learned, too. "They also need to learn the potential for reporting that blogs and social networks provide reporters," Morgan says. "You have to get out and talk to people, but if you can pull the people you talk to into an online community where it is more efficient to keep interacting with them, then you have the benefits of ongoing contact with less footwork, and you have a more accessible body of potential information sources."

As faculty advisor, Stanton says, "My involvement is limited. Michael and Jonathan are both passionate journalists with interesting ideas about the future of journalism and the need to cover under-represented communities. Our students have found them both to be very inspiring figures."

Freshman Michael Martinez says, "It is probably the most challenging journalism class I have taken, but just being able to be taught by 'real' reporters and editors is such a blessing." Natalie DeBoer, another student in the program, agrees. "I have loved the experience even though at first I was a little stressed," she says. "Jon and Mike have shown me that you just have to keep going no matter what because in the real world you might not always be able to get the story."

The editors concur. "I have enjoyed doing this. It's my first crack at teaching, and I have seen much improvement in the kids' work during the semester. Rudimentary journalism was front and center most of the time, but Jon and I did pound some other messages home," Happy says. "It's important to be in the trenches. It's not bad to care about the people you write about. Writing with heart is totally OK — and effective. Just tell the truth and be transparent."