Convergence in the classroom
Students create multimedia Web sites on South Carolina topics: homelessness, the state dance and a local band

Employers increasingly are looking for graduates with cross media skills, journalists who can write and produce stories for multiple delivery platforms. They need look no further than the nine students who in the fall semester of 2007 completed the School of Journalism and Mass Communications convergence class.

J305, Mass Media Telecommunications, was conducted in the Ifra Newsplex. Students were exposed to the same curriculum as the professional journalists who come to Newsplex from all over the world. They blogged, recorded Podcasts, built online communities and created slide shows and videos.

The semester culminated with an ambitious assignment. Each student had to produce a Web site devoted to a specific topic that incorporated multimedia elements and was interactive.

The results were impressive.

Take a look at the site Meredith Harvie devoted to the problem of homelessness. Harvie used a variety of techniques, some traditional and some much less so, to tell the story of an event that brought hundreds of young people together to spend the night in the cold. Visit site>

Sarah Crutchfield put together a multiple media Web site on South Carolina’s state dance, the shag. The content is rich and deep. If you have a moment, check out her Podcast or audio interview with Lynn and Dickie Crutchfield, veteran shaggers who happen to be Sarah’s parents. Visit site>

Another entertainment-related site focused on the up and coming rap group, Trouble-Sum: It was done by Josh McNeal, the member of the group known as Brow. Visit site>

Other students participating in the class included Melissa Berry, Sarah Good, Ashley Jeffery Crystal Matthews, Karen Poots and Elisabeth Smith.

J305 was taught by Newsplex Director Randy Covington and Sid Bedingfield, who is a visiting professor at the School. They were assisted by Jordan Elllis and Terri Moorer of the Newsplex staff.

The success of the course has led to talk of offering it to other Universities in Fall 2008 via distance education.