Research

Northeastern student multimedia stories find a home at WGBH News

Every semester, students in my Digital Storytelling and Social Media class produce great final projects, fanning out across the city and beyond to tell stories in words, photos and videos. But what becomes of those stories? Yes, they publish them on their blogs. Wider distribution, though, is an ongoing challenge.

Thanks to Northeastern School of Journalism’s partnership with WGBH News, during the past year we were able to publish 13 final projects at WGBHNews.org. Stories ranged from the challenges faced by scallop farmers on Cape Cod to the threat posed by rising sea levels in Boston, from efforts to rescue online government data to a yoga program for marginalized groups of people.

Because I’m a WGBH News contributor, I have access to the CMS. That greatly speeds up the process, since I’m able to handle most of the editing and production tasks once a story has been approved by WGBH. The relationship is beneficial both to the students, whose work reaches a larger audience, and to WGBH, which is able to expand its offerings of quality journalism. Crucially, WGBH News has a robust presence on social media and has been generous in promoting our students’ work on Twitter and Facebook.

Christie Macomber wrote a piece on environmental racism and the Standing Rock protest.

WGBH News also published two lighter projects produced by my students in 2016-’17: Google maps, with photos and reviews, of coffee shops and dessert restaurants in Boston and its environs.

“These students are about the same age as I was when I was learning my craft on the manual typewriters in the Boston Globe newsroom,” says WGBH News senior editor Peter Kadzis. “Boy, are they good. And their facility with a range of mediums obviously would have been inconceivable in those antediluvian days. Their work nestles quite comfortably on the WGBH News website beside the efforts of professionals with five, 10, 20 years’ more experience. These students are already pros. These days, many of us wonder about the future of journalism. With young talents like these folks coming up, my nerves are calm. They’ll blaze the new trails the public needs.”

DON’T MISS  Northeastern J-school alumna Rachel Zarrell makes Forbes’ "30 under 30"

Here are the 13 final projects by Northeastern journalism students that were published by WGBH News during the past academic year.

  • Debora Almeida: “Deportation Crisis Creates Strains For Boston’s Immigration Lawyers”
  • Olivia Arnold: “How ‘Abortion Stigma’ Harms Access To Health Services For Low Income Women”
  • Janine Eduljee:“Despite Long Lines, Early Voting Proved To Be A Hit In Massachusetts”
  • Timothy Foley:“Poetic Justice: How Boston Pulse Is Helping Students Find Their Voice”
  • Mayeesha Galiba:“Mass. Coalition Fights To Promote The Rights Of Immigrants And Refugees”
  • Elise Harmon:“New England Activists Rally For Victims Of Violence In Syria”
  • Bailey Knecht: “Hands To Heart Center Brings Yoga To The People”
  • Rowena Lindsay: “Data Rescue Movement Seeks To Fight Trump Administration’s Anti-Science Agenda”
  • Christie Macomber:“Standing Up For Standing Rock: The Harsh Realities Of Environmental Racism”
  • Alexandra Malloy:“In Wellfleet, An Oyster Farmer’s Life Is Dictated By The Tides”
  • Gwendolyn Schanker:“Seeing Is Believing: Using Multimedia To Tell The Climate Change Story”
  • Rowan Walrath:“Fossil-Fuel Divestment Campaigns Hit Boston’s College Campuses”
  • Elle Williams: “Standing Up For Black Lives: How Asian Americans Are Showing Their Solidarity”

Photo: Wellfleet oyster farmer Jim O’Connell. Credit: Alexandra Malloy.

Dan Kennedy
Latest posts by Dan Kennedy (see all)
DON’T MISS  Digital is a philosophy: David Skok on disrupting newsrooms

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Get the latest from Storybench

Keep up with tutorials, behind-the-scenes interviews and more.