BOWLING GREEN, K.Y. — Faculty from historically black colleges and universities will produce news apps at the 2014 Digital Workshop July 13 – 20 at the School of Journalism & Broadcasting at Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green.
The workshop, in its fifth year, is co-sponsored by the School with a $26,500 grant from the Dow Jones News Fund. This is the first year the workshop will focus on news apps.
People used news apps 55 percent more in the fourth quarter of 2013 vs. the fourth quarter of 2012, according to a Nielsen report this month, said Dr. Pam McAllister Johnson, director of the workshop.
Linda Shockley, deputy director of the Dow Jones News Fund, said, “Changes in media technology continue at accelerating speed. Professors and their students will benefit from learning how to create, adapt and use news apps to be effective in the classroom and the workplace.”
Kara Williams-Glenn is a graphics coach and a news app instructor for the workshop. She said, “With a 24/7-365 news cycle, news apps offer real-time insights to what is happening locally and around the world, while making these stories accessible whether the reader is having a morning cup of coffee, waiting in line at the supermarket or lying in bed.”
Another news app instructor, Nancie Dodge said, “The skills you use to build a news app are the same skills you use to be a digital journalist.”
“A digital journalist is a storyteller who first of all has a good sense of news. He or she can shoot and edit video or photos and can write and edit a compelling story,” said Dodge, who specializes in web production and photography.
The 14 faculty attending the workshop are: Carol Adams-Means, Huston-Tillotson University, Austin, Texas; Dr. Arthur Chang and Sunny Fridge, Jackson (Mississippi) State University; Lona Cobb, Winston-Salem (North Carolina) University; Arnold Crump and Melinda Shelton, Xavier University, New Orleans; Sharron Goodman-Hill, Rust College, Holly Springs, Mississippi; William Jiles and Austin Roberts, Florida A&M University, Tallahassee; Milton Kent, Morgan State University, Baltimore; Phillip LeBlanc, Louisiana Tech University, Ruston; Kareem McMichael, Savannah (Georgia) State University; Celeste Stein, Tennessee State University, Nashville, and Cassandra Wynn, Johnson C. Smith University, Charlotte.