I intend to answer those questions and more this summer as an intern at The Dallas Morning News!
It’s an online internship, but I’ll primarily be working under metro as a multimedia reporter. Split between breaking news and other projects, my role will include writing stories, shooting video and doing other kinds of mischief.
This will be my fourth news internship – third at a metropolitan daily. I plan start soon after I graduate in May.
I can’t wait!
What should I see and do in Dallas?
Read about my experiences at The Miami Herald last summer:
I should have blogged about BarCamp NewsInnovation last week when I first heard about the idea, but thankfully Ryan Sholin wrote a post that reminded me.
The locations being proposed for regional BarCamps include Boston, Chicago, Denver, Reston (Va.), New York City and Silicon Valley.
“Where’s Miami?” you say. I dropped a line in the wiki saying I’d be interested to help organize one here.
I know there’s a lot going on this spring (BarCampMiami , Future of Web Apps and WeMedia), but the topic of News Innovation is just too good to pass up.
The Online News Association officially launched their new Web site (see right) Monday evening.
If you’re a member with full access, or even a non-member just perusing, you can tell this site is big step forward.
Here are some of the features, as outlined in an e-mail from ONA President Jonathan Dube:
Networking features, including discussion groups that connect members by region and area of interest, giving you the ability to have one-on-one conversations and to chat in real time.
An easy-to-navigate membership directory – searchable by name, type of organization, areas of expertise, and more – enabling you to more easily network with people with common interests.
A Career Center that allows members to post and search job openings.
A new training section with innovative digital presentations tagged by topic, source and medium. This section features videotaped sessions from ONA’s sold-out 2008 annual conference, with tips on the latest techniques in multimedia storytelling from the New York Times, Washington Post, USA TODAY and the BBC, among others.
So why I am blogging about this? Earlier this month I was asked to be the student group discussion leader, a role I enthusiastically accepted.Â
I’ll be posting there a couple times a week in order to start conversations on topics such as classes, cool projects and internships. The group has six members so far, including two pros.Â
If you’re a student interested in online journalism, I highly recommend joining ONA. I joined in April and think ONA is a group often overlooked by student journalists (read about membership benefits).
For only $25 a year, you can’t say no.
One benefit is that you get a heavily discounted conference registration — we’re talking less than half the pro rate.
And if you saw my posts or tweets about this year’s gathering in D.C., you’d see why the experience is so valuable. I went to a number of great sessions, but more important are the connections you make.
With $1 million to help journalism, I would fund a project to look for ways to financially sustain journalism efforts, building off of the New Business Models for News Summit.
I wasn’t at the conference, so I followed it online. It was a great starting point, but we need more Web people involved. And not just Web people, but innovators who have successfully made money online.
