Students get grant to retool journalism
A group of UNLV journalism students have been tasked with reviving journalism through a grant by the James S. and John L. Knight Foundation.
The five students will join their peers from six other universities in coming up with innovative ideas for gathering and distributing news.
Results from the collaborative effort will be used to help news organizations and media outlets around the world, according to Ardyth Sohn, director of the Greenspun School of Journalism and Media Studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Sohn said the students have been tasked with helping invent the future of journalism in a day when most media outlets, including television, have been struggling to attract a younger audience.
“This is supposed to be a student-oriented project,” Sohn said.
“If we old people sit around and work on it, it will not be what the readers of tomorrow will want.”
The $230,000 grant from the Knight Foundation covers expenses for the students from UNLV and the six other schools, Sohn said.
The other schools included in the collaborative effort are Ithaca College in New York, Michigan State University, the University of Kansas, Kansas State University, Western Kentucky University and St. Michael’s College in Vermont.
Sohn said the award was a big step for the journalism school because it was picked out of about 1,600 applicants.