Nov 18

From the Newsroom to the Classroom: Retha Hill

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Several journalists I know made the transition from online newsrooms into classrooms this year. With decades of journalism experience under their belts, these new media trailblazers have decided that molding the next generation of journalists is how they want to spend the next leg of their careers.

Photo by Aaron Roberts
Retha HillRetha HillRetha Hill

Over the next week or so, I’ll share their responses to questions about their current roles and the challenges facing journalism and journalism schools.  

Let’s start with Retha Hill, director of the new media lab at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. Retha is the former vice president of content at BET Interactive, where she launched BET.com seven years ago. I know Retha from her days at washingtonpost.com, where she was an executive producer for special projects and an editor for local news and arts and entertainment.
Continue reading »

Nov 05

For Young Journalists: Equipping Yourself for the Web

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I spoke to some students from Howard University a few days ago — most of whom were seniors and hadn’t had much online experience. Some had done online internships; a couple had dabbled in video. My advice to the rest of them was it’s never too late to start.

Many of them had blogged on occasion, but most admitted to letting their blogging lapse. I understand being busy — in fact, this blog has been on my to-do list for quite some time. However, I have a job in new media, and because some of them want to get one, my first suggestion was to dust off those blogs and start writing again. Online managers, I told them, would appreciate some evidence that they were familiar with certain tools and techniques of the Web.

Other suggestions: Continue reading »

Oct 27

Saying Goodbye to the 2007 Online News Association Conference

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Next week, after a debriefing, I’ll wrap up my year as chair of the Online News Association’s annual conference. It’s been a fun — yet exhausting — tenure. And this last week, stuck in bed with some kind of cold, it was hard not to think about the conference.

Since January, my small but dedicated group of conference planners talked weekly with few exceptions. Josh Hatch, of USAToday.com, joked that he can’t imagine what he’ll do with himself during what had become our usual Thursday call. Continue reading »

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