New Grady Newsource website, G-Span elevate visibility of student journalism
Grady College students have two new innovative outlets to publish their work. Grady Newsource, the journalism capstone class and news organization covering northeast Georgia, has launched a new website to publish content from student journalists and provide an interactive look at the journalism process. Accompanying the site is G-Span, a 24/7 television station operated out of Grady College that broadcasts throughout campus and the Athens area.
“G-Span provides Grady College with a wonderful vehicle to air programming produced by students throughout the College,” said Charles Davis, dean, Grady College. “In the future, you’ll see the channel used increasingly as a platform for innovation and experimentation, as well as a home for all sorts of events across campus that our Grady Productions students record and edit. It’s a wonderful new experiential playground for us.”
G-Span can be seen on University Cablevision channel 15 and Charter cable channel 181. It will serve as a platform for student productions, informative lectures, and meaningful University of Georgia events. G-Span currently broadcasts Grady Newsource at 5 p.m., Monday and Wednesday during fall and spring semesters. It also airs Grady Sportsource on Fridays in the fall.
Student journalists publish their work digitally on gradynewsource.uga.edu and select articles feature annotations through which reporters will reflect on the newsgathering process and further explain the decisions behind their reporting.
“Being transparent about what we do as journalists is very important,” said Janice Hume, the Carolyn McKenzie and Don E Carter Chair for Excellence in Journalism, and head of the Department of Journalism.
Innovation, learning and service to the local community are core principles of the Grady Newsource mission.
“We, as journalists, need to increase credibility with our audiences,” said Amanda Bright, an academic professional in journalism at Grady. “We are in a place at Grady College where student journalists can try new things, think outside of the box and see what works.”
All measurable audience statistics have increased as the website content has been revamped. The average visitor to gradynewsource.uga.edu is on the site for four minutes, a 75% increase from early 2018.
“We have an opportunity to work on a converged system and learn how to best reach audiences with important news stories on a variety of platforms,” said Dodie Cantrell-Bickley, Grady College journalism lecturer.
The website collaborates with The Lead podcast, a show from the James M. Cox Jr. Institute for Journalism that examines the ever-evolving nature of journalism. It also features work from health and medical, sports journalism and photo journalism programs.
The site invites guest curators from journalism organizations to highlight outstanding pieces. Hume was the first guest curator.
“Curation serves two purposes,” Hume said. “It allows the audience to potentially get a look at a quality story they might have missed. Also, it is recognition of students for their hard work.”
Hume says the website launch is the culmination of a four-year process at Grady College to revamp curriculum as the journalism and broadcasting departments merged to create a digital-journalism first product.
Future plans for the website include a social news desk to best integrate social media with the site, weekly e-mail newsletters and collaboration with Grady College’s New Media Institute to develop a Grady Newsource mobile app.
Grady College will celebrate the Grady Newsource website and G-Span with a launch party on Nov. 9 at 1:30 p.m. in Studio 100.
Date: November 6, 2018