News

Pictures of the Year International launches three consecutive weeks of judging the world’s most prestigious visual journalism, documentary photography, and journalistic multimedia. On Wednesday, Feb. 8, the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute welcomes 17 of the most respected visual journalists in the world to serve on the 69th annual jury panel. Judging will be webcast live from the Fred W. Smith Forum through Feb. 28. The Adobe Connect dedicated site can be accessed from the POYi website at www.poyi.org.

RJI seeks proposals for the eight-month Fellowship that will shape the future of journalism using the latest in technology and innovation. Proposals will be judged by their quality and potential for real-world impact.

Readers in areas served by community newspapers continue to prefer the community newspaper as their primary source of local news and advertising, according to the 2011 National Newspaper Association research survey. The survey, conducted by the Center for Advanced Social Research (CASR), a program of the Reynolds Journalism Institute, shows that readers prefer the printed copy to the online version, with 48 percent saying the never read the local news online.

A $740,000 grant from the Department of Defense Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) will provide for the development of online and mobile applications for ballot delivery but will not allow for any form of electronic return of voted ballots in an election. In her application for the grant, Boone County Clerk Wendy Noren proposed to collaborate with researchers from the University of Missouri's Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute, College of Engineering, and the Truman School of Public Administration to research and develop outreach, education and online systems.

Pictures of the Year International launches its 69th annual competition, setting the gold standard for documentary photography, photojournalism, visual editing, and journalistic multimedia. POYi provides an online registration and entry process for efficient preparations and uploading. The “Call for Entries” is now posted at www.poyi.org and provides complete details on all the categories and guidelines. Online registration and entry will be open through Thursday, January 12, 2012.

In an effort to break the traditional mold, as most other media platforms have, KOMU-TV 8 has created a unqiue space for journalists that no other broadcast has. When Oprah announced her show was coming to an end, Marty Siddall, KOMU general manager, Stacey Woelfel, KOMU news director, and Sarah Hill, Emmy award winning reporter and interactive anchor at KOMU, decided to take their churning idea and run with it: U_News @ 4.

On November 30, the Reynolds Journalism Institute hosted the final presentations of the first annual Seed Idea Competition, sponsored by CLIMB, (Collaboration, Leadership and Innovation in Missouri Business).

The competition drew participants from 22 departments across the University of Missouri campus, from both graduate and undergraduate students. The preliminary round of presentations was held on October 19th in the Trulaske School of Business, where six undergraduate and two graduate teams were selected as finalists.

A mandate to preserve – a white paper (PDF) – was produced for the Newspaper Archive Summit Network by Victoria McCargar, veteran journalist, archivist and digital curation consultant.

University of Missouri graduate student Chris Eckhardt and business partner Reynolds Fellow Peter Meng, won the 2011 Collaboration, Leadership and Innovation for Missouri Business (CLIMB) Pitch Competition for early stage start-ups. Pitching AdFreeq, a classified ad service integrated with social media for news organizations, the company won $4,000 in seed money.

Roger Fidler, program director for digital publishing at the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute, has been named DeTao Master for New Media Development by the Beijing DeTao Masters Academy (DTMA).

Traditional media, such as newspapers and television news, require readers and viewers to intentionally seek out news by picking up a newspaper or turning on the television. The Internet and new technologies now are changing the way readers consume online news. New research shows that Internet users often do not make the conscious decision to read news online, but they come across news when they are searching for other information or doing non-news related activities online, such as shopping or visiting social networking sites.

American Public Media announced today that it has acquired pioneering community funding website Spot.Us, and will incorporate it into the Public Insight Network (PIN) crowd-sourcing platform. The combination lays the foundation for a networked approach to sourcing and funding high-quality journalism that will help newsrooms and journalists gather the resources and insights they need to do great reporting.

The Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute (RJI) and the Missouri School of Journalism will partner with HCD Research to conduct a national study among 18-70 year-olds to determine their media use and reactions to how news sites are structured and navigated.

Roger Fidler’s Guide to Tablets and E-Readers

Steven Waldman, who directed the Federal Communications Commission's study of the state of U.S. journalism, delivered the keynote address on Nov. 15 at a day-long symposium on the comprehensive and far-reaching report. Watch the sessions.

In the US, cellphones already outnumber laptops and Americans without a cellphone have become the exception. News organizations are struggling to keep pace with the public’s changing media habits—and there is great pressure to deliver news via cellphones. But what news do people most want delivered to their cellphones? And in what format? And what cellphone-delivered products are consumers willing to pay for?

Tablet/Mobile Strategies and Visions for News Organizations

As a follow-up to the June release of the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) report, "Information Needs of Communities," the Reynolds Journalism Institute (RJI) will host a day-long symposium focusing on the regulations and policy recommendations.

These are challenging economic times for all of us. But this is also a time of opportunity for community journalism.

The Missouri School of Journalism, the Reynolds Journalism Institute and the Missouri Press Association put together a conference for community newspaper publishers and editors.

The next survey measuring diversity within U.S. newsrooms, a major initiative of the American Society of News Editors (ASNE) for 33 years, will be conducted by the Center for Advanced Social Research (CASR), an affiliate of the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute at the Missouri School of Journalism.