The Evolving Newsroom

I've been meaning for a while to point to newswire.co.nz. It's a Wellington-based news site showcasing the work of Whitireia Polytech journalism students under the watchful eye of Jim Tucker.

All credit to Jim and his team for getting student work online and getting students working with images, polls, video etc as well as straight text stories. Great to see - this is exactly the sort of hands-on web experience that will help round out the traditional journalism teaching staples such as accuracy, fairness, balance and how to handle a court case.

It's a relatively simple site using a Wordpress theme and there will be challenges keeping it going during school holidays when students are scarce. But it's a worthwhile exercise and one with growth potential given the number of students studying journalism around the country at any given time. There's room for other schools to follow suit or even join forces - an idea that Jim and I have kicked around. I know we've discussed this sort of idea at Wintec but have yet to make definite plans.

I notice this week newswire have started sending out weekly email bulletins. Worth getting on the mailing list if you want to keep track of local Wellington stories or an eye on students' work.