TNJN - $50,000 grant focuses on web publishing

$50,000 grant focuses on web publishing

Jim Stovall

published: February 19 2008 08:08 PM updated:: February 20 2008 12:16 PM

Convergence Week is in full force this Thursday and Friday, Feb. 21-22, with speakers, events and food to focus students on the importance of web journalism.

This two-day event kicks-off early Thursday with class speakers. There will also be a panel discussion on getting a job in the online world, and a presentation at the Black Cultural Center with several professionals working in web journalism.

Thursday evening Bob Benz, a partner at Maroon Ventures, will be speaking at an invitation only dinner in the UC Ballroom, and Friday wraps things up with individual student appointments with professionals and a pizza lunch.

The School of Journalism and Electronic Media along with a $50,000 grant from the Scripps Foundation has been able to set these numerous events and activities that help students realize the importance of web journalism in their futures.

The student staff at the Tennessee Journalist have been an intregal part of the organization of these events. Jim Stovall, JEM professor and Tennessee Journalist advisor, says that Katie Rodgers, editor-in-chief and Martha Wampler, promotions director, spearheaded the organizational efforts for students.

Convergence Week is just one of the many activities the grant has allowed the school to plan. The school has also hired three virtual adjuncts for the entire 2007-2008 year. These adjuncts are working professionals in the online field and are assisting professors with online lectures, discussions and assignments. The grant will also sponsor an upcoming event in the spring 2008 semester called "Web Journalism: A Public Conversation."

Convergence Week Schedule

Thursday, February 21, 2008

11:10 a.m. - Peggy Collins and Staci Wolfe speak at JEM 422, Mananging News Websites

1:30 - 3 p.m. - Panel Discussion: Getting a Job in the Online World; speakers:Peggy Collins, Staci Wolfe, Patrick Beeson, Katie Granju

6 p.m. - Dinner at the UC Ballroom; Disruptive Journalism: A 21st Century Strategy for News Coverage Speaker Bob Benz

Friday, February 22, 2008

9 - 11 a.m. - Individual appointments with virtual adjuncts

11 a.m. - Pizza lunch for TNJN staff, virtual adjuncts, faculty and students (Room 264, Communications)

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Convergence Week Speakers

Bob Benz is a partner with Maroon Ventures, a professional services firm that connects emerging business opportunities with media companies to help them execute in local markets. Before joining Maroon Ventures, he served as vice president of interactive media for Scripps newspapers. He spent 10 years in newsrooms before helping to launch the Rocky Mountain News Online in 1995. It was all Internet from there. His team in Knoxville helped Scripps sites win numerous online awards, and he led Scripps' newspaper sites to profitability in 2002. He holds a BA from Edinboro University in Pennsylvania and an MA from the University of Alabama at Birmingham .

Katie Allison Granju is the Senior Online Producer at WBIR.com. In the past three years, WBIR.com has won multiple Best of Gannett, AP and SPJ awards. Katie has also been nominated for a regional Emmy as producer for WBIR's "Our Stories" series. Prior to joining WBIR, Katie was an online producer with NYC-based Oxygen Media. She is a frequent contributor to a variety of online and print publications, including Salon.com , Babble.com , the New York Times , HGTV.com , Cooking Light , Parenting and the Chicago Tribune . She is the author of "Attachment Parenting" (Simon and Schuster) and a contributor to several literary anthologies.

Staci Wolfe is Senior Internet Marketing Manager for Lucasfilm, Ltd. in San Francisco. As a member of the online team, she develops and manages interactive products that support marketing content for
LucasArts, the gaming division of Lucasfilm. Prior to joining Lucasfilm, Wolfe worked as Innovations Project Manager for E.W. Scripps Newspaper Interactive in Knoxville and before that, as Multimedia Manager for MSN Money in New York. Wolfe has more than 10 years experience in technology and web development. She holds a B.S. in Business/Information Systems from the University of Phoenix, and is preparing to defend her journalism masters thesis.

Margaret "Peggy" Collins is a multimedia editor and producer for MSN.com. Previously, she reported for The Bergen Record , a mid-sized daily newspaper in New Jersey, first as a features writer and then as a local news reporter. While there, she received the 2005 Robert P. Kelly Award for reporting and writing from the New Jersey Press Association . Her former jobs include: helping a former White House aide and cabinet secretary named Joseph A. Califano write his memoir, Inside: A Public and Private Life, and teaching refugees from the Sudan -- in Iowa -- through Americorps. She graduated from the College of the Holy Cross with a Bachelor of Arts and received my Master's from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.

Patrick Beeson is a project manager with The E. W. Scripps Company in Knoxville, TN. He's as comfortable debugging code as he is reporting, shooting a Webcast or blogging. Patrick began his career in journalism on the wrong foot by majoring in public relations at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. Seeking to hone his writing ability, he earned his Master's from the University of Alabama with a focus in journalism. Only in bytes, not ink. He has worked for a variety of media including tuscaloosanews.com, equipmentworld.com, roanoke.com and the predecessor to TNJN.com, the award-winning datelinealabama.com