Cronkite students today learn in a series of full-immersion professional experiences. Throughout Cronkite Day in the azcentral.com room (256), Cronkite students and their faculty leaders will show alumni the wide array of programs and projects. The students also will be available throughout the day in their newsrooms and digital labs (see Classrooms / Newsrooms in Action).
9:30-10 a.m.: Public Relations Lab
Associate Professor Fran Matera and her advanced public relations students demonstrate their work for clients of Cronkite’s PR Lab, the school’s newest full-immersion professional program, in which students create and implement campaigns and strategies for companies and nonprofit organizations across the Valley.
10:15-10:45 a.m.: Spring Training Coverage
Former USA Today sports journalist Greg Boeck and his students show their multimedia coverage of MLB’s Cactus League spring training for the Arizona Republic, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, San Diego Union-Tribune and Seattle Times. The session will also cover Cronkite students’ experience covering the 2012 Summer Olympics.
11-11:30 a.m.: Cronkite News Service
With news bureaus in Phoenix and Washington, Cronkite News Service has become a major content provider for newspapers, TV and radio stations and news websites across Arizona. CNS Digital Director Steve Elliott and Washington Director Steve Crane join CNS students for a discussion of their coverage.
11:45 a.m.-12:15 p.m.: Borderlands Project
Each year advanced Cronkite students go overseas to produce in-depth coverage of a borderlands issue. The Cronkite School has won the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award three of the last four years for student projects on immigration and border issues in the Dominican Republic and Mexico. Carnegie Professor of Journalism and Southwest Borderlands Initiative Professor Rick Rodriguez and his students showcase their award-winning work.
2-2:30 p.m.: Carnegie-Knight News21
The Cronkite School is home to the national Carnegie-Knight News21 initiative, a multi-university project involving the nation’s leading journalism schools. In-depth multimedia reports on voting rights, food safety and transportation safety in America have been published in The Washington Post, nbcnews.com and other major national news outlets. Leonard Downie Jr., Cronkite’s Weil Family Professor of Journalism and former executive editor of The Washington Post, joins News21 students to talk about the initiative.
2:45-3:15 p.m.: Cronkite NewsWatch
Cronkite NewsWatch is a live, four-day-a-week, 30-minute, student-produced newscast that reaches 1.1 million homes on Arizona PBS. NewsWatch has been named the nation’s best student newscast by the Society of Professional Journalists and the Broadcast Education Association. Assistant Dean Mark Lodato and his students take visitors behind the scenes of NewsWatch.
3:30-4 p.m.: New Media Innovation Lab
In the New Media Innovation Lab, journalism students work side by side with computer engineering, design and business students to create cutting-edge digital media products for regional and national media companies and nonprofit organizations. Lab Director Retha Hill, former vice president of content for BET Interactive, and her students highlight their latest projects.
