Multimedia Reporting Project

Aric Johnson, Arizona Republic Editor-in-Residence at the Cronkite School, works with students to produce online breaking news.

A joint program of the Cronkite School and The Arizona Republic provides journalism students a cutting-edge multimedia reporting experience that helps prepare them for jobs in the rapidly changing news industry.

The students, who receive both course credit and a salary for the semester, commit to working two full days a week reporting breaking news for azcentral.com, the leading news Web site in the state. Students work in four Republic newsrooms across the Valley reporting on local crime, traffic, weather, community events and other breaking news. Stories are updated continually, which means students often write multiple versions of a story under tight deadlines.

The students’ work is regularly among the most viewed of all news content on azcentral.com, generating an average of 1 million page views a month.

Students’ stories also receive prominent play in the print edition of The Arizona Republic, the nation’s 10th largest daily newspaper.

“The students are getting a great real-world opportunity to grow their skills, and our online and print products are enriched by their reporting,” said Randy Lovely, the Republic’s executive editor. “And their work has added to the sense of immediacy and urgency that we are pushing for throughout our news operations.”

Members of the spring 2008 multimedia reporting class.

The students are supervised by Aric Johnson, an experienced editor who is serving as the Cronkite School’s first Arizona Republic Editor in Residence. Johnson, who has been a reporter and editor at the Fresno Bee, the Reno Gazette-Journal and the Republic, directs the program, coaching the students and editing their work. Johnson also arranges sessions for the students with newsmakers and reporters.

Students also are producing photo slide shows and will be branching out to produce video and audio for the Web site.

Applications for the program are taken twice a year. For more information, contact Johnson at aric.johnson@asu.edu.