Goal: I would like to share the success of working with 30 different nonprofit, community, and campus organizations with senior electronic news and sports majors. At a time where every student has to really stand out at job interviews, a service learning project that incorporates everything they have learned in their curriculum can take them to the next level by engaging them in the community they are about to serve.
Rationale: Following the tornado that devastated Tuscaloosa on April 27, 2011, I witnessed nonprofits who were held hostage by the web companies that hosted their content. They couldn\u27t make changes quickly to inform people how to help others, and they turned to social media as their fastest communication tool. I felt it was important to teach them how to control their own destiny when it came to communication in today\u27s media landscape by having my students show them how to use the skills they\u27ve learned.
How It Works: For a semester, seniors partner with a nonprofit/community/campus organization where students work on a new media marketing plan. They research, interview, and investigate the real-world situation for the organization to determine the target audience they are trying to reach, the problems they are trying to solve, and the issues that need to be tackled to help them with communication and increasing their reach and leads to help the organization. Then they create media projects using photos, social media, apps, videos, and audio and create a website with a new media marketing strategy to help with the real-world situation. These are traditional broadcast news students who know how to shoot and frame subjects to industry standards, interview people for soundbites, and edit video in a short form. The New Media course presented a unique opportunity to involve students in the community while they learned how to build nonprofit brands.
Results: In the last four years, nearly 100 students have worked with over 30 clients (i.e. Tuscaloosa Arts, PARA First Tee, Foster Grandparents Program, Arts \u27N Autism) in the community. Three of these projects were recognized with awards. Forest Lake, focused on the rebuilding of one of Tuscaloosa\u27s hardest hit areas and how the area was coming back two years later, won first place in the 2013 international BEA Festival of Media Arts small interactive multimedia competition. Miracle League of Tuscaloosa, which highlights the baseball league for children with physical and mental disabilities, won in the 2014 International BEA Festival of Media Arts small interactive multimedia competition. The Alberta History website project was awarded a $4,500 seed grant to enhance the website and spread the word to help people realize the sense of community they have in a city that\u27s also rebuilding from the tornado. In addition, elements from these projects have been presented at conferences, including the annual international BEA conference and the SPJ/RTDNA\u27s national conference, to help faculty from around the world learn how to include community involvement in their classes
