Archive for January, 2009

My Ford Foundation Grant: Lessons Learned – 6

Wednesday, January 14th, 2009

Lesson 6. It is not a a waste of energy to try developing an informal, collaborative relationship with student news media at Hunter so as to try to encourage them to consider publishing articles and disseminating information about ethnic-immigrant issues. This is especially true considering the richness of Hunter’s culturally and ethnically diverse student body. But … (more…)

The WORD’s Luis M. Mostacero Heading to the Presidential Inauguration

Tuesday, January 13th, 2009

WORD senior editor/producer Luis M. Mostacero also writes for Noticia Hispanoamericana in Baldwin, New York (AKA Long Island). He will be reporting on the inauguration for Noticia Hispanoamericana but will also be writing some stories for the WORD.

 

WORD senior editor/producer Luis Mostacero interviewing people who had voted in the neighborhood voting booths set up inside of the Hunter North Building November 4.

WORD senior editor/producer Luis Mostacero interviewing people who had voted in the neighborhood voting booths set up inside of the Hunter North Building.

 

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WORD Writer Gets Inauguration Press Credentials

Monday, January 12th, 2009

A WORD writer who also writes for a Spanish-speaking newspaper on Long Island has received press credentials via his LI newspaper for the 2009 Inauguration.

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The Health of Ethnic Media

Monday, January 12th, 2009

Funded by the McCormick Foundation, “The Health of Ethnic Media: Needs and Opportunities”:  A must read for students and instructors seriously interested in journalism and media. That goes for practitioners as well because …

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My Ford Foundation Grant: Lessons Learned – 4 & 5

Monday, January 12th, 2009

Lesson 4. Instructors need to beware of the mesmerizing power of platforms like YouTube. It is becoming so easy for students to produce material for the internet that they can lose sight, for example, about the importance of writing skills to tell their stories. That naivete can lead to students eschewing reputable journalistic practices as well as the traditions of reputable ethical practices and news media responsibility.

Lesson 5. This instructor must consider revising his journalism syllabi often for the foreseeable future. 

My Ford Foundation Grant: Lessons Learned – 3

Saturday, January 10th, 2009

Lesson 3. YouTube and other platforms like it are excellent tools for teaching students about multimedia news dissemination.

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My Ford Foundation Grant: Lessons Learned – 2

Friday, January 9th, 2009

Lesson 2. Journalism in order to develop at Hunter needs to eschew filmmaking techniques and aesthetics and develop its own methodology.

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My $30,000 Ford Foundation Grant: Lessons Learned – 1

Thursday, January 8th, 2009

Lesson 1. Paltry technical support that was not anticipated required this writer to draw upon technology workshops on and off campus as well as from online and off-line tutorials plus support from the CUNY graduate journalism program to acquire sufficient technical expertise to supervise students for audio, video and visual news dissemination. Thus this lesson: Instructors interested in teaching multimedia news dissemination have to have sufficient technical expertise in new media and broadcast-type software and hardware because many college undergraduate programs are still rooted in old traditions and that goes for their technical staffs. 

My $30,000 Ford Foundation Grant: Grant Proposal Excerpts

Wednesday, January 7th, 2009

I was awarded a $30,000 Ford Foundation grant to develop a multimedia ethnic reporting class. I emailed a final report to Ford December 31. I am publishing some excerpts from the report. Here’s the first:

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Final Grades, Fall Semester – Basic Reporting (So-called)

Monday, January 5th, 2009

This was one of the most talented classes I’ve had in a few years. However, two students who could have achieved at least a B flunked because they seemed to believe they could bluff their way through the course and get a C  without completing the assignments (that’s my impression), and one was very late-late several times and in one conversation conveyed that she was hoping to bluff – again, my impression – her way to a passing grade that she could get without doing the homework.

The other attended class regularly but … refused to turn in assignments or refused to turn in assignments on time.

Because of the internecine war with my department about my classes and how I want to teach, final grades is always serious manner. The usual attrition rate – F’s, D’s, W’s and WU’s – is one-third.

I’m expecting that the two INCs eventually become passing grades.

 

A — 2
B+ — 3
B — 3
B- — 1
INC — 2
W — 1
WU — 1
F — 2