Miami-Whitewater Valley Public Media Project

Cheryl Gibbs, Assistant Director, Journalism Program, Miami University

• Oxford, OH

CONTACT INFO

Cheryl Gibbs
Miami University Journalism Program
260A Bachelor Hall
Oxford, OH 45056
(513) 529-1923
E-mail

Partnering higher learning with public and commercial media, this project will create a regional news service for Southwest Ohio and East Central Indiana. Citizen journalists and students at Miami University and Earlham College will produce stories for an interactive Web site and content will be shared with local mainstream media. Pilot partners include WMUB public radio, the Cincinnati Business Journal, Cox Ohio newspapers in Dayton, Hamilton, Oxford and Middletown, and Gannett’s Palladium-Item in Richmond, Indiana. They seek to create a replicable model for covering regional news.

Check back for future news and updates.

• November 2008
• July 8, 2008, Press Release
 
 
 

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Mi-Whi News Up and Running

November 2008

The Miami-WhiteWater Valley Public Media Project has landed on a snappy new name: Mi-Whi News. Based at Miami University, the project is pulling together students, community, and mainstream news organizations to partner on regional coverage.

One of the partners is the Richmond Palladium-Item in Indiana, a newsroom where Mi-Whi News coordinator Cheryl Gibbs once worked. “Five department level managers were recently eliminated there. They are a small enough paper, so they are open to the help,“ she said. “They don’t have the tech equipment. So, our school will provide cameras.“

In October 2008, students participated in a Palladium-sponsored online chat during the vice presidential debate. Gibbs says it was a good experience, despite technical difficulties.

“We’re experimenting with news way of doing journalism,“ says Gibbs. “We’re learning about Twitter, Mogulus and bandwidth.“ Mogulus is site that enables users to create their own TV studios. Mi-Whi used it to stream a candidate’s forum in Richmond.

The project is continuing to reach out to new potential partners. WHIO-TV in Dayton, Ohio and Whitewater Community Television, the cable access channel in Richmond, have both expressed interest. Community partners are encouraged to use Mi-WhiNews content, with credit.

“Students are getting excited about doing multimedia. We’re helping them write to a professional standard. They do a lot of good work that doesn’t get any audience.  So this is a good way to make it public and serve the community,“ said Gibbs.

Mi-Whi has hired Summersault.com to design its open-source Web portal where assignments will be tracked and all content will be aggregated.
Gibbs’ advice to other citizen media initiatives: “If you don’t know what you’re doing, do it anyway.“ Professors are learning to use new technologies right alongside their students.

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Earlham Students Will Shape Local News Coverage

Press Release: July 8, 2008

RICHMOND, Ind. — Earlham College students will have a chance to change how local news is reported, thanks to an innovative partnership between Earlham and Miami University and funded by the New Voices program of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. J-Lab, the Institute for Interactive Journalism, administers the program.

Ten innovative media projects were selected from a record pool of 312 applicants, reports J-Lab. The grant winners will receive $12,000 in first-year funding to launch their program and $5,000 in matching support in the second year.

The project, known as the Miami-Whitewater Valley Public Media Project, will partner higher education with public and commercial media to create a new regional newsgathering model for Southwest Ohio and East Central Indiana. Citizen journalists along with students from Miami and Earlham will produce stories for an interactive Web site and content will be shared with more traditional media outlets.

Read the full press release on Earlham College’s Web site…

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