Studio 20 @ Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute
The program seeks to draw together a diversely talented team of students who can produce excellent work that pushes the field forward and realizes some of the possibilities inherent in a multi-media, interactive and constantly evolving platform for journalism-- namely, the World Wide Web.
Studio classes provide a "hub" for organizing activity and a common space for inquiry and reflection around the program's various projects. Students are expected to be flexible and curious, generous in sharing skills, eager to pick up new knowledge and willing to adapt to what the project--and its deadlines--demand.
The curriculum has three parts: 1.) the traditional requirements of two basic reporting classes plus "the ethics of the web;" 2.) a core of three project-based classes called Studio I, II and III; and 3.) elective enrichment courses that allow students to pursue interests and work on initiatives of their own. In their third and final semester, students design their own projects with an appropriate media partner and try to create innovation--as well as a name--for themselves.
Each year Studio 20 will recruit a mix of writers, editors, videographers, audio journalists, programmers, designers and Web producers under the principle of "bring skills, share skills, learn new stuff." Recruiting will emphasize students comfortable in more than one medium and ready to tackle new challenges. One of our mottos is: "Everyone works on everything." Another: "acquire what the project requires."
In 2009-10, one of Studio 20's major partners was the New York Times. Working with editors at the Times, students and faculty designed and planned a hyperlocal news site for the East Village neighborhood in Manhattan. It launched in September, 2010: The Local East Village.
One of the innovations that came out of that project is The Virtual Assignment Desk, a WordPress plug-in. You can read more about it here.
In 2010-11 Studio20's major project was a collaboration with ProPublica, the investigative reporting non-profit. Students experimented with the genre of "the explainer," a form of journalism that provides essential background knowledge and brings clarity to complex issues in the news. Read more here and see the project site, Explainer.net.
In 2011-12, Studio 20's major project was a collaboration with The Guardian around a different approach to election coverage. You can read a summary from the Nieman Lab. Then see the project in action on the Guardian: here and here.
In December of 2010, NYU announced that the renowned Internet thinker Clay Shirky would be joining the Carter Institute and Studio 20, where he will teach courses and consult on projects.
Think you might be interested in applying? Email studio20.journalism@nyu.edu to let us know. Tell us about yourself and your background and how we can find you and your work on the web.
Here is Studio's 20's official page at New York University's Arthur L. Carter Institute of Journalism.
Here are the official instructions on how to apply. (The initial deadline is Jan. 10; we will accept applications after that but cannot guarantee space or financial aid. Please note that the GRE General Exam is required of all applicants. See our How to Apply page for more details.
Here is a map showing where we are located.
Follow professors Jay Rosen and Jason Samuels on Twitter, as well as Clay Shirky. And check back at this site for updates.
You are cordially invited to the Studio 20 Open Studio, a presentation of innovations in journalism by the students and innovators of Studio 20. These final projects are the both the capstone project for students enrolled in the NYU Arthur L. Carter School of Journalism, and a survey of cutting edge advances in journalism today.
Time: 5:30 PM, December 14th, 2011
Place: Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, New York University 20 Cooper Square, 6th Floor New York, NY 10003
Presenters:
Chelsea Stark partnered with Forbes to explore how to make online video a better return on investment. She focused on optimizing its video content for search and social spaces and built up its online contributor network. She also created guides and repeatable work flows to allow Forbes to repeat these processes in the future. @chelseabot
‘Chao Li spent the summer prepping Future Journalism Project for the work she is doing for them this fall. Chao’s Studio III project is to create tutorials for people interested in digital journalism. A part of that includes interviewing CEOs of startups and helping them create tutorials while they are busy launching their App or service. @cli6cli6
Niel Bekker helped manage and produce social gaming content for the Huffington Post. For Studio III, he is producing an original newsgame that addresses the inefficiencies of game development in an online news environment. @nielbekker
Brittany Binowski drew inspiration from many innovative social feeds on Twitter as well as CNN’s In America documentary unit to help create a list of best practices and suggestions for investigative news organizations. The suggestions aim to better connect sources with reporters and producers in the newsroom and, therefore, create better and more informed journalism.@binowski
Blair Hickman is developing a digital toolkit to help journalists report on social change more effectively. Her partner, Dowser Media, is trying to broaden the scope of typical news coverage by pioneering thoughtful, critical coverage of social innovation—what they call Solution Journalism.@amandablair
This semester, Colin Jones worked on developing a live video chat project with the New York Daily News. These chats took user comments, submitted through Twitter, Facebook and other platforms, and had them answered live on the site by reporters and guests. @Colin_Jones
Radio ProPublica is an experimental audio project that Assia Boundaoui is developing for ProPublica. The project included producing narrative-driven investigative podcasts that seek to explain news in the public interest and engage users by soliciting UGC and crowdsourcing questions in need of explanation. @assuss
This fall, Rachel Slaff is working with GoodHousekeeping.com to solicit and showcase user-generated videos. She’s thrilled to experiment with the traditional journalistic framework of narration by allowing users to share their own stories. @rachelslaff
For Tom Chen’s Studio III project, he teamed up with Artinfo.com and designed an interactive video companion for the website. It will be a video component that largely enriches the visitors’ interactive experience with the site. And it will live on different platforms (website, mobile app, podcast). @tomstation
For Studio III, Nasry Esmat worked with Mujaz.me on creating the first social media news page in Egypt. Mujaz is an Egyptian news aggregator and the created page aims to tell news stories by curating social media posts that challenge the official narrative of traditional news sources. @nasry
Erin Evans worked with the New York Times’ education site, SchoolBook, on an experiment in community outreach. She produced a case study based on her findings at a school in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. @heyerinevans
David Holmes is working with the New York Daily News to implement automated news quizzes while developing a workflow model for algorithmic journalism. @David_M_Holmes
This past summer, Matt Diaz interned with the User Experience and Product Research Team at the New York Times doing both qualitative and quantitative user research. This fall Matt is continuing his work with The Times. His Studio III project is an original research effort centered on the digital identities and behaviors of young adults with a focus on how they produce and consume news on mobile devices. @mgdiaz
This fall, Ruth Spencer explored how data literacy is emerging as a necessary journalistic skill. She created The Datamaster for Jim Brady, Editor in Chief of Journal Register Company. The Datamaster is a comprehensive plan for how Journal Register Company can integrate data resources across its network; it includes a corporate strategy and staff training guide. @onthewag
Din Clarke ’s project, Sight and Sound, has both a video and audio component. She built a prototype for a portable video recording booth to collect stories from residents who have limited or no internet access and taught audio recording/editing to young adults at Reel Works. The pieces will air on local radio station WBAI. @dinclarke
Todd Olmstead collaborated with Mashable to grow engagement through their comments. Mashable already has a highly active commenting community, and Todd’s goal was to optimize the quality contributions that these readers make on the site. @toddjolmstead
Studio 20 has been hosting an “Open Workspace” every Monday night at 20 Cooper Square from 6pm - 12am. We want to encourage the journalism school here to adopt more of a collaborative vibe and we’re off to a good start. Tonight we hosted the first co-working session with Studio 20 and ITP (Interaction Technology Program at Tisch, where many of us take electives). Pizza, wine, chocolate, beer and were served. Success!
Check our latest attempt to put it all into words.
Studio 20 - New York University from The Local East Village on Vimeo.
Since September 2010, Zoe has worked with Studio 20 as we try and solve the big puzzles in journalism. In Studio II, She introduced us to the skills and tactics we need to execute our long-term project with ProPublica. Zoe taught us the value of iterative project management and agile development, and also lead weekly workshops on everything from photoshop to public speaking. This semester in Studio III, Zoe is working with each of us to make sure we’re on track and prepared to deliver our final projects on time and with confidence.
Zoe has been a resource (even a life saver) for the last year and it’s about time that we give her a proper introduction.
When she’s not at Studio 20, Zoe is either at ITP (where she teaches a class on interaction design) or at General Assembly, where she manages Squishables, one of her many companies. (And yes, I am talking about these giant stuffed balls of fuzz).
Zoe is not the typical journalism prof and that suits us just fine; Studio 20 is far from your average journalism program. We asked Zoe to tell us herself about what it’s been like to transition from working with programs and code to stuffed animals and journalists.
S20: How do you see your role in Studio 20?
My job is to make sure everyone involved in Studio 20 has the skills and connections to do any kind of innovation they can dream up, without regard for technical issues or inexperience. Journalists stereotypically run the risk of fearing change - I can’t fix that but I can prove to them that change is a lot easier than they thought (and also a giggle).
S20: What did you do before joining Studio 20?
Most recently I was at ITP, NYU, and these days on top of the teaching I do a lot of consulting work for existing Media Outlets, news startups, and nonprofits involved with freedom of speech. Usually they’re projects involved in Data Visualization or Meme-Tracking (in one instance, both). And of course I also run the ecommerce startup Squishable (Snurfle us on Facebook).
Before then I was doing web architecture at a large financial regulatory institution, and before then I was consulting for a company involved with running free elections in unusual places. Prior to that….the US Department of Labor, and also did a stint for the US Postal Service. Going way back in time, I was a briefly a researcher in Human Computer Interaction at Brunel University, a Runner at the BBC, and before that I worked for a nonprofit on creating eBay’s Giving Works Tool. Before that, like everyone else in the early 00’s, an internet startup that went under. And before that I worked for the Hubble Space Telescope.
And at one point in 2005 I worked for a couple weeks on a kangaroo farm in Australia. So there’s that.
S20: What attracts you to working with journalists/journalism students?
Folks involved in startups often come at life from this POV: I have a cool idea and if I develop it a bit I bet I can get some people who want to use it. But journalists have this amazing situation going on right now: A lot of people want to use my product, if only I could think up a cool idea how to let them. It’s just a more powerful, more rewarding way to think about the world. More fun too.
S20: What has surprised you about Studio 20?
Surprises on working with Studio 20 - hmm. I didn’t necessarily expect the level of dedication I found here. Because of the three-semester layout it seems like the students are incredibly involved and supportive of each other. It’s amazing the advertising agencies aren’t banging in their door demanding to know how they do it.
S20: How do you compare your work at ITP with your work at Studio 20
ITP and Studio 20, they have very different institutional feels, but it’s interesting to notice how convergent evolution has kicked in here. From originally coming from such divergent POV’s, the drive for innovation and experimentation has linked them up in a way I’m not sure anyone expected. It would be as if Birds and Butterfly’s suddenly realized they were both good at the same thing. And decided to help each other modify some wing structure. And hold races. I can keep going with this metaphor if you want.
In its second year, Studio 20 is again embarking on a big collaboration with a major media partner. In 2009-10 it was The Local East Village with the New York Times. In 2010-11 it’s the Building a Better Explainer project with the investigative journalism non-profit, ProPublica. The project will focus on the art of explaining the sort of sprawling complicated stories that ProPublica covers. The new site students built for the project, Explainer.net, launched last night.
Studio 20 Director Jay Rosen’s students, consulting closely with the editors of ProPublica, will:
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- research best practices in explanatory journalism;
- collect relevant knowledge from other disciplines about how users absorb complex subjects;
- pick one of ProPublica’s major investigations and produce model explainers suitable for publication at ProPublica.org;
- experiment with different ways of delivering critical background knowledge, using all the tools of the Web
- investigate how to make the explainer genre more interactive with Web users;
- share their findings with ProPublica and the wider journalism world
Professor Rosen details the background of and plan for the project on PressThink:
We will start by researching what’s working now, and by going beyond journalism to fields that might know something journalists should know. In the spring of 2011, we’ll devote a whole graduate course (18 students, two instructors, plus consultants) to producing explainers that we hope ProPublica can publish, as well as a kind of tool kit to make the task easier. At the project site, explainer.net, we’ll post highlights from our research, solicit help, and publish interviews with thinkers and do-ers who are pushing the practice forward.
Recently, Nieman Journalism Lab’s Lois Beckett visited Studio 20 to speak with students about the project. She writes:
Students will divide into three groups tasked with exploring different elements of explanation. One group is interviewing the members of ProPublica’s news team, from reporters to news app builders to the managing editor, in order to understand the organization’s workflow, what it does with the data it collects, and how its reporters explain what they’re learning to themselves as they report a story.
Another group is building Explainer.net’s WordPress website, which sometimes means teaching themselves and each other skills on an ad hoc basis.
A third group is researching the different “explainer” genres. They’re starting with examples of good and bad explanatory journalism, from maps and timelines to more specific visualizations like The National Post’s chilling illustration of how a stoning is carried out in Iran. But they’ll also be reaching far outside the media world to research techniques used in many different fields. Rosen suggested that they focus on situations where people “can’t afford to fail,” like people fixing combat aircraft, or NFL teams explaining complicated plays. The students are also looking at the “For Dummies” book franchise and the language-learning software Rosetta Stone.
Keep up with the project on Explainer.net. Or by Twitter.
Studio 20’s first class of students are in their third semester, and working on innovation projects with a variety of media partners. They work independently and present their progress in Jay Rosen’s Studio 3 course. Here’s what they’re up to this term:
Tim Stenovec is working with Saul Hansell of Seed.com to design and build a site for AOL that helps people sort through the claims of the food industry.
Anjali Khosla Mullany is establishing a noise beat for the New York Times Local East Village. Her project involves data visualization, video reporting, and designing a dynamic new beat page system for reporters and the community.
Jami Katz is creating a cultural calendar for UrbanDaddy.com that is being used as an internal tool between editors to streamline editorial work flow. She has been coordinating events and creative story ideas for UrbanDaddy’s New York, Los Angeles and National editions. She has also been developing new ideas for the company’s Twitter site and making recommendations.
Suemedha Sood has developed a column for BBC Travel called Travelwise. BBC Travel is a new travel website from the BBC in association with Lonely Planet.
Roque Planas is helping The Miami Herald revamp its blog “Cuban Colada” by adding a daily aggregator and developing ways to encourage user interaction and debate.
James Matthews is integrating SeeClickFix, an organization that allows citizens to report non-emergency local concerns, on The Local East Village website and developing best practices to use the information for in depth hyperlocal reporting.
Amir Shoucri developed a video component for the New York Observer’s website. This included creating a signature “Observer” visual style, devising a workflow for posting video, and producing a variety of original video content. Here’s an example of a feature posted on the home page.
Tracy Wang is working with AlliSports.com to develop multimedia elements and employ social media.
Lesley Messer is working with People.com to better understand Facebook as an editorial tool, and to develop a posting strategy for the future.
Matylda Czarnecka is working with PBS’ Channel Thirteen to prototype a website and show about the New York City startup ecosystem.
Studio 20’s Niel Bekker recently published a post exploring two new startups, Storify and Qwiki, which are finding ways to disrupt storytelling. From the post:
Which is more disruptive: connecting users to a library of machine-made knowledge remixes, or connecting users to each other’s curated content, shaped into narrative by human hands?
Read Niel’s full story on MemeBurn.
Students in Professor Jason Samuels’ course worked with the New York Daily News to liveblog this weekend’s New York City Marathon.
The NYDN’s Lauren Johnston blogs about running, but couldn’t do it Sunday since she was participating in the marathon itself. Studio 20 came to the rescue. Johnston explains:
Photos and details were captured by Studio 20 and posted to Johnston’s Running Dialogue blog, including these:
Photo by Emily Miller /Todd Olmstead
Photo by Blair Hickman
Photo by Din Clarke
Photo by Colin Jones
Dozens of other moments and stories were captured by Studio 20 during the race. Be sure to check out more of them!
Congratulations to Studio 20’s Tim Stenovec for getting his Local East Village video on a makeshift Hare Krishna center picked up by the Huffington Post!
This is the first post in a series on how Studio 20 students spent their summers. Lesley Messer tells us about writing for People Magazine and a trip to Toronto:
Over the summer, I went back to my full-time job,
writing, reporting and fact-checking entertainment features for People.
A few highlights included spending time with the cast of Jersey Shore and their families (including Snooki), [read Lesley’s article here], celebrating the life and career of Golden Girl Rue McClanahan and
recently, reporting and co-authoring our cover story on the MTV show Teen Mom.
I also moved to Greenpoint, Brooklyn and recently traveled to Toronto to cover
the Toronto International Film Festival!
PBS’ MediaShift profiled NYU’s Studio 20 concentration as an example of journalism education adapting to the changing media industry.
Studio 20 Director Jay Rosen explains his philosophy for student participation:
“What I want students to do is look at the web as an opportunity to learn about journalism today by participating in it.”
The article describes NYU’s collaboration with the New York Times on The Local East Village (LEV for short), a hyperlocal blog that launched on September 13th.
One of the challenges these types of partnerships in journalism face is ensuring that the student-produced media remains consistent with the standards of the participating news organization. That’s where Rich Jones, editor of the LEV, comes in. “We’ll obviously bring professional level standards to the treatment of those issues, being under the Times banner brings certain responsibilities,” said Jones, a former New York Times writer. “We just want to give students the skills they were need to have a really successful career.”
Read the full post for more details on what NYU, along with CUNY and Columbia, are doing to improve their curriculum.
The Local East Village will launch on Monday, September 13. The site is a collaboration between The New York Times and New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, and will cover New York City’s East Village. Studio 20 students have been planning and working towards its launch throughout spring semester and into the summer.
The site will feature a specially developed Virtual Assignment Desk that will let contributors from the East Village easily communicate with the staff to pitch story ideas and contribute articles and multimedia. From the press release:
The site will feature a Virtual Assignment Desk, an interactive digital platform that has been created as a Wordpress plug-in. It provides an editorial work flow system for both assigning stories, and receiving and managing ideas, tips, and finished work from community and student contributors. Any registered user of nytimes.com will be able to go to a special page to see what assignments are available.
Students from all universities will have the opportunity to experience the East Village while gaining real world journalism experience by applying to the Hyperlocal Newsroom Summer Academy:
Starting in May 2011, the Hyperlocal Newsroom Summer Academy will welcome journalism students from across the country to cover East Village beats and help coordinate wider community involvement. These include pre-college and college tracks as well as a select number of three-month graduate-level LEV internships, credit and non-credit, available on a competitive basis. For more on the The Hyperlocal Academy, click here.
The site will be live starting Monday at http://eastvillage.thelocal.nytimes.com and http://localeastvillage.com.
Studio 20 student Amir Shoucri is helping the New York Observer develop their video strategy this summer. The project is funded through a $10,000 grant to the Carter Institute from the Knight Foundation.
The fellowship also allowed Amir to purchase video equipment, which will be donated to Studio 20 at the end of his work:
A Panasonic AG-HMC150 digital camcorder
The camera, along with a Sony UWP-V1 wireless mic set and Rode NTG-1 shotgun mic.
From Amir:
I’m very fortunate to have been given a unique opportunity to introduce a video component to the New York Observer’s website, Observer.com. The Observer doesn’t currently produce original video content, so my role is to start creating videos in collaboration with their staff that ideally complement their editorial style. I’ll be working there through September, and hopefully will get to produce some interesting content.
The project is being funded by the Knight Foundation. Thanks to their generous support, along with NYU’s, I was able to acquire the following equipment, which will be donated to Studio 20 at the end of my project:
Panasonic AG-HMC150 digital camcorder, Sony UWP-V1 wireless mic set, and Rode NTG-1 shotgun mic. I’m super psyched to be using an incredible camera with a solid lens and all-digital workflow, and I can’t wait til everyone gets to try it out!
Congratulations, Amir!
Studio 20 Student Anjali Mullany works for the New York Daily News as their social media manager. Using her expertise, she rounded up some of the best reactions to LeBron James’ announcement that he will play for the Miami Heat via Twitter. Here’s a sample:
After the announcement, Knicks fans took to Twitter to share their disappointment - but many Cavaliers fans were downright furious.
Maria in Ohio, who goes by @mariaaa_ftw, tweeted, “we are all witnesses. witnesses to a coward who couldn’t win if his life depended on it. so he picked up his bags and left. way to go Cavs!”, “he didn’t care about his fans, even though we had his back thru and thru” and “oh god, whats gonna happen to that huuuge poster of lebron downtown? ughh torch it? hahah”. Celebrities had plenty to say, too.
P. Diddy, who goes by @iamdiddy, tweeted before the decision, “Lebron will sign with the knicks! Yea I said it!” After the decision, however, he didn’t appear to be heartbroken. “ok i can handle Miami!!! it’s my second home!!! let’s go!!!!!!” he tweeted.
Justin Bieber, a.k.a. @justinbieber, reacted by tweeting, “WOW LEBRON …MIAMI??? how do we all feel about this…mixed emotions in this room”.
Chris Bosh, @chrisbosh on Twitter and LeBron’s future fellow teammate, reacted by tweeting “Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” and “It’s madness out here! I’m on cloud 9 right now! This is like a dream come true to play with @dwadeofficial and @kingjames”, referring to Dwyane Wade and LeBron James’ Twitter accounts.Wade tweeted, “MIAMI. Welcome my brothers @KingJames and @chrisbosh to YOUR city.”
Check out Anjali’s full story.
