Network Launches Journalism Initiative, UNC Bureau

Posted on June 10, 2008

ABC News has selected UNC’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication as home to a new, student-staffed digital bureau.

ABC News on Campus is a partnership serving to educate and mentor talented college students of five top U.S. journalism schools. The new bureaus will open in September.

Each bureau will have a team of paid student staffers that includes a bureau chief. UNC’s bureau staff will be Wilson Andrews, Jennifer Carpenter, Zachary Ferriola-Bruckenstein, Walter Storholt and Carly Swain. Swain will be the bureau chief, and Assistant Professor Dave Cupp will serve as the faculty adviser.

In addition to the official staff, any student may contribute ideas and content. ABC News will provide an annual stipend to manage the bureau and help provide digital technology including video cameras, computers and editing software.

Students will report on stories in their area and produce a wide array of content for ABC News’ digital and broadcast platforms, including Good Morning America, World News with Charles Gibson, Nightline, ABC News NOW, ABCNEWS.com, mtvU, ABC News Radio and NewsOne.

“These college digital bureaus will extend the newsgathering reach of ABC News throughout the country,” said ABC News President David Westin. “In addition, they will enable us to nurture bright young journalism students, giving them hands-on training from some of the most seasoned news professionals in the business and opportunities to see their work appear on ABC News’ platforms.”

Whether students are responding to breaking news or creating daily original content, the ABC News on Campus initiative will provide insight into what America’s 33 million 18- to 25-year-olds are thinking. Student participants will consist of upper-class undergraduate and graduate students who are selected by ABC News and the universities.

Extensive training within the bureaus includes information sessions with visiting ABC News representatives. In addition, student bureau chiefs and faculty liaisons will receive on-site mentoring at ABC News headquarters in New York twice a year.

In addition to Carolina, 2008 ABC News on Campus bureaus are the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University; the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications; the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University; and the College of Communication at The University of Texas at Austin.

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