The School of Journalism at The University of Texas at Austin is partnering with ABC News to educate and mentor talented college students through the ABC News on Campus initiative.
The University of Texas at Austin is one of five schools where ABC News will create campus multimedia bureaus that will provide an opportunity for students to report on stories in their area and produce a wide array of content for ABC News’ various 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.
The bureau will open in September and will be supervised by broadcast journalism lecturer Kate Dawson, a 14-year broadcast news veteran who spent her career at Fox News Channel, WCBS-TV and ABC News Radio before forming Dawson Films and joining the broadcast faculty at the university in 2006.
“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 unique insight into what America’s 33 million 18-25 year-olds are thinking. Student participants will primarily consist of upper-class undergraduate and graduate students selected by ABC News and the School of Journalism. Each bureau will receive extensive training, including on-site mentoring with the student bureau chiefs and faculty liaisons at ABC News headquarters twice yearly. Representatives from ABC News will also travel to all five campuses for ABC News information sessions.
The four other 2008 ABC News on Campus College News Bureaus are:
- The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University
- The S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University
- The College of Journalism and Communications at the University of Florida
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Journalism and Mass Communication
Each ABC News on Campus bureau will have a team of official ABC News paid student staffers, including a bureau chief. These positions will be supervised by Dawson and ABC News. In addition, any student will have the opportunity to contribute ideas and content as part of each university-wide initiative. ABC News will provide an annual stipend for this core team of students to manage the bureau as well as state-of-the-art digital technology, including video cameras, computers and edit software.
