Whether using pictures from non-staffer contributors, or implementing interactive, flash-based features online, “newspapers everywhere are implementing a host of new practices and policies to adapt to the increasingly fast-paced, cell phone camera-saturated, Web 2.0 world,” reported the Daily Bruin.

College papers are beginning to emphasize convergence and teaching young journalists how to embrace new media.

The Daily Iowan, at the University of Iowa, is planning to buy several handheld video cameras and train its reporters to use them on the ground.

“We’re going to have the whole newsroom – 60 to 80 people – trained with small handheld cameras,” said the Iowan’s editor, Jason Brummond. “Our staff members are going to have those skills.”

“The one thing is presenting the story in different ways,” he said. “Our readers can come online and look at an audio slideshow and look at video (football) game highlights. It’s like one-stop shopping.”

Unfortunately, it seems that new media-oriented publications such as the Daily Bruin and Daily Iowan are still exceptions rather than the norm. When in fact young journalists, both as news producers and consumers, should be at the forefront of change, since in many instances they have more natural inclinations towards new media than would journalists from the older generations.

At least newspapers, whether collegiate or not, are grasping the new set of realities of the digital age. But print newspapers and traditional journalism still have bright days ahead of them.

“I question the benefit to our core audience of undergraduate students on campus,” said David Graham, editor of student paper The Chronicle. “Most students live on campus, and most pick up a print edition.”

Source: Daily Bruin