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| Reznet
Director Denny McAuliffe works the phones to stay in touch with
his network of writers and photographers. |
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New
funding fuels reznet program
Two new
grants totaling $550,000 will enable UM’s innovative reznet
program to expand via the Internet and teach journalism to more Native
American students across the country.
The grants came from two prominent national foundations — $475,000
over the next three years from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
and $75,000 from the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation.
Reznet, online at www.reznetnews.org,
is based at UM’s School of Journalism. It is a Web-based student
newspaper that hires 20 Native American college students each year
as reporters and photographers to cover their tribal communities and
colleges. Now in its third year, reznet won the 2003 Native Media
Award for Best Internet News Site from the Native American Journalists
Association.
The purpose of reznet is to inspire more Indian students to enter
journalism. The current reznet team includes 19 Indian college students
from around the country, including four from Montana. Students write
articles and take pictures on deadline, earning $50 per story. They
also are required to apply for newspaper internships, and last year
15 of 20 staff members got paid internships at daily newspapers around
the country.
The new grant will allow reznet to develop a distance-learning reporting
and editing skills course with the help of the Robert C. Maynard Institute
for Journalism Education, which hosts the project Web site. The course,
to be broadcast simultaneously to at least 15 tribal colleges, will
include video conferencing for editing and mentoring sessions.
Reznet is an outgrowth of UM’s Native American News Project,
in which journalism students spend their spring breaks on Montana
reservations producing feature articles and photographs for a “Native
News tab.” The latest grant will continue funding for this 12-year-old
program.
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation supports journalism excellence
worldwide. Since 1950, it has made more than $250 million in journalism
grants. The foundation currently has 140 active journalism grantees.
The Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation award was part
of $1.4 million in grants presented to 25 institutions around the
country. The Oklahoma-based organization was founded in 1982 to support
efforts that improve the quality of journalism and instill high ethical
standards. The grant will allow reznet to add a career development
director who will help the program’s graduating seniors find
jobs.
Reznet Director Denny McAuliffe said, “We remain convinced that
the modern Internet makes it possible to lead young Native Americans
in isolated places into journalism fields the old-fashioned way —
by getting their stories and bylines into print.”
McAuliffe generally hires graduates of the Freedom Forum’s American
Indian Journalism Institute, a summer program. And he hopes to continue
using contributions from last year’s crop of reznet writers.
He said the site averages 6,000 unique monthly visitors. For more
information, call McAuliffe at (406) 243-2191.
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