By Chris Dixon, IU National Sports Journalism Center
Selected students from Indiana University’s National Sports Journalism Center will be full-fledged media members at the Women’s Final Four in Indianapolis.
Students will produce stories, blogs, photos and multimedia packages as part of a Student News Bureau that will be available to commercial and student publications across the nation.
The student reporters and photographers will receive credentials to cover games, practices, news conferences and events from April 2 to 5.
“This represents an incredible opportunity for students in the IU National Sports Journalism Center to cover the sights, sounds and action of a national sporting event,” said Tim Franklin, director of the center and the Louis A. Weil Jr. endowed chair at the IU School of Journalism.
The idea began last year when the center teamed up with the NCAA to form the first Student News Bureau to cover the Men’s Final Four in Indianapolis. More than 70 commercial and student publications received content produced by IU journalists.
“We partnered with the Student News Bureau from IU’s sports journalism center last year to get these stories to our member newspapers and to encourage other press associations to do the same,” said Karen T. Braeckel, HSPA Foundation director. “These opportunities allow our papers to provide extra coverage for their readers without additional costs and help students gain experience.”
Stephanie Kuzydym, an IU journalism student who wrote features and took photographs for the Student News Bureau in 2010, said the experience was challenging and exciting.
“As students, we were treated as another part the media,” she said. “We were in the same room as The New York Times and on press deadlines just like they were.”
The stories will be available to newspapers through InfoNet, HSPA’s content-sharing service, at hspainfo.net.
