By Laura De Leon
The Mobile Newsroom allows students to connect with the online-only student newspaper by taking part in face-to-face forum organized by The Mesquite staff with the help of professors.
Reporters “collaborate with faculty sponsors across the University’s three schools — (Schools of Business, Arts and Sciences and Education and Kinesiology) — to organize classroom community engagement forums on topics of local and national interest,” Jenny Moore, communication-journalism program coordinator, said.
Moore, who teaches at Brooks City-Base Campus, said she spent a lot of time last semester encouraging her students, who are trained as online journalists, to leave the comfort of the newsroom and connect one-on-one with students at the Main Campus.
“Our campuses are 10 miles apart and that makes thorough reporting a challenge,” Moore said. “The Mobile Newsroom is a way for student journalists to leave the newsroom and organize readers forums throughout the year.”
Three forums are held each semester; reporters will visit the classrooms this fall in September, October and November.
Two of the three forums will examine the November U.S. elections from international perspectives. Visiting Assistant Professor of history Edward Westermann, who joined the student newspaper’s media board in May, will host the first forum with The Mesquite in HIST 4318, Europe Since 1914. The forum will cover the European view of American elections.
History Adjunct Patricia Martinez was invited to host Mobile Newsroom in October. Martinez said she was interested in being a part of the initiative and opening her classroom to student reporters to discuss the Latin American view of the U.S. elections. Martinez will host a forum in Latin America II: Modern Era, HIS 4352.
The final Mobile Newsroom in November will conclude with a discussion on civic engagement and voter turnout with political science Professor Christina Suthammanont’s class, POS 4316, American Political Behavior.
The dates and times for the forums will be released in September, and the forums will be open to faculty, staff and students.
Moore said the outreach forums were inspired by Digital First Media’s May 4 announcement that it will launch 12 new community newsroom projects to seek ways to effectively engage and involve its readers.
Steve Butry, director of community engagement and social media for Digital First Media, who joined The Mesquite’s advisory council in July, said he thinks the Mobile Newsroom will help The Mesquite and suggested the forums be live streamed.
Dr. Brian Brantley, assistant professor of communications, said that having the Mobile Newsroom for The Mesquite is necessary when trying to establish communication between multiple campuses, students and the community.
Involving two-way communication can help expand the connection it already has, he said.
“That will establish a more stable readership,” Brantley said. “It’s a better relationship to have with the community.”
