Bringing an Entrepreneurial Mindset to Smaller College Journalism Programs

Jake Batsell, assistant professorDivision of JournalismSouthern Methodist University, Dallas@jbatsell

Sponsored Facebook statuses:

• One per month

• Sponsor was clearly identified

• Capitalized on robust social media presence

Fall 2010 Semester:• 27 apps reviewed• 4-day checkout

Sponsored tweets:

• One per month

• Sponsor clearly identified

• Helped build sponsor to nearly 2K followers (us: 3K)

Too cozy?

• Year 2001 version of myself:Egads! An ethical travesty!

•Year 2011 version of myself:Why not redeem the value our students created?

Image credit: Flickr user “Nutmeg the Puppy,” Redlands, Calif.

THE VIRTUOUS CIRCLE

Sponsorship provided more equipment

Equipment helped students do more multimedia journalism

More multimedia journalism created more value for us and the sponsor

Class Assignment:Analyze a nonprofit newsroom

• Interview at least one insider, one outsider/competitor

• Perform simple data viz of $$ sources

• Assess whether it will be sustainable in the future

Results:• Helped instill a

sense of financial literacy about the business of journalism

• Forced them to wrestle with $u$tainability

• Students used multimedia skills and data-driven reporting techniques

Thanks!

http://j.mp/MMEpaneljbatsell@smu.eduTwitter: @jbatsell