Project Overview
In a world in which journalism is feeling its way into digital media by trial and error, the University of Colorado's School of Journalism and Mass Communication has been creating a “learning platform” in which students will acquire a set of skills appropriate to this new style of journalism. The Resolving Door, is a platform that gathers the local CU-Boulder campus community — its students, faculty and staff — with a “citizen”-written, interactive, multimedia Web site devoted to solving problems.
In The Resolving Door, reader-participants are invited to describe a problem, whether private or public. Other reader-participants are encouraged to do the research necessary to answer the question or suggest a solution to the problem.
The project draws participants into the actual “Resolving Door” site with an array of questions, features and news. The platform serves as the virtual laboratory for learning the editing skills that will be essential in the local journalism of the future.
Dean Paul Voakes is the Lead on the grant. Daniel Schaefer is the Instructor and Project Manager. This project is funded with a generous grant from the McCormick Foundation.
Class Overview
The Resolving Door staff is comprised of journalism undergraduate and graduate students in JOUR 4872/5872 "Citizen Journalism".
The course is designed to fulfill four objectives. First, students will learn the technical and practical tools for citizen journalism and multimedia journalism. Second, students will explore and engage with the theoretical issues of citizen journalism and multimedia journalism. Third, students will learn how to run a new media platform. Finally and most importantly, the goal is to have fun.