Jjn the fall 0[2009, Dl".Jim Miller , Professor ofCommunication, had something new up his sleeve for the Comm 232 class. Wanting to sta n a student-p roduced web site for the College of Communication. Miller used h is Writing for the Mass Media class to launch a new web site, called "The Link." "The web is changing everything abom the communication field," Miller said. H e said h e felt that anybody in the mass commun icat ion field should h ave experience telling stories on the web. " ] want the site to be a compliment to the Bison," Miller sa id. " ] want i t to b e a place where students, faculty and staff can go and see current information about the campus and new, original content.'· Junior Stephanie Healy did not know that her Comm 232 class was going to include working on "The Link," but said she was excited about it when she found out because of all the media opportunities it offe l·ed. "With the Biso n, you baSically just have print journalism," H ealy said. "With "The Li nk" you can have video, audio, motion picture slides; there's so much more media that can go on it. 1 think it' s something different to offer [people]." Some felt like the site was a lot more flexible than the othe r media outlets on campus because students were given more creative fre edom . "The Link" proved to be an outlet not only for those in the class. but also for anyone who wanted to co ntl"ibute , as long as the content was approved by students in the class, who acted as the site's screeners. "We' re the gatekeepers," H ealy said. "We're going to edit it and make sure it's appropriate. We definitely want good, true stories." As soon as a story was published, "The Link" web page created a bio for the author. The bio page served as an online portfolio, helping students keep track of their stories. As a broadcast journalism major , Healy found that this class complemented h er plans for th e futul·e. " I want to be a news an chor," Healy said. " I would love to inspire the world and be able [Q help people out, and 1 think that the news medium is an excellent way to do that. [This class) is wonderful because it actually lets you do what you want to do, and you learn better by doing." Healy understood that ITledia outlets were expanding and I'ecognized the benefits that working on "The Link" provided. "The news is not limited to television anymore," H ealy said. "I already knew how to post web sites and lay-make them, but this is showing me a better way of doing that. It 's showing me the kind of content that I'm going to want on my news web site. " Emily Haupt'; and Roberto McGowan Intentty watching the volume levels, freshman Joshua little and senior Ryan Orr work at the sound control panel during the Wednesday evening broadcast of TV-16 on Sept. 23. Senior Brian Marcrom directed the news from the control room. Nick Michael 170 academics
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