Ball State's Digital News Project moved a step forward Monday when university officials chose a studio concept to build the project around.
The project is an attempt to converge, or integrate, campus media. Terry Heifetz, managing editor of the project, is heading up training students in convergence. The project received $4 million of the $20 million grant from the Lilly Endowment.
With $4 million to disperse, little has been decided about how to spend the money, but the university has decided $1 million will go to build the studio and purchase the needed equipment.
"The point of the project is building a new, experimental newsroom," Heifetz said.
Currently, the Daily News, WCRH and all other media work separately. The experimental newsroom would help campus media share their resources.
"Overall, there are more and more media giants out there," Heifitz said. "There's going to be a market for a journalist with at least a general knowledge of all aspects of news media."
A competition was held between three teams of Ball State architecture students for a concept idea of the project's studio. The winning group, made up of Josh Heniz, Nathan Herber, Jessica Fogle, Alissa Parlos and Tom Race, created a floor plan, which will be the basis of the studio design.
"It (the floor plan) seemed very flexible and innovative," Heifitz said. "This was the most intriguing."
Heifitz said all three of the designs submitted by architecture students were acceptable, but the winning group developed the best idea.
"We wanted to make it a team effort," said Nathan Herber about his team's winning studio concept. "Everybody gave their suggestion and we just collaborated it together."
Once the studio has been built, Ball State will become one of only four universities to have a digital news project.
The initiative is set to bring together television, newspapers, Internet and radio. Among ideas for the project that are being discussed are creating an Internet site, working on additional content for Indiana Public Radio and developing a local television newscast for Muncie.
"Their (Muncie's) primary source for news is television," Heifitz said. "This is going to give Muncie its television voice."
Some students look forward to having a local news station.
"Just being on campus, it's hard to hear about news," sophomore Stephanie Vidmar said. "Having a reputable news source will be very beneficial."
But others won't give up the Indianapolis stations.
"I don't think I'd watch Muncie news," fifth-year student David Bugher said. "I like NBC news. I'm pretty loyal to it."
Another idea for the digital media project is a news desk for all campus media. The goal of the proposed news desk is to make sure all campus media know about recent stories.
"What the news desk would be is if ideas came into it, they could be sent to all of the media on campus," Heifitz said. "We wouldn't actually assign stories because a newspaper story isn't necessarily good for a television story."
Along with Heifitz, the university will also hire professionals to fill the jobs of web news editor, a production editor and an anchor to help oversee the project.
"Nothing is decided yet because I'm waiting for their input. We'll be doing a lot of brainstorming," Heifitz said.
Students will be in charge of the rest of the work.
"It will be student-driven, but we're not sure how. Some may be hired, some may volunteer and hopefully it will be tied in with classes," Heifitz said.
Heifitz said he hopes to have the program completely running by fall. He will be working on getting the Internet site and coordinating the news desk this spring.
"It could change; it could evolve," Heifitz said. "It's all part of experimentation."
Heifitz said he is hoping to work with groups and foundations with new equipment that professional offices might not risk trying out.
"We can try them out because we don't have to worry about making a profit," Heifitz said. "We can play around with stuff."
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