Week 1 – Media Convergence

In-Class Activity/Homework

Why Does Convergence Journalism Make a Story More Powerful?

Description
For this activity, there are two tasks you must complete. Type your answers on the Discussion
Board on Blackboard. Click here to go to the Discussion Board. Your answers for each task
should be between 150 to 300 words.

Task 1
Instruction: Read the following passage. Answer the questions below the passage.

Convergence Journalism is bringing together multiple forms of media to tell a more

effective story. Rather than just reading an article in a newspaper, news consumers read
the article online, scroll through a slideshow, click on a video link, and then listen to the
related audio.

The Missouri School of Journalism recently created a new Convergence Journalism

program, based on three basic principles:

1. The public increasingly wants to access quality news and information at any time
through any and all media that are convenient or appealing to them.

2. The audience for news and information is less passive than it used to be. Many
people, especially younger people, want to create, respond to, and interact with
media. This desire has led to emerging "citizen journalists." Fulltime journalists
need to accept this power shift and take advantage of the opportunities it presents.

Convergence training should not be "a mile wide and an inch deep." Young journalists will
not be equally adept at all storytelling styles and skills, but each student will have the
opportunity to focus in on their desired field. Each student can still be effective in their
desired field while understanding and taking advantage of changes in the media landscape.

What do you think about these three principles? Do they seem in line with your understanding
of modern journalism?

Today we will start exploring some of the world's hot, young journalists who are practicing
convergence journalism. Dominic Bracco received a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis
Reporting to report on the young people in Juarez, Mexico. He packaged his reporting in a
project called Los Ninis: Mexico's Lost Generation. Let's take a look.
Task 2
Instruction: Follow the steps below and answer the questions.

Read: 9/11 Border Security Leads to Crime Increase in Mexico

Watch: A Clarinet Instead of a Gun
Look: Life and Death in the Northern Pass
(This is a web link to a photo exhibition. Look at the photos. You may read the description of the
exhibition but pay attention to the photos.)
Listen: The War Next Door (the segment is 48 minutes, but you can listen to the first 10-15)

Answer the following questions:

 Which medium did you find more informative? Why?

 Which medium did you find most enjoyable? Why?
 Which medium did you find most powerful? Why?
 Why does convergence (putting all of these medium together on one site) make this
story more powerful?

Adapted from https://pulitzercenter.org/builder/lesson/why-does-convergence-journalism-make-story-more-

powerful#:~:text=Convergence%20Journalism%20is%20bringing%20together,listen%20to%20the%20related
%20audio.

Additional resources
http://www.dominicbracco.com/
https://www.primecollective.com/dominic-bracco-ii
https://www.theshorthorn.com/news/campus/uta-alumnus-and-journalist-dominic-bracco-ii-
speaks-of-life-on-the-front-lines/article_5f3d8a90-9835-5c45-8c7c-ad6706d04bd6.html
https://pulitzercenter.org/education/pre-visit-materials-dominic-bracco