UNL photojournalism students to Kazakhstan

Photojournalism students at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Journalism and Mass Communications are in a semester-long project that will take them to Kazakhstan this month.

Thanks to an endowed gift from three of the nation's leading photographers, the students will be able to document an emerging country in which there is great human need.

The photographers, Howard Buffett, Thomas Mangelsen and Joel Sartore, created a photojournalism fund to enable students to travel abroad to witness the world firsthand and report on what they see. Buffett is a photographer of scenes in the developing world, Mangelsen is a nature photographer and Sartore is a contract photographer for National Geographic and other publications.

The students, working under the direction of photojournalism chair Bruce Thorson and news-editorial professor Joe Weber, will produce a depth report and documentary. The six students will find contacts, do their own reporting and research thoroughly the issues relevant to their topic.

Quoting the 19th century journalist Finley Peter Dunne, Thorson said, "The job of the newspaper is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." If Dunne were writing today, he said, he'd no doubt set the same goals for broadcast and online news.

Charlyne Berens, interim dean of the college, said, "Our college is committed to helping as many of our students as possible go abroad for a semester or a special project like this. We think the exposure to other cultures is invaluable and will make them not only better journalists but also better citizens.

"A study trip like this one allows our students to bring together the principles and skills they've learned in their courses and put it to work toward something that will, in at least some small way, help make the world a better place."

Students and the role they are playing on this project include:

* Travis Beck, photojournalist, senior, news-editorial, Lincoln;

* Kyle Bruggeman, photojournalist, senior, news-editorial, Lincoln;

* Andrew Dickinson, photojournalist, freshman, news-editorial, Lincoln;

* Elizabeth Gamez, writer/designer, junior, new-editorial, El Paso, Texas;

* Megan Nichols, photojournalist, senior, news-editorial, Lincoln;

* Megan Plouzek, video journalist, graduate student, Hickman, Neb.

The Kazakhstan project is one of a series of documentaries and depth reports produced by students in UNL's College of Journalism and Mass Communications, a program committed to preparing the next generation of media professionals. Past awards to the college's depth-reporting projects have included the Society of Environmental Journalists 2009 Award for Reporting on the Environment to "Ethanol: salvation or damnation?"; the Renewable Natural Resources Foundation 2007 Excellence in Journalism Award to "Platte River Odyssey," the Student Academy Award-winning documentary, "Cuba: Illogical Temple," and the Pulitzer Prize-nominated "Cuba: An Elusive Truth."

WRITER: Marilyn Hahn