JOUR491 will review the Omaha World-Herald newspaper’s coverage of events and topics of concern to people of color. We will approach each bit of coverage with two key questions: was the coverage fair and was it complete? We will explore the stories the paper published on major incidents such as the battle at Wounded Knee, a notorious lynching in Omaha in 1919 and the shooting of a 14-year-old Black girl by a police officer in 1969, as well as more recent matters and themes such as civil rights struggles and voter ID debates.
Throughout the project, students will operate as journalists, researching and gathering the material. They will interview experts about it, including experts on the UNL faculty, and will write bylined stories that will be published in the spring in a special section of the newspaper. But we are not limiting this effort to journalism students. We expect students to operate in teams, with some skilled in research, others in writing and other in photography.
The course, for three credits, is scheduled to meet on Monday and Wednesday mornings from 8:30 a.m. to 9:45 a.m. in Andersen Hall, the journalism school building. But we expect a lot of the work to be done offsite at times convenient to all involved. The course is open to both undergraduate and graduate students.
This class is being coordinated by Prof. Shoun Hill, available at shoun.hill@unl.edu, and Prof. Joseph Weber, at josephweber@unl.edu. If this interests you, please drop them a note, explaining a bit about yourself and your interest. They will then provide permission codes as appropriate
More details at: https://journalism.unl.edu/special-topics