The terms convergence and new media still focus on what lies at the core of good journalism – getting news to the public.

But they allow more choice on both the user’s end and the journalist’s end.

Now, journalists can tell a story in more than one medium, enhancing a story like never before. We can choose between photos, audio, video, print or a combination of a number of them.

But the biggest benefit is to the audience. Converging media formats allow readers and users to interact with the news and feel a stronger connection to the stories they interact with.

Looking at the Web sites for some of the leading news organizations in the country, we can see evidence of converging media more that ever before.

FROM COAST TO COAST

From CNN to The Washington Post to MSNBC and even smaller news products, such as the Naples Daily News, a stronger Web presence is evident.

Multimedia storytelling is everywhere, and journalism schools need to follow suit so their graduates are ready for this changing field.

For some schools, the change has begun. At Kent State, we’ve been getting our feet wet for a while, but we got our first real taste of convergence this semester when we launched our converged news Web site, KentNewsNet.

The site has allowed us to combine resources to create video packages with TV2 News, the student-run television news broadcast.

Daily Kent Stater photographers have also been collaborating with Black Squirrel Radio, the student-run radio station, to create audio slideshows for the Web.

Dealing with College Publisher’s limited back-end, we’ve worked in code to allow our own audio slideshows to play on the homepage, and we’ve developed our own multimedia icons, which we’ll launch next semester.

MAKING PROGRESS

We are also working on a separate template page for our photo galleries and audio slideshows.

We hold daily convergence meetings to help us coordinate all of our resources into Web coverage. Moving into our new converged newsroom, although it was late in the semester, has really helped with planning packages for the Web.

Other schools, such as the University of Missouri and Ball State, are doing similar things with their programs and student media.

The change is taking place. In some places, it’s a slow process. In others, the pace is changing rapidly.

While Kent State still has further to go, we’ve definitely come a long way in just the short time I’ve been a student.
The change is happening. It’s not going to stop. Embrace it.

Journalism has never been more exciting.