Everything you need to know to get started on the project

[Suzanne Yada]

[This has been posted at http://www.collegejourn.com/2009/09/the-collegejourn-international-reporting-project.html.]

On Aug. 23, 2009, the CollegeJourn.com kids decided we wanted to
collaborate on a global-scale reporting assignment. And in true
CollegeJourn fashion, within a week the ball was already rolling.

Here is everything you need to know to get involved:

THE BASICS

WHAT:
A global collaborative reporting project on health. Choose one of two
assignments: For news, the question is "How does health care on my
campus compare to others around the world?" The feature assignment is
"What does health mean in my area?"

WHO CAN BE INVOLVED:
Students, educators and professional journalists.

* Students can participate either individually or with others in their
school. Recent grads also welcome.
* Educators can use this project as an assignment or material for
student publications, and also provide guidance to others in the
group.
* Professionals can help mentor students and edit the reports. They
can also provide contacts and feedback to aspiring journalists.

THE ASSIGNMENT (pick either feature or news)

**FEATURE**
What does health mean in your area?

We want stories about people. Be as location-specific as possible, but
from there, be creative. Will it be a long-form 2500-word piece? An
interactive Flash presentation? A documentary? A photo essay? Several
short profiles bundled into one? Pitch your work to the Google group
(see "How can I get involved?" below) with your specific plans BEFORE
you get started.

Some prompts you may want to explore:

What is physical health?
What is mental health?
What is good health care?
What is a healthy work/leisure balance?
What is healthy eating?
What are healthy relationships?
What is addiction?

Focus on stories that can be compared and contrasted with other
stories around the globe.

DUE SUNDAY, DEC. 6, 2009. If you do not have an editor or instructor
to look at your piece, it will be due before then, sometime in
November.

**NEWS**
How does health care on my campus compare to others around the world?

PART 1: Establish a narrative.
What happens when a student needs immediate medical attention on your
campus? What is the process? What levels of bureaucracy do they
navigate? Are there any first responders on campus? Any medical
facilities on site? Have there been past examples of emergencies that
have gone right/wrong? This narrative will also require exploring your
nation's health care system, but through the eyes of a university
student.

[Before we do anything, however, we need to send out Freedom of
Information requests in countries where FOI is available. Those may
take months to get, so the sooner the better. We'll discuss specifics
on the Google group.]

PART 1 DUE OCT. 30, 2009. This gives you two months. For written
pieces: 1500-2000 words, photos required. For video: 3-4 minutes. If
you want to make a longer documentary, create a web teaser one minute
long to link to your longer piece. For audio: 3-4 minutes. Please
pitch your projects to the Google group if you wish to go longer.

PART 2: Collaborate and gather data.
Once part 1 is turned in, everyone in the project will be able to see
the different narratives around the world. Then you can incorporate
their reporting into one bigger article, written for an audience in
your area who doesn't know about the other universities.

In the meantime, with any luck the FOI data will be trickling in, and
we will also have an open spreadsheet where we can compare and
contrast statistics.

The metrics will include items such as:
* Distance to nearest hospital or clinic
* Ambulance response times
* Average cost of visit (if not to student, then to taxpayer)
* Number of clinicians per 100 students
* What services are available on-site
* Population statistics over time for the campus
* Statistics like weight, pregnancy, AIDS diagnoses, gonnohrea/
syphillis, etc.

Some of this data can be collected without an FOI request. Also, this
is NOT a final list, and we may have to adjust based on 1) what we can
find and 2) how quickly we can find it. Keep an eye on the Google
group for more details.

For countries with nationalized health care systems, you may need to
find information within a 5- or 10-kilometer radius of your campus'
location.

PART 2 DUE DEC. 6, 2009. The longer story written for an audience in
your location should be about 2000-2500 words, preferably less. For
multimedia producers, take photos, audio and video produced by other
students and expand your project by 1-2 minutes.

Pitch all other ideas, address any issues or questions to the Google
group.

THE DETAILS

WHERE WILL THIS BE PUBLISHED?
A final website, but we also hope your stories will be published in
your campus publication or in another local professional publication
you wish to send your pitch. But the real end result will be the
comprehensive website. At the bare minimum, it will be a WordPress
site. At its pinnacle, and depending on the talents and skills of the
people involved, it will be an interactive map where users can click
on countries and cities and pull up the stories, video, audio and
databases we create.

You are allowed to pitch your final piece to publications of your
choice, and even get paid for it, as long as they include the tagline,
"The CollegeJourn reporting network contributed to this report."

If that publication forbids you to post it to our website whatsoever,
no deal. If they want first rights and we can find a way to link it
back to their publication but still keep our website as a central hub
for the content, then deal.

If the publication doesn't like the open collaborative reporting
nature of our project, then no deal. I understand different
publications have different accountability and fact-checking
mechanisms in place. We will be edited and every effort will be made
to fact-check stories accurately. That will be discussed more
thoroughly on the Google group.

HOW CAN I GET INVOLVED?

You must do two things:

* Input your contact information into this Google form. (http://bit.ly/
2DnjRr)
* Join the Google group: http://groups.google.com/group/collegejourn-reporting-project/

And you probably should do three other things (they're great
resources):

* Join our group at WiredJournalists.com: (http://
www.wiredjournalists.com/group/collegejourn/)
* Join Publish2.com and start linking relevant news and websites that
would help us understand the complexities of health care in different
countries. Join the newsgroup here:
http://www.publish2.com/newsgroups/collegejourn-reports-health-care-on-campus
* If you're in the UK, join HelpMeInvestigate.com: (http://
helpmeinvestigate.com/investigations/98) This website puts you in
touch with professional reporters who can point you in the right
direction.

WHY ARE WE DOING THIS?
The project was created by journalism students with journalism
students in mind, to get our feet wet with collaboration, information,
international reporting, data and multimedia, while producing news and
information relevant to a university-based audience. The CollegeJourn
students responsible for this idea meet in a chatroom every Sunday, 8
pm BST/3 pm EDT/noon PDT, at collegejourn.com. (Blame us.)

HELPFUL LINKS:
* Sarah Jackson's initial blog post about the project (http://bit.ly/
fSD1h)
* Josh Halliday's post on Online Journalism Blog (http://bit.ly/
kKkp2)
* Suzanne Yada's post with more details (http://bit.ly/iAnTH)
* CollegeJourn chat logs for Aug. 23 (when the idea first started),
Aug. 30 and Sept. 6. (http://bit.ly/collegejournlogs)

So now that you have the lowdown, let's get started, shall we?

-Suzanne Yada
www.suzanneyada.com