Meet the writers
I believe journalism is the most important task in a democracy.
— Wendell Cochran
Wendell Cochran is the director of the journalism division in the School of Communication at American University in Washington, D.C. He has been involved in journalism for more than 40 years and has been teaching about and practicing online journalism since 1992.
One of his major projects is the American University Campaign Finance Web Site. The site, continuously updated since 1996, is used by journalists and citizen groups around the country. It provides quick and easy access to the latest information on financial contributions to national campaigns. He also is a member of the board of directors of Investigative Reporters and Editors.
If we don’t present news and information clearly, concisely and credibly, then the message is lost.
— Amy Eisman
Amy Eisman is director of writing programs in the School of Communication at American University in Washington, D.C. She has held workshops domestically and globally on Writing for the Web, including sessions for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Prague and Moscow, and for washingtonpost.com in Washington, D.C.
This is her second online training module; the first, with Professor Larry Gillick, focused on interactivity, Web writing and database journalism for 5,500 Gannett newsroom employees. She spent 25 years in mainstream media, primarily as an editor in Baltimore, Dallas and at USA TODAY, USA WEEKEND and AOL.
The technical team
Josh Williams wrote the Census graphic “widget” in the data mining section. He recently received his master’s degree in interactive journalism from the School of Communication at American University. He has spent the past three years as a multimedia specialist for the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. One of his projects was building a set of interactive, multimedia kiosks designed to show that conservation decisions are complex.
Kelly Donnellan edited the videos that appear in the Ideas and the Crowdsourcing sections. She is an MFA student in the Film and Media Arts division of the School of Communication at American University. Previously, she taught video production at the University of Idaho.
Acknowledgments
As always in a project this extensive, there are many other people whose contributions helped make it happen. We are especially grateful to Jan Schaffer of J-Lab for letting us take on this module. She is one of the driving forces helping define and sustain citizen journalism.
We also owe a debt to all our sources who were willing to contribute their time, thoughts and expertise. We owe a special thanks to Matt Reed of Florida Today, who took the time to record and produce the videos in the Crowdsourcing section. Likewise, Doug Thompson, who operates Blue Ridge Muse, graciously supplied the video interviews in the Ideas section.
The images in the icons all came from Bigstockphoto.com. The individual photos should be credited as follows:
- Ideas icon: Slavoljub Pantelic
- Unraveling icon: Gautier Willaume
- Data mining icon:Ramesh Chandra
- Managing icon: Kyoshi Takahase Segundo
- Partnering icon: Ross Wallace
- Crowdsourcing icon: Aaron Whitley
We also want to thank our friends and colleagues on the journalism faculty in the School of Communication at American University, especially Dean Larry Kirkman.