SJMC hosts ‘NYT’ Student Journalism Institute

Twenty-three students from across North America, including a recent FIU grad, have been working with top journalists in the field for the past two weeks in the third New York Times Student Journalism Institute at Biscayne Bay Campus.

Hosted by the School of Journalism and Mass Communication (SJMC) at FIU every two years in partnership with The New York Times, The Boston Globe and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the journalism institute is a highly selective program that affords students the opportunity to work with a talented staff of professional journalists from the two papers.

In essence, said Don R. Hecker, the institute’s director, “we run a newsroom and we report on what’s going on in Miami.”

All 23 students have a task – be it editing copy, producing for the Web or overseeing video and photojournalism.

As Hecker describes it, the experience is exactly as these students will face as they go into the journalism business.

“Here, they need to think about multimedia,” he said, “and they still need to think about the core of our business, which is finding stories, getting facts accurate and writing compelling copy.”

The results live online at NYTimes-Institute.com and in a traditional print product to be published at the end of the program on Jan. 16. Those interested in obtaining a copy of the finished product should contact the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at 305-919-5634.