JOURNALISM PROJECTS

As an associate professor and associate dean of the P.I. Reed School of Journalism, I’ve participated in several student-faculty projects, including these:

West Virginia Uncovered

In Fall 2008, I founded West Virginia Uncovered along with seven students. We provide multimedia training for small rural newspapers around the state, and students produce multimedia news-features that run in the participating newspapers. The project is funded by grants from the West Virginia University Faculty Senate, the McCormick Foundation, the Claude Benedum Worthington Foundation and the Ford Foundation. Participating newspapers include:

• Charleston Daily Mail
• The Elkins InterMountain
• The Hampshire Review
• The Nicholas Chronicle
• The Parsons Advocate
• The Pocahontas Times

The Cancer Project

This project (2002-2005) resulted in a student-produced book and video documentary, both entitled: Cancer Stories: Lessons in Love, Loss and Hope, The students shadowed eight cancer patients for two years, documenting their struggles in writing, photography and on videotape.  Students observed surgeries and treatments at a cancer center in Morgantown, WV.  They shot video as doctors broke news both good and bad.  They traveled to the homes and workplaces of patients to find out how the disease had invaded the rest of their lives.  The cancer project, as it was called at the journalism school, resulted in a book and a video documentary.

In the book, the story of each patient makes up one chapter, accompanied by a photo essay.  These stories are told as narrative journalism, emphasizing narrative and character and detailed scenes without violating journalistic standards of accuracy.  Like the written stories, each collection of photographs are tied together by a common theme or narrative.  Some of the photo essays are closely related to the writing about the patient; others follow their own arcs.

The documentary, which won a regional Emmy in 2004, focuses on five patients, meshing interviews with patients, family members, friends and medical care providers, with dramatic and intimate footage of hospital and home scenes.  A DVD copy is included with the book.

“These are difficult stories to tell, those of people caught in a precarious state between life and death. And these are stories that must be told and treasured. Yet amid our advancements in treating diseases, we seem to lose our way at times in treating human beings. Cancer Stories is a truly remarkable book that smartly and appropriately focuses on anecdotes and details of those living with cancer. The stories will make you laugh out loud, shed a tear and hold those closest to you a little tighter.” Dr. Sanjay Gupta, senior medical correspondent, CNN

“Cancer Stories is wonderful. It’s well-made, moving and sensitive. I applaud the students for their work.” Ken Burns, documentary filmmaker and director of the acclaimed PBS series The Civil War and Baseball

Order from the West Virginia University Press: http://www.wvupress.com/

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