News and Progress
Journalism students create YouTube channel
Football ticket drawing encourages donors to make their own videos
Aug. 29, 2008
Students Steve Sliker and Carla Schaffer use the computer editing station in the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute convergence journalism lab to create videos for the For Mizzou YouTube channel.
Two Missouri School of Journalism students are capturing the stories of passionate alumni who credit the University of Missouri for their success. These stories highlight why the For All We Call Mizzou campaign is close to reaching its $1 billion goal.
Convergence journalism students Carla Schaffer and Steve Sliker have created the YouTube channel, For Mizzou, www.youtube.com/formizzou. YouTube, a Web video sharing site, provides a simple way for people to show videos to family and friends around the world. The For Mizzou YouTube channel is designed to reconnect alumni to MU and inspire them to increase their support for the university.
“Through the work of our journalism students, we are able to share the stories of why donors give to MU with alumni and friends around the world,” says David Housh, vice chancellor for development and alumni relations. “Many of these stories are quite touching, and I anticipate donors will really enjoy watching the videos.”
Housh encourages donors to create their own videos about why they give to Mizzou to post on the ForMizzou YouTube channel. He is offering two tickets to the Homecoming football game as an incentive. The winners of the tickets will be drawn from the names of all who post videos on the channel before October 15. Videos may be posted as part of comments on the For Mizzou YouTube channel.
Schaffer says she enjoys working with YouTube because it connects directly to the audience.
“YouTube is finding out what people want to see and giving it to them,” Schaffer says.
Convergence journalism students learn to report the news in every medium available today, including the Internet, radio, television and print publications. The convergence emphasis area is housed in the new Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute building, which opened last week. A $31 million gift from the Las Vegas-based Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, which was the largest single gift to the For All We Call Mizzou campaign, funded construction of the building.
“The building is amazing and we have a lot of new technology to use,” Schaffer says as she leads a tour of the facility.
The university will dedicate the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute Sept. 12 at 4 p.m. the dedication ceremony and self-guided tours of the building are free and open to the public.
As of July 31, donors had given $964.06 million to the university during the For All We Call Mizzou campaign. Contributions to the campaign enhance MU’s ability to compete nationally and internationally for the best students and faculty and provide broad access for students of all economic backgrounds to Missouri’s flagship University. The university will celebrate meeting the $1 billion goal in the spring of 2009.