University Community Sites
J-Lab is collecting a list of news sites created by universities. These sites involve students and sometimes community members reporting on the community, covering state government, or engaging in watchdog journalism.
To let J-Lab know of another site, fill out this form.
10 Valley
California State University - Los Angeles, CA
California State University-Los Angeles journalism students and faculty are partnering with community groups to cover the San Gabriel Valley’s largely Asian and Latino community.
American Observer
American University - Washington, DC
Graduate students at American University’s journalism program cover local news and issues in and around Washington, D.C. These students do live coverage of major events and blog on a regular basis.
Austin Talks
Columbia College Chicago - Chicago, IL
“The Austin community, home to more than 100,000 people, is rich in diversity, culture and life. AustinTalks seeks to reflect this richness and provide the residents of Chicago’s largest neighborhood with news and information not available anywhere else. Many of the stories, photos, video and audio are produced by undergraduate and graduate journalism students at Columbia College Chicago. Other contributors include experienced journalists, as well as people who want to make Austin all it can be.”
Bay Voices
San Francisco State - San Francisco, CA
Bay Voices was created to be a student-run Ethnic News Service to provide better coverage of public affairs for the state’s 700 ethnic media outlets.
Capital News Service
Virginia Commonwealth University - Richmond, VA
Capital News Service is a classroom reporting project that covers the Virginia General Assembly. The program’s journalism students provide state government coverage for Virginia’s community newspapers and other media outlets.
Cronkite News
Arizona State University - Phoenix, AZ
Cronkite News is a community news site that covers news important to Arizonans. Student journalists publish daily, write features and investigative stories and cover state government news.
Chicago Talks
Columbia College Chicago - Chicago, IL
This project uses student reporters and community members to cover five ZIP codes in central Chicago.
Columbia Missourian
University of Missouri - Columbus, MO
“The Columbia Missourian is a community news organization directed by professional editors and staffed by Missouri School of Journalism students who do the reporting, design, copy editing, information graphics, photography and multimedia. The Columbia Missourian debuted on Sept. 14, 1908, the same day classes started at the Missouri School of Journalism.”
CU-CitizenAccess
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign - Urbana, IL
Journalism students report on local poverty, creating content focused on issues like homelessness, immigration, health care, housing and education.
Downtown Devil
Arizona State University - Phoenix, AZ
A local news site, started by five undergraduate students, that focuses on the downtown Phoenix campus of Arizona State University. Content includes campus news as well as local news, food, entertainment and arts.
DC Intersections
American University - Washington, DC
A project of an American University journalism class to report on race and culture in the Metro area.
Essex Voices
Essex Community College - Newark, NJ
Essex Voices, funded by J-Lab’s New Voices program, is operating a year-round news operation to report on issues in the state’s largest city.
Faces of the Mine
West Virginia University - Whitesville, WV
FoTM was created as an interactive memorial project, dedicated to those whose lives were affected by the events of the Upper Big Branch mine disaster on April 5, 2010.
Family Life Behind Bars
CUNY Graduate School of Journalism - New York, NY
This project examines the impact on family relations and dynamics when one or more members of a family is incarcerated. Content is created by students and members of families dealing with issues of incarceration.
Germantown Beat
La Salle University - Germantown, Philadelphia, PA
GermantownBeat is produced by student journalists at La Salle University. It covers Philadelphia’s historic Germantown neighborhood in partnership with local media. The editors of GermantownBeat are assistant professors in La Salle’s Communication Department.
Grand Ave News
University of Miami - Coral Gables, FL
A University of Miami visual journalism professor launched this community news site for one of Florida’s oldest, but newly gentrifying, communities. News stories and visual documentaries are generated by partners, which include journalism students, the Coconut Grove Collaborative, the CG Homeowners Association (HOATA), a local health clinic and local residents.
Great Lakes Echo
Knight Center for Environmental Journalism
Michigan State University - East Lansing, MI
Students and community members cover the problems, cleanup strategies, contaminants, industries, people, health impacts and other environmental issues related to the Great Lakes region.
Greater Fulton News
Virginia Commonwealth University - Richmond, VA
Students and now community members generate content for this information portal for Fulton Hill, a low-income neighborhood in Richmond, Va. Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Mass Communications trained local residents to produce stories, photos, audio, video and a Fulton Hill wiki.
GrossePointeToday
Wayne State University - Detroit, MI
This full-service news and information site about Detroit’s five Grosse Pointes is a project of professional journalists working with Wayne State University journalism students.
Hartsville Today
University of South Carolina - Hartsville, SC
A USC professor and students teamed with the twice-weekly Hartsville Messenger to expand community coverage by recruiting and training citizen journalists to contribute reports, moblogs, video and audio.
Howard University News Service
Howard University - Washington, DC
The Howard University News Service reports on education, health, business, government and politics, religion, arts and entertainment, sports and other topics. The site specializes in hyper-local coverage of the Washington, D.C., region with senior correspondents assigned to each of the District of Columbia’s eight wards.
Hunts Point Express
Hunter College - Hunts Point & Longwood, the Bronx, NY
Founded in 2006, The Hunts Point Express is a source of neighborhood news for the Hunts Point and Longwood neighborhoods of the Bronx. It aims to air information, connect residents and give them a voice. Produced by students in the Film & Media Department at Hunter College, The Express is updated regularly with stories about the people of the Hunts Point-Longwood community and the issues they care about. A print edition is published on the last Wednesday of every month and distributed free through local community centers, clinics and stores.
The Lexington Commons
University of Kentucky - Lexington, KY
This University of Kentucky site uses students to cover neighborhood news.
Mosaic
University of Nebraska, Lincoln - Lincoln, NE
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Journalism College has explored the information needs of new ethnic communities and has developed this website to cover their issues. Content is coming from students, community members and high school students from immigrant families.
The Local East Village
New York University, New York, NY
The Local is a journalistic collaboration designed to reflect the richness of the East Village, report on its issues and concerns, give voice to its people and create a space for our neighbors to tell stories about themselves. It is operated by the students and faculty of the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University, in collaboration with The New York Times, which provides supervision to ensure that the blog remains impartial, reporting-based, thorough and rooted in Times standards.
The Local Fort Greene and Clinton Hill
The City University of New York - New York, NY
The Local provides news, information, entertainment and informed conversation about the things that matter to you, your neighbors and your family, from bloggers and citizens who live, work and create in your community. It is run by students and faculty of the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, in collaboration with The New York Times, which provides supervision to assure that the blog remains impartial, reporting-based, thorough and rooted in Times standards.
Long Island Report
Hofstra University - Long Island, NY
The Long Island Report is a multimedia news organization run by Hofstra University students who produce image, video, audio and HTML content.
Madison Commons
University of Wisconsin - Madison, WI
This site uses content produced by students and partnerships with local media to cover Madison neighborhoods.
Maryland Newsline
University of Maryland - College Park, MD
The site launched in 2001 and involves students in covering politics and public policy in Maryland and showcases work from the college’s advanced wire service, TV and multimedia news operations.
Miami-Whitewater Valley Public Media Project
Miami University - Oxford, OH
This project seeks to build a regional news service for Southwest Ohio and East Central Indiana. Citizen journalists and students at Miami University and Earlham College produce stories and content is offered to local mainstream media.
Mission Local
UC Berkeley Grad School of Journalism - Oakland, CA
Mission Loc@l is a bilingual site involving students and community members in covering San Francisco’s Mission District.
Morgan MoJo Lab
Morgan State University - Baltimore, MD
Students at Baltimore’s historically black Morgan State University serve as mobile digital journalists, using video and audio podcasts to focus on community issues in Northeast Baltimore.
Mott Haven Herald
City University Graduate School of Journalism - Mott Haven, Melrose and Port Morris, the Bronx, NY
The Mott Haven Herald covers news of the Bronx neighborhoods of Mott Haven, Melrose and Port Morris and is produced by students at the City University Graduate School of Journalism.
The NewsHouse
Syracuse University - Syracuse, NY
The NewsHouse covers, interacts with and engages the Syracuse University community. It is created, edited and produced primarily by students at the S.I. School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.
NewsLINC
Lyndon State College - Lyndonville, VT
NewsLINC is a community news site that is part of community-based service learning capstone called the Vermont Center for Community Journalism. The center also has a daily local news broadcast and just launched an eMagazine, NEWSink.
NYCity News Service
City University of New York - New York, NY
The NYCity News Service is a multimedia outlet that feeds New York neighborhood stories to news organizations - including newspapers, broadcast stations, wire services and Internet service providers - throughout the world. The site is run by students from the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism.
Oakland North
UC Berkeley Grad School of Journalism - Oakland, CA
Oakland North is a news project of U.C. Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism.
Philadelphia Neighborhoods
Temple University - Philadelphia, PA
Temple journalism students use hyperlocal newscasts to cover neighborhoods throughout the city.
Reporting Texas
University of Texas at Austin - Austin, TX
Supported by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and its Initiative on the Future of Journalism Education, Reporting Texas has out four primary goals: To showcase the best work of our University of Texas at Austin undergraduate and graduate students; to offer quality, multimedia reporting to local, state, and national news outlets; to experiment with new approaches in journalism education; and to combine aspects of community reporting with multimedia resources.
Richfield News
Normandale Community College - Richfield, MN
This news, information and community-building website serves the community of Richfield, Minn., and is a community newspaper without the paper.
Richmond Confidential
UC Berkeley Grad School of Journalism - Richmond, CA
Richmond Confidential is an online news service produced by the Graduate School of Journalism at UC Berkeley for, and about, the people of Richmond, California. It has 15 full-time reporters.
Intersections: South LA
USC - Los Angeles, CA
The Annenberg School at the University of Southern California created this community news website for a region that is home to African-Americans, Latinos, Asians and immigrants. The project uses multimedia reporting by journalism students, community residents and community leaders and focuses on education, economic development, housing and immigration.
The Stand
Syracuse University - Syracuse, NY
The Stand is an online South Side community newspaper that is written for and by South Side residents. It is the brainchild of the South Side Newspaper Project, a collaboration of the South Side Community Coalition, Syracuse University and a number of dedicated South Side community residents.
Policyoptions.org
The Bonner Foundation in partnership with universities - Princeton, NJ
A website that gathers issues briefs reported by university partners on topics of community interest.
West Virginia Uncovered
West Virginia University - Morgantown, WV
The West Virginia Uncovered project was created to cultivate online innovation and storytelling among the Mountain State’s community newspapers. Since fall 2008, faculty and students from the WVU P.I. Reed School of Journalism have traveled the small towns of West Virginia to find untold stories and provide training for a dozen weekly newspapers.
The Baltimore Mojo
Morgan State University - Baltimore, MD
A news site that provides reporting, photo essays and social media integration all from students utilizing mobile technologies. The ability to provide all content as "mojos", or mobile journalists, is the cornerstone of the site.
Investigative Reporting Workshop
American University - Washington, D.C.
The Investigative Reporting Workshop, a professional journalism center in the School of Communication at AU, addresses the fundamental issue for democracy by conducting their own investigative projects as well as new models to complete and promote those projects.
Stories That Fly
Kent State University - Kent, Ohio
Stories That Fly produces digital content surrounding the topic of general aviation. The site features an attractive sliding menu to each work. They also invite their readers to comment and contribute to their website.
Nuestro Tahoe
University of Nevada - Reno, Nevada
A Spanish language newsletter and website highlight issues of importance to the Latino population in North Lake Tahoe. Environmental concerns are just part of the challenges this community deals with; employment, economics, housing, and community cohesion are closely related. Several Latino residents are writing regularly for the publication, which is distributed in the Kings Beach and Incline Village communities.
Reznet News
University of Montana - Missoula, Montana
Reznet News, based out of the University of Montana School of Journalism, aims to prepare Native American students to be trained in the field of journalism. Students report exclusively on Native American news, entertainment and information and have gone on to work for major national publications.
Neon Tommy
University of Southern California - Los Angeles, California
The digital news service coming out of USC's Annenberg School of Communication & Journalism, Neon Tommy produces stories around the clock. Their particular aim is to cover national and international stories that would fall by the wayside otherwise. The news service is produced solely by USC graduate and undergraduate students.
PlanPhilly
University of Pennsylvania - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
PlanPhilly covers development, planning, preservation, parks and recreation, the waterfront and transportation exclusively. The site assembled a team of citizen journalists and reporters from the Philadelphia Inquirer to effectively cover the future planning of the city as well as facilitate dialogue among citizens.
New England Center for Investigative Reporting
Boston University - Boston, Massachusetts
NECIR produces multimedia investigative pieces that many traditional news outlets do not have the time or budget for. In addition to news production, the center runs a summer workshop for high school students, provides certificates to international journalists and does trainings for citizen journalists and bloggers.
Wesleying
Wesleyan University - Middletown, Connecticut
Wesleying is a 100% student-run and student-generated blog about all things Wesleyan – what goes on at Wes, what Wes students are doing, what Wes students care about. Readers can submit polls, events, tips and interact with Wesleying's social media presence on Facebook, Twitter and WesFeed.
MiddBlog
Middlebury College - Middlebury, Vermont
Claiming themselves as an alternative news source for Middlebury students, MiddBlog operates independently of Middlebury University funding. MiddBlog provides coverage of campus events, commentary from alumni, polls, arts commentary and news regarding the Middlebury College's Quidditch team.
The Local
City University Graduate School of Journalism - New York, New York
The Local provides news, information, entertainment and informed conversation from bloggers and citizens. It is run by students and faculty of the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, in collaboration with The New York Times, which provides supervision to assure that the blog remains impartial, reporting-based, thorough and rooted in Times standards.
VCU Insight
Virginia Commonwealth University - Richmond, Virginia
VCU InSight is a public affairs TV news program that airs monthly on WCVW-TV Richmond PBS, a Community Idea Station. VCU InSight creates a "real-world" broadcast news opportunity for mass communications students while exposing the Richmond PBS audience and greater Richmond area to important events and issues concerning VCU and the surrounding community.
The Rockbridge Report
Washington & Lee University - Lexington, Virginia
The Rockbridge Report is the only local news Web site and television broadcast for the Lexington, Buena Vista and Rockbridge community. Produced weekly by journalism students at Washington and Lee University, The Rockbridge Report provides news coverage and in-depth analysis of local issues. The site has won a number of awards for convergence journalism.
Health Policy Solutions
University of Colorado - Denver, Colorado
Solutions is a project of the Buechner Institute for Governance at the School of Public Affairs at the University of Colorado Denver. A source for objective information about the critical health policy issues facing Colorado and the Rocky Mountain West, Solutions features reporting and analysis, commentary, links to supporting research and opportunities for interested readers to engage in discussions.
StateCollege.com
University of Pennsylvania - State College, Pennsylvania
Featuring community news, business, entertainment, sports and local columnists, StateCollege.com provides the large college town with an infusion of opinions and coverage of residential experiences and life.
Midway Messenger
University of Kentucky - Midway, Kentucky
A creation of the university's School of Journalism and Telecommunication, the Midway Messenger is run by community journalism students and one faculty advisor. The site provides news and opinion for a town of just over 1,000 residents, making it very hyper-local and pertinent to readers.
Peninsula Press
Stanford University - Palo Alto, California
The Peninsula Press is a hyperlocal news site powered by Stanford University’s Graduate Program in Journalism. Student journalists cover local news in Palo Alto, East Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Redwood City, Mountain View, Sunnyvale and other cities in San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties.
Borderzine
University of Texas - El Paso, Texas
Borderzine provides Latino students with a competitive edge to enter the news industry, and engages newsroom editors and top management in the process of helping to develop future newsroom talent leading to a more diverse news force. Content includes news, arts, sports and multimedia packages.
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