CampusBlog.nl is (almost) up and running

What an awesome, enthusiastic group of fourth year journalism students! Which students? Those who will be multimedia blogging on CampusBlog from next week.

The journalism students are joined by eight media technology students who can help with the make-over and redesign of the blog. It’s a real life exercise in crossmedia journalism.

A lecture about blogging is for most students an eye-opener.  A weblog is not just a tiny space on the web where people write crappy diary-style stories. It’s also a place to show the world your work (a portfolio style weblog) and a gigantic source for journalistic stories.

Out of a group of 25 students only one is blogging and no-one uses Twitter or other microblogging applications. However, most of them are part of social networks like Hyves. Well…this situation will change soon. Within the next 6 weeks all these students will be blogging and thinking crossmedia.

All students produce items for CampusTalk (television and radio) as part of their study, adding another media like CampusBlog means they will need to think across three different journalistic platforms. Integrating or converging these media will take place mostly in the students’ minds. And that is where I come in: do not only make the students THINK multimedia but make them DO it. Only time will tell…