UA’s Dateline Alabama Receives National Award, Launches New Site

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Dateline Alabama, the news Web site of The College of Communication and Information Sciences at The University of Alabama, has launched a new Web site in partnership with The Tuscaloosa News.

The partnership was formed to give the site, www.datelinealabama.com, operated by the UA journalism department, access to The Tuscaloosa News’ Web management system and to provide a more dynamic interface while expanding opportunities for UA students to explore online journalism. In exchange for being the service provider for Dateline, The News will have access to the site’s production for the first 24-hours after posting. After that, the content may be used by anyone as a free community news service.

In September, Dateline Alabama was named by the Society of Professional Journalists as the No. 1 independent college Web site in the nation.

“The new site combines features, in-depth reporting and commentary with the latest in Web interactivity and multimedia technology,” said Dr. Ed Mullins, professor of journalism and Dateline Alabama adviser. “Our goal is nothing less than taking a new medium to new levels of journalistic excellence, community service and audience involvement.”

He said the partnership presents the opportunity for faculty and students to explore media convergence, community journalism and the business of news in partnership with a commercial news operation.

“We are grateful to Tim Thompson, publisher of The Tuscaloosa News, and Dwayne Fartherree, online editor of The News, for making this venture possible,” Mullins said. “We also thank John Taylor, a former Dateline editor now in business for himself, for his fine support over the past two years.”

Faculty, staff and graduate assistants in the journalism department oversee Dateline Alabama. Content comes from student volunteers, students enrolled in communication and other courses and from submissions by faculty, alumni and citizens.

Dateline Alabama won the 2003 Society of Professional Journalists National Mark of Excellence award for best all-around independent online student publication and best online opinion/commentary. The Web site and its outreach counterpart, Dateline Pickens, also finished in the top three for depth reporting and feature reporting.

In 2002, Dateline Alabama captured SPJ’s Mark of Excellence first place online award for spot news reporting. It has garnered more than 30 regional SPJ Mark of Excellence awards since its inception in February 2000.

Plans to convert and redesign Dateline Alabama into a weekly news and feature online magazine began this past summer. Dateline leaders will involve more students from more disciplines within the University, said Patrick Beeson, Dateline Alabama editor. A new course, “New Media Workshop,” will begin in spring 2005, in which the main editors and section leaders will be enrolled for credit. A new “convergence” lab will allow students from all communication disciplines to work together.

Beeson, a second year graduate student from Bristol, Tenn., said, “The new Dateline Alabama is aimed at serving the campus with thoughtful, insightful, critical, edgy, artistic and analytical content but content that is infused with humor and fun as college life is, or most certainly ought to be.”

Major Highfield, a UA 2003 journalism graduate from Centre and a former Dateline Alabama editor, will be the Web producer for the site. He is responsible for working out the details of the delivery system shared with The Tuscaloosa News. “Fall semester will be mostly getting things set up, recruiting a staff, learning some new techniques for new media, but we will also produce some worthwhile news and feature packages while learning our new roles,” Highfield said. “By spring we fully expect to be in contention for best Web site again.”

Mullins said the partnership with The Tuscaloosa News will give Dateline Alabama access to the latest in Web production technology without incurring the high costs associated with the technology. “There were many things we could never afford to do without The News as partner, for example, instant access to photo galleries, streaming video and audio, forums and polls, an advertising maintenance system, and a way to measure our audience, its characteristics as well as its size, all of which will benefit our students and the future of the journalism field,” he said.

Students interested in writing, photography, editing, design, graphics, advertising sales and technical aspects of Web production should contact Beeson or Highfield.