UA Knight Fellows in Community Journalism Program Hosting Conference in Anniston

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The University of Alabama Knight Fellows in Community Journalism program will host “A National Conversation on The Emerging Mind of Community Journalism,” a conference addressing the relationship between journalists and communities, Feb. 8 and 9 in Anniston.

The conference will work to show participants how journalists serve their audience by providing authoritative news coverage and well-informed editorial leadership grounded in local knowledge.

“Some of the finest veteran and beginner journalists will gather to discuss how to make the profession, as a whole and as individuals, better,” said Chris Waddle, director of the Knight Community Journalism Fellows Program.

Featured speakers include Alberto Ibargüen, president of the Knight Foundation and former publisher of “The Miami Herald;” Richard C. Harwood, author of “Hope Unraveled;” Peggy Kuhr, Knight Chair on the Press, Leadership, and Community at the University of Kansas; Michael Bugeja, author of “Interpersonal Divide;” and Cole Campbell, journalism dean at the University of Nevada, Reno.

The Knight Fellows in Community Journalism program, funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, in August will start its first six students on their way to receiving a UA master’s degree inside “The Anniston Star.”

Made possible by a $1.5 million gift to UA from Knight Foundation and $750,000 from Consolidated Publishing, the parent company of The Anniston Star, the marriage between classroom and newsroom will be run much like a teaching hospital. Students at the teaching newspaper will attend classes and problem-solving seminars called “grand rounds” – and also work as interns. UA faculty and Star staff members who hold master’s degrees will teach classes at the newspaper. Other staff members will function as “teaching professionals,” like lab instructors on college campuses.

Knight Fellows, chosen annually in a highly competitive, national selection process, will receive full tuition scholarships and a stipend for the one-year, three-semester program.