Sustainability Stories
News 418
This immersive learning project partners with Muncie Action Plan to create an online, interactive map that details and promotes organizations advancing sustainability issues in greater Muncie. Journalism students will produce original media content highlighting various organizations during Fall 2021, and Geography students will incorporate that content into a publicly available online map during Spring 2022. The project culminates in a Sustainability Summit for local sustainability organizations, and future iterations will expand more broadly across Indiana.
OVERVIEW: The goal of this interdisciplinary immersive learning project is to enrich the student experience of 32 undergraduate students in Journalism and Geography through production of an interactive, online map featuring original media content about sustainability-oriented organizations in East Central Indiana, primarily those located in Muncie. Journalism students will develop the media content in Fall 2021, then Geography students will incorporate this content into an engaging online map during the Spring 2022 semester. Sustainability is defined here by an emphasis on three foundational pillars: environmental care, social responsibility, and economic vitality. Although East Central Indiana is not perceived as a sustainability-oriented region, there are many local organizations focused on sustainability. Promoting these organizations via media content housed in a publicly available, interactive digital map directly supports the goals of our primary community partner, Task Force 5 of the Muncie Action Plan (MAP). While in this project the Project Directors will concentrate on non-profit organizations identified by Task Force 5, and while we may have greater representation of regional nonprofits, they also will consider organizations from the for-profit sector, demonstrating that sustainability and business can indeed coexist. Supporting this approach, the secondary partner, IUPUI Office of Sustainability, has indicated that sustainable activity within the for-profit sector is not well-documented in Indiana.
PHASE ONE, FALL 2021, JOURNALISM: Approximately 16 Journalism and Telecommunications students will complete the first stage of this collaborative project. The primary goal of Phase One is to visit selected organizations, as identified with assistance from our primary partner (MAP), to create media content that highlights their activity addressing sustainability issues. While the deliverables will be determined by discussions between students and the community partners, the Project Directors anticipate that each organization will have a similar array of media content, e.g. interviews with CEOs or Executive Directors, 360° virtual tours, informative video/audio public service announcements, and/or written summations that chronicle ways in which each organization prioritizes its sustainability efforts. In this pilot project, the Project Directors expect to feature eight sustainability-oriented organizations from the non-profit and business sectors. The sixteen students in the Specialty Reporting course (NEWS 418) will work in pairs and assume primary responsibility for how to feature each organization. The class will work together to support each student pair and to work toward creating consistent products across groups. For example, Dr. Kuban will use peer-editing exercises and peer-critique discussions after content deadlines, so that students can see what their peers have created as well as engage in conversations regarding how to improve the content deliverables. This approach should lead to consistent media content from one organization to the next.
For more information, contact Dr. Adam Kuban, Department of Journalism. Check out this flyer.