Officially launched in January, New England Ethnic News, colloquially known as NEWz, is a project of the Center on Media and Society. Ellen Hume, a distinguished journalist and Director of the Center on Media and Society at UMass Boston, was one of the founders of NEWz and is very excited about the groundbreaking opportunities it presents for students, news consumers and the field of journalism.
Students looking for more stories on issues affecting different backgrounds will enjoy NEWz, as it accumulates news stories from more than 100 ethnic media sources across New England. NEWz provides stories and connects readers to a database of media sources that specialize in specific languages and ethnicities to provide a “one-stop” site for a multitude of voices.
More than just a news source, NEWz also offers community and student blogging, photo and video journalism, research tools for journalists and students, and a calendar of New England events.
Hume stresses that the technology of the Internet allows for a two-way communication of news information; news consumers now have the ability to share their own stories.
To help facilitate that sharing, NEWz has started an electronic mapping project. Interested students take a GPS and digital cameras to different areas and document the history of their communities. These sites will be marked on a map so that when a user clicks on the marker the history and photos of that area come up.
“The mapping project has actually let us become an experimental playground for new media technologies,” Hume said. “We’re experimenting with Google map mash-ups, we want to have pod casting and video blogs. We really want to become a technology playground to experiment with these media applications.”
Kristen DeOliveira, a graduate of UMass Boston who now works as Outreach Coordinator for NEWz, notes that NEWz involvement is not just for people interested in journalism.
“This is a great opportunity for those that are interested in community advocacy, not-for-profit work, people that have issues in their neighborhood or community that they want to get noticed. This is a place to voice your opinions.”
NEWz encourages students to get involved in the mapping project and to submit photos, video, and writing.
“We’re interested in student blogs, student photography,” Hume said. “It does have to fit with our mission, which is to be enriching the public’s understanding of the different cultures and issues that are right here in our communities. If you look at our blogs, they’re really about questions of identity, immigration policy, about health challenges in some populations.”
Although called New England Ethnic News, contributions do not necessarily need to focus on ethnic or cultural issues. “We’re open to a pretty broad range of stories,” Hume said. “We’re a growing, creative operation and very open to creative input from everybody.”
Anyone interested in submitting to the site can contact DeOliveira at < href=”mailt:[email protected]>[email protected], or check out NEWz at www.gonewz.com for more information.