Developing Campus-Wide
Newspaper Curricula
The NiC Initiative
University of Nebraska at Omaha
NiC Newspapers in Curricula
• Maria Anderson
Knudtson
Lecturer, English
NiC Coordinator
• Christina Dando
Assoc. Prof., Geography
3 year NiC member
Background
– Newspapers in Curricula + Collegiate Readership
– Develop a university wide network of faculty
utilizing the newspapers as a resource for
assignments supporting their course objectives.
–
–
2007-2008
–
2008-2009
–
2009-2010
Campus activities
The NiC faculty group
• faculty support for the
development of newspaper based pedagogy .
• creation of student events for promotion of
the Collegiate Readership Program at UNO.
• Specialty events/ opportunities
– Target audiences
– Target spaces
Large group events
Campus Conversations/ Times Talk
• Purpose: contact a large number of diverse students.
Introduce newspaper and topics for discussion.
• Format: table conversations with moderator
– Divided by specific topics
– Divided by newspaper sections
• Results: evaluation forms
– Overwhelmingly positive responses
• Event potential
Space oriented events
Fireplace Read-In
• Purpose: reading
marathon/pilot.
• How much newspaper
reading could take place
in 90 minutes?
• Results: 8 hours +
• Effect: exposure to
newspaper content and
the joy of print!
• Event potential
Targeted audience events
The 2+3=5 Short Story Event
• Creative Writers
• Target specific group to
incorporate newspaper into
creative project.
• Results: 10 submissions
• 3 selected as featured by a
panel of judges/ prizes
awarded. Reading held.
• Event potential
Faculty and Curricula
Black Studies
Geography
Communication
History
Criminal Justice
Political Science
Education
Social Work
• 3 years of faculty
English
participation
Sociology
• 16 faculty
Foreign Language, Spanish
•
12
departments
Economics
• 5 colleges
Examples from the classroom
Dennis Hoffman, Criminal Justice
 class “perusing” – assists students to “see” relevant topics
 article summaries and course concepts – students apply
course concepts while seeing relevancy of course in current
issues
 NYT letter to the editor – students see connection between
the paper, course work and civic engagement
Examples from the classroom
Claudia Garcia , Foreign Languages
• Elementary – brief article summaries
• Intermediate – daily journal writing,
springboard for longer essays
• Advanced – daily journal writing leading to a
reflective piece
Examples from the classroom
Christina Dando, Geography/Geology
 Clippings file and guided journal entries –
students analyze the clippings, examining the
framing of the country, role of the media
 Media analysis on exams – students apply key
concepts to current news
 “Updating” a global conflict
Examples from the classroom
Maria Anderson Knudtson, English
o All assignments : based on newspaper reading
and research for development of arguments.
o Textbook : all chapters correlated to
newspaper work.
o Assignments : more than just straight news
and features/ also incorporate the visual
rhetoric of advertisements and editorial
cartoons.
Examples from the classroom
Pedagogy
 writing
 critical thinking
 media literacy
 civic engagement
Faculty to faculty events
2010-2011
Shift focus to faculty events
• Workshops
• Discussion events
• Individual course curricula
• Faculty presentations
– To the NiC group internally
– To departments
– To other organizations on campus.
Estimated Numbers 2009-2010
• Student contacts
Classroom:
Events:
Total:
1200
250
1450
• Collegiate Readership program at UNO
– Newspapers: 193,304
• Faculty contacts : 55
• Writing questions on NSSE survey.
Go back and NiC your campus!
Maria Anderson Knudtson
mknudtson@unomaha.edu
Christina Dando
cdando@unomaha.edu