Journalism Students Go Pro

Articles written and produced by some of the nation's top journalism students are being distributed to major media outlets including the New York Times, CNN, and Gannett through a program run by Arizona State University's journalism school, the Associated Press reports.

The News 21 initiative, which operates through ASU's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, trains students to present news in innovative ways. Each of the 60 stories already completed involves both a "Changing America" theme and multimedia components like photo slide shows and video.

Initiative participants from Columbia University, the University of California-Berkeley, and other schools spent 10 weeks this summer reporting on topics such as the nation's inefficient energy grid and the tough decisions college-educated young adults must make in a weak economy. This year marks News 21's fourth in operation, at a time when many major media outlets are rethinking their structure and refocusing their efforts on the Web and multimedia storytelling just as the News 21 students did.

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