New building takes shape - The Walter Cronkite School of ...

new programs
Students push
the edge of
media research
and innovation
Deepak Kamalanathan, an electrical enginering graduate student, was part of the New Media Innovation Lab’s inaugural class.
The New Media Innovation Lab at ASU is taking on the big
questions facing the news media today:
• How can news companies reach audiences, especially
younger readers and viewers who have become disenfranchised
from traditional media?
• How can the media survive and prosper in the face of rapid
technological change that is making media more fragmented, more
interactive and more personal?
The lab, which opened August 2006 under the direction of
the Cronkite School, brings together students from journalism,
computer engineering, graphic design and business to work in
partnership with media companies interested in the answers to
those questions.
In the first two semesters, students studied the news habits of
college-age students and developed a local music Web site,
tunedig.com, that demonstrates what young people say they want
on the Web.
The idea for a media research and development lab came from
ASU President Michael M. Crow and Sue Clark-Johnson, president
of the newspaper division of Gannett Co. Inc., the nation’s largest
newspaper company. Within two months of their initial discussions,
the lab was up and operating in the Computing Commons.
Gannett is the lab’s chief client, hiring the team of students
to help the company figure out how online newspapers can best
appeal to 18- to-24-year-olds. The students spent the first semester
gathering and analyzing data — including conducting a survey
of nearly 1,700 ASU students. They presented their findings and
recommendations to Gannett executives in December.
The lab is significantly different from new media efforts at other
universities, said Cronkite School Dean Christopher Callahan.
“The ideas are driven by our students — some of the best and
brightest — working together from many schools and departments
across campus,” he said. “And our relationship with Gannett makes
this a very real, focused research and development effort. Our
12 2007-2008
By Tara Brite
students have an unparalleled experience, and they will see the
tangible impact of their innovations in the new media market.”
Cronkite graduate student Nicole Girard said she learned
just how important social networking is to young people, while
marketing senior Marlena Shirley said usability is one of the top
things young people look for. If content isn’t easy to find through a
search engine or from a home page, they’ll likely look elsewhere,
she said.
During its first year, the lab was led by Tom Mohr, an industry
leader who formerly headed Knight Ridder Digital in San Jose,
Calif.
Mohr said media companies face great challenges trying to keep
up with the rapid changes overtaking the industry. Young people
now “carry devices that are literally a second brain,” he said. And
they use these devices to find information in many different places.
“They’re grazers of content,” Mohr said. “They get snippets of
news throughout the day.”
Mohr, who spent the year traveling back and forth between the
Tempe campus and his home in San Jose, said he learned as much
as his students during the inaugural year of the lab.
“It’s a great privilege to be involved in shaping the debate on
where media should go in the world of online,” he said.
Mohr returned to California this spring to head a start-up
company that offers Web services to automotive dealers and
manufacturers. He was replaced by Retha Hill, former vice
president for content at BET Interactive, the online unit of Black
Entertainment Television. She is a digital media leader who helped
launch The Washington Post’s first Internet news operation.
Hill and a new team of students continued working out of the
Computing Commons during the 2007-08 academic year and
will move in fall 2008 to the new Cronkite building in downtown
Photo by Ryan A. Ruiz