Campus Lifeline: A College Report on Suicide, the ground-breaking student project examining college suicide, has been honored with a prestigious national award: the Associated Press Media Editors’ (APME) Innovator of the Year for College Students. APME was unanimous in its selection of Campus Lifeline for this award.
This is the first time a JMC student project has earned this APME distinction.
Campus Lifeline represents the collaborative work of 21 students from JMC and the School of Digital Science, all members of the Spring 2013 Web Programming for Multimedia Journalism course. The students examined the complex issues surrounding college suicide through in-depth articles, infographics and data-driven interactives. The result was the first comprehensive, journalistic exploration of college suicide undertaken by Kent State University students. While JMC student journalists conceived, researched and wrote stories, programming and design students developed the look, feel and functionality of the Campus Lifeline website.
JMC faculty involved with Campus Lifeline recognize the importance of this achievement and its impact on students. “I'm thrilled that the APME recognized this project. College suicide as a public health issue is rarely covered, and our students covered it in an innovative way. Good things happen when you put journalists, designers and programmers together in the classroom,” said Associate Professor Jacqueline Marino, one of the course instructors.
“The great thing about this project and this course is that it combines the work of multiple disciplines – journalism, digital science, visual communication design – and requires students to work together to figure out how to make it all work. This is exactly what students will experience in the real world,” said Assistant Professor Sue Zake, also a course instructor.
In its third year in the JMC curriculum, Web Programming for Multimedia Journalism will be offered again in Spring 2014.