Local news outlets work with students to cover mayoral race

Call it a new way of covering the 2015 Mayoral Race. The Next Mayor Project is an initiative among the university and the Philadelphia Media Network among other local news outlets to get students involved in covering the race.

The Wyncote Foundation, a philanthropic group headed by David Haas devoted to making grants related to areas such as arts, education, public media and journalism, has funded The Next Mayor Project with a total of $350,000. This funding will be used to fashion high quality reporting on the 2015 mayoral race.

The university’s Center for Public Interest Journalism, run by Prof. Jim MacMillan, has announced collaboration with the Philadelphia Media Network, owners of prominent news outlets Philly.com and The Philadelphia Inquirer, in the creation of The Next Mayor Project.

MayoralRaceAlong with these news companies, news outlets such as WHYY/Newsworks, Technical.ly Philly, and 900-AM WURD will be working together to provide coverage on the race.

Temple students will also be taking to the streets to cover the most important and exciting parts of the Mayoral Race. Temple’s own award-winning capstone journalism course, Philadelphia Neighborhoods. run by Prof. George Miller, is just but one of these classes providing reporting on the issue.

Temple University’s Dean David Boardman of the School of Media & Communication believes the collaboration between students and The Philadelphia Media Network will allow for a much more accurate and in-depth covering of the 2015 Mayoral Races that will involve the people of Philadelphia on a much greater level than they have been in past Mayoral Races. 

“We have, I think, 36 teams of reporters out there in the neighborhoods gathering information from people on the street about what’s important to them and what issues are important to them – what they’re looking for in the next mayor,” Dean Boardman said.

Users of The Next Mayor Project can also expect some graduate classes to head multimedia issues in the project that will be featured on Philly.com.

Information regarding The Next Mayor project can be found at www.nextmayor.philly.com.

 

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