Where to go for inspiration

The best college media website out there is fun, relevant and free!

The Center for Innovations in College Media is a warehouse of ideas and content. http://www.collegemediainnovation.org/blog/

This is the starting place for those looking forward in design and content.

Some highlights:

A collection of college newspaper multimedia projects, like the University of North Carolina's Hurricane Katrina project:

http://files.dailytarheel.com/multimedia/2007-2008/hurricane_07/final/site2.html

…this outstanding piece on how war has affected students, faculty, staff and the community by Cabrini College:

http://pages.cabrini.edu/convergence07/

… or this town/campus map of Lansing, Michigan, which allows students and citizens to update information they think other would like to know

http://www.spartylive.com/main.php

Resources, like this explanation of online components

http://www.macloo.com/journalism/media.htm

And these "cheat sheets":

http://mindymcadams.com/tojou/2008/cheat-sheet-for-multimedia-story-decisions/

and

http://reportr.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/tips-on-how-to-successfully-produce-a-multimedia-story.pdf

And frequent blog posts from online college media guru and founder Bryan Murley.

A quick read gives us:

The ultimate list of what your college media site should include:

http://www.collegemediainnovation.org/blog/2009/02/17/an-ultimate-online-journalism-list/

Its "Nationwide Classroom" series, like this one that teaches writing for the web:

http://www.collegemediainnovation.org/blog/2009/02/12/nationwide-classroom-no-1-writing-for-the-web/#more-1919

And this great "College Journalism Chat" series, where the site hosts a national live chat of student journalists (and sometimes their professors):

http://www.collegemediainnovation.org/blog/2009/02/02/wrap-up-of-last-nights-collegejourn-chat/

The site has a wealth of information, links and resources, all for free. It's a great compilation of all things college media.