When he was dean and I was general manager of the Kansan, Del Brinkman used to sum up the frightening prospect of turning over a newsroom to a bunch of students by telling me: "Teach 'em and trust 'em, Rick."
That was a long time ago and the students we taught and trusted have gone on to win Pulitzer Prizes, to manage metro dailies, to sit on the Kansas Supreme Court and to win the William Allen White Award. But the advice is still good and the strategy still works surprisingly well.
Most days.
Case in point: The essays this week from my J694 class, the students who are making the multimedia newsroom happen. "Will the Web change the definition of news?" I asked them. As I was reading their responses this morning, I was pretty pleased with what they had to say. Take a look. Del was right. Teach 'em. Trust 'em.
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