2014 Capstone Experiences, Part One
When a Newhouse master’s student reaches the end of their program, they have to complete a capstone to graduate. Because of the opportunities available to our students and the excellence we expect from them, our capstones are extremely unique. This is the first part of a two-part series that details the last graduating class’ capstones by major – if you want an idea of what you’ll be doing here at Newhouse, read on!
Advertising
Advertising (ADV) graduate students spent six weeks working intensively on two integrated marketing communication projects for their capstone requirement. They worked for two iconic and top clients in New York City: The relaunch of the reputable TRUTH Campaign sponsored by the American Legacy Foundation and the Miracle-Gro brand, the world’s best selling plant food manufactured by Scotts.
At the end of their capstone, the class made breathtaking presentations in the headquarters of two leading ad agencies, providing their clients with creative advertising and innovative digital strategies on each challenging project. At 360i, recently named the No. 1 digital advertising agency by Ad Age, the class presented a series of out-of-box ideas in integrated marketing communication campaigns to effectively reach the highly mobilized shoppers, not just consumers of Miracle-Gro. At MediaCom, a leading media planning agency worldwide, the class presented an compelling strategy, “FINISH IT”, to precisely reach 9% of today’s teens who still smoke via the influence of 91% of the elusive youth. The top executives of both clients were thrilled by the inspired and original ideas presented by the students. In the end, the 32 + Snowy ad agency, including a team of six members, won the Miracle-Gro account. The team members include Danielle Fields, Thomas Burnham, Zebediah Gallagher, Van Ngo, Leonie Geyer, and Carolyn Jannetti. The Matis ad agency won the pitch for Miracle-Gro. The members are Hajin Choi, Nesara Kishor, Tanguy Laurent, Cordell Martin, Huanchao Tang, and Sarah Wang.
Arts Journalism
In May and June, 2014, the Goldring Arts Journalists (AJ’s) traveled to Charleston, S.C., where they covered the Spoleto Festival USA and the Piccolo Spoleto Festival for the city’s local daily newspaper, The Post and Courier. Through the spring semester, the arts journalists prepared for the trip by developing beats and pitching story ideas to the editors at The Post and Courier. The group mapped out a social media strategy and developed a story budget. By the end of the semester, the team was geared up to take on two of the largest arts festivals in the country.
Once they arrived in the palmetto-shaded historic town of Charleston, the twelve arts journalists produced articles, reviews, photographs, and video for the print and online editions of the paper with deadlines day and night. They covered theater performances, operas, jazz concerts, country music, visual arts shows, dance and more. A team of journalists traveled to the beach to cover a sandcastle competition, while others hobnobbed with actors and musicians at glamorous cast parties – on assignment, of course. The AJ’s created a rush of buzz online with a tsunami of social media as well as beat-specific blogs highlighting festival fashion, goings on about town, and behind the scenes happenings. Each AJ came away from the experience with a portfolio of professional clippings in all media.
As Jessica Cabe (AJ 2014) said: “The Capstone in Charleston offered an invaluable, real-world reporting experience that helped me understand what it means to work for a daily newspaper. The three weeks I spent covering Spoleto Festival USA for the Post and Courier offered some of the most rewarding, challenging and fun moments in my year as an arts journalist. Not only was I able to craft advancers with editors who pushed me to produce my best work yet, but I also wrote reviews on tight deadlines, had my first photo run by a professional publication and created videos with the amazing equipment from Newhouse. My time spent covering this internationally renowned arts festival taught me skills I will use in my new role as the entertainment editor and writer for the Post Independent in Glenwood Springs, Colorado.”
Broadcast and Digital Journalism
The Washington semester of the Newhouse broadcast and digital journalism graduate program is where students take all the journalistic skills they have learned over the past year and put them to the test in the news capital of the world.
BDJ master’s students in the news concentration are required to spend the last six weeks of their graduate program in Washington, D.C. During this capstone experience, they apply the hands-on and academic lessons learned from the previous semesters on the Syracuse campus at another level.
The majority of the class covers Capitol Hill and the federal government as reporters for commercial television stations in markets as varied as Frenso, CA; Salt Lake City, UT; Peoria, IL; Erie, PA; Lubbock, TX; Shreveport, LA; Elmira, NY; and Evansville, IN. As credentialed members of the Washington press corps, they develop, research, shoot, report and edit their own stories, which then air on the stations’ newscasts.
Students produce work with a variety of organizations. In previous years, we have placed students with CBS Newspath; Agence France Presse; NBC News; and The PBS Newshour.
We have longtime partners in Washington radio news including WTOP News Radio and WAMU, the NPR station. A number of our students have used their skills across media platforms in our D.C. program, working in outlets such as USA TODAY. The capstone program is supported by faculty who bring to their teaching decades of experience covering Washington for local and network news operations.
Students also benefit from the twice-weekly Speakers Series, in which journalists and Washington insiders share their observations about their profession and the unique challenges of making sense of Washington and those who work there. Past speakers include PBS Newshour anchor Gwen Ifill, CBS News National Security correspondent David Martin, ABC News senior national correspondent Martha Raddatz, ESPN PTI host Michael Wilbon, NBC News Washington bureau chief Ken Strickland, CNN correspondent Dana Bash,and New York Rep. Dan Maffei. Speakers who also are Newhouse graduates include Washington NBC4 investigative reporter Scott MacFarlane, Cox Media correspondent Kayla Campbell and NY1 Washington reporter Michael Scotto.
Magazine, Newspaper and Online Journalism
The MNO Capstone at Newhouse is an intensive, six-week course that creates a launch issue of a tablet magazine. The project is the culmination of months of work by graduate students, who form teams across the school’s 11 professional graduate programs. Those teams take an idea and create a preliminary business plan that is judged by industry leaders from organizations such as Hearst Digital, Conde Nast, SB NationVox Media, Songza, and Atlantic Media. The winning team earns $1,000 and the chance for MNO students to create a launch issue based on their idea. In this year’s case, Bellwethr, an edgy general-interest magazine aimed at millennials, won. Under the guidance of professors, students develop story ideas that range widely in both form and approach — from a long-form narrative and video on urban agriculture to a humorous interactive chart on television’s political characters.The issue includes videos and podcasts, some included in the tablet, others exclusively for the responsive website. Students write the stories, take the photos, record the podcasts, make the videos, and design the tablet and the website. In all, there were more than 45 stories this year. Students also create and oversee Twitter and Facebook accounts for the project. When the project is finished, it is distributed through iTunes, where it can be downloaded for free.
Part Two of this series will be posted next week, so tune in if your capstone wasn’t covered here!
