As 2011 ends, please allow me to revisit my proudest moment as a journalism faculty member with a new Storify.

In late September, my digital journalism students at Marquette University made the most of an extraordinary campus opportunity – a presidential inauguration – that offered trial-by-fire experience and demonstrated the power of social media as a tool for journalism. Instead of the typical reporting and writing exercise, in which the students would each produce a 500-word story that just I would read – sigh! – they used Twitter to report on the inauguration. Their tweeting allowed countless Marquette alumni and supporters across the world to witness the ceremony live.

Tim Cigelske, a MU communication specialist and the campus social media guru, lauded the students' efforts. "I never thought we would surpass Sweet Sixteen," Cigelske said of the Twitter explosion following the men's basketball team's success last spring. He told my students that not only did their inauguration tweeting do so, it also netted the top eight trending topics in Milwaukee that day – "which is huge." (My Storify includes just a sampling from that day.)

The inauguration exercise also readied my students to use Twitter to cover events as reporters through the term. Indeed, live tweeting was only half of the inauguration assignment. Each student also had to create a Storify about the coverage. (The Poynter Institute offers five types of stories that make good Storifys.)
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No one knew what to expect beforehand. Those among my students who had tweeted regularly had mostly offered youthful banter. I stressed for class-related tweets using complete sentences, abiding AP style and correct grammar, spelling and punctuation, and no long or uncomplimentary hashtags such as #onmywaytowalgreenstobuylicorice and #icouldrantbutiwont. Both classes practiced with the Princess Diana eulogy before the ceremony. Each student then had to produce at least 12 tweets with their class hashtag and #muprez among the 140 characters.

After live tweeting beyond my wildest dreams, the next generation of professional scribes acted like true journalists – they went searching for food, assessed their own performance and found reasons to complain or blame their editor, that is, professor. That's OK. So gratifying when my students' work matters. Cigelske, formerly of The Associated Press, put it best when he told them during his class visit: "It was like you were all Associated Press reporters. You provided the color and the personality of being right there. You pretty much covered the spectrum – from breaking news to context to archival coverage. This is great training for ... your journalism careers, wherever it takes you."

'Tis the season, everyone! Earlier this week, my wife, Mira, received a wonderful digital holiday greeting from a friend via email. It made us smile broadly and was a welcome distraction as I sought to finish grading final exams.

The greeting reminded us of a few years back, when we were looking for a new way to convey holiday greetings to our family, friends and colleagues. In 2002, instead of cards, we mailed and handed out CDs with our favorite Christmas songs. The response was overwhelming. People loved them. So we did it again with another set of songs the next year, and then with other collections two of the next three years. It's gratifying that so many of our friends still play the CDs while wrapping gifts, entertaining guests or doing whatever their heart desires.

For this year, our friend's before-mentioned digital offering inspired us to produce our own holiday greeting – with a little help from our famous neighbors in Hyde Park, Chicago. We hope you enjoy it. Let us know what you think. 

Getting students in an introductory journalism course to embrace the Associated Press Stylebook is no easy task. Tell them that AP style is used in any significant newsroom, and by many public relations companies, and you will hear, "This is like taking me back to first grade." Tell them that learning AP style is key to writing with accuracy, consistency, clarity and authority, and you will hear, "Will I need my stylebook in other journalism classes?"

Frequent quizzes and a two-point penalty for each AP style error in writing assignments only add to the complaints. However, let the students compete in class to see who can correctly answer the most questions and suddenly – surprise! surprise! – it seems the stylebook is everyone's best friend. It warms my heart to see these aspiring journalists answer as many as 21 style questions in a row when bragging rights and prizes are on the line.

On the last class day each semester in my Digital Journalism I course, students compete for first, second and third place in the "JOUR 1100 AP Style Bowl." Briefly, here's how it works: divide the class into two teams and let them go at it until one reaches 21. Those on the winning team then get to vie for recognition and prizes. The questions come from AP style quizzes provided at Gerald Grow's Newsroom101.com. Previous end-of-semester winners: Caroline Campbell (spring 2010), Anthony Manno (fall 2010) and Erin Caughey (spring 2011).

Last week, Team Kvartunas upset Team Herndon in the most-competitive first-round match of any term so far, 21-20. ("We only got three wrong," said a disappointed member from the losing team. "We can't help it that they got 20 straight cupcakes.") The prize-winning round was just as fierce. One student was beside herself when she choose wrong between convince and persuade. Sympathetic protests came after another student didn't properly answer "noon" to the question asking, "The meeting is scheduled at ____________." 

In the end, sophomore Victor Jacobo emerged victorious when he chose "B" for the question, "Which is longer, a yard or a meter?" Afterward, Jacobo, the first broadcast and electronic communication major to win the Style Bowl, humbly accepted his $25 gift certificate and accolades (see ceremony video below). "I'm, like, ridiculously lucky at these things," he said to much laughter, "so it had nothing to do with, like, skill."

No luck or skill necessary, my friends. Whether it's for the JOUR 1100 final exam this afternoon, or for any opportunity henceforth, just a readiness to check the AP stylebook – for as the company's president, Tom Curley, writes in the foreword of its 2011 edition, it's "the essential tool for anyone who cares about good writing" and will help "make a story written anywhere understandable everywhere."

I had the pleasure yesterday of joining wartime journalists James Foley and Meg Jones as panelists on "Diederich Ideas: Reporting From the Front Line," the latest public-affairs program produced by broadcast journalism students at the Diederich College of Communication. Foley, a GlobalPost correspondent and fellow Marquette University graduate, was also on campus to speak about his being held captive for six weeks in Libya by Moammar Gadhafi loyalists earlier this year. Jones covers veterans and the military for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

A studio audience of 20 students listened intently behind us in the jPad lounge in Johnston Hall as Jordan Abudayyeh, a senior in the college, expertly moderated the hourlong program. It focused on complex issues facing journalists since the terrorists attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, including: Reporting on stories from the Middle East. Balancing national security concerns against the public’s right to know. Which stories are told and which ones are ignored? The challenges faced by embedded journalists. Has the public become desensitized to their reports?

The production also featured video "cut-ins" from broadcast journalists with considerable international experience: Catherine Herridge of Fox News, Lara Logan of CBS News, Martha Raddatz of ABC News and Mara Schiavocampo of NBC News. Their personal stories served as case studies for us to discuss on the program.

I very much enjoyed hearing Foley and Jones talk about their experiences overseas and appreciate their courage and passion for reporting from the front lines. Never wanting to be a foreign correspondent, I had my fill of conflict journalism as a Newsday staff writer reporting in Lower Manhattan that fateful day on 9/11. I want no parts of being near constant gunfire in another country, much less being held captive for 45 days like Foley.

Meanwhile, I also enjoyed witnessing so many Marquette students practicing their journalism during the taping. They did all the pre-production research, interviews, set design and graphics, and all the camera work, audio and editing during the program, said Julie Rosene, the college's event coordinator and a key adviser to their efforts. Post-production should be finished soon, after which it will be available for viewing on the college's website and, hopefully, on a local cable station in Milwaukee. There are plans for a new "Diederich Ideas" each semester.

I look forward to each and every one – and hope to have the chance to participate again.