{"id":143692,"date":"2018-11-27T08:20:01","date_gmt":"2018-11-27T13:20:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=143692"},"modified":"2023-06-27T13:03:36","modified_gmt":"2023-06-27T17:03:36","slug":"roundup-connecticut-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2018\/11\/roundup-connecticut-news\/","title":{"rendered":"The ‘Roundup’ of Connecticut News"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the fourth floor of Oak Hall, among the Department of Journalism\u2019s classrooms and faculty offices, sits a little-known newsroom with a staff of five. What they lack in size they make up for in talent, work ethic, and a keen eye for the best news in Connecticut, which every week they deliver right to your inbox.<\/p>\n

Four journalism students and associate professor of journalism Marie Shanahan aggregate news from around the state for their weekly publication, titled The Roundup, with the purpose of curating Connecticut news for a Connecticut audience.<\/p>\n

On Tuesdays and Thursdays at 11 a.m., journalism major and digital marketing and analytics minor Ryan Kim \u201919 (CLAS), journalism and communication double major Brianny Aybar \u201919 (CLAS), journalism and political science double major Gino DeAngelis \u201920 (CLAS), and journalism and communication double major Camila Vallejo \u201919 (CLAS) generate the newsroom bustle that Shanahan says she misses from her days as a reporter at the Hartford Couran<\/em>t.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy class period is not your traditional class period,\u201d she says. \u201cWe\u2019re talking and we\u2019re sharing, there\u2019s side conversations going on and people online finding stories, looking at Twitter, covering breaking news. Putting that all together, that energy \u2013 I\u2019m glad to have it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Roundup, which was launched a year ago this September, now has more than 400 subscribers, including students, alumni, journalists, and members of the public. The newsletter features 10 need-to-know news summaries for each week, followed by headlines the team thinks are must-reads, and an original interview with a local journalist.<\/p>\n

Vallejo says she enjoys the departure from a traditional class, which gives her a chance to tap the editing, analysis, and technical skills she has learned in other courses.\u00a0\u201cProfessor Shanahan really tries to give her students the chance to feel like they are in control of the assignment,\u201d she says. \u201cWe learn to cover a variety of topics, apply all the audience engagement tactics we’ve learned in other journalism classes, and even talk to other journalists.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shanahan sometimes opens the class with prompts such as \u201cwho do you want to know?\u201d and \u201cwhat are you interested in?\u201d She then assigns students to comb the web and dozens of news sources for stories. The students then pitch these stories to her and the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI appreciate how open the class is for discussion,\u201d says Kim. \u201cI\u2019m able to contribute to the newsletter in subjects that interest me most, seeking out interview subjects or story pitches in my field of interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Marie<\/a>
Marie Shanahan, associate professor of journalism, center, and Camila Vallejo ’19 (CLAS) in JOUR 4016: Publication Practice. In the background is Ryan Kim ’19 (CLAS). (Bri Diaz\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The class has interviewed Vanessa de la Torre, a journalist at Hartford’s public radio affiliate WNPR, who is part of the Sharing America Project covering race and culture; Sean Patrick Bowley,\u202f<\/strong>a sports journalist and editor of\u202fGameTime CT; and political reporter Kaitlyn Krasselt of the Norwalk Hour<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough this doesn’t guarantee me a job at the Norwalk Hour<\/em>, talking to a journalist in that organization is a great opportunity for me to at least get my foot in the door,\u201d says Vallejo, who interviewed Krasselt.<\/p>\n

Each week the \u201canchor,\u201d or lead student editor, practices his or her news judgement to sequence the week\u2019s stories and edit their colleagues\u2019 work. After review by Shanahan and a thorough copy edit, The Roundup is dispatched each Friday at noon.<\/p>\n

\u201cJournalism really is a collaborative effort,\u201d Shanahan says. \u201cThat\u2019s how news comes together. If you work at NBC Connecticut, for example, it\u2019s not one person doing everything \u2013 a whole bunch of people are depending on one another.\u201d<\/p>\n

The idea to feature a student as the anchor each week came from alumna and journalism major Sara Grant \u201908 (CLAS), an editor at the Denver Post<\/em>. Grant visited Shanahan\u2019s class in September to talk about audience engagement and what works for newsletters. \u201cMake it personal and conversational,\u201d she advised.<\/p>\n

Shanahan says she doesn\u2019t want her own voice \u2013 that of the authoritative journalism professor \u2013 in the newsletter. \u201cI\u2019d rather have them interpreting the news as college students,\u201d she says. \u201cWe\u2019re writing this from UConn.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vallejo, who anchored the newsletter recently, says it was an interesting and rewarding experience.\u00a0\u201cI had to use my news judgement to put the entire newsletter in a coherent order,\u201d she says. \u201cAs an anchor you want to make sure that you are giving the audience the most important news first, but also trying to keep their attention throughout.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Shanahan, gone are the days of news consumers who carve out time to read lengthy stories. The Roundup takes a cue from popular newsletters such as Axios, The Skimm, and CNN\u2019s Reliable Sources, which cater to shortened attention spans by collecting, summarizing, and presenting top stories in one place.<\/p>\n

Shanahan says she hopes the Roundup will find its place among those more widely known newsletters, and help Connecticut residents develop healthier and more well-rounded news \u201cdiets.\u201d\u00a0\u201cI feel smarter after I read\u00a0[Reliable Sources],\u201d she says, “and that is the same thing I want people to discover about the Roundup.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before she joined the UConn faculty, the possibilities of digital journalism drew Shanahan, an award-winning digital journalist, away from her five-year career as a print reporter at the Hartford Courant <\/em>and into a role as their digital producer and online editor.\u00a0\u201cJournalism is changing,\u201d she says, \u201cand journalists are expected to be more dynamic than they ever were.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kim says the class bridges the core tenets of journalism and marketing that will be helpful after graduation.\u00a0\u201cThe course helped me understand the inner workings of an online-based newsletter and the difficulties of generating a successful reach,\u201d he says. \u201cIt allowed me to utilize some skills from my digital marketing and analytics minor, developing new strategies to generate greater interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shanahan also loves her diverse \u201cnewsroom,\u201d which includes three students of color and two women.\u00a0\u201cI enjoy the diverse perspectives coming from all directions this semester,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Maddie Geerlof \u201919 (CLAS), a journalism and communications major who works on the Roundup podcast, says the class has given her transferable skills.\u00a0\u201cGetting to work behind-the-scenes has been a really beneficial experience,\u201d she says. \u201cDoing real, deadline-driven copy editing has given each of us an integral skill that will translate to the workplace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shanahan says she and her team are looking to reach 500 subscribers by the end of 2018. Her students have begged her to continue offering the course each semester, and, of course, she agreed.\u00a0\u201cThat must mean that [the experience] is getting through and they\u2019re coming out with something,\u201d she says with a smile. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to be popular.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A newsletter course in the journalism department offers students real-life experience in digital journalism and marketing. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":143840,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2226,1715,2317,2225,2234],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1860],"class_list":["post-143692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-clas","category-community-impact","category-journalism","category-uconn-storrs","category-university-life"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-07 06:31:44","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143692"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":143896,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143692\/revisions\/143896"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/143840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143692"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=143692"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=143692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}