It started with an email from GoDaddy.com a few weeks ago: The domain BrianManzullo.com needed to be renewed after two years.
I met the reminder with mixed feelings. For one thing, it’s hard to believe I first built this site two years ago… while I was interning at The Grand Rapids Press in 2009. The point? To build my brand with an online portfolio and for me to blog on my current projects and findings. The hope? To set myself up in the job market once I graduate and land a sweet gig somewhere.
Check… and check.
Looking back, I guess that’s why the updates have been so sporadic. I wanted to update BrianManzullo.com at least once a week. It turned out to be monthly, if that, once I graduated college. It’s not that I’ve “checked out” from the industry; if anything, I’m becoming more enveloped in it, especially as a professional journalist.
I just haven’t been motivated to write for a personal blog. There’s no direction, no specific audience and no purpose with this thing anymore. It’s time for something new. But what?
I tossed some ideas back and forth the previous few weeks. Even up until a couple days ago, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. I definitely wanted another blog. I wanted to contribute in some way to journalism. To the craft, in particular. But if I was going to do something, it had to be unique in some way. It had to be something new (or at least somewhat new) with potential to grow into something significant.
It always came back to journalism education.
I can’t say I’m familiar with every college journalism program in the country but, at Central Michigan University, there are generally two types of students: Those who are extremely passionate about journalism and those who are… well… not. You have the student who, for example, works hard at the student newspaper or local startup, nails a few internships, immerses themselves in the future of their craft and not only lands an awesome job but kicks ass at it. Then you have the student (again, for example) who is immersed in classwork, maybe joins another student organization and places their journalistic knowledge in the hands of their professors, most of whom are out of touch.
Not that there’s anything wrong with the latter. But today’s journalism students will encompass the next generation of journalism. And the problem comes from the apathy: Too many students depend on their professors to know what they’re talking about. With the way journalism has changed already, many no longer do. Neither do the editors many students end up working for one day.
This is the point of what, for now, I’m calling Project Mango.
Molding journalists through community
My philosophy has always been that journalism is an industry of passion and true journalism education lies in experience. To know it, you have to do it.
One of my colleagues and best friends, Jake May, and I talk about this sort of thing every now and then. To put it bluntly, we love journalism. We study it and practice it even when we’re not on the job. As I type this, Jake is in Joplin, Mo., with other Central Michigan University photojournalists to capture and tell the stories of the town, which was ravaged by a tornado several weeks ago. No boss told him to do it. He isn’t even getting paid a dime for it. He’s doing it for the experience before he starts his photo internship at The Herald in Jasper, Ind.
That’s exactly the sort of thing I want Project Mango to do. Under a different name, of course, I want this site to help inspire and motivate young journalists to get better, to stay ahead and to lead this industry (if that’s what you want to call it) toward a better future. Yes, there are a handful of young journalists out there who are ahead of the curve, many of which I’ve had the great privilege of meeting… this is more about multiplying that handful. It’s about helping to create the sort of passion Jake has among even more young journalism hopefuls.
How so? For one, by creating community. It’s much easier to get off the sofa and exercise when you have others with you to motivate you. Same concept here. Young journalists — from writers to photographers to broadcasters to programmers to designers — will contribute to the site with their stories, tips, lessons and experience within their craft. Many others will comment, critique and encourage.
My hope is word of mouth spreads around to different journalism schools and more people get involved. I also hope more sites similar to Project Mango form to reach out to even more young journalists. The more sources of motivation, the better.
But this is very early into the process. I’m still in the beginning stages of designing this site. It may not launch for a couple months, at least.
So, in the meantime, I’m looking for help.
Want to help contribute to Project Mango? Have ideas, thoughts, questions, concerns? What kind of content would you want to post? Shoot me an e-mail. Project Mango also can be found on Twitter at @ProjectMango. I can’t guarantee that everyone who inquiries will be involved in the building of this project but, again, my hope is to get as many bright young journalists as possible involved with this in some way.
As for BrianManzullo.com? Maybe it won’t be completely dead. I’ll keep the domain name for another two years. And maybe I’ll have the motivation to keep a personal blog one day. But for now, it’s going to say goodbye.
In the meantime… spread the word about Project Mango.
Posted by Brian Manzullo at June 10, 2011
Journalism, Uncategorized