One of my favorite classroom projects was to have my students FOIA college coaching contracts, some of the easiest and fastest records to obtain. 

The exercise often introduced students to open record requests, and always yielded interesting results, either in the content of the contracts or the responses from the universities. 

We’d compare the tennis coach’s salary to the football coaches, or look over housing and automobile allowances. Licensing deals were always a huge eye-opener.

That exercise was front of mind for me last week when I dove into Project C’s Top 50 Creator Model Journalists, where I found Extra Points, a resource I dearly wish I’d had when I was trying to help our sports media students navigate collegiate athletics. (Exhibit A: College Sports Business 101 — The basics for how the business of college sports works.)

I think this top 50 list has a lot of potential for you to get a sense of where entrepreneurial journalism is headed, and maybe find some additional teaching resources. 

It’s also incredibly helpful to consider how the creator journalism model may potentially impact us as educators.

This list includes creators with millions of followers and some with just a few thousand. You’ll see some familiar names, and hopefully discover some new favorites.

I recognize that this one is a doozy of a rabbit hole, and I try not to saddle you with too much extra research. But I couldn’t help spotlight it for potential plane reading on your way to AEJMC this week in San Francisco. 

See you there?

Headlines

A conservative group FOIAed syllabi and classroom materials from 70 courses at UNC. 

OpenAI launched Study Mode for ChatGPT, which the company touted as a tutor for college students — it won’t give answers directly, instead prompting students to think more deeply about the topic. The MIT Technology review thinks this maybe isn’t the greatest thing, while the company claims it will help close the gap for those who can’t afford private tutoring.

If you want to nerd out about this stuff, here’s a really good deep dive from The Neuron: WTF is going on with AI and education?

A Guess model was generated by AI. Should Vogue have rejected the ad?

Looks like New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani was a student journalist — a columnist for the Bowdoin Orient in Brunswick, Maine.

Here’s a thoughtful piece from a foreign exchange student about their decision to write for a campus newspaper. 

Nieman Lab has been doing something interesting: issuing a list of the most-read local newspapers and nonprofit news organizations. Public media is next.

Everyone was all abuzz last week about The 'Media Capitulation Index,’ where media thinkers ranked news doers on their cowardice or bravery in the face of pressure from the Trump administration.

Classroom possibilities

A reporter for NBC News covered the aftermath of the flood that devastated his hometown in the Texas Hill Country. Discussion idea: Humanizing the news vs. conflicts of interest in covering something so personal. 

Student opportunities

There’s still time to apply for ProPublica’s Emerging Reporters Program, which will provide $9,000 stipends, mentoring, and a trip to a journalism conference to five students who work or want to work at college journalism outlets. Applications are due Aug. 18 at 9 a.m. Eastern.

Comminternships on LinkedIn, maintained by Steven Chappell at Northwest Missouri State, is a good follow for entry-level journalism jobs.

Feedback

This week, I’m headed to San Francisco for my first-ever AEJMC conference. I hear it’s very similar to a Vegas bachelor party, so I have really high expectations. 😉

I plan on attending each morning’s coffee DIG IT. I’ll wear my white LA Dodgers ball cap to make it easy to find me — here’s hoping I don’t get jumped by any Giants fans. Please come by and say hi!

If you can’t be in San Francisco but you want to know more about how I can potentially help kick-start your fall, book a free 30-minute consultation  or you can email me at [email protected] anytime. 

Have a stellar week!