Category: Capstone Updates

Based on my original proposal and the feedback I received during the proposal defense meeting that happened this past Monday, here’s an updated list of my planned deliverables for this project:

1. Summaries and analysis of stakeholder interviews (2-5 pages)
2. Summaries and analysis of design thinking sessions (2-5 pages)
3. Any and all mockups along with notes about how they were presented and received (2-3 pages)
4. Software packages via links to GitHub repositories or zip file attachments, along with summaries of what each major software tool or library does (3 pages)
5. Summaries and analysis of usability and user experience testing sessions (3-5 pages)
6. Links to published open source software for re-use by other communities (1 page)
7. A video walkthrough or presentation that visually shows what has been built and how it might be useful to other communities
8. A written review of the project and our collaboration from Simon Galperin (1-2 pages)
9. Project summary and discussion (2 pages)

Here’s the abstract from my capstone project proposal:

The availability of comprehensive, representative sources of local news remains core to a community’s level of civic engagement, whether in local politics and elections, community improvement efforts, or general public life. While many business models for gathering, producing and publishing local news are evolving, and some succeeding, they still often have significant gaps, whether in efficient use of already available community information, inclusiveness of diverse voices and perspectives, or financial sustainability and the model’s repeatability or scalability.

I propose to explore one of these new models and the intersections of local journalism, software publishing tools, civic engagement and improving diversity and inclusion by combining my studies in the Ball State Journalism program with my skills and experience in web software application development to research and contribute improvements to an existing community news service. By doing this I anticipate not only helping that news service to thrive, but also to help establish a template and methodology that could be repeated in other communities where a sustainable local news model is still missing.

You can read the full proposal here (December 17, 2021 version. PDF).

This website is dedicated to my creative capstone project happening during the Spring and Summer terms of 2022 as a part of my graduate studies in journalism at Ball State University.

I’ll use this site to post information about the capstone project, updates and progress along the way, as well as related notes and links related to the topics being explored in the project.

Some posts that contain sensitive information may require a password for access; contact Chris for that information.