! This is an archived version of this website, and is no longer up to date. The current site is here: MTSU JOURNALISM
Class Projects
Reporting Road Trips
Each summer, Leon Alligood’s feature writing class goes on the road for three weeks, spending one week in each of the state’s three regions, East, Middle and West Tennessee. In the summer of 2016, the class visited Martin, McMinnville and Cleveland, and the students did reporting in partnership with the Weakely County Press, the Martin Southern Standard, and the McMinnville Daily Banner.
In the summer of 2015, the class visited McKenzie in West Tennessee, Hartsville and Lebanon in Middle Tennessee and Gatlinburg in East Tennessee. The class had partnerships with local newspapers in the West (the McKenzie Banner) and Middle regions (the Hartsville Vidette and the Lebanon Democrat).
The Road Trip is funded by the Seigenthaler Chair of Excellence in First Amendment Studies.
Fall 2014
This iTunes app was produced by a special projects class led by associate professor Leslie Haines and professional in residence Val Hoeppner. The app is an interactive exploration of the MTSU Center for Popular Music, which is housed in the College of Media and Entertainment. The students inolved in the project were Caleb Baldree, Margaret Blakemore, Emily Ford, Gracie Robinson, Tina Shang and Katie Smith.
Developing this app for CPM was truly a team effort. All content, writing, video, video editing, photography, design, and production was shared among the entire team, with each student touching every part of the app creation process. The students came from various majors in the College — advertising, visual communication, new media, and public relations — and the mix of skill sets served to enhance the creation process. They were required to collaborate and work independently, putting in many hours outside of class time, and all students rose to the challenge. The purchase of iPads and camera/video equipment used for the class was made possible by an MTSU ITD technology grant.
The app won third place in the 2015 AEJMC Best of Web/Best of Digital competition in the individual/team/single class app category.
Spring 2014
A project covering sustainable residential building practices. VCOM student Jordan Kennedy designed and coded most of the site, which is responsive and includes interactive and animated elements compatible with mobile devices. Associate professor Philip Loubere created animations and other graphics for the site, and Jordan and Philip did the research, which included interviewing local builders, and produced all content.
Fall 2012
A project covering the nine congressional districts in Tennessee. The website covers all candidates for the 2012 election, financial data such as in-state and out-of-state PAC and individual donations, positions on key issues, and demographics of the districts. The site was researched and produced by an advanced VCOM class.
Visit the Tennessee Congresswatch Website.
Fall 2010
Fortress Rosecrans is an historic monument in Murfreesboro, where once stood the largest fort built during the Civil War. This interactive project was originally researched by Floris Moriceau, a student in the visual communication sequence, and then designed and illustrated by assistant professor Phil Loubere, with Floris doing the coding using Javascript.
The purpose of the project was, in part, to create an open source-coded interactive graphic without any Flash or other proprietary elements. This project is fully functional on any device, including Apple iPhones and iPads, without the need of a plugin.
Spring 2010
One-year remembrance of the Good Friday tornado that hit Murfreesboro on April 10, 2009. The project was originally proposed by associate professor Ken Blake. Students from a reporting class team-taught by assistant professors Leon Alligood and Jennifer Woodard (EMC) interviewed survivors of the tornado. The students prepared their stories in a variety of media, from text to soundslides to audio files.
Assistant professor Phil Loubere then created the multimedia online project with the help of one of his students, Floris Moriceau. This interactive graphic is also created without proprietary code, and will play on any device.
A print version of the graphic ran in the Murfreesboro newspaper, the Daily News Journal, along with six of the students’ stories, and the project was promoted and linked to from the paper’s website.
Student Websites
Portfolio websites designed and coded by Journalism students in the Visual Communication concentration, led by associate professor Philip Loubere:
Fall 2016
Kaleb Gonyea
Garrett McCaleb
Kristina Odom
Sabrina Tyson2010-2015
Bethany Linton
Jordan Kennedy
Justin Threlkeld
Chris Dyer
Anna Farmer
Sara Monroe
Bethany Harris Middle Tennessee State University, a Tennessee Board of Regents institution
1301 East Main Street, Murfreesboro, TN 37132-0001 USA +1.615.898.2300
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