Reznet

Meet The Magpie

By Michael Beaumont

CROW AGENCY, Mont.—Students at Little Big Horn College have collaborated with reznet to create and publish The Magpie, an online student newspaper of the Crow tribal college.

The Magpie signals a new direction for reznet, the online newspaper that publishes daily stories and photos of 20 paid Native American college students around the country. With the launch of The Magpie, reznet will offer to help other tribal colleges to start up online school newspapers, reznet project director Denny McAuliffe said.

Reznet will create, operate and publish the tribal college newspapers on the reznet Web site, and even provide the newspaper staff with a digital camera to facilitate publication of photos, McAuliffe said.

Potential newspaper advisers at tribal colleges should call McAuliffe at 406-243-2191 or email him at dmcauliffe@reznetnews.org; or contact Faith Price, reznet's tribal college newspaper designer, at fprice@reznetnews.org.

Reservation high schools, or those with large enrollments of Native Americans, also are invited to publish their online newspapers on reznet, McAuliffe said.

Schools need not have printed newspapers to launch online versions on reznet, McAuliffe said. In fact, most of the 31 tribal colleges do not have newspapers. The Magpie is the first school newspaper at Little Big Horn College since one issue of a publication called Smoke Signals was printed about four years ago.

The Magpie can be viewed from the "Projects" tab in the upper-right corner of the reznet homepage.

Named by the Students

Reznet is edited by McAuliffe at the University of Montana School of Journalism in Missoula,
and the Web site is housed and maintained at the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education in Oakland, Calif. The reznet project is funded by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Carrie McCleary, The Magpie newspaper adviser and a communication arts professor at Little Big Horn College, contacted McAuliffe about her students' interest in starting a school newspaper. The two came up with the idea of hosting the paper on reznet and providing the students with a reznet digital camera.

The Magpie, named by the students, meets McCleary's and McAuliffe's main objectives: The newspaper serves the college and the local community, exposes students to the possibilities of a journalism career, and avoids prohibitive printing and distribution costs, a primary reason why most tribal colleges do not have school newspapers.

"Most students at (Little Big Horn College) are Web-oriented anyway" McCleary said. "There is adequate Internet access here."

Price, a Wampanoag who graduated from the University of Montana last year with a master's degree in journalism, designed the site and will serve as the webmaster for The Magpie and other tribal college newspapers on reznet.

"This is the very first Web site I'm doing (for reznet)," Price said. "My master's project was to develop an online news Web site, and The Magpie is sort of my guinea pig." In fact, Price designed a prototype for reznet as part of her master's thesis.

Price said she plans to attend the American Indian Higher Education Consortium conference in Fargo, N.D., "to spread the word about the site" among tribal college students and teachers at the annual AIHEC gathering.

McCleary said the online format is based partly on the preliminary nature of the project and on price concerns—as well as the uncertain response from readers.

With a Web site, "the amount of copy doesn't matter because it can be posted until new material is available," she said. Future plans include a print copy of student-written stories, as well as contributions from faculty and community members.

Lack of Native Journalists

The tribal colleges' lack of school newspapers and journalism classes is a reason often cited by McAuliffe for the lack of Native American journalists. According to the annual census of daily newspapers by the American Society of Newspaper Editors, there are only about 300 Native journalists out of more than 56,000 editors, reporters, photographers and designers.

Earlier in February, reznet started an online journalism course at the University of Montana School of Journalism taught by Professor Michael Downs. Ten students from eight tribal colleges in six states are taking the course.

"They don't have to make journalism their career," McCleary said of her newspaper students. "It's something they can fall back on. But we would really like to see more Native people in the newsroom."

Magpie reporter Samuel M. Bird In Ground sees the paper as an opportunity for exposure.

"I can address issues we have as students," he said. "I've decided that one of my minors is going to be journalism."

Seven students are enrolled in the class, meeting Wednesday evenings. Contributions to the paper are welcome, including guest editorials, reviews and reactions. Anyone with announcements or questions can reach The Magpie staff at lbhc_magpie@hotmail.com
.

Magpie student reporters plan to cover local sports, community events and issues concerning the college and the Crow Tribe.

"[They] will start to get the instincts of where they're going," McCleary said. "And hopefully write and write and write."

Michael Beaumont, Crow, attends Little Big Horn College in Crow Agency, Mont. He is a staff writer for The Magpie.