Philadelphia Neighborhoods – What is it?

Philadelphia Neighborhoods is a publication of the Multimedia Urban Reporting Lab at Temple University.

What’s the concept?

Becoming a journalist is an active process, not just passive consumption of course material. Temple University journalism students work in a newsroom setting where they participate in all aspects of news production: print, broadcast, Web and digital media. Students experience newsgathering, production and dissemination of news, in a converged media environment, where they can experiment with new ways of telling stories.

What’s the mission?

MURL is the cornerstone of the Department of Journalism’s mission to better tell stories in the under-covered and under-served neighborhoods of Philadelphia. Students tell the stories that represent the diverse voices of the multicultural and multinational Philadelphia neighborhoods. Each semester MURL students concentrate their news coverage in a targeted Philadelphia neighborhood, and then service it with topical information and service news from the community–issues from the school lunch and the missing stop signs–to the people who seek to maintain a livable community. This MURL brand of news provides a form of hyper-local coverage missing from our urban communities: journalism street by street.

The influences of 21st century media demand a new kind of journalism professional who can efficiently and effectively translate stories across the converging media platforms. Increasingly stories are re-purposed over a content spiral from print to broadcast to Web site to digital media and so on. As technological change drives the way news is presented and consumed, multi-dimensional news reporting over multiple platforms will likely be the norm. Future journalists will have to be competent in writing, reporting and producing news across media platforms, while maintaining the traditional journalism values of accuracy, balance and fairness. We believe MURL can better prepare students.

MURL would like to thank Thomas Petner, the first director of the program, for the work he did in providing the foundation for future journalists.

Faculty

Christopher Harper
Co-director, MURL
Associate Professor

Department of Journalism
Annenberg Hall Room 313
2020 N. 13th St.
Philadelphia, PA 19122
Phone: 215-204-5474
E-mail: charper@temple.edu

Linn Washington
Co-director, MURL

Director, News-Editorial sequence
Department of Journalism
Annenberg Hall Room 333
2020 N. 13th St.
Philadelphia, PA 19122
Phone: 215-204-2033
E-mail: lwashing@temple.edu