Photo: Pup working on the website with his human, Manuel Hernandez
“The class is digital editing, and I decided: What could be more practical than actually developing and building a website, complete with real stories?” said Donald Munro, a lecturer in the Department of Media, Communications and Journalism (MCJ).
The Bulldog Pup Culture website is Fresno State students’ take on everything pop culture. Created by Munro’s fall 2021 Digital Editing class (MCJ 104), students decided the theme and the coverage to be mainly focused on music, fashion, video games, movies/streaming, health and campus life.
For students in the MCJ 104 class, the website was their final project. They each managed section themes as editors, and assigned Munro’s Media Writing class (MCJ 2) students to cover stories as reporters.
“My students were passionate about those subjects, which is a great quality in an editor,” Munro said. “They were responsible for assigning story ideas, working with reporters, editing copy, writing headlines, fact-checking and learning the latest version of WordPress to put it all together.”
Manuel Hernandez is the managing editor of the project. He is double majoring in MCJ digital journalism and communication while serving as editor of the Collegian. He described the publication process, including how they all reviewed the stories.
“We all looked over the final drafts of each story, photos provided and photo captions. We also created the WordPress website, the look/design of the pages and inserted each story in its online sections,” Hernandez said.
Munro said MCJ 104 always had a website-related final project but this is the first time they turned the project into a mini-newsroom that incorporated two classes.
“This was a pretty hard assignment because I am not a tech whiz, and managing dozens of students can be tiring,” Hernandez said. “It was worth it, though, because I learned web design and how to deal with different types of reporters in a professional-like environment.”
By the end of the semester, the website featured 33 published stories, providing many students with their first bylines. The website will continue to be a training ground for the two courses.
The College of Arts and Humanities at Fresno State 