Here’s the question we tried to answer: Can journalism and communications schools help shape the next generation of media entrepreneurs?
Along with the Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, MediaShift produced its third annual Journalism School Hackathon from Oct. 21 to Oct. 23 in Athens, Ga. The event, focused on fact-checking and verification, allowed participants to create startups in one of four threads: social media, photos, video or data.
The winner of the Hackathon was a group of students who pitched Veridex, an app that verifies user-generated content.
Here’s a round-up of photos, feedback and a Storify to share the highlights of the event. If we missed anything, let us know and we’ll update the post.
Coverage
Taking on the Challenge of Verification at the J-School Hackathon in Georgia, by Katy Culver
3rd Annual J-School Hackathon info page at Grady College
3rd Annual J-School Hackathon info page at MediaShift
Photos
Feedback
“I had a blast! Saturday was definitely a very long day, but it was worth it and I learned a ton. I was very fortunate to have a wonderful team. I now believe that I could create a startup of my own. I was a little lost before this event.” -Jeremy Shermak, University of Texas
“I greatly liked the Hackathon experience. It forced me to be creative and practical at the same time. Two mindsets which will be crucial for innovating the media landscape. -Keion Pitts, University of Georgia
“I really enjoyed the weekend and I do think we had just enough time to do what we needed to do, but I think it should have been clearer how much of a time commitment this was going to be. I couldn’t find the full schedule until a few days before and was kind of shocked as to how long we were supposed to be there that weekend.” -Reann Huber
“The periods of being shut in rooms without windows were far too long. And there was not any time for visitors to go explore the city. I think that critically hindered our brain power.”
“As a facilitator – sometimes it felt like the floating facilitator and I were leading my team in different directions, so it would have been good to know that we were on the same page before we started.”