About Tampa Bay Media Watch Project
Caitlin Reagan, editor & Web designer
Xiaopeng Wang, faculty adviser
News media are facing incredible challenges with the advent of new media. Nationwide studies report newspapers are laying off staff, cutting budgets and even closing out business. The Tampa Bay Media Watch Project aims to investigate how local, community and minority media deal with the challenges in the Tampa Bay area.
In the Media Convergence class, fall 2009, five graduate students from the University of South Florida St. Petersburg's Journalism and Media Studies Department selected local news media organizations to examine the current state and challenges the organizations face under the converging media environment. The following reports came from this class project, covering four local newspapers and one radio station. We hope our efforts can contribute to the ongoing discussions about the changing news media industry.
Fall 2009 Issue
The State and Challenges of the Orlando Sentinel
by Myra Stringfellow
Examining Media Convergence at the St. Petersburg Times
by Sylvia Lim
WUSF Public Broadcasting
by Chris Rish
Media Convergence at Creative Loafing Tampa
by Manny Carrasco
Media Convergence at Hernando Today
by Fred Moutran