Reflections’ NewsArk project is now afloat

Back to the future

Looking to the future as well as the past is a good way of explaining this year’s strategy at McKenzie River Reflections. Helping flesh out those viewpoints are two classes at the University of Oregon.

The Journalism Department’s strategic communication class, made up of upperclass and graduate students, will use standard research tools to both examine the way this newspaper  uses different platforms to reach our audience, as well as creating solutions that will help us improve.

They can also determine the best campaign for social media, create client lists and see how similar organizations are promoting their projects. “This is an outgrowth of our recent crowdfunding project that showed there is real community support for what we’re doing here at the paper,” according to co-publisher Ken Engelman. “Like many other small community papers around the country, we’re serious about doing the best job possible but are limited in the man hours we can allocate. This partnership is really going to give us a boost.”

Focusing on archival material is another group of graduate students from the Folklife Program at the university. They were already on the job this week, setting up interviews with area residents. Those sessions, including both oral and video recordings will result in articles about McKenzie River area history that will be printed in upcoming newspaper articles and as part of a new book.  “That publication will flesh out some of the important contributions to the culture of the Pacific Northwest that people in our local communities can truly be proud of,” Engelman said.

Image above: Journalism students at the University of Oregon have taken on a number of client organizations to study during the 2014 winter term. McKenzie River Reflections is among the group of clients that are the focus of communication research conducted to help them define and improve their business strategies.