USC at the Democratic convention

Despite the dungeon-like conditions in the basement of the Coliseum, the University of South Carolina j-school is a fun place to work. (And that's supposed to change in a few years anyhow - the dungeon that is.)

But I couldn't be prouder today to work here because of what we are doing for our senior semester multimedia/print and broadcast students at the Democratic National Convention.

Led by faculty member Sid Bedingfield, we've managed to get almost two-dozen students in Charlotte hooked up with internships at places like AP, CNN, the National Journal, the Charlotte Observer and Time-Warner Cable's all-news channels.

The administration here has sprung for hotel rooms for them for the week, along with transit passes.

This is how we try to give our students the best, most rounded experience possible.

We don't have specific "multimedia journalism" courses - and that's kept us off some of the "prestige" lists tracking multimedia programs. Meh. We just integrate it into everything we do, plus we have The Convergence Newsletter (free subscription), the annual Convergence Conference (later this month; I hope you've registered) and Newsplex.*

If you want a reason to come to a fine journalism school, the DNC effort is just one more.

*That we're not always especially good at tooting our horn is, sometimes, unfortunate, however. Go to our Web page today and you won't see a thing about the DNC on it. I'm sure we'll follow up, but as we all know in these digital days, being out in front is important.

9/7: We now have a full story up.