An immersive learning program combining the talents of Ball State graphics students and non-profit news organization Circle of Blue released a new multimedia project highlighting how China's water supply cannot support the country's demand for energy.
The collaborative efforts began this past Fall Semester, and after George & Frances Ball professor of multimedia Jennifer Palilonis applied for additional grant funding, the class was able to continue onto the next project — Choke Point China.
With the publications of Circle of Blue's first article of the 12 part series, Ball State students spent hours analyzing, sketching and designing complex information graphics, including interactive maps on areas in China the news organization studied.
The relationship with Circle of Blue began after Palilonis met with J. Carl Ganter, co-director and co-founder of Circle of Blue, at the Poynter Institute 10 years ago.
After that, they began working together on what they called the biggest story of the decade — water scarcity.
The class is organized in four teams of five students. Each team has a student leader to guide the group through the entire project, from the first idea to the final webpage.
Palilonis said teamwork is essential to the success of the program, not only with Ball State and Circle of Blue, but also between the students in the class.
"All four team leaders are seniors about to graduate, who have internships under their belt and in student media. Then there are four other students that range from sophomores to seniors and it is a neat collaboration because the students with more experience can coach the others. Every team member is learning more about graphics," she said.
Ganter said understanding complex issues surrounding water storage is difficult, and with the talents of Ball State graphics students they hope to easily present the collision of water and energy effectively.
"We are working with Ball State students daily to build maps, interactive graphics, charts, taking complicated data from China and other sources and making it visual and understandable," Ganter said. "They are creating a map about the challenges and resources in China and making it come alive."
The information is not only shared on circleofblue.com, but also with influential policy makers around the nation and internationally, something Palilonis said she finds most valuable.
"It's an opportunity to work with talented journalists and get real world experience that you can't replicate in a regular classroom setting. This is an opportunity for the students to have their work seen on an international stage, to report on an important topic and explore what the water and energy implications are for the economy policy and for the future of the world. It's a heavy-duty story, they are not only getting to cover it but with Circle of Blue it's really cool," she said.
Circle of Blue recently found that rapid economic growth, water scarcity and increasing energy demand could halt the modernization of China, the largest industrialized country in the world.
Ganter said with the combined talents of Ball State and Circle of Blue, water scarcity will be on the forefront of vital issues facing everyone.
"For so long, many of the big issues whether environment, economy or water flow have been locked in white papers and research papers," Ganter said. "It is our goal and role as journalists to liberate that data, make it come alive and make it understandable for the public and policy makers. They will be making incredibly important decisions and they need to be informed… for the future of the world."
INFO:
What is Circle of Blue?
Circle of Blue is the leading new science and data organization reporting on water issues around the world. They have been able to build a solid expertise on the biggest story of the decade— fresh water.
For more information visit circleofblue.com or http://cms.bsu.edu/Academics/CollegesandDepartments/Journalism/ActivitiesandOpportunities/ImmersiveOpps.aspx
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