Last week, Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service editor Sharon McGowan visited the #loweclass #digital classroom to introduce us students to the website. The website originally covered three Milwaukee city neighborhoods, covering more than just the crime that seemed to find its way into the major news outlets. Now, the news service covers fifteen neighborhoods. 

McGowan came into the class because we will be doing a story through the Milwaukee NNS. Milwaukee NNS has been working with Marquette, as the website is run out of Johnston Hall. McGowan told our class that while companies are sources for news service, they are not partners. They are not their personal PR service, but rather report on solutions that these companies come up with.

Because of their work so far, the Milwaukee NNS has won the regional Edward R. Murrow Award for 2012. This award is awarded for excellence in electronic journalism. To Milwaukeee NNS's credit, the majority of the writers for the service are professional writers who have come out of journalism schools in the Milwaukee area. 

"No matter what field you enter, you need to know how to write," McGowan said. 

Milwaukee NNS uses a variety of writing and multi-media. In class, McGowan showed a video about two Milwaukee women who were creating concerts to raise money for the community. Stories of improving the community, rather than the negative stories the larger media covers, is the goal of Milwaukee NNS.

Milwaukee NNS is a news service that uses a variety of professional and undergraduate students to write stories that include print, by-lines, and multimedia. Stories can range from the crime that the big news sources covers, to what people in the community are doing to correct these problems. I am looking forward to what story I will cover, and how the final product will look. 



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