Monday, April 21, 2008

FAMU Students Launch Web Site to Cover the Panhandle’s Legislature News

Your Capitol Bureau, a student-staffed news service, has launched its Web site with legislative news for Panhandle counties.

Your Capitol Bureau covers the Legislature for 19 non-daily newspapers and seven radio stations in 11 North Florida counties. The 8-year-old bureau launched its Web site this month: www.northwestfloridaonline.com/index.php/FAMU_capitol_bureau/.

The Web site is hosted by WMBB-TV, Panama City, and was designed by the station’s Web master, Gene Hilsheimer. The TV station’s reporters can mine the bureau’s Web site for ideas for stories to broadcast on WMMB news.

“The Internet is a great source of leads,” said Hilsheimer. “What starts out as rumor on the Internet may turn out to have legs. In this way, a news staff can be more effective watchdogs on state government.”

WMBB and the bureau share audiences in five counties: Jackson, Calhoun, Liberty, Franklin and Gulf. The bureau also reports on the Legislature for Suwannee, Leon, Gadsden, Jefferson, Madison and Hamilton counties.

The WMBB partnership with the bureau was initiated by Bureau Chief Gale Workman, a FAMU journalism professor.

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