PROFESSOR
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BIO
Gretchen Macchiarella is the publisher and faculty adviser for The Sundial at California State University, Northridge. Prior to joining CSUN, she was the managing editor for digital at the Ventura County Star, where she held several position over a decade. She also worked as a business reporter for several years around California.
She earned a master’s degree in digital journalism and design from the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg, and a bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she spent most of her time working at the newspaper.
OVERVIEW OF COURSES
Journalism in paractice
NEWSPAPER PRACTICUM
This course has become more about digital media than newsprint, but still encompasses the full range of the skills required in the current media landscape. The first course, 397B, moves from ledes and nutgraphs through data journalism and crowd sourcing. This is supported with one-on-one coaching and small group conversations. Editors and staff writers meet regularly with me and one another as part of the 397A course. This provides time for story generation and multiplatform critiques.
DIGITAL MEDIA ENTREPRENEURSHIP
I was the professor for 495 -Digital Media Entreprenueship Spring 2017, which allowed me to take a class through the innovation process of the Business Model Canvas and introduce Design Thinking. The concepts are also to members of The Sundial's entrepreneurship team, which rolls out new projects for the organization. I have also been part of of a national community of practice working to better understand innovation and disruption for media educators.
DATA JOURNALISM
I was the professor for J495 -New Media Fall 2017 covering the areas of journalism from data to digital publishing. How the data is connected to the full publishing process is central to presentation. Students learned where to find data, how to create visualizations, support numbers with narrative and then produce a comprehensive site. The elements of data journalism are used all the time for special projects and investigations in The Sundial.