Anthony Adornato, assistant professor of journalism, is teaching students how to incorporate new media into their journalism. Last May, Adornato was named to Nerdscholar’s “40 Under 40: Professors Who Inspire” list.

Q: How do you teach students to use their mobile devices to be better journalists?

A: Technology has made it easier to gather information, like videos and photos, and then publish from the field in an instant. That’s exactly what my students will be doing. Over the course of the semester, we’ll go out in the community and create four or five stories using mobile devices.

Q: Is “real” TV news—the stuff happening at city hall and during school board meetings that may actually have a direct impact on viewers—being replaced with social media content?

A: To some extent social media is exciting—it’s a new way of engaging the audience—but we have to be careful about dumbing down the news. Just because something is trending on social media and people are talking about it doesn’t mean that it should be the top story of the day. There are plenty of things out there that people aren’t talking about that they need to know about.

Q: If you had a crystal ball, what would you predict for the future of journalism and social media?

A: The big thing now is Google Glass. If you put Glass on, you have a front-eye-view of a scene unfolding, so this could this be used as part of the news gathering process.

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