Profiles of nursing-home residents by student-run Georgia weekly illustrate a bedrock community-journalism principle

Excerpt from the Echo's recent package

The Oglethorpe Echo in Macon County, Georgia, recently published a package featuring seniors at a local nursing home, with a photo and a paragraph with interesting tidbits from their lives. It's a powerful and simple but original idea that illustrates a basic principle of community journalism: People are interested in people, and in reading about them. 

Former Echo visual journalist and University of Georgia journalism student Julia Walkup interviewed and photographed the seniors earlier this year as part of a UGA photojournalism weekend workshop that encourages students to capture in-depth portraits of community members. 

UGA students and faculty have staffed the Echo since last fall, when local resident Dink NeSmith, retired co-owner of a community newspaper chain, kept the owner from closing the 148-year-old weekly by turning it into a non-profit and getting the university involved.