About the Project

The Team

The “West Virginia Uncovered” project was created to cultivate online innovation and storytelling among the Mountain State’s community newspapers.

Since Fall 2008, faculty and students from the WVU P.I. Reed School of Journalism have crisscrossed the back roads and small towns of West Virginia, finding untold stories and providing training for more than a dozen weekly newspapers. Supported by grants from private foundations, the project is about helping small papers adapt their product to reach an online audience.

Mary Kay McFarland, project coordinator and former multimedia editor for The Charleston Gazette, teaches a class in which students produce multimedia packages that run on the rural papers’ Web sites. These packages can include a mixture of audio, video, text, photos and interactive graphics. The partnership gives rural, weekly newspapers multimedia content and the opportunity to learn multimedia skills, and students benefit from working with seasoned reporters and editors.

Several times each semester, the project staff conducts workshops for the community journalists on subjects ranging from video production to creating and selling online advertisements.

Project staffers include a web designer, a VISTA volunteer, graduate students and other faculty members. The team has undertaken a special research initiative involving one of the partner newspapers, The Parsons Advocate. Assistant Professor Dana Coester led the effort to create a mobile phone application for Parsons Advocate readers, and other staffers are working with local schools to identify and train citizen journalists for the papers.

The project’s training program has expanded from its original multimedia focus to include topics such as citizen journalism, online revenue sources and increasing online interactivity.

Archived Website


Our Sponsors

  • The Ford Foundation

    The Ford Foundation in New York City provided a $100,000, 18-month grant in 2009.

  • Benedum Foundation

    Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation in Pittsburgh, Pa., provided an $85,000, one-year grant in 2009. In 2010 the Foundation provided an additional $105,000, two-year grant for the support of the project.

  • mccormick

    The McCormick Foundation in Chicago, Ill., provided an $85,000, two-year grant in 2009.

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Welcome!

The West Virginia Uncovered project was created to cultivate online innovation and storytelling among the Mountain State’s community newspapers. Since fall 2008, faculty and students from the WVU P.I. Reed School of Journalism have crisscrossed the back roads and small towns of West Virginia to find untold stories and provide training for a dozen weekly newspapers.

To find out more about the project, check out
the About page.

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Faces of the Mine

West Virginia Uncovered students have been working for two semesters to build a memorial website for the community affected by the Upper Big Branch mining disaster that occurred April 5, 2010. The disaster claimed the lives of 29 miners. The site is a digital meeting place for members of the community to gather and remember their loved ones.

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Recording Tools and Techniques

On Oct. 23, West Virginia Uncovered hosted a Multimedia Reporting Workshop "Sound and Slideshows." Bill Kuykendall, a West Virginia native and multimedia professor from the University of Maine, talked about techniques for good audio reporting.

The second session, "Recording Tools and Techniques," is featured to the left.

View this Blog post >>





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Students
  • Chelsi Baker

    Chelsi Baker

    Quick Facts

    Hometown: Morgantown, W. Va.
    Status: Senior
    Major: Visual Journalism

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  • Donald Butcher

    Donald Butcher

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    Hometown: St. Marys, W. Va.
    Status: Senior
    Major: Broadcast News

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  • Preston Hartman

    Preston Hartman

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    Hometown: Keyser, W. Va.
    Status: Junior
    Major: Broadcast News

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  • Melanie Hoffman

    Melanie Hoffman

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    Hometown: McMurray, PA
    Status: Senior
    Major: Print Journalism

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  • Summer Ko

    Summer Ko

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    Hometown: Foshan, Guangdong, China
    Status: Junior
    Major: Journalism

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  • Matt Murphy

    Matt R. Murphy

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    Hometown: Cumberland, Md.
    Status: First-year graduate student
    Major: Journalism

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  • Matt S. Murphy

    Matt S. Murphy

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    Hometown: Centreville, Va.
    Status: Senior
    Major: Visual Journalism

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  • Candace Nelson

    Candace Nelson

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    Hometown: Wellsburg, W. Va.
    Status: First-year graduate student
    Major: Journalism

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  • Mary Power

    Mary Power

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    Hometown: Albany, NY
    Status: Senior
    Major: Broadcast News

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  • Cody Wiegand

    Cody Wiegand

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    Hometown: Pittsburgh, PA
    Status: Senior
    Major: Visual Journalism

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  • Sara Wise

    Sara Wise

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    Hometown: Point Pleasant, W. Va.
    Status: Senior
    Major: Visual Journalism

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  • Sabrina_Zhao

    Sabrina Zhao

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    Hometown: Sichuan Province, China
    Status: Junior
    Major: Journalism

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