About

Pressville was produced by students in “A Journey in Journalism,” a Carleton College class taught in the fall of 2009 by visiting professor and veteran journalist Doug McGill.  First taught in the fall of 2008, the class expanded in 2009 to include a full-time reporting component in addition to a focus on the ethics and challenges of modern journalism.

Pressville features stories by 22 student reporters who made the Northfield community the focus of their writing. Through first-hand interactions with community members, we both expanded our own awareness of our temporary hometown and contributed to Northfield’s active news climate.

Between October and December 2009, Pressville published 68 stories and 33 reader comments. During that period, the Northfield News newspaper published ten articles originally published on Pressville.

The mission of the class was to apply traditional journalistic values, including an emphasis on transparency, verification and context, to the evolving field of online journalism. We strived to provide reliable and in-depth news reporting at a time when speed and brevity increasingly dominate the news arena.

As students of journalism, we welcomed conversations with and suggestions from our readers, who are Northfield’s real community experts.

The Pressville site is now closed to new stories and comments but may re-open later in 2010.