Aug. 14, 2014
COLUMBIA, Mo. – The University of Missouri's Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute (RJI) and Mizzou Athletics announced that they will release an iPhone and iPad application specifically designed for fans attending Tiger Football games at Memorial Stadium/Faurot Field this fall.
Created by Mizzou graduates Malory Ensor, Jared Jeffries, Clare Murphy and Annie Trout as part of their Capstone coursework, the application is a low bandwidth application that allows fans to receive, retweet and share social media messages from designated Mizzou Athletics Twitter accounts, while also providing parking and in-stadium amenity information when inside Memorial Stadium.
Talks between Mizzou Athletics and RJI began last July. The application research, design and wireframe began last fall by the four students; RJI's Tyten Teegarden built the application during the spring semester. The application was first tested at the Mizzou Spring Game and will be completed later this month after a mapping of Memorial Stadium's newly expanded east side. The application will be available for free to Tiger fans one week before the Aug. 30 season-opener against South Dakota State.
"Offering new services and experiences to our fans is vital, but when you have four talented students like Malory, Jared, Clare and Annie take the reins on a project and help us create our first in-house game day application, it's incredibly exciting and fits with our trend of collaborative campus efforts," Director of Athletics Mike Alden said. "The possibilities around this application are very exciting and I'm anxious to see how it can develop in the future."
RJI Executive Director Randy Picht said the task was a good demonstration project for RJI.
"This project is a perfect example of the kind of projects that news organizations increasingly think about every day: how do you use technology and news and information to engage and interact with a specific audience."
The application was designed to help build community among fans while attending Tiger Football games. Fans are able to share their tailgating and in-game locations with friends and family through the app regardless of the recipient's cell phone operating system. While the initial release will be iOS only, future plans for an Android release are in the works.
"We'll be listening to feedback and watching what's new in mobile technology to add features that meaningfully impact fans' experience on game day," said Teegarden, lead developer and lab manager of the Microsoft Application Development Lab at RJI.
"I think this was a great partnership and if schedules and projects align in the future for this app or other projects, RJI will be very excited to work with the Athletic Department again," said Picht.
Collaborative efforts between Mizzou Athletics and campus are nothing new. Last year Mizzou Athletics worked with Missouri School of Journalism Associate Professor Cynthia Frisby and her class on a strategic communications initiative to better communicate with current and future MU students. Mizzou Network coursework is offered within the School of Journalism and the Department of Communication. Athletics has also been highly involved with the MBA program on campus. The program has helped assess Mizzou Athletics' economic impact to the city of Columbia and the state over the past five years.
About Mizzou Athletics
For the latest information on Mizzou Athletics, be sure to visit MUTigers.com and follow the Tigers on Twitter (@mutigersdotcom).
About the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute
The Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute works with citizens, journalists and researchers to strengthen democracy through better journalism. RJI seeks out the most exciting new ideas, tests them with real-world experiments, uses social science research to assess their effectiveness and delivers solutions that citizens and journalists can put to use in their own communities.