UC Berkeley lecturer Eric Simons and Tiffany Neely go over topics to cover with senior lecturer Bob  Calo (center). Photo by Alejandra Bayardo of the Chronicle.

The Chronicle this morning has a story about a UC-Berkeley Journalism program that sends students out to cover the gritty city of Richmond for a semester. The students, 18 of them this year, will write stories for the website Richmond Confidential. They cover everything from crime to city government, from features to sports. A fan is Police Chief Richard Magnus, who told the Chronicle: “The challenge we face as a city government is that people’s views of Richmond are still formed by the images portrayed in mainstream media, which only comes here to cover a notorious crime or scandal. I think the (Richmond) Confidential really gets out a lot of stories about the interesting things going on, but not just in feel-good stories. They are doing some very strong and tough journalism.”