ABC News has chosen The UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication as one of five university programs in the U.S. that will open a mini-bureau for ABC News on Campus in September.

The division will provide students with an opportunity to report on local stories and produce multimedia content for various digital and broadcast formats, including "Good Morning America," "World News With Charles Gibson," abcnews.com and ABC News Radio. ABC News will provide "state of the art" digital technology for reporting and production.

"These college digital bureaus will extend the newsgathering reach of ABC News throughout the country," ABC News President David Westin said in a news release. Westin went on to say that the program would "nurture bright young journalism students."

John Green, executive producer of special programming and development at ABC News, says the program will give ABC News a chance to help "groom some of the best budding journalists at these schools, and get to know them."

Green says that when he was considering which schools should be involved in the project, he wanted to focus on those that offered broad programs that encompassed all aspects of modern journalism, and UNC met his criteria.

"I had long heard that UNC-Chapel Hill had a great journalism program," Green says. "One of the things that I did when we got the funding for the project was I went to the Carnegie Foundation in New York City, and I spoke to the president -- because I really wanted a recommendation from someone that was working full time in academia -- to give me some advice on programs that were really excelling right now."

Each mini-bureau will include student staffers who will be paid by ABC News, and supervised and vetted by ABC News and a faculty member appointed by the university.

UNC's faculty liaison for the project is assistant professor David Cupp, who teaches electronic journalism, writing for the electronic media, and voice and diction.

Five students have been chosen as paid staffers: Jennifer Carpenter, Walter Storholt, Wilson Andrews, Zachary Ferriola-Bruckenstein and Carly Swain.

Swain, a 21-year-old junior (soon to be a rising senior), will be campus bureau chief. Swain is an anchor and director at UNC's student-news TV program "Carolina Week."

"Of course, we're trying to pull from all over the campus and get everybody involved in this," she says. "Being part of a pilot program with a big network like this is really exciting."

The other four universities participating in the program are Arizona State University, Syracuse University, University of Florida and University of Texas at Austin.

'NC Spin' hits 500

Sunday's upcoming edition of "NC Spin" will celebrate a milestone with its 500th episode.

The half-hour news/talk show, created and moderated by Tom Campbell, is scheduled to mark the anniversary with some business as usual.

According to Campbell, the show's panel on Sunday will discuss the return session of the North Carolina legislature.

That's not to say the show's anniversary will be ignored. Many regular panelists will reminisce about the most memorable episodes, and the impact the program has made on North Carolina politics.

Campbell produces "NC Spin" independently and distributes it statewide. It's the longest-running public affairs show on the Triangle's commercial stations.

"NC Spin" is modeled after PBS's "The McLaughlin Group," but without all the yelling. Regular panelists include former Attorney General Rufus Edmisten, NC Policy Watch executive director Chris Fitzsimon and former Raleigh Mayor Tom Fetzer.

"NC Spin" airs in the Triangle at 6;30 a.m. Sunday on WRAL-TV and WRAL-DT, and 8:30 a.m. Sunday on WRAZ-TV. It can also be seen on WRAL NewsChannel (Time Warner Cable channel 256 and analog channel 5.2) at 6 p.m. Tuesday, 6:30 p.m. Thursday, and 3:30 a.m., 4 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Sunday.