Seattle University’s Spectator reported about a week ago that the service, which is free for college newspapers, temporarily suspended its print operations. It’s Web site, which is currently down, stopped updating headlines and sending out daily news e-mails earlier this month. It’s Twitter feed hasn’t been updated since Oct. 9.
U-Wire is basically the student equivalent of the Associated Press, giving its more than 800 member publications access to reprint stories from other college media outlets.
TheSpectator got this from U-Wire’s general manager, Tom Orr:
“U-Wire has temporarily suspended its print wire operations. The company is in the process of trying to get the wire relaunched as quickly as possible and when more information is available it will be made public.”
Here’s what Joe Weasel, co-founder and CEO of Palestra.net — U-Wire’s new owner, had to say about changes in the company during a March interview with College Media Matters:
“[W]e’re trying to find an outlet and find the mechanism whereby students can get even more engaged in not only print and text but digital journalism. We’re trying to get students as much exposure as possible…”
By now, we’ve all grown uncomfortably accustomed to hazy circumstances surrounding media companies in the midst of “difficulties.” While details are still scant, let’s hope most of their problems are indeed technical.
Otherwise, what does this mean for those more than 800 outlets who utilized U-Wire content? My take on it is as page counts continue to shrink, college outlets should become less reliant on wires like the AP and U-Wire to fill their pages.
Though at times necessary, wire content , often placed on pages for a “filler,” is becoming increasingly less valuable to audiences who turn to college media for localized coverage that they can’t get anywhere else. Outlets should turn to their staff to produce original content, rather than rely on U-Wire stories that may not be as worthwhile to readers.
So how does U-Wire fit into a more localized news equation? It look’s like we’ll have to wait and see.
Logan Aimone, director of ACP/NSPA, led a live chat for the Poynter Institute about teaching moderating online comments, a topic that comes up about every six months or so. There was some great discussion in the chat, which is archived here: How Do I Teach Online Comment Moderation?
And it’s hardly a new development that news has moved increasingly online and most newspapers have delved — or at least dabbled — in the world of video and audio. But how has this transition translated in the journalism classroom? More specifically, have the lines finally blurred between traditional broadcast, print and visual concentrations?
Maybe not just yet, but the barriers that used to exist have fallen, said Terry Eiler, a professor at Ohio University’s School of Visual Communication. Eiler works with the university’s multimedia graduate program, which blends different journalistic disciplines and focuses on interactive media.
“At the core of the curriculum is the ability to learn,” Eiler said. “It would make no sense to teach Quark when in a few years you’re going to be using InDesign. You don’t teach a software package — you teach the ability to learn.”
Traditional journalism concentrations may fade as curriculum embraces multimedia, but students will always have an area of focus, Eiler said.
“I think it will be a mix up,” Eiler said. “You’re going to have your traditional journalistic elements, you’re going to learn to take a picture, you’re going to learn HTML. It’s a challenge. There are a whole lot of things to to teach. But there’s been trade-offs — you don’t have to teach typesetting anymore.”
Like OU, the University of Missouri broke new media ground a few years ago by offering a degree in convergence journalism. I spoke with the program’s chair Lynda Kraxberger in an e-mail interview, where she discussed the merging of different journalistic backgrounds and the value of visual story telling.
How does the university’s convergence program differ from a traditional journalism concentration? How could a student benefit from enrolling in the program?
In convergence journalism students have an opportunity to learn multiple methods of telling stories rather than words alone. Students learn how to tell stories for traditional media, radio, television and print, as well as photojournalism techniques. Then, they learn how the different tools can help them tell stories using new information delivery platforms. (ie: live blogging, cell phones)
What prompted the University of Missouri to start a specific convergence program?
Our program launched in 2005 after a great deal of debate about how the World Wide Web (especially) was changing the media landscape. We observed some places that tried to overhaul their programs and weren’t sure if every student would necessarily want or need to be skilled across media platforms. The truth is it takes longer and students have to work harder to excel across media platforms. We wanted to provide this kind of program for some students while allowing others to continue to create in-depth specialties in one area.
Since the creation of the program, many more students and faculty now believe that all of our students should have some cross-platform experiences. I expect that change to come within the next two years. It’s difficult to implement however, when there are more than 800 incoming freshmen every year.
Are print, broadcast, photo and design academic concentrations becoming more intertwined in journalism education?
Absolutely. There are numerous areas where we cross into one another’s territories. The best thing we can do for our students is to provide guidance about what was (in the past) while allowing ourselves to be flexible about new methods of storytelling that may not be defined precisely by the old rules.
Do you think that at some point most university’s will merge their broadcast and print disciplines in favor of a single “converged” journalism major?
Good question. I really don’t know. Curriculum agendas in journalism schools are pushed and pulled so often by competing personalities and politics. There are still a lot of people who are afraid that they’ll lose something when it comes to change.
When people watch a video on YouTube or click on something that a friend suggests, they use a different filter and have a different set of rules than when they see something on a television network news program like CNN or FOX. Some of the standards are different for what we expect. Just like we teach students in an English program how to write for a variety of forms in poetry or informal essays—we need to look at the different forms that can be presented with still photography, interactive graphics and video.
So, I think it would be a good idea as a starting place to get more “word” people interested in visual storytelling. I also think it’s important to get talented visual storytellers cross-trained as writers capable of writing with some depth of content using correct AP Style.
"But when the authors call for collective action, watch out. What they’re talking about is using government. The only institutions that seem able to use government without being used are too-big-to-fail banks and military contractors; the rest of us fall into the inverse category. Journalists get government help at some peril." – Dan Gillmor on the Downie/Schudson report.
"Are photojournalists obsessed with "ruin porn"? Reporter Thomas Morton recently visited Detroit, where photographers have been flocking to take pictures of the city's decrepit factories and abandoned buildings. But Morton says these photos, which he calls ruin porn, paint a misleading picture of the city." Fascinating OTM from a few weeks back.
"American journalism is at a transformational moment, in which the era of dominant newspapers and influential network news divisions is rapidly giving way to one in which the gathering and distribution of news is more widely dispersed." – the original report Jarvis talks about.
"Just because newspapers put themselves at risk, it does not follow that journalism is at risk. Newspapers no longer own journalism." I would argue they never owned journalism to begin with. Jeff Jarvis rants.
So here goes. My first post as the new CICM intern – and it looks like I’ve got some big shoes to fill.
I’m Jenna, a senior (print) journalism major at Kent State University and veteran of KSU’s student media. I’m also an intern at the Huffington Post, where I’m spending my semester blogging in Washington DC.
Before I get too far into this, I have to confess — I’m not a techie. In fact, just a few years ago I probably would have told you I was happy to just to write. Well, that’s pretty much gone out the window.
Like many of you, I’m hoping to enter an industry that’s facing some pretty confounding problems. And that’s where I’d like this blog to come in. In place of the steady “We’re-all-doomed” drumbeat that most media reporting marches to, I’d like to shine a light on student media leaders who are making it work and breaking ground — coming up with innovative solutions to change this industry.
Think of it as a glass-half-full take on the future of media.
But I hope we’re all in this together. I said in my application essay that I hoped to foster a conversation amongst student media leaders, and I intend to do that.
I want to know what challenges you’re facing on a daily basis and what you’re doing to overcome them. I want to know how you’re using cutting-edge multimedia to engage your audience, how you’re organization is responding to declines in ad revenue or how you’re integrating social media into your reporting. I want to focus on your ideas, concerns and hopes for this industry. I’m excited for my run here as the CICM intern. And even more excited to hear your ideas!
So please, throughout the next few months feel free to contact me with your feedback. E-mail me at cicmintern@gmail.com and follow me on Twitter at @cicmintern.
Flickr photo Creative Commons licensed via adpowers
This was a very hard competition to judge, but Jenna Staul is our new Intern. She should be posting a welcome message later today, and we look forward to her contributions to the site. For those who didn’t win, we encourage you to come back and apply again. I wish I had the money to fund all of our applicants.
"This leaves a big gap in a what is a widely consumed market. Mashable reports: "In August, more than 161 million viewers watched an average of 157 videos per viewer, according to data from the comScore Video Metrix service. A whopping 81.6 percent of the total US Internet audience viewed online video and the average online video viewer saw 9.7 hours of video in August."
Alright, as I promised, you the faithful readers of the ICM weblog get to have some input into the intern application process. Here is a list of the intern applicants with their application essays. You get a vote, but you don’t get to see the vote (because I’m trying to be cognizant of the applicants’ feelings) and the final decision still rests with the CICM leadership. Poll is at the bottom of this post. So here goes – in no particular order:
Jenna Staul – Kent State University (Click the link to read her essay)
Sarah Wyland, University of Tennessee – Knoxville
Essay:
As someone who is interested in online journalism, I believe I would have a lot to offer Center for Innovation in College Media. Some ideas I have for the CICM site include even more utilization social media such as Twitter and Facebook and including more photographic material by using sites such as Flickr, as well as blog posts on new ideas in media I gather from both my studies and my experiences. I am an avid user of Twitter and Facebook and also use Publish2 for my website, www.countrymusicnewstoday.com so I feel like I have a lot of knowledge on social media.
The University of Tennessee offers me many opportunities to learn more about what is happening in the media industry, particularly the movement towards online content. I would like to blog about the information I learn not only from attending panel discussions offered by Tennessee’s journalism program but also about information from my classes. For example, I am currently enrolled in a class on online journalism and the information I am learning is brand new in the media world, something I feel would be beneficial to other college students entering the media field. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) was a recent topic we discussed and that is not a topic that is widely taught to my knowledge – this class was the first I heard of it.
Podcasting and audio slide shows are two particular areas I am interested in working with. Ideas I have for podcasts include, again, topics from classes and panels, but also information I find. I am often the first in my circle of friends to find and try new media and I have recently discovered some new sites I would love to share with others.
I would really like the opportunity to work with CICM. I believe that I not only have a lot to offer but have a lot to learn. This would be an excellent opportunity for me to develop my skills as an online journalist and I appreciate the chance to apply for this internship.
Lance Conzett, Belmont University
Essay:
The problem with many industry blogs is that they’re on the outside looking in. Because I’m currently the editor, and have previously been the online editor, of a student newspaper, I can discuss the issues affecting college media because I’m constantly having that conversation with faculty advisors, fellow journalists and practically anyone else who will listen. We’re dealing with how to manage an online product with a print product, how to engage an audience, how to promote multimedia use and creative storytelling without burning out writers, and countless other factors on a daily basis. Granted, the paper that we work on is small, but it doesn’t matter what size the media outlet is—we’re all having the same problems. I think that being able to bring those conversations to the blog would help ground discussions of innovation.
In addition to accounts of what we’re doing as a student media group (successes and failures), I’d be happy to continue to share new media innovations and how they can be applied in a campus setting. For instance, I just ran across Vuvox today and am trying to figure out how it could perhaps be used for future stories. I have no problems with using the newspaper I edit as a Petri dish for cutting edge technologies; I would be doing it anyway except with the CICM internship, I’ll be able to share the results with the blog’s audience.
Ryan Thomas, Bridgewater State College
Essay:
I can contribute my passion for the media-based arts to the website with my particular bent for being rather skeptical about what headlines the mainstream music industry. I support human-based music consisting of manually operated instruments (as well as the talent behind such) and strongly believe the industry, currently geared and advertized as being more visually appealing than sonically, is losing its authenticism by the wheel-barrow full(if it had any to begin with). But more so lately, good-sounding music seems to be pushed with forceful intent to the back burner (I defy Rolling Stone labeling Lil’ Wayne, in his shamefully unironic cover issue, as a musical genius, alongside every other hack dubbed as such by their excessively loose- lipped editorial staff). I would like to provide the dissenting voice of the lesser heard and underappreciated listener of rock that need not rely on heavy gimmickry and adherence to popular conformity.
I am an active spectator when it comes to keeping up with entertainment news (especially in music); I like to know what I’m consuming should I decide to slug down everything the entertainment industry excretes at the same rate as my gluttonous college peers (I typically don’t have so competitive an appetite). As a guitarist and writer, I am prone to such an obsession. I seek quality in every detail. I, hence, am actively involved with media on a daily basis from a dichotomous perspective: as auteur and voyeur.
I would like to be an intern for your website as it appeals to my interest in such matters and developments associated with media technology, and experience is in no short demand as I bait myself before an over-stuffed job market. I keep up with and am familiar with most contemporary platforms for online interaction (Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, Blogger, etc.) as a 21-year-old senior at Bridgewater State College and English Major; I realize my interest in journalism, especially in these modern times of economic depravity, requires me to be so tech-savvy for fear of the newspaper’s mortality. Thanks for the consideration.
or college newspapers, temporarily suspended its print operations. It’s Web site, which is currently down, stopped updating headlines and sending out daily news e-mails earlier this month. It’s Twitter feed hasn’t been updated since Oct. 9.
Logan Aimone, director of ACP/NSPA, led a live chat for the Poynter Institute about teaching moderating online comments, a topic that comes up about every six months or so. There was some great discussion in the chat, which is archived here: 
