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A college media Thanksgiving

November 25, 2009 in College Media

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For our U.S. and Canadian readers, this is the week of Thanksgiving (Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving in October), when schools call a recess from the frantic pace of the semester to allow everyone to meet with their families and friends and overdose on various foodstuffs and enjoy watching games of skill and chance involving an oblong leather ball. There’s also some shopping involved.

But the principle meaning for the holiday is to stop from the bustle of life to reflect and give thanks or express gratitude for the blessings of the present day.

Given that charge, I’ve put down a list below of some of the things I’m thankful for about college media this holiday season. Feel free to add your own in the comments below. Happy Thanksgiving.

I’m thankful …

… for the Internet, and the challenges and opportunities it has brought to college media and the news media in general. Without it, we’d know a lot less than we do now – for good and for bad.

… for college media outlets that continue to produce journalists who provide some accountability to the powers that be on college campuses across the country.

… for Organizations that help protect the First Amendment rights of student journalists in high schools and colleges.

… for Organizations that protect college advisers from undue and unwarranted threats from administrators who don’t want to see the student media do its job.

…for Organizations (like ACP/NSPA and JEA) that help provide training and recognition for student journalists beyond what can be given on many campuses.

… for Journalism departments that work closely with student media outlets and support a truly student-run college media experience (especially my own department at Eastern Illinois).

… for Organizations that think outside the box and help provide student media with more options and technical skills for their online presences.

… that there have been no massive layoffs (that I know of) at any college media outlet in the U.S.

… for college journalists who are shifting to a web-first mind-set in publishing news, trying new ideas and overcoming old print/broadcast/web silos.

… for college media outlets that are continuing to find piecemeal solutions to the business model conundrum.

… that part of my academic career is watching college media change before my eyes, and seeing the successful collegiate online journalists of today move forward and succeed in their careers.

… that I can be a blogger AND a journalist, and for four years (as of October, 2009) of blogging about college media and the online world.

… for Chris Carroll and Ralph Braseth, who have been integral to this effort (the CICM and the ICM weblog) from day one.

… for the many colleagues (advisers and professors) who have listened, challenged my assumptions and offered ideas and inspiration as we’ve had this conversation about the future of college journalism.

Every so often I tend to get a little bit pessimistic about The Future of Journalism, possibly because we (collectively: academics, journalists and business folk) tend to circle the same topics every 6-12 months like dogs eating our own vomit. But it’s helpful to take a step back and see how far we’ve come.

We’ve come a long way from where we were four years ago (YouTube was a new service at that time. Nobody had heard of Twitter because it didn’t exist). We’re not where we are going yet, but we’re farther along the track, and we’ll get to The Future mostly intact, I believe.

I’m reminded of a quote from Douglas Adams (author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy):

I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.

That’s the list as it stands now. What are you thankful for?

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Lessons from last month’s Online Pacemakers

November 20, 2009 in industry news

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Photo by Flickr user cole24 used with Creative Commons permission.

I spent some time talking to winners of last month’s Pacemaker online awards to get their take on what makes a effective Web news outlet. If there was any consensus among these three student media leaders (the other two interviews from KentNewsNet and IowaStateDaily.com will be posted next week) it was that coordination is key to making it all work.

The Daily Kansan. Editor Brenna Hawley. Univ. of Kansas, Lawrence, Kan.

Hawley said a multimedia course at the University of Kansas is helping prepare print students to engage in multimedia reporting and has led to the incorporation of Google maps and Flash graphics into Kansan.com.  She advises student media outlets looking to step up their online presence to institute staggering deadlines — the Kansan hired additional copy editors to keep up with the increased workload.

Hawley said the paper still grapples with getting newer staff members in tune with the ’round-the-clock pace of the Kansan. “A big struggle is getting newer reporters to meet a Web deadline as opposed to just their regular print deadline.”

The Oklahoma Daily. Senior Online Editor, LeighAnne Manwarren. Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman, Okla.

Manwarren said OU’s football culture pushed the OUDaily.com to step up its Web presence, including regular updates and expanded multimedia coverage to keep its audience engaged during gametime.

“We have a multimedia staff who’s fabulous,” Manwarren said. “I feel proud of the whole Web site. It’s total experiment.”

The paper has also created special pages, tailored for the big news coverage that matters most to OU students, including a page for a student who died 5 years ago from alcohol poisoning.

“Our papers were sold out, but we could say, well, go check out the Web site for coverage,” Manwarren said.

dennews.com. Editor In Chief, Tyler Angelo. Eastern Illinois Univ., Charleston, Ill.

“It should be about working together,” Angelo said. “Knowing what’s going on ahead of time so that everyone’s on the same page.”

Angelo said the day-to-day upkeep of DenNews.Com is what he’s most proud of: Regular Web updates and the incorporation of photo, video and podcasts — as well as weekly meetings between staffs — have made the site stand out.

Angelo said the paper includes a page 2 tease to the Web site, which drives readers used to reading their news in print to the online edition.

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Stuff I’ve been reading

November 19, 2009 in industry news

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I’ll be traveling for a few days, so likely won’t be updating much over the Thanksgiving holiday. In the meantime, here are some things I’ve been reading that you might find interesting. I usually do these with a social bookmarking service (Publish2), but this is a little more personal, so here goes:

Post a vulgar comment at work, lose your job: Stltoday social media director Kurt Greenbaum turned over an IP address to a school after a commenter posted a vulgar comment. The reaction has been mostly negative. This is one of those ethical dilemmas you can use as a case study in a class.

Don’t give up on online video yet: Regina McCombs summarizes some of the challenges and opportunities about doing online video at a news site. The jury’s still out, as she says, but that’s no reason to stop producing video.

Top 50 Free Open Courseware Classes for Journalists: Journalism Journeyman links to a list of a lot of tutorials and training modules. I’ve used some of them in classes before, and it’s hit or miss. Try them out and see if they help.

University-Based Reporting Could Keep Journalism Alive: Michael Schudson and Leonard Downie make the case that underpaid students can keep investigative journalism alive. Cheap labor is a great argument for saving a pillar of democracy, guys.

17 Jaw-dropping infographics and data visualization: Sean Blanda’s list of cool ways to look at data.

TypePad Micro: TypePad is a paid platform run on Movable Type blogging software. Micro is a free part of the service that attempts to reach into the waters occupied by Posterous and Tumblr. Check it out.

The shutdown of UWire and its implications for college media: A post I wrote for MediaShift about the closure of the college wire service. (Okay, I’m not actually reading it, but you should)

I’m going to be spending a lot of time over the next few weeks (when I’m not teaching and doing other stuff) looking into online advertising and college media, as the topic seems to come up frequently. I hope to have some results of my exploration to share soon. In the meantime, Happy Thanksgiving!

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InsideVandy basketball previews

November 17, 2009 in showcase

vandywomens

via Twitter, @katherinemiller points to a couple of basketball season previews from InsideVandy that are worth noting for their multimedia prowess. Check out the men’s and women’s previews. If you click on a player’s photo, you get an audio breakdown of the player’s strengths, along with a breakout box of pertinent stats. The design is clean, the navigation simple, and the topic worth the effort.

playerA couple of minor issues: if you click on the players, you get audio that starts automatically, which is kind of annoying. Better to let the user decide to click the play button and hear the audio (see my rant about ESPN’s annoying auto-play here).

Also, there’s no advertising on the page. I would think this would be the type of multimedia project that would be relatively easy to sell to an advertiser. So why no ads? With revenue streams so important, the news side and the ad side need to work together more closely on big multimedia projects like this to maximize the revenue potential.

Also, there are no credits on the page. I know from talking to Chris Carroll that at least four students (including Katherine Miller) worked on the project. It would be nice to see their names somewhere on the page to give them credit, especially as they start looking for jobs in the future.

Still, a good example for others to look at and learn from for future seasonal sports previews. Any other examples you’d care to share? Drop a link in the comments.

vandymens

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Future of News grapples with journalism’s future

November 16, 2009 in hope for the future

fonAmerican Public Media and Minnesota Public Radio are sponsoring a meeting focused on the Future of News. You can watch a live stream here.

From the intro:

The decline of journalism in America is reaching the point of crisis. Newsrooms around the nation are shrinking while the need for high-quality, objective news, information, analysis and insight has never been greater.

The Future of News summit is an interactive day-long discussion that will define the role regional organizations play in the solution to the news crisis. Local, regional and national leaders—in journalism, commercial and public media, government, business and philanthropy—will contemplate the design of a new model for regional journalism and a path to restoring the independent and robust fourth estate America requires.

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Summer multimedia travel opportunity

November 16, 2009 in Educational opportunities

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Rachele Kanigel at San Francisco State U. passes along the following multimedia opportunity. See details below the fold.

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STLToday looking for spring, summer interns

November 10, 2009 in internships

stltoday

Via Will Sullivan, STLToday/St. Louis Post-Dispatch is looking for PAID spring and summer interns. The description is below the fold. NOTE: The Journerdist wants you to be sure to understand that all print resumes and clips will be recycled, so show your multimedia/online skills for this one. Deadline is Nov. 28.

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Roanoke.com and National Geographic looking for interns

November 9, 2009 in internships

Carole Tarrant passes along news about a paid online internship at the Roanoke Times/Roanoke.com. Check it out if you’re soon to be graduating. You can also e-mail her at carole.tarrant -at- roanoke.com.

Also, National Geographic is looking for two summer interns. Details are below the fold.

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Coming off the page: Finances forces UW-Parkside’s Ranger News into online-only format

November 9, 2009 in industry news

rangernews

The Journal Times in Racine County, Wisc. reports that financial hardships at one local college newspaper forced its staff to think Web-first in a very big way.

The Ranger News, the weekly student newspaper for the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, has folded its print operation and now runs exclusively online.

The News’ editor in chief, Jo Kirst, said growing financial pressures — the paper spent $22,000 a year to print 30 issues — led the paper to cease printing.

Even in an era of mounting difficulties for newspapers, few collegiate papers have gone the route of The News and moved exclusively online.

From the Journal Times:

“It just got to be too expensive,” Kirst said.

The Ranger News‘ decision isn’t typical among college papers, Logan Aimone, executive director of the Associated Collegiate Press in Minneapolis.

…

“I’ve only heard of maybe two or three campuses that have done that, and in every case it’s because of budget,” Aimone said.

Kirst told the Journal Times that she misses “being covered in ink” and “smelling like newspaper.” Now the task for the paper is to re-direct its readers to its new Web site The Ranger News.com.

Though Kirst and her staff  had an unenviable studentmedia decision to make, freed money and time resources could allow the paper to reinvent itself in a big way, perhaps setting an example for other college papers who follow suit.

“Hopefully by the end of the semester we’ll be completely marketed on campus,” she said.

So what do you think about the The Ranger News’ online transformation? And how can it successfully market itself to move its readers online?

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Google Wave first impressions

November 3, 2009 in industry news, software, Tech Talk

Wave - e-mail for the 21st century, or something

Wave - e-mail for the 21st century, or something

As part of my duty as the self-appointed new software guinea pig for college media, I was able to finagle an invitation to Google Wave from Andrew Spittle, one of the CoPress team (@andrewspittle on Twitter) and check out this “revolutionary” tool. There were a couple of sessions at the National College Media Convention about Wave, but I was presenting during those times, so I missed them.

Anyway, I’ve been using Wave for about half a day now, and I’m a little underwhelmed. For a good overview of some of the potential of Wave, this ReadWriteWeb review is a pretty good introduction. I won’t go into all the boring details, except to say that it takes some getting used to, and I’m not exactly collaborating on anything right now, so most of the uses are lost on me at the moment.

I can, however, see potential for the software as a collaboration tool on stories and projects. I’ve been a big proponent of using Google Docs to share documents between writers and editors, and this seems to take that to another level.

But at the moment, the nomenclature (Robots, Extensions and Gadgets) is confusing, and figuring out how to get those Robots and Gadgets to work in a Wave is frustrating.

Wave doesn’t easily interact with other services like Twitter or even gmail or Google Reader (at least that I could figure out so far – I’ll be messing with this program for a few days, at least, so I’ll update if it becomes easier or I bump my head and get enlightened). If Wave were a place where I could see my traditional e-mail and Google Reader items, along with the real-time collaboration tools, I could see it as a perfect landing spot. Perhaps that’s the eventual goal, and I’m sure there are probably tools that will add those features. But it’s still early in the development.

I guess I’m so used to the ease-of-use of gmail and the reader that I forgot how confusing a new paradigm could be (although I remember Orkut, another Google product that was difficult to understand and use when it first came out).

My advice for college journalists is to try to get some invites and experiment with Wave as a newsroom collaboration tool. But be prepared to spend at least a couple of hours poking around to figure it out.

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