The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that upstart student blogs are challenging their more established newsaper counterparts.
The article takes a look at how fledgling blogs at many universities are causing headaches for campus broadsheets — scooping stories, attracting online readers, and not to mention wooing advertisers.
From the Chonicle:
… (Student blogs) are challenging student newspapers in Web hits, says Daniel R. Reimold, a visiting assistant professor of journalism at Nanyang Technological University, in Singapore, who studied nearly a dozen online student news outlets for a 2008 College Media Review article. Readers devour these sites. College officials fret over them. And competitors carp about their edgy methods, which sometimes include a publish-it-now-correct-it-later approach to campus rumors.
Davis Shaver, a sophomore at Penn State, scoops the 200-staffed Daily Collegian, from the comfort of his PSU dorm room with his blog Onward State, which has a staff of 20 and touts itself as “one of the quickest and most informative places for Penn State students, faculty, staff and alumni to find the news that matters most to them.”
The article also discusses the success of NYU Local, a blog launched by senior journalism major Cody Brown and the more established North by Northwestern, founded in 2006.
This is not a universally applauded procedure. Rossilynne Skena, editor in chief of the Collegian, reads Onward State daily and says the competition makes her paper better. But she holds her staff to traditional standards like avoiding anonymous sources, preventing reporters from covering groups to which they belong, and vetting information before printing it.
“Bloggers can post anything,” she says, and they easily retract errors. “For us, getting something wrong is very egregious.”
Maybe so, but campus newspapers could take a few cues from their Web counterparts. As the Chronicle points out, few student blogs survive their founders’ graduation, but it’s certain that campus newspapers aren’t used to the competition. That competition could be what’s needed to help campus media thrive.
Friday night, journalist and author Jan Wong spoke as the keynoter at the Canadian University Press conference. Her talk was about 10 rules for getting the story, but she also talked about her battle with depression. It was a powerful presentation, and below are the basics of her talk. There was a student who recorded the entire speech and is posting it online (UPDATE: Here’s the official CUP newsletter review by David Johnston). As soon as I can find it, I’ll post a link to it as well. Wong is a former reporter for the Wall Street Journal and the Globe & Mail in Toronto.
Newsrooms are very darwinian places, you either sink or you swim:
Do stuff you don’t know anything about and you don’t like that much, because it’s good for you.
If you do something you’re not interested in because you’re forced to do it, it becomes interesting.
Fired from the Globe & Mail: there was a school shooting in 2006. Dawson College
I think in a democracy, it’s okay to attack a reporter, but you don’t attack a family. They went after my father, and they called him a criminal.
Who cares if Harper doesn’t like you? It’s a badge of honor in our business.
But the newspaper didn’t support me. The paper said you can not talk about this.
I think that people all over the world fight for freedom of speech, freedom of the press. This is the business that we’re in.
When you stand up for something you believe in, there are always consequences. And you have to make a decision.
Top 10 rules of getting the story
1. Push yourself – get out of your comfort zone. If you don’t know anything about sports. Go figure it out. You ought to push yourself, because noone else will. In the newsroom, there’s a culture of low expectations. Why should you bother? Because we live in a democracy. We need journalists.
Corollary: Scare yourself every day. Because one of the best drugs for journalists is adrenaline. Think of boldness as a muscle. Everybody has a boldness muscle.
2. Is there anything that you won’t do? Try not to break the law. Be careful if you do.
3. Push people to talk to you. Get out there and nail them. Don’t just put that cheap little line in your stories.
4. Don’t worry about asking a stupid question. Always ask a stupid question. Push people to talk to you on the record.
5. Always as at least one question where there is no good answer.
6. Everything is a story. Always be on.
7. Break down barriers any way you can. Your goal as a journalist is to get people to open up and reveal themselves.
8. It’s not over until it’s over.
9. Fight for time and resources. The more time you have, the more you can worth and report.
Popular news and blogging site The Huffington Post has announced it will launch a college news vertical on Feb. 15, tentatively. The vertical will feature aggregated news from college media as well as student blogs, according to Adam Clark Estes, citizen journalism editor for theHuffington Post.
Estes said the news aggregator could help fill the void left by Uwire’s sudden shutdown last year.
“Considering Uwire went under there’s kind of a whole to fill there,” Estes said. ” In general, we’re as interested in curating news as we are curating a conversation around the news.”
The HuffPost is currently reaching out to college newspapers around the country, to build a partnership with publications. In exchange for offering content, student media would place a widget on their Web site listing top stories from the section.
Leah Finnegan, former editor of the Daily Texan, is currently in the process of contacting newspapers about the HuffPost partnership and Estes described the response so far as “overwhelmingly positive.”
“I think it’s a really good opportunity for us to get a hold of the national student voice,” Estes said.
I interned at the Huffington Post’s Washington DC bureau during the fall 2009 semester, and, in my opinion, this is a fantastic opportunity for college media outlets. Most university newspapers see relatively low online readership numbers with only a few thousand unique readers monthly at best. The Huffington Post draws millions of unique readers each month, which could provide not only a national platform for many student reporters but also a modest boost in online readers for college news organizations.
In short, having your story linked to on the Huffington Post or any big news aggregator can translate into increased traffic for your site.
And though clearly I’m biased, I agree with Estes — The Huffington Post’s expertise is not only curating news but fostering thoughtful conversations around it. To me, that’s the point of new media.
Of course, not everyone shares my enthusiasm.
A very lively debate on the Huffington Post’s move into the college media world took place on a Jan. 10 #collegeJourn chat, with several student journalists expressing concern about the site’s new vertical.
Cody Brown, an NYU journalism major and founder of the NYU Local blog and adviser for CoPress, said student media outlets should stay out of a partnership with the Huffington Post.
“It’s hard to understand but the Huffington Post has a kind of excitement around it outside of NYC,” Brown said in a G-Chat interview. “It’s a popular Web site. It generates insane traffic because of SEO and these college publishers probably think that being associated with it will put them in the same light. It won’t.
“Going into a partnership with the Huffington Post where they can absorb your best stories into their feed, will effectively put a giant-green checkpoint between potential readers and your story.”
Suzanne Yada, online editor of the Spartan Daily at San Jose State University, said she is still unsure if a partnership with the Huffington Post would be a boon for student newspapers, adding that the site is often perceived as being partisan.
“I’m still on the fence about it, ” Yada said. “I’m a little skeptical about putting that badge — the widget on the Web site. Other than hits and bragging rights, I feel like it could be a more beneficial relationship fo The Huffington Post than the college newspaper.”
Again, I would have to say I respectfully disagree. The Huffington Post’s status as a leading online news source could provide college reporters with the spotlight they deserve.
As you probably already know, Haiti suffered a devastating 7.0 earthquake on Jan. 12. You can find some pretty comprehensive information about relief efforts at this Washington Post list. If you have some money to spare, there are some people who could put it to good use.
Off to Edmonton! This afternoon, I’ll be heading to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada to speak at the Canadian University Press Conference. You can find out more about the conference at the link above. I’ll be speaking about blogging, social media, and adding interactivity to a web presence. And, I’ll get to participate in a panel discussion with Matthew Ingram and others. I’m looking forward to it. You can follow the discussion on Twitter. I’ll post a hashtag at @cicm when I find out what it is.
Now to the links.
Here comes another edition of links you probably should check out. Most are culled from my RSS reader, with my commentary on why they should be read. I used to do this using automation via delicious.com, but that method was a little too impersonal for my old-fogey blogging ways. Let me know if you like these posts and I’ll try to keep doing them. Otherwise, I can just post links the more automated way.
In the Spotlight: College Fashion Founder Zephyr Basine – Dan Reimold interviews a college student who started a blog about college fashion that has become a hit and lead the student to make money off the deal. Pretty sweet, right? Read the interview for more details, and notice some of the keys to making a hobby into a career start.
“I created College Fashion in March of 2007 because I loved reading fashion blogs but couldn’t find any that were aimed specifically at college students. All my favorite fashion sites and magazines catered either to middle-aged women or 16 year olds in high school. I started this website to fill that need. It began as a fun hobby but it’s grown into a full time job and then some!”
It reminds me a lot of Brian Stelter’s story. He started TVNewser while in college, and now works for the New York Times as a media beat reporter. There are still opportunities to do those kinds of “ground up” blog success stories. The key is to find a passion, make your site as unique as possible and stay committed.
There is no new revenue model for news – Robert Niles breaks down the facts about the economics of the news business. It’s eerie, because when I saw this article (recommended by Lauren Rabaino) in my RSS reader, I felt a sense of deja vu. Sure enough, I wrote almost the exact same thing in September, 2009:
Because the simple fact is this: there are no new business models for news. News is not entertainment, so there isn’t going to be an iTunes for news. The only possible models are these: advertiser-supported and reader-supported (through subscriptions or donations).
Niles breaks the model down into three component parts: direct purchases, advertising, and donations, which is a little more nuanced than my construct. Worth a read.
Why the designer holds the key to the future of journalism – Adam Westbrook challenges news outlets to break out of the mode of what you might call “advanced shovelware” – the content is more attuned to online, but the web sites themselves? Well, they sorta suck from a design standpoint.
But over the last few months I’ve come to a different conclusion: I don’t think we’re happy to pay for news on websites … because it doesn’t look very good.
Think about it: no matter what the story, subject, country, language or website a news story on a web page follows a visual formula. Usually a thin (400-700 pixel wide) central column with two or three thinner columns either side; a headline in big bold letters; the rest of the text in size 10 or 12; the odd sub heading if you’re lucky; and video or photographs squeezed inside the narrow column.
I don’t necessarily agree that people would pay for news if we just put it in a better dress or redecorated every day. But, like Pat Thornton’s post I linked to earlier, there seems to be a sense that news web sites need to do more to make themselves appealing through design. The problem is that design like that takes time and skill. And too many news outlets don’t have either. Thought-provoking.
Make Your Mockup in Markup – Web designers have usually used Photoshop or an image-editing program to make a sketch of their web page design before beginning the tedious task of coding in HTML/CSS. 24 Ways walks through the process of doing a mockup in HTML/CSS instead.
The real issue with using Photoshop for mockups is the expectations you’re setting for a client. When you send the client a static image of the design, you’re not giving them the whole picture — they can’t see how a fluid grid would function, how the design will look in a variety of browsers, basic interactions like :hover effects, or JavaScript behaviors. For more on the disadvantages to showing clients designs as images rather than websites, check out Andy Clarke’s Time to stop showing clients static design visuals.
News media and college students: A match made in heaven? – Mark Luckie writes about something I’ve been concerned about recently – the increasing coziness between big news media outlets and college journalism departments to do big journalism projects. The question that should concern journalists is whether these partnerships are actually exploiting cheap labor to do the stories the big companies aren’t willing to pay real salaries for.
It is worth noting that college journalism students are often bright and talented young journalists looking to hone their skills in an academic environment. Some students, especially those in graduate programs, often have substantial experience in the newsroom or have worked previously as a full-time journalist. The partnerships can benefit both the students who gain practical experience and news media who can expand the reach of the newsroom.
But are news organizations avoiding paying full or part-time reporters in favor of tapping the skills of students who only require academic credit rather than financial compensation? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
I don’t have a problem with students gaining real world experience. But I’ve also seen a trend toward the odious unpaid internship coming up. It’s really a shame that news organizations when willing or able to pay the people who are working for them. College students are in a uniquely vulnerable position in this regard. They need experience, and some will do most anything to get it. That means media companies can exploit that vulnerability instead of paying for services rendered with real cash.
Flickr photo Creative Commons licensed via adpowers
The pitch: How would you like to learn new media skills while having a positive impact on the college media environment? Join us for a semester of new media opportunity as the intern for the Center for Innovation in College Media for Fall 2009.
Who you are: A bright, dedicated college journalist who wants to help lead the discussion of how technology and online media can improve college media. Internship is open to international students as well (i.e., those outside the United States).
What you’ll do: Help maintain the Innovation in College Media weblog by producing relevant content that highlights what college media are doing in a changing media environment. The possibilities for editorial production are limited only by your imagination and energy. Some of the possibilities:
Podcast interviews with media movers and shakers.
Reviews of college media online initiatives.
Maps and databases of college media online sites.
Live video streams of conferences and/or interviews.
Round-ups of relevant new media writing.
And more.
Skills: Social media savvy (Twitter, friendfeed, etc.), video and audio (soundslides, mogulus or ustream), blogging (WordPress), college journalism (worked as a college journalist, familiar with college media environment).
Location: Wherever you are. I operate from Charleston, IL, Chris Carroll operates from Nashville, TN, but you can operate from anywhere you have a computer and Internet access.
Start/End Dates: Start date is Feb. 8. End date is end of May, 2010. Hours: As far as hours, it’s really open-ended. You can do some awesome work with minimal hours, or a lot of hours and a minimum of ROI (return on investment). Seriously, it’s all up to you. My goal is for you to succeed.
Pay: We don’t have a lot of money, but we can offer a $500 stipend and a heckuva recommendation letter from yours truly when you’ve finished the race. We’ll make a badge available as well that you can post on your blog or web site. About the site: ICM is part of the non-profit Center for Innovation in College Media, and is read by numerous college journalists, advisers, and industry folks.
How to apply: Send a copy of your resume and a 250-word essay (or post on your weblog or web site, even better) explaining what ideas you have for the site to me at scmurley@gmail.com. Include links to any multimedia you have produced in the past.
Be forewarned – I will be posting a poll for readers to vote on who is the best potential intern (results will be viewable only by me). However, the ultimate decision on the intern is made by the CICM directors. The winner’s name will be posted after they have been notified and accepted the internship.
Editor’s note: This is a re-post of something I wrote in 2007. I was following some referral logs yesterday, and came across a post by Len Witt about students who want to be great writers. We’ve had a lot of readers come and go in the past three years, so I wanted to repost this for our new readers. As far as I can tell, this is still reality. And be sure to follow the conversation in Len Witt’s subsequent post. The comments are actually civil and thought-provoking.
Meranda Watling posted a comment on an earlier post that I wanted to highlight:
I’ve heard peers say they didn’t get into journalism to blog, to take pictures, to come up with multimedia, to do whatever. They want to write. The other stuff “isn’t that someone else’s job?” or today, another reporter (23-yo recent grad) commented, “why don’t they just hire TV reporter to do the video?” *sigh* Me? I want to hand them a white towel and tell them to surrender now and get out before they get left behind.
I have a confession to make: I was one of those kids. When I was in college – John Tisdale, journalism professor at TCU can attest – I didn’t learn photography because “I want to be a writer.” I focused on editing, writing and gathering information. I neglected the business aspects of the news media. I diligently sent photo requests to the photo department in my first job.
But after I got out of college, I spent time working at a small-town newspaper, where I had to learn how to lay out pages using QuarkXpress. I learned how to take and develop photographs in a darkroom (back when we had to use film). I delivered the papers and collected the change from the racks, and drove the pages to the printer in another town 40 minutes away.
I didn’t do this because I was some kind of “new media guy,” but because it kept me employed. It paid the bills, and made the paper successful. I learned a valuable lesson then – the most versatile journalist has the most job security. It’s served me well over the ensuing years. When the FW Star-Telegram special sections manager wanted volunteers to learn HTML, I was the only one who signed up. When photography was transitioning from film to digital, I was learning all I could. When they needed someone to run the offset press during grad school, I raised my hand.
A wise professor in my Ph.D. program once remarked that the last words he would hear from an employee was “that’s not my job.” I think that’s the right mindset for journalists in the 21st century. It is your job, damnit. Stop acting like a prima donna. If you’re going to be part of the solution to the challenges facing journalism, then you’re going to have to learn to do some “extra” things. Is that going to suck at times? Sure. But you can either buck up and help save journalism or you can whine and join the ranks of the unemployed.
Print (or broadcast, for that matter) isn’t always the best way to tell a story. And that’s what it all boils down to: telling stories.
Updated content: Based on the subsequent discussion, I should qualify that being willing to expand your “toolkit” doesn’t mean you shouldn’t focus on one aspect of your skills. Be the best writer/photographer/designer you can be. But don’t be defined by your unwillingness to try and learn new skills.
Editor’s Note: I originally posted this on my personal weblog in August, 2008, but it remains relevant today, and so, with the beginning of a new year and – according to some – a new decade, I’m reposting it here with a few updates. Enjoy.
Hey, all. Here it is, your one-stop-shop for news media hand-wringing. No longer will you have to read countless bloggers, columnists and corporate journalism types weeping and wailing and gnashing their teeth over the state of the industry. Just print this post out, circle your preferred viewpoint, and bang, you’re set for the forseeable future! (and, btw, realize that this is snark. If you don’t realize what snark is, then please stop reading now)
Dear (Readers/ Investors /Advertisers /Anyone?)
The Internet is the (best/worst) thing to ever happen to newspapers. It is (killing/rejuvenating) the newspaper industry in ways we (always/never) imagined. Top editors and newspaper execs (are/are not) getting involved in (innovating/suffocating) our practices on this (new/old) way of doing things.
Our newspaper reporters are (gladly/grudgingly) seizing hold of new tools to (tell stories/waste time) and (attract/drive away) readers.
All of this is (because of/in spite of) the fact that newspaper readers (are leaving in droves/are dying off/are hanging around). Sure, the newspaper industry (looks bleak/looks to have a bright future), but the real work remains to be done by (mid-career journalists/new graduates) who (haven’t been laid off/haven’t found a job yet). Just remember to (keep a positive attitude/keep sending out resumes).
Some people say that “news is a conversation.” That’s why our newspaper web site (does/does not) allow comments. We feel that comments are (a great way to foster feedback/a way to allow trolls to feed at our trough). Honestly, comments are (a democratizing force/a chaotic pain in the neck).
And we should talk about bloggers. Bloggers (can do journalism/are pajama-clad wannabes) who (aid/frustrate) our efforts to provide quality journalism. We should (welcome/abhor) the efforts of these (citizen journalists/partisan hacks) who are (cutting into our credibility/adding to the democratic debate).
Many people ask: How can newspaper journalism be saved? Simple, really. Newspapers should (close their web sites/open their archives) and (allow/disallow) the news to flow freely. After all, journalists (are/are not) central to the democratic ideal.
What about the business model? We are (working on it/praying we reach retirement soon). While our profit margins are (high compared to other industries/in the tank compared to past performance), we feel we are (turning the corner/peering over the cliff) thanks to (craigslist/ google news/ blogs/ Internet distractions/).
We are, of course, experimenting with (video/blogs/comments/social networks/maps/flash/anything that will make a buck). We’ve purchased (many/a handful/okay, one) video camera(s) to give to our (reporters/photographers/a web guru) so that we can (showcase/bury) our efforts to do multimedia. We are committed to using (all/some/none) of our resources to help our staffers. The time they spend (capturing/outputting/producing/posting) multimedia, web-based content will (come out of their current hours/count as unpaid overtime/be another unrealized expense), all in the name of (quality/quantity/something we can sell to shareholders).
This year we’re (excited/nervous/apoplectic) about these “tablets” that are going to be introduced. We (love/hate) this new format. In fact, we’ve been (planning/ignoring/hoping it would go away) these form factors since (last year/last month/last week/this morning) after reading about them in the Wall Street Journal print edition. We know Steve Jobs is an innovative thinker, and we (hope he’ll save our industry/wish he’d go away/just pray he doesn’t treat us like he did the music industry).
Our mobile (strategy/blind grasping) is moving along (just fine/like the Titanic), and we hope to soon add (an iPhone app/Augmented Reality/ Something that our consultants tell us we need / a mobile version of our site) that will allow our readers to further (get the information they need/ignore us/ curse our technology).
In fact, our media properties plan to begin monetizing mobile content (next quarter /next year /someday / after the current executives are retired).
Just know that we are always on the lookout for more (multimedia-savvy/people who can spell HTML/people who know what the hell this Twitter thing is all about) journalists to add to our crew.
Of course, our newspaper company has had to undergo (minor/major) (layoffs/buyouts) in order to realign ourselves for the future. Rest assured that this is a (temporary/long-term) (problem/solution) for our (malaise/vision). We are also (reorganizing/shaking up/randomly placing) our journalists in new (teams/groups/categories) to facilitate our web-first (strategy/desperate attempt to stay relevant).
Whatever happens, know that we (are/are not) going to be around for (a long time to come/a few more years) to keep providing you with the (quality journalism/biased reporting) you’ve (come to expect/heard about on right-wing radio/ceased to care about).
Oh, and be sure to follow us on (Twitter /Facebook /MySpace / YouTube /Digg /Reddit/) so you can get (breaking news updates/traffic /weather /an RSS feed of our news stories /links and conversation from an intern who knows what’s going on).
It’s Monday – school starts tomorrow, and the RSS feed is full of good stuff. Here’s what I’ve read today. You might want to consider heading over and considering what these people are saying. (in no particular order)
10 golden rules for video journalists – Chris Wu reminds us of some of the basics of shooting video (from Travis Fox, formerly (?!?) of the Washington Post). Nothing really earthshattering or new here, but, as with many things, we do well to repeat them for those who are coming along behind us.
We can all agree that the Web is a vastly different medium than print.
Which is why I can’t understand why almost every news site tries to emulate the user interface ofa newspaper. The mediums are nothing alike, and they each have much different strengths and weaknesses. Why are we still making dynamic Web sites that try to mimic static news print?
A user interface can be often be the single most important decision in the life of a Web site. News organizations need to take this decision more seriously and need to rethink everything.
Newspapers: what to market? – Tim Burden turns on to the idea that newspapers need to market themselves, and points to some ways they can do so. I’m not so sure newspapers don’t advertise (as Burden’s friend insists), but much of that advertising is probably misplaced. Read the article for some thought-provoking ideas on how to change a paper’s image. More applicable for professional outfits, but college media could learn a thing or two.
Make people feel smart, educated and aware every time they follow the little blue star, and they will want to come back for more. They will associate the brand with good feelings. Not feeling good, necessarily, because the news isn’t always pleasant. But if you remove the barriers to flow; if you make the activity intrinsically rewarding, so there is an effortlessness of action; if there is a balance between ability level and challenge; then people will feel smart for having been on your website.
Ideas for journalism educators – Mindy McAdams links to a couple of presentations she’s presented recently. Check them out for ideas about blogs and integrating online journalism into your curriculum.
Predictions old and new – Paul Conley works on Sunday to put out a thoughtful look back and into the future for B2B (business-to-business) publishing. B2B? You ask. “This is a college journalism blog.” Yes, it is, and many college journalists find themselves working in B2B when they get out of school, so – from an employment angle – it’s a good idea to follow B2B. Read the post if you’re interested in working in this field, or even if you’re not, because what Paul says is relevant to you.
But in summary, let me say this: the old days are over. We’re in the midst of a fundamental shift in how people consume information and how the cost of producing that information can be covered.
There’s no going back.
Ever.
Just like in 2009, there will be people who prosper amid the difficulties. And, just like in 2009, there will be people who suffer through no fault of their own.
Your task — whether you’re an editor, a salesperson, a publisher, marketer, c-suite executive, designer, j-student, etc — is to position yourself where prosperity is possible and suffering is minimized.
Holy Moses! Media need to gear up for tablets – Alan Mutter (the newsosaur) goes for the Old Testament symbolism when discussing the oncoming wave of “tablet” computing systems (I don’t call them computers, but I don’t know what exactly to call them).
Tablets will the rock media as much, if not more, than the Internet, because they will powerfully combine ubiquitous connectivity, elegant displays, powerful computing and extreme portability. As the future Swiss Army knife of media platforms, they have the potential to obsolete not just print, broadcast television and Filofaxs but also desktops, laptops and smart phones.
Tablets demand a fresh approach to content and advertising that leverages the capabilities of this new medium in the same way TV required pictures and action, instead of stiff announcers recycling radio fare.
I don’t think tablets will kill the laptop, but what do I know. Still, there’s a lot for media to consider. I’ve said for several years that once students have something light and portable that they could interact with while waiting for class, the printed news product would be in danger on your campus. This may be the time when that prediction comes true.
Are You Getting Dangerous Feedback From Your Readers and Prospects – Copyblogger Sonia Simone has an excellent post about negative feedback from your “customers.” It’s a good idea to keep in mind when the latest “your paper sucks!” comment shows up on your web site. People who are pleased with your product rarely call to compliment you.
When you focus on complaints from people who don’t like you, your natural tendency is to steer your blog (and your business) in a direction that will make it more appealing to them.
Why would you want to do that?
Simone doesn’t throw all negative criticism out, but you need to ask yourself whether it’s valuable criticism, or just a troll.
Top 100 tools of 2009 for learning – Alfred Hermida links to this post and points out that they are great tools for journalism as well (since journalism isn’t just about “telling,” but also “learning” what needs to be told). And social media consultant Jane Hart even created an embeddable slideshow. So here it is:
16 social media guidelines used by real companies – Chris Lake of Econsultancy links to some real-world social media policies (I’ll have to post a copy of the Chicago Tribune’s policy if I can get the digital file). It’s a good baseline to consider when you’re developing your own policy (I get plenty of e-mails about this). One thing to consider (as with any policy document) is that students should have a prominent place in deciding what the policy should be. I don’t really care what your social media policy, but it should not be a top-down dictum with no thought about how students use social media outside your newsroom.
‘Unpublishing’ – the growing challenge for editors/publishers – My friend Doug Fisher writes about some recent research about “unpublishing” newspapers’ online archives. The surprising (or not so much, depending on your level of cynicism) finding is “barely half of the news organizations she surveyed had some kind of policy for dealing with such requests.”
This has been a problem for college news sites for a while, and if you’re dealing with this issue (as I’m sure you will at one time or another), Fisher has some good thoughts to consider.
And, regardless of what your policy is, I am personally opposed to removing someone’s poorly constructed, grammatically incorrect op-ed columns just because the person is embarrassed by them today.
About that resolution – Ryan Sholin writes about the difficulties of “writing more” for a modern tech-infused writer. It’s somewhat humorous, yet points out how real blogging is sometimes just as time-consuming – if you’re going to do it right – as writing a news story or producing a video. For instance, I’ve spent over 2 hours this morning reading, thinking, sifting, and writing this blog post. That’s not to brag, but just to remind you that if you’re able to crank out a blog post for your campus news site in 30 minutes, “Ur doin it wrong.”
Write Better Blog Posts Today – As if timed perfectly (it was the next tab in the browser, I swear), Chris Brogan offers some unnumbered tips on how to sharpen your blogging skills. Sometimes, writing better blog posts is a matter of introspection, as Brogen concludes:
And finally, if no one’s reading your stuff, you’ve gotta consider why. Is it bad writing? Is it too long? Is it not visually broken up for people’s eyes to scan? Is the topic too minor for people to consider? Or are you posting at the wrong times? There are lots of things to troubleshoot. Just don’t leave it be. Try something. Try something with each new post. Change one element at a time and see if things improve. Oh, and if it’s just that you’re not getting comments, try commenting on other people’s posts for a while first. Comment a lot. Don’t talk about your blog. Talk about the posts you’re reading. That often gets you some new traffic and some new friends. Especially, and here’s the bonus trend, if you comment on non-A-list blogs where the people are just as grateful for the traffic as you’ll be when they visit.
When students begin blogging, they often miss the fact that a blog isn’t just an editorial column on the internet. A blog post is part of a conversation. If you’re not conversing with people who share your interests, you’re not likely to draw a lot of attention in a sea of information.
Link journalism makes context easy in stories online. But the link in itself is not necessarily journalism — it’s what you do to verify its source and accuracy that makes it journalism and, thus, more valuable.
“Because it’s on the web” is no excuse for not verifying. That just leads to low-quality content, of which there’s plenty online. Instead, you should strive for the best quality because there’s so much garbage out there.
Linch has some very practical tips on verifying and researching web sites. I plan to share this post in future online journalism classes. Highly recommended.
As the new semester begins, I want to encourage you who are working with online/multimedia in your college newsroom to begin the process of planning to move beyond the quick-hit multimedia package this semester.
I try to encourage our multimedia staff at dennews.com to think about two enterprise packages that they could put together over the course of a semester that would really address serious issues of concern to students, faculty and staff.
I’m not talking about the “meet the SGA candidates” package, or the sports season preview, or a year-in-review audio slideshow. No, I mean enterprise, something that takes real digging, journalistic effort, and a team of talented journalists to pull off.
Last semester I put this assignment to my online journalism class. We brainstormed ideas about a month before the end of the semester. I posed the question this way: “What are some really difficult issues that students struggle with here?” Eastern is a pretty typical college campus, so I could probably name some topics you could use:
Alcohol/drug abuse
Employment prospects upon graduation
Juggling work and school
Sexuality/relationships
Minorities/race relations
Faith on campus
LBGT issues
Military/War issues (students who will serve or have served)
Students who are also parents
Unwanted pregnancy
Mental health/stress issues
University impact on town politics
The three teams of students in my online journalism class came up with some pretty good work once they focused on their topic.
I would suggest you take one or two of those topics (or a similarly meaty topic) and break the topic apart into smaller stories, just like if you were going to produce a series of stories for the print/broadcast product. Depending on how many people you have to work with, you could shoot for three, five, or seven different angles/stories.
Then, with each of those smaller stories, figure out how you can present those stories using the unique attributes of the web – timelines, video, audio stories, audio slideshows, animated graphics, databases, maps, etc.
Then start assigning those multimedia elements to a team of people on your staff. Figure out what kind of time, equipment they may need to get each of the parts done. Give them deadlines several weeks into the future. Set a date certain for when the project will be posted online. Check up on their progress. Work on the layout for the “package.”
The point of this is that an enterprise multimedia project is going to take time to produce, just like any significant piece of journalism. And once you get into the flow of the day-to-day of producing a daily or weekly printed product and putting all those one-off multimedia projects together, you’re not going to have the time to come up with a good project, plan it out, budget personnel, and get the work done.
Now is the time to plan for those projects. And when you get them done, let us know so we can share your success with the rest of the college journalism world.
She will direct the work of editors there and around the company in pursuing journalistic material from social networks, promoting AP’s presence and content on social networks, and providing feedback to news managers on topics of high interest on social networks.”
One of our recent graduates is now social network manager for a large insurance company. This is one of the growth areas in journalism, so if you’re not helping with your college media social strategy, now would be a good time to get started. BTW, she’s only been at AP for two years.
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There just aren’t enough people covering this administration and telling the people what’s going on.
If you’re an editorial writer, there might be opportunities in this hyperpartisan atmosphere for a job – depending on your political leanings.
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So, your past earns you nothing online. Whatever audience you will have there, you must build yourself.
Now you’re a community organizer.
It’s a good read for any young journalist who is looking at working for an online site or startup. College media is uniquely geographically bound into the life of a campus. But a campus in itself is only one type of community. Overcoming the hurdle to understanding that there are literally hundreds of communities on a large campus can help you transition to the future of community journalism.
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So, effective immediately and through the New Year’s holiday weekend, no comments will be allowed on new local content posted on Pantagraph.com.This “cooling off” period is meant as a strong reminder to our online readers: that the reason comments are allowed in the first place is to foster a “spirit of community involvement and conversation.”
I actually like this approach. Too often, we think of comments as an either/or proposition. Either we let every jerk comment and let the comments become a cesspool, or we close down comments altogether. But this is something that truly engages the online community. It’s a short-term penalty for abusive commenting that treats commenters like adults. Comments have since been turned back on, and we’ll have to see how the time-out elevates the tone of discussion.
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Screw professionalism. The *professional* only knows one way to do things. Always be the student. Always be learning. Practice, Practice, Practice. Do something everyday to make your skills better. Pay attention to what others are doing, dissect their videos and projects, LEARN. If you’re not practicing your craft or paying attention to what your competition is doing, then you’re losing the creative race.
This type of advice reminds me of Ira Glass on Storytelling, where he talks about “taste” and working to get to the highest levels of the craft.
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Some thoughts on multimedia in a small market – Many college news outlets are not staffed by huge numbers of students, or producing daily newspapers. So Daniel Sato’s thoughts are worth attending to. I like this point about not just focusing on those who are interested in multimedia:
In the end though, it seems to me that it is those that are currently uninterested that will hold the key to whether or not multimedia truly takes off here. Perhaps it is overly optimistic of me, perhaps naive, but whether they are afraid of technology, beaten down by the daily grind or unhappy with putting out work that does not meet their standards of quality, the passion that brought them into the field is still there. It my job then, to find the right inspiration/motivation to get them excited about multimedia. The good thing is, once the ball starts rolling, things snowball.
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Is journalism storytelling? – Jeff Jarvis stops talking about Google long enough to pounce on one of journalism’s sacred commandments – the journalist as storyteller. Go ahead and think about the concepts he discusses. Like the summary paragraph:
But if we continue to assume that our role is that of the storyteller, and to limit ourselves to that, then we risk closing ourselves off from forms of gathering and sharing information that do not end up in the form of stories, that are not structured and told. When we open ourselves up, we can think of journalists as enablers, as community organizers (not just of information but of a community’s ability to organize its own information), as teachers, as curators (how could I get through this without using the word at least once?), as filters, as tool makers, as algorithm writers.
Off to Edmonton! This afternoon, I’ll be heading to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada to speak at the 
News media and college students: A match made in heaven?
