Internship Log: My 12-hour first day at the RGJ

What a goddamn first day. After arriving about half an hour early to the RGJ office, I was forced to play around with Twitter for about an hour until I was given a desk and a story to report. The story is a good one, dealing with a Southwest Reno neighborhood’s opposition to an opening youth drug rehabilitation center culminating in a protest yesterday and a meeting at Reno City Hall today. It felt nice to actually report again, rather than to regurgitate whatever scientific conference or mildly boring research awards the University deemed fit to show off. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed working at Media Relations very much, but there’s such a fundamental difference in the way a newsroom operates and a public relations firm operates. There is much more of a sense of urgency, a need to get all relevant sides and angles of a story right now, rather than in a week or two.

This difference was highlighted especially by the breaking news of a fire in Douglas County. Engrossed in my reporting, I ignored the escalating pace of the newsroom along with the sound of more and more phones ringing. Finally, an editor came over to my desk and essentially told me to drop whatever I was doing, and to figure out a way to Topaz Ranch Estates. To the fire. As I began packing my supplies and writing down directions, Brian Duggan turned around and said, “Welcome to the RGJ.”

The drive from the Gazette-Journal’s offices to the site of the fire takes about an hour and a half, give or take the traffic going through Carson City, Minden and any other small towns along the way. Though I attempted to drive with at least some regard to the speed limit, I could feel the adrenaline pumping through my body. It was the same feeling I had driving up to Galena High School during the Washoe Drive fire, and the same feeling driving through South Reno to get a closer look at the Caughlin Ranch Fire. Getting out of Carson City was the first time I saw the smoke from the blaze. From there, I would alternate between driving a handful of miles, stopping on the side of the road, jumping out to take a picture with my smartphone and then sending them out through email to the RGJ and on my personal Twitter account. When I arrived at the turn-off for Topaz Ranch, about 2 miles from the evacuation center, I finally got a good look at the inferno. It engulfed half the sky.

I spent about two hours at the community center, interviewing evacuees, taking more pictures of the fire, then slowly typing them out through my phone and emailing them back to the RGJ. All in all, I took about 15 pictures and found three good interviews during my time in Topaz Ranch, some of which were immediately posted to the RGJ site. Overall, I spent nearly 12 hours working, reporting and driving today, published photos and interviewed evacuees — all on my first day. Today, I’ll be focusing on the protest story as well as juggling whatever the news editors throw my way. What a goddamn first day. There’s nothing else I would rather do.

Internships and summer plans

My summer internship at the Reno Gazette-Journal begins tomorrow, and I won’t lie – I’m nervous. Though I wrote countless stories for the Nevada Sagebrush and the University’s Media Relations, this will be my first actual experience in a professional newsroom. The stakes are higher, the audience is much, much larger, the potential to fuck everything up is exponentially greater, and yet it’s an opportunity to do more meaningful and ‘important’ journalism. I am very aware that I’m not going to be immediately diving into breaking news topics and hardcore Woodward-and-Bernstein style journalism, but probably going to stuffy and mildly boring Reno-based events. But I’m okay with that for two reasons:

1. Paying dues: If there is one lesson I learned pledging a fraternity, it’s that you have to pay your dues. Even though most organizations don’t have the kind of clear-cut boundaries between new and old members, being in a fraternity has clarified the divide. A new person in any organization (fraternal, journalistic or otherwise) will usually be stuck with the least appealing and crappiest jobs or tasks to complete. It’s not fair, it’s not fun, but it’s how organizations work. Accepting that role, and working around it, is a key to early success.
2. Avoid discouragement and do work: If assigned a ‘boring’ story or event to cover, there’s no benefit to be gained by going through the motions of reporting and producing a C-quality story. My view is that average work, especially in a declining industry such as journalism, is a death sentence. For me, it makes no sense  to limit the opportunities I’ve been given.

There are thousands of journalism students across the country competing for a dwindling number of already limited jobs, and the competition means only the very best will have secured some resemblance of regular employment. I plan to make the most of this internship because I want to capitalize on the opportunity to produce quality journalism to a larger audience than I’ve ever had.

Because it’s a full time internship, I most likely will have less frequent updates to this blog. I do not plan on completely abandoning this site, and instead want to focus on expanding the vision and topics I write about. Yes, specificity and building a niche is key, but I feel that I write best when I’m invested in a subject like a movie I enjoyed or a thought-provoking book series. Though these topics and ideas may not fit into my niche of Nevada journalism, I’m confident that they will be at worst entertaining and at best a nice change of pace from my usual writings.

The summer is here, and I’m nervous. But also excited.

Future of College Media: How The Nevada Sagebrush can become a better paper

This post is the tenth and final in a series of 10 about the future of collegiate journalism, focusing on specific projects undertaken by members of college journalists around the country.

My final post in this college media project is quite simple really. It’s a portion of my application to the position of Managing Editor for the Nevada Sagebrush next year. Rather than send in the list, and then keep it private, I thought it best to publicly write down a list of improvements and ideas that I want to implement next year, as a way of making sure that my promises will be kept. And if I don’t get the position, then this document can serve as suggestions to whomever is running the paper next year. I’ve tried to implement many of the ideas that I’ve covered and written about during the course of this series, and I would greatly appreciate any comments, concerns or ideas you have.

The changes I have proposed below are, for the most part, an overhaul of the inner and outer workings of the Nevada Sagebrush. As Managing Editor, I would take an active role in not only the production of the weekly paper, but also in online content, recruitment and future volunteers, keeping personal relationships in check, social media and the public image of the Sagebrush. If kept to the current course of action, the Sagebrush will cease to be a cutting-edge publication, and fall into a shadow of it’s former self, lacking in content, delivery and staff. My proposals seek to reverse this trend and to take a more active role in the university community and the lives of its students.

 Recruitment:

The lifeblood of any collegiate organization is recruitment. As Managing Editor, one of my main focuses would be to find, recruit and train volunteer writers. Here’s how:

• Journalism Class Presentations: Although many people on staff will be in upper-level journalism classes, there is a huge, untapped resource in freshmen and sophomore journalism students enrolled in 107 and 207 classes. I would begin a regular schedule of presenting to these classes about the benefits of writing for the Sagebrush, as well as addressing concerns by students in such classes. Presentations would happen during the beginning, middle and end of each semester, with myself and at least one other person delivering the pitch.

• Tabling: By having a regular, noticeable presence in both the journalism school and on-campus, staff members should be able to make a connection with potential writers, obtain their personal information, and be able to constantly communicate with the potentials to determine their writing ability and willingness to volunteer.

• Overhauling Boot Camp: The Nevada Sagebrush Boot Camp, as it currently stands, is a bit of a joke. I would propose two different forms of Boot Camps: one for staff and one for volunteers/potentials. The staff boot camp would focus on essentials for working in the office: managing inDesign, making the best use of the production flow, AP Style, etc. Boot camps for volunteers/others would be hosted by staff members, and focus on requirements for writing, but also on forming a personal connection between volunteer and staff member, as to keep them feeling involved and important to the production of the newspaper.

• Production Night Visits: The office for the Nevada Sagebrush should not be a place for volunteers to fear or not know. As Managing Editor, I would organize regular visits to Sunday production nights, allowing volunteers to oversee the process that puts the newspaper together and the steps necessary to avoid mistakes. After a while, I would allow volunteers to assist in several of the production steps, such as copy-editing or attempting to write headlines.

• Performance Reviews: Much like the regular staff meets semesterly with the EIC, I would begin a system of having volunteers meet with upper management on a semesterly basis. I feel as though this system would, as mentioned above, not only tie volunteers to the members of staff, but also allow them receive critique of their work thus far, ideally helping them in future stories.

• Online/summer advertising: During summer, a story should be on the rotator for the website regarding volunteering in the fall, as many future and potential students will visit the website. Likewise, staff members should utilize social media over the summer to advertise to potential writers and stay involved, including using volunteers to write stories during the summer.

Staff Management:

It goes without saying that staff relations were less than ideal the past academic year, which ultimately lead to a hostile work environment and a noticeable lacking in the actual product. In the position of Managing Editor, I would take steps to avoid such conflicts before they happen, and address problems between staff members or volunteers head on. Here’s how:

• Staff retreat: Many government agencies and companies sponsor retreats every year, in order to both brainstorm ideas and improve staff relationships. During summer, I would either host or find a place in Tahoe/ outside of Reno to have a staff retreat. As many of the newly hired staff members won’t know each other, this scenario would provide a kind of introduction before the year begins. These kind of excursions can help identify problems before the year starts and lay the groundwork for productive working relationships in the future.

• Revamping Staff meetings: As opposed to the current free-for-all form of staff meetings, I would entirely change the structure of said meetings in order to avoid unnecessary conflict and to decrease the amount of time required to go through a meeting. If chosen, I would run meetings by a modified form of Robert’s Rules of Order, thereby decreasing the likelihood of a hostile back-and-forth, and setting a time limit for discussion. These changes would require story ideas to be mostly finalized by the time of the meeting, required section editors to sort out the details of their CPs before the meeting begins.

• Addressing problems head-on: If a conflict does arise between staff members or volunteers, part of the responsibility needs to be placed on upper management to manage the situation. As Managing Editor, I would place myself, the editor-in-chief, or a professional staff member (Amy Koeckas) as the arbiter of any dispute. Finding a common ground is crucial in resolving any conflict, and problems need to be nipped in the bud before they sprout to destructive and pointless arguments.

• Newsroom rules: The newsroom should be kept professional during production nights, as formal or even semi-formal wear increases the professionalism in the office environment, and promotes better standards of behavior. Attire will be business-casual, with a minimum of a collared shirt and jeans for men, and this guide for women. Once a month, staff members can wear regular clothes to work. Headphones should be used to listen to music and videos, and conversation kept to an inside-tone- no yelling across the room. Desks should be cleaned at the end of Monday night, and relatively clean by the beginning of Tuesday. Violation of these rules will result in first a verbal warning, and repeat offenses will result in docks in pay.

Public Relations:

While it’s not a new problem for the Sagebrush to be strongly disliked by many members of campus, this year has seen, at least in my experience, a new low in relations with individual students, on-campus agencies and student groups. While there is a built-in resentment to the Sagebrush already present, there are methods of avoiding unnecessary conflict and building strong, professional relationships with students on campus, relationships which result in increased readership and potential sources for the future. The campus newspaper should be part of the campus.

• Outreach meetings: Just as senior staff usually meets with the President of the University each year to discuss possible issues and topics of controversy, senior staff should have some speaking relationship with on-campus leaders, including RHA, Greek life leaders, ASUN officials, club presidents and more. Rather than schedule individual meetings with dozens of officials, I would schedule and plan a large presentation discussing the goals of the Sagebrush, the standards of accuracy used by staff members, contact information for story ideas or complaints, and what role these groups will play in commenting and reading the Sagebrush. The event will be catered, and open to anyone on campus, but focused on student leaders.

• Follow-up: As Managing Editor, I would hold a weekly meeting with the Editor-in-chief to discuss the stories presented in the past four weeks, and review those stories to see if follow-up is needed in coming issues. That way, contentious stories about subjects such as ASUN and Greek Life can be monitored for an extended period of time, and dealt with before issues explode.

• Dealing with critics: With a move toward commenting through Facebook and Twitter, it becomes easier to identify which members of the community have issues with the Sagebrush. As Managing Editor, it would be my responsibility to respond to allegations of lying or insults to articles, and to engage in a conversation with the individual having an issue with the coverage.

• Alumni Relationships: The Nevada Sagebrush has thousands of alumni, scattered throughout the country, involved in either journalism or other areas of business. One long-term project I will begin as Managing Editor will be to find, contact, and record alumni both local and prominent. Doing so will create a donor base to easily solicit, and also help the paper’s public image as a crucial component of the University.

Online / Social Media:

Although many college students still prefer actual print newspapers than their online counterparts, it’s apparent that the future of news will have an overwhelming online component. It’s obvious that as future journalism professionals, we must strive in all ways to interpret and set the trends for online reporting and news, and yet also remain grounded in the standards of accurate reporting that separates real journalism from tabloids.

• Website overhaul: Updating the newspaper website is an extremely important goal for the immediate future, as the current website is slow to load, buggy, and frequently crashes. While it’s a more of a long-term goal, here’s my plans for an updated website:

• Facebook logins required to post comments

• An increased social media presence: Twitter tracker, Facebook posts, etc.

• Event tracker, linking to Facebook events

• More informational pages on topics like ASUN, football, and other popular subjects (like this NYT page on Newt Gingrich)

• A simpler, more Web 2.0 layout

• Current Website fixes: With an increased focus online, staff members will be spending more time working with the website to attract traffic. Here are some plans that would immediately improve the Sagebrush’s website:

• Linking: Linking to past articles, and updating past articles with links to what happened in the future.

• Increased content: Stories on the rotator should shift about every day, in order to prevent staleness and give other stories an opportunity to reach more readers. Online editors can either use stories from that week’s edition, or preferably use new, online-only content.

• Increased blog presence: As Managing Editor, I would reach out to current bloggers on the UNR campus and contact them about moving their blog to the Nevada Sagebrush website. Not only would these bloggers bring a built-in audience with them, they would provide constant content on the website, allowing other editors to focus on more in-depth and time-intensive stories.

• Additional multimedia: Although it falls more along the lines of recruiting, as Managing Editor I would develop and recruit volunteers within the world of broadcast to produce video-intensive stories, and partner those volunteers with writers to fully cover a story in both print and video format. Additionally, I would partner more closely with Wolf Pack Week, and focus on integrating content between the two outlets.

• Aggregation pages: Rather than forcing a reader to look up different articles from several different weeks to learn how a story developed, I would work with editors to publish aggregation pages, summarizing an issue or series of events, and link out to articles in greater detail.

• Facebook: Facebook is the best way to reach students, which is why it’s important to not abuse readers. Using social media as a ‘link-dump’ will work at first, but will eventually frustrate readers with over-saturation of links. Rather, I would incorporate a more 24/7 method on Facebook, using the main page as a way to provide content either not available or not able to be posted on the main website. Updating in-progress stories, linking to work done by other outlets or persons, and attempting to build a community of readers who are both willing and able to contribute their input and ideas on stories and plans.

• Opening the News: I would move this group completely to Facebook, and facilitate mature and reasoned discussion on newsworthy topics. Obviously, the people most likely to use the group are people within ASUN or Greek Life, so I would encourage participation from those groups by both direct messaging/emailing, and meeting with group leaders during ASUN Senate meetings and IFC/Panhellenic/MGC meetings. Their participation in a group like OTN is critical because they are a vocal, intelligent group of people who are regular readers and invested in the university.

• Twitter: Much like Facebook, Twitter isn’t designed to be a link dump. Rather, it’s a resource for students and individuals to find out what’s going on instantly. While it may seem counter-productive for a small news organization like the Sagebrush to have a significant impact on events happening in real time, I feel as though with the right training and timing, Twitter can be an incredibly useful tool for readers, which will turn attract more attention and eyes to tweets by the website.

• Live-Tweeting: One of the best ways to attract Twitter followers is by being on the ground during large or important events. Providing content not seen by ‘regular’ media outlets attracts much attention to a Twitterer, and can be used for news, sports, and art events. As Managing Editor, I would require those section editors to plan on attending an event every three weeks where live-tweeting can be utilized. Afterwords, a Storify post can be linked to on other social media outlets and the website to let readers late to the event know what happened

• Re-Tweeting, and creating a community: Twitter is not a link dump. As Managing Editor, I would spend several hours searching for UNR students, local residents, recent alumni and local journalists to increase the number of followers, and to gain a greater sense of what’s happening in the community. With a great increase in the number of followers, it would become necessary to create lists separating people into different demographic groups. Additionally, the Twitter account should be used at a minimum five times a day, more or less spread out. Retweeting statuses and actively participating in the community by responding to questions and talking to individuals will also lead to dedicated followers, more likely to click on links.

• Mandated Social Media: Staff members, especially editors, will be required to have and use a Twitter account and Facebook page, linking to their content and updating readers on their research or story progress. By doing this, readers will be able to interact directly with the author of an article they greatly enjoy or have issues with, allowing for a greater communication between writer and reader. Additionally, I will draft a social media contract for members of staff to sign, making sure that the organization is protected in any legal issues that may arise.

Print Production Changes:

With an increased focused on online content, it will be necessary to make some changes to the current production schedule for the print product. Although I understand that online presence will need to be increased in the coming year, it is important to not forget that a significant portion of The Sagebrush’s readership only or primarily consumes the print edition. With that thought in mind, here are some of my proposed changes to the current format, separated by section.

• Overall:

• Increase in ‘Second-Day’ stories: Being a weekly publication, the Nevada Sagebrush works better as a news magazine, as opposed to a daily newspaper format, based on it’s weekly production cycle. As Managing Editor, I will work with section editors to ensure that the vast majority of their stories are more analysis and ‘second-day’ stories, focusing more on the ‘why’ than on the ‘what.’

• Skyboxes: Information above the fold of the front page is what readers look at first, which means that the news section nearly always gets most of the reader’s initial attention. As Managing Editor, I will personally make sure that a skybox is used at least bi-monthly, advertising either sports, A&E or opinion coverage.

• Unique content: The Nevada Sagebrush is not a place to re-write press releases. As a weekly newspaper, editors and writers should strive to write and create stories unique to the UNR/Reno campus and community, creating a wealth of unique content that will undoubtedly attract readers and increase audience size.

• Partnerships: As student reporters, members of the Sagebrush have a unique advantage and insight into what’s happening on campus, but lack the resources, money and time required to regularly dig deep into controversial and/or investigative issues. As Managing Editor, I would take steps to begin a partnership with the Nevada News Bureau and/or the Reno Gazette-Journal to produce quality reporting addressing or covering contentious topics on the UNR campus. Ideally, the news department would begin working with either organization once a semester, but different sections could begin to work with any portion of either organization to work on content.

• News:

• Adoption of Beat Reporters: Through either staff members or volunteers, topics such as ASUN, Greek Life and campus health need to be assigned to one or two reporters. Using this methodology will decrease the amount of mistakes made in coverage via the reporter’s expanded knowledge on a topic, and will also lead to better and more in-depth story ideas by reporters becoming experts in a certain topic. Adoption of a beat allows for volunteer writers to feel more connected to the paper, and help lighten the burden for regular editors.

• Dedicated coverage: Every two weeks, the news section will be required to run a ‘special section’ on page A4. The topics should be broad enough to compass several stories, but narrow enough to appeal to a specific target audience. Examples include Inside ASUN, Inside Campus, Health, Election fever, etc.

• Sports:

• Elimination of Agate/stats: The day after the Sagebrush prints, many of the statistics and numerical data in the print copy will be wrong. Keeping with the theme of a weekly paper, numerical data should be used sparingly, with changes being made to B2 and B6 to reflect the rapidly changing statistics. Rather, sports editors can use game summaries, additional sports briefs, and schedules to fill the space.

• More than just game summaries: While there is a place for game results and highlights, sports editors should strive to diversify their content to attract not only sports fans, but a wider audience. As Managing Editor, I would require the sports section feature one non-traditional sports story every two weeks.

• Arts and Entertainment:

• Less Reviews: The past two years have seen an over-saturation of reviews in the A&E section. I firmly believe that few students, if any, take these reviews seriously, and quickly flip through the section as they can get their information from a huge variety of other sources online. As Managing Editor, I would limit the number of CD, movie and video game reviews in the A&E Section to three per month, forcing the editor and writers to find local events and interesting features to write and cover for their section. These include concert reviews, interviews with local bands and highlights from Reno or on-campus events.

• Opinion:

• More diversity: Too often, most of the columns in the Sagebrush are written by staff members in different positions. This personnel decision severely limits the breadth and scope of opinion and knowledge at the University, and is a lazy way out. In response, I would limit the number of columns written by paid staff members per week to two, requiring the rest of the section be written by volunteer writers and columnists.

• Focus on campus: Most of the columns in the opinion section should relate back to the University. Readers of the Sagebrush respond more to local and on-campus issues than to national or abstract issues, because they are closer and more in-tune with local issues. Although the opinion editor should not deny his/her writers the opportunity to write about what they care about, columns in the print edition should have about a 60/40 focus on the UNR campus, with other columns either going online or waiting a week to be published.

• Guest columnists: UNR faculty and staff are, for the most part, pretty intelligent. As Managing Editor, I would make contact with faculty such as Dr. Elliot Parker or Stacy Gordon to ask them to write a guest column in the newspaper. Not only would it raise the level of discourse in the opinion section, but guest columnists attract more attention than regular student writers, again increasing the audience for the paper.

Future of College Media: Fixing the Divide Between College Students and College Newspapers

This post is the ninth in a series of 10 about the future of collegiate journalism, focusing on specific projects undertaken by members of college journalists around the country. This post goes over how to retain a collegiate audience and how to keep their respect.

Image courtesy of pressthink.org

There’s a of trust between media outlets and their audiences. Polling data clearly shows that since the 1970′s, the public has continued in greater numbers to believe that most stories are inaccurate, favorable to one political side and are highly influenced by other organizations and people. Questions over why the decline happened and potential solutions to this quandary have been discussed in great detail by media critics such like Jay Rosen and Poynter’s Craig Silverman (They also engaged in a live chat about the topic). While Rosen comes up with a list of possible reasons for the lack of trust, Silverman focuses on one issue: the lack of a connection between journalistic entities and regular readers; it’s no longer ‘our newspaper,’ but ‘the newspaper.’

Though there isn’t any polling data regarding the trust between college newspapers and their readers, it’s apparent that there should be a stronger connection between college newspapers and their readers. For one, the writers and editors of a college papers are on average more similar demographically (18-24-year-old college students) to their readers than regular professional newspapers, which grab a wide variety of people from different ages and places to cover a single area. Additionally, the ratio of writer-to-audience number is usually much better for college newspapers, even those with a smaller staff, so ideally one should be able to relate to and connect with a wider percentage of the audience. Because college papers are so much closer to students, shouldn’t they enjoy a great amount of respect and trust from their audience?

It lack’s not often the case. While it’d be easy to bring up the numerous complaints people have brought against the Nevada Sagebrush this past semester, it’s an issue that spreads far beyond the University of Nevada campus. One recent example came when The Appalachian Online (the student newspaper of Appalachian State University) incorrectly tweeted that a popular Mexican restaurant was closing, and corrected itself after outcry from students. The resulting editorial made the mistake of essentially telling readers that readers should care more about other issues, leading to angry commenters railing against what they perceived to be the paper’s faulty values and apparent lack of respect for their readers.

The story (which was picked up by Jim Romenesko and PR Daily) is a classic example of the divide that can easily exist and be perpetuated by college newspapers and their respective audiences. Although it’s important for college papers to remain completely separate and independent of non-journalistic influences, papers cannot survive if they promote hostility with their readers. So what’s the solution? Here’s a list of four things college papers can do to improve relations with their readers:

1. Creating a social media community: The comments section on any news website, especially local news affiliates, are usually filled with either attacks on journalists or straight political propaganda; the antithesis of a community. Social media is different, especially on Facebook, as more people are comfortable with commenting and writing through the familiar Facebook system than through a cumbersome commenting program. Thus, it’s incredibly important for journalists to be on top of their social media, and to put time aside to address concerns and speak to audience members. Even if it’s just joking around, like David Weigel does often on his twitter feed, it’s a way to form an instant connection to readers and to let them know that you are human too.
2. Connections around campus: This is an extremely fine line to tread, but it’s important to have a wide variety of different groups represented on a college newspaper staff. It’s extremely easy to form an ‘us v. them’ mentality when one spends all of their time in the company of fellow staff members. Branch out, join other clubs and organizations (and Greek life!) to avoid the echo chamber of a college newsroom.
3. Be active in the community: The best way to advertise a college paper is to be an active member of the college community. It’s one thing to publish a story about a campus event- it’s another thing entirely to go out and actually participate. Putting faces to a masthead is important if a college paper needs to combat negative stereotypes and false beliefs.
4. Own up to mistakes, and move on: If you make a mistake, address it, apologize and move on. Dwelling on something that went wrong will automatically make you appear less professional, and distracts from more important work and stories that need to be dealt with. As Nicole Dion writes in a blog post about dealing with social media crisises, “Don’t justify your actions, just apologize. Explain the situation, if necessary, and nip the talk in the bud. If you don’t say anything, people will assume the worst and it will become even bigger than it already is.”

Future of College Media: How to make editorials matter

This post is the eighth in a series of 10 about the future of collegiate journalism, focusing on specific projects undertaken by members of college journalists around the country. This post details the role and value of editorials by collegiate newspapers.

Last month, the Sioux City Journal did something a little out of the ordinary for their front page; they published a full-page anti-bullying editorial after the suicide of a 14-year-old high school boy who was teased for coming out as a homosexual. The resulting paper is immediately attention-grabbing and also a great introduction into the role of newspapers and editorials. In a piece published by Charles Apple, the paper’s editor Mitch Pugh is quoted as saying, “We believe that as a community news organization one of our critical responsibilities is to serve as a strong advocate for the well-being of our community. This page underscores that belief.” The Journal is not the only paper to take this route; in years past, papers as diverse as The Detroit Free Press, The Arizona Republic and the Harrisburg Patriot-News.

While newspapers do have a critical role in any modern community, the continual debate over how much influence should be extended to a journalistic body shows no signs of stopping (especially with public trust in journalists falling every year). Although there is a Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing, media outlets such as Gawker say, “…institutional editorial writing is a worthless anachronism in this modern media age.” It’s needless to say the effectiveness and purpose of editorials has, at least in the eyes of new media outlets such as Gawker, diminished greatly in the past few years.

So where does that leave collegiate newspapers? Most collegiate newspapers publish a staff editorial every week, covering and commenting about on-campus news and events, such as student government elections and other contentious issues. The editorial board has long been a mainstay of college newspapers, especially the Nevada Sagebrush, which famously made the decision in the 1960′s to publish a blank issue after an Editor-in-Chief was removed by the student government. This year’s staff continued with that tradition of pushing editorial content to the forefront by embarking in a six-part series called “ASUN Future,” designed to point out problems with the University’s student government and offer solutions on how to fix them.

It’s a noble goal, and has merit as ASUN isn’t anyone’s idea of an efficient organization. I won’t comment on the ideas suggested in the columns, but I do wonder about the effectiveness of the series. A series which begins it’s first column with, “The Nevada Sagebrush believes there is a big problem lurking on the third floor of the Joe Crowley Student Union,” is immediately taking a hostile position toward the current ASUN government, which leads to an instant tension between the people capable of making the change and the newspaper calling for change.

This isn’t the first time the Sagebrush has attempted to engage in public journalism; in 2008, Sagebrush editors Michael Higdon, Brian Duggan and Jessica Fryman published a ‘public-interest’ issue in response to the then-recent kidnapping of Brianna Denison. The issue contained a lengthy main article, guides to proactive protection and an editorial calling for a more active campus community. Much like the ASUN Future series, these Sagebrush members identified a problem on campus, but rather than publish numerous front-page columns, they actually did investigative and journalistic work. As then-Design Editor Michael Higdon said in a message to Charles Apple, “…We executed our main goal: to give students the tools of the press by providing them with information and access to officials they can deliberately use in order to make a difference by asking questions and offering solutions.”

That’s a lot different than just coming out and identifying a problem. Higdon understood that while members of the paper may have decent ideas about campus safety, change must come from public fervor and pressure, not columns in the paper. It’s a completely different mindset, in a way utilizing many different aspects of the paper to identify areas needing change, and attempting to engage students. Despite good intent, the ASUN Future series seemingly quickly delved into Ben Miller’s ideas of how to fix ASUN, rather than a combined effort with a strong emphasis on student engagement. Rather than only publish opinion articles, why not actually go through and write a handful of stories and guides to understanding ASUN? That way, students who aren’t as well versed in the operation of ASUN have an opportunity to understand the situation more clearly and to identify problem areas themselves.

For editorials to work in a modern media environment, they have to either come as part of a public-journalism package (as described by Higdon) or attract as much attention as the Sioux City Journal. While collegiate newspapers are often bastions of charged and controversial opinions, just writing about a subject usually won’t be enough to change anything prominent. If done in a more efficient manner, however, editorials can be extremely effective ways to hold public and private figures accountable.

Future of College Media: What makes a good college website work?

This post is the seventh in a series of 10 about the future of collegiate journalism, focusing on specific projects undertaken by members of college journalists around the country. This post covers the value of having a good website for a college media site, and lists some examples.

Screenshot of the Berkeley Beacon website on May 17, 2012

The importance of having a well-designed and user-friendly website should be an upmost priority for collegiate journalists, because as the future of journalism begins to shift online, college papers should be on the front lines of change. Although college students on average prefer a print college newspaper to an online one, online stories and content are important for people who don’t have access to a print edition. It’s also a good playground to experiment and show off digital talents to future employers. For this post, I’m going to list a handful of well-designed collegiate newspaper websites, then analyze what traits make them successful.

• The Chronicle (Duke University)

While I haven’t posted too much about The Chronicle’s content, I do find their website intriguing. As with most other papers, they use a rotator near the top of the page to showcase stories from all different sections of their coverage. There’s no real integration with their social media outlets, other than links to the normal social media sites. The site also utilizes the same design motif used by the New York Times, in terms of the columnized way of showing off content. However, there’s a few oddities, including the weird spacing present between stories, and I dislike the grey color scheme.

• Oregon Daily Emerald (University of Oregon)

I’ve written hundreds of words about my admiration for the Emerald, and their website is no different. While it uses the same columnized style as the The Chronicle, it’s spaced more evenly and feels much more news-y. There’s no rotator, so content has to be updated frequently to avoid staleness. Unlike most websites, the Emerald does not have a ‘recent comment’ or ‘most read’ section on their front page, which I actually support. Links to those kind of stories actually work best when presented next to an individual story, to encourage the reader to continue reading. Having it on the front page is too personal and blog-like, and distracts from the professional attitude a college paper should take.

• The Red and Black (University of Georgia)

Although its not breaking any new ground, the Red and Black’s website is solidly built and executed well. They have a rotator, and have a slightly smaller columnized story format, with pictures included for almost all the stories. Generally, it’s a very traditionally designed site, down to the promotion of email updates at the very top of the page. There’s a few links to social media sites, including a large Facebook link, but it’s generally downplayed in favor of the stories. Overall, it’s a well-designed site, but The Red and Black won’t fool anyone into believing it’s a professional news site; its still very collegiate.

• The Berkeley Beacon (Emerson College)

Unlike the other organizations on this list, the Berkeley Beacon is not a daily, and its staff isn’t huge. It’s more indicative of a ‘normal’ college paper, which means it has a small staff, low pay and comes out once a week. Which makes its website more amazing. According to this Nieman Journalism Lab article, the Beacon’s website is based upon the extremely popular Boston Globe site. Although they do not produce as much as content as other, daily college papers, the Beacon has one of the most unique web designs of any college newspaper I’ve seen. There’s a ton of white space, and the design is very simple, echoing the lines and design of a print newspaper without any traditional drop down menus or other ordinary website aspects.

So what makes those websites successful? Here’s a list:

1. Social Media Presence: As I’ve written before, social media can be a great resource for college newspapers if done right. Just with this blog alone, nearly half of my views have come from social media sites, so I know firsthand the help it can provide to a website. But one also needs to make sure their social media is fairly represented on their site as well, and not just regulated to a small link on the side. Content posted on Facebook should be easily accesible through a website, and vice-versa.
2. Don’t be something you’re not: As tempting as it can be to deck out a website with tons of cool features, the examples of the Berkeley Beacon (and The Daily Californian) simplicity is the future for web design. It’s much easier to find stories in these kind of designs, and it isn’t offensive to look at as well. The intelligent uses of white space and simplistic color schemes draw direct connections to reading an actual newspaper.
3. Think of the readers: When posting something, remember to think, “How would the average reader look at our front page, and what do they want to see?” Generally, readers like new and updated content, stories they can either relate to or find important and ease of access; all of which are important anyways for collegiate journalists.
4. Online is a medium, not a copy: Many collegiate websites, especially those that publish on a weekly basis, are centered around publishing a ton of stories once a week reposted from the print edition, and leaving it alone. As detailed in this excellent College Media Matters Post, collegiate news websites have a plethora of options available online, and yet usually choose to use their site as mainly a reposting site for print-edition articles. Breaking this trap is one of the essential steps in changing collegiate websites into actually viable mediums for journalism, rather than a place to only post print edition stories.

KOLO does its best FOX News impression

Update: The RGJ is reporting that KOLO has apologized for the segment, saying there was no intent to offend but only a writer trying to be clever.

Reno broadcast channel KOLO is getting some national heat today when a promo inferring gay marriage to be a ‘sin’ was released on Youtube today. In the video, anchor Sarah Johns says, “Historically, Nevada has made a living off of sin: quickie divorces, prostitution, gambling. What’s one more sin added to the list if it will improve our economy?”

While I’m sure that the people at KOLO are most likely not raging homophobes, this kind of work makes them appear so, especially when it appears in the RGJ and ThinkProgress. Especially with a topic as attention-grabbing as gay marriage, it’s more important than ever to not appear biased in coverage. Readers don’t remember fair coverage, but they sure as hell remember incorrect or biased reporting.

Future of College Media: Above and beyond regular reporting

This post is the sixth in a series of 10 about the future of collegiate journalism, focusing on specific projects undertaken by members of college journalists around the country. This post focuses on the importance of analysis journalism by college media outlets, and the importance and benefits of going in-depth for a story.

Image courtesy of http://img.ehowcdn.co.uk

What draws readers to a college newspaper? Sure, it’s fine to make sure a paper looks professional, follows AP style, and covers the “important” beats. But what takes it to the next level? While columns about cuddling with a prostitute or attempting anal sex may draw in the page views, the a news and general reporting perspective renders them slightly extraneous (not to say they don’t have value.) What I firmly believe is that for college papers and collegiate reporters to reach a truly excellent journalistic standing, they have to increase the number of public-service journalism stories and projects published.

By public-service journalism, ones mind may immediately jump to exposes such as the Watergate scandal or misuse of adult family homes in Seattle that lead to dozens of suspicious and unreported deaths. While those stories and coverage are extremely important, it can be difficult for collegiate papers to follow their example because such controversial issues and topics aren’t as widely spread on a college campus. The New York Times has a greater chance of finding out about public or private scandals because they cover such a larger area than a single college campus. Rather, college journalists should focus on long-term, investigative reporting and unique and in-depth features,

It’s also important to remember that collegiate journalists are also college students, which means they have worries beyond reporting. Though I believe the Oregon Daily Emerald is one of the very best and forward-looking college newspapers in the country, they were beat by ESPN to a story about marijuana use among the school’s football team. To be fair, the Emerald immediately had reaction stories and opinion pieces about the story up the same day, but even an organization with hundreds of writers could not break the story before a national organization.

So where does that leave college news organizations? The answer is to give writers the opportunity to follow and develop large stories that can take weeks or even months to fully report on. While the workload is already overwhelming for many college journalists, it’s immensely important to grow an investigative knowledge among writers at a newspaper, else the content will seem dull and repetitive. For example, when I visited Portland State University for a fraternity conference, I made sure to pick up copies of the student newspaper, The Vanguard. Though it’s not fair to judge off of the very small sample size, I wasn’t impressed with what I saw. All of the stories seemed a little dull and very vanilla, with no real investigative pieces jumping out. While I do respect the job they do without a dedicated journalism program, it’s clear that there’s room for improvement.

On the other side of the spectrum, there are college papers that have engaged in extremely strong reporting and storytelling methods, which both attracts attention to the paper and makes them look more credible in the eyes of their readers. For example, The Daily Princetonian at Princeton University published a detailed investigation into the suicide of a Spanish-language professor a year ago. Essentially, the paper’s reporting and document-crunching led to proof of negligence on several levels by university administrators, and also attracting nearly 130 mostly positive comments on their website. By spending weeks on the story and giving it the upmost attention, the Princetonian was able to produce an award-quality piece of public service journalism that made them a better newspaper.

Working at the Nevada Sagebrush, I’ve had firsthand experience on the benefits of this kind of journalism. My second semester at the paper, News Editor Don Weinland began working on a story about two students who found themselves pregnant while attending college. Our Editor-in-Chief decided to give Don an extra week to polish and carefully edit the story, and the results showed. The story received more than 3,000 views and was picked up by the Huffington Post and USA Today collegiate sites. Seeing just how successful the story became helped convince me that this kind of journalism, while difficult to pull of successfully, is well worth the effort.

So here are my suggestions to college papers on how to improve the level and amount of quality journalism they produce.

1. Give writers time: One of the most critical things for beginning collegiate writers is having the time to actually sit down and think a story through. Too often (and I’ve experienced this firsthand) editors at college newspapers are swamped with trying to get stories out and make sure they have enough content to fill their section, let alone focus on creating really decent in-depth content. If you require an editor to write four to five stories a week and put out a decent section and expect them to produce quality journalism, you’ll be disappointed quickly.
2. Use Volunteers: A better way to produce quality journalism is to utilize volunteer writers, like the Daily Pennsylvanian did with this story about basketball player Tyler Bernardini that paid homage to this famous profile of Frank Sinatra. Although it can be difficult to find volunteers with the kind of talent and willingness to write for free, it’s immensely helpful because they can focus solely on the story, rather than on the actual production process.
3. Use documents: As mentioned in this post by the Oregon Daily Emerald’s auxiliary site The Garage, documents can serve as a great starting point and evidence for investigative pieces. They can serve as an excellent and usually reliable basis on which to begin interviewing and investigating contentious subjects.

Breaking: ASUN Senator resigns over racist tweet

Image courtesy of nevadaasun.com

Reynolds School of Journalism senator Spenser Blank resigned today due to a racist tweet he sent out last weekend, prompting ASUN officials to immediately apologize and host a public forum next week to hear from students.

Blank’s resignation comes directly on the heels of its appearance in the semesterly Coffin and Keys newsletter, which published a screenshot of the tweet (See the tweet here). At the time of writing, Blank appears to have deleted his Twitter feed, and has not announced anything on his senate Facebook page (Editor’s Note: It appears that Blank deleted his facebook page as well)

In a statement released today, ASUN President Huili Weinstock announced a public forum will be held Monday at 2 p.m. for students to hear concerns from students, and that ASUN’s mandatory sexual harassment training will be bumped to the government’s general retreat over summer.

“I would like to apologize directly to anyone who may have been offended  by the content of the tweet,” Weinstock said. “Students have come forward and expressed their concerns. I would like to say ASUN does not support this kind of speech.”

Blank was elected to his position by about a 4 to 1 ratio during the ASUN elections in March, and the process to appoint a replacement senator should begin in the upcoming fall semester. In a statement released today, Blank apologized for his actions and pledged to atone for his mistake in his future actions

“Words cannot express enough how sincerely sorry I am for the actions I’ve taken that hurt my constituents in the Reynolds School of Journalism and every other student who was offended by what I said,” he said in the statement. “I am taking full responsibility for my actions and I plan to personally apologize to the groups of people who have approached me.”

This isn’t the first social media controversy ASUN has faced: several years ago, Inkblot employee Nicole Dion was fired after tweeting about a University police incident.

How the Sagebrush graphic of the ASUN budget ended up more confusing than the actual budget

Although I’ve never claimed to be a graphic design expert, I do believe that I have the ability to tell a good infographic from a bad one. And man, last week’s Nevada Sagebrush graphic on the proposed ASUN budget was not good at all. Here’s what it looked like (page link is here).

Image courtesy of The Nevada Sagebrush

Where to begin?

• What am I looking at?: This graphic looks like it’s been pulled out of a high school chemistry book. In addition to no visual elements beyond basic geometric shapes, the graph just looks boring. Same-ish text types, no eye-catching colors or images and way too much white space. This is not visually appealing at all.
• What does it mean?: It took me a few minutes to figure out what exactly was going on. Apparently, the vertical axis represents the change in dollar amount from the last year, while the horizontal axis shows the percent change from the past year. The bubbles are the largest changes in the budget (but the Budget and Finance and Student Activities Center don’t have one??) with the size of the bubble representing the portion of the total budget. So that’s three different pieces of information all crammed into one smallish space. It’s confusing as hell, and isn’t very self-explanatory; hallmarks of any good infographic. (Also, bubble charts suck. Read this)
• Explanation: Ok, so after studying this graphic for about 10 minutes, I think I understand the information conveyed within. But what the hell does it mean? Why was more money given to Campus Escort? Why did the Budget and Finance section lose so much money? What is the ASUN Student Activities Center? What’s the actual dollar amount in the budget for 2013? What does all of the other money go towards? Graphics such as these can work as long as they’re accompanied by an explanatory text element, but what you see is all you get. I could easily get more information faster and easier from the actual pdf submission of the budget than from this graph.

This isn’t the first time the Sagebrush has goofed on a graphic, and while this graph doesn’t appear to misinform, its structure and layout is confusing as hell. Graphic design is an incredibly important part of newspaper production, as interesting and informative infographics and design can help a story come alive and look better than just words on a paper. But it needs to be done well for that to happen, and unfortunately the Sagebrush missed an opportunity to tell a pretty decent ASUN budget story here. Instead, we get this graphic, and are forced to either look through the official documents themselves or just ignore the issue entirely. It’s a failure to report and a failure to tell a story that needs to be told accurately and clearly.