Five Copy Editing Tools

Resources focus on improved skills

By Carol Terracina Hartman
CMR Managing Editor

Doesn’t it happen to all professors that outside voices validate what we preach via PowerPoint, Brightspace Capture-hosted videos and small-group exercises? And sometimes those external sources drive it home just a bit further and ignite a flame.

We’ve all experienced it: a student runs in to our classroom, breathless, eyes glowing. A candle of inspiration has been lit.

“I just learned this new technique for composition. It’s called Rule of Thirds,” she exclaims. “It’s gonna totally change my photography.”

OK …

Toes tapping. Drawing on every possible reserve for patience.

How many weeks spent on this topic?

Fast forward: debriefing week after Dallas ACP conference.

“I just learned there is no hate speech exception to the First Amendment. This is totally gonna change our editorial next edition.”

Continue reading “Five Copy Editing Tools”

Review: ‘College Media: Learning in Action’

Anthology of essays edited by Gregory Adamo and Allan DiBiase

Reviewed by Carolyn Schurr Levin

In a time when college media budgets are being cut, access to information is increasingly difficult to obtain, and continued presence on campus seems precarious at best, many college media advisers are faced with having to justify not just their own positions, but often the very existence of the media outlets they advise. “College Media: Learning in Action,” an anthology of essays edited by Gregory Adamo and Allan DiBiase (2017), provides a plethora of arguments for not only the quintessential importance of college media outlets, but also for strengthening and investing in them for the future.

Adamo, an associate professor in the School of Global Journalism and Communications at Morgan State University in Baltimore, and DiBiase, who has taught philosophy and the philosophy of education at several universities, have collected research and essays from  college media advisers, professors, journalists, former journalists, and others to detail “the variety of ways students learn through participation in” college media, thus justifying “support of these rich, alternative learning opportunities.” Because, the editors argue, colleges today are increasingly assessing, and questioning, their commitment to this kind of learning, “it becomes increasingly important to understand and describe what happens in these unique spaces lest they become assimilated into more ubiquitous templates for learning or eliminated completely.” The goal of this anthology should be cause for jubilation for the ever-increasing number of college media advisers who face diminished funding and wavering administrative support. This book provides valuable data to bolster arguments for the future of both the advisers and the media outlets. Continue reading “Review: ‘College Media: Learning in Action’”

Communicating with millennials in the newsroom and classroom

Shifting preferences for technology use, abbreviated word choices

By Carol Terracina Hartman
CMR Managing Editor 

Molly Ivins’ earliest collection of essays, titled “Molly Ivins can’t say that, can she?” (1991) highlighted an era of communication in which we questioned the manner and mode of commentary about public officials and each other.

Flckr Creative Commons

Now with the growth of a generation in our classrooms that is less inclined to speak to or call each other by phone and more inclined to “snap” or “tweet” each other, communication styles and mannerisms direct this question toward our classrooms: “can they say that?” and conversely, “can we say that?”

We attribute the changes in politeness and acceptability to technology use – and abbreviated word choices – and decrease in oral communication. Doesn’t everyone say “please” in a text?

We’ve addressed this trend in multiple CMA sessions the last three national fall conventions. Jane De Roche, of Mira Costa College, raised this question in a 2016 CMA session in Washington, D.C., asking, “how do we respond to millennials in class when they say ….?”

Continue reading “Communicating with millennials in the newsroom and classroom”

Learn about publishing opportunities at spring CMA convention session

Spring Convention is March 7-10 in NYC

By Lisa Lyon Payne
CMR Editor

Advisers interested in dipping their toes in the academic research waters of college media are invited to attend a session on publishing opportunities in College Media Review at the CMA Spring National College Media Convention in New York March 7-10.

The session is designed to encourage and motivate both established and emerging scholars to consider a contribution to CMA’s research journal. For those interested in the idea of research, but unsure where or how to start, consider the following five ideas to jump start your scholarship: Continue reading “Learn about publishing opportunities at spring CMA convention session”