Adviser was veteran of 22 years at Arkansas State

By Debra Chandler Landis
Editor, CMR

The tributes to the late Bonnie Thrasher continued to flow. Colleagues posted on the College Media Association listserv. Thrasher’s students at Arkansas State University, where she taught and advised The Herald for 22 years, produced a special edition in her honor. A journalism graduate of Arkansas State praised Thrasher’s tough-minded journalistic ways but also fondly called her a fellow “cat lady,” referring to the numerous felines Thrasher rescued over the years.

Thrasher, vice president of the CMA who also held positions of CMA secretary and treasurer, was active in several professional journalism organizations. She died in her sleep at home on March 31, with the Arkansas State University College of Media and Communication posting on its Facebook page: “We are saddened to announce the passing of our beloved faculty member, colleague, mentor and friend Ms. Bonnie Thrasher. Kind words and positive thoughts to her family, friends and students in this difficult time.”

Between news of Thrasher’s death and an ensuing memorial service , CMA members, writing on the CMA listserv, painted a portrait with their words of a smart, dedicated, and witty colleague known as much for her dedication to journalism as for being a role model with straightforward talk accented by a lovely Southern accent.

Continue reading “Colleagues, students, others salute the late Bonnie Thrasher”

A-STATE HERALD PUBLISHES TRIBUTES FROM STUDENTS, COLLEAGUES

College Media Association Vice President Bonnie Thrasher, 53, of Jonesboro, Arkansas, died March 31, 2015 at her home.

Born July 7, 1961 in St. Charles, Missouri to Bill and Beverly Thrasher, Bonnie resided the last 22 years in Jonesboro after spending time in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and Starkville, Mississippi where she attended college and graduate school. She was of the Baptist belief.

She was a member of the Arkansas State Media Board and adviser to the A State Herald. She served the national College Media Association in numerous volunteer positions, as secretary, treasurer and as Vice President at the time of her death.  Continue reading “Bonnie Thrasher, 1961-2015: CMA vice president”

Here’s a Baker’s Dozen ways to get and improve your visual content

By Robert G. Nulph

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A student sits in front of her editing set-up. On one side of her desk is a sandwich piled so high it would make Jared proud; at her feet sits a 44-ounce big drink guaranteed to quench her thirst; and on the other side, sits a rainbow of SD cards.

Now, this could be a great dream, or the true definition of hell. It all depends on the work she does before she enters the field as well as during a shoot.

When instructing students in a practicum or lab setting, it’s hard to convince them to plan. They just want to jump in and presume they will land well, the heck with planning ahead! And for the first assignment, it’s tempting to let them run out the classroom door without planning and seeing how they land in that editing bay later (“miserable!”), learning a hard lesson about not planning. Such a lesson is similar to teaching News Writing students who don’t do their research in advance of their interviews. Continue reading “Great visuals are all part of a plan…”

The Media ‘New Kid on the Block’ is still evolving

By Kelly Johnson

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Over the last five years, journalists and their media outlets have been traversing the social media frontier, experimenting sometimes with abandon, eager to find or afraid to miss the latest helpful tool for bolstering news delivery, revenue and audience engagement and expansion.

Certainly, some uses of some social media platforms are paying off. Facebook and Twitter have become the standard, obligatory social media platforms, with Twitter key for distributing and teasing news and Facebook for developing and maintaining relationships with and engaging audiences. That’s where most outlets attract the most views.  Continue reading “Boldly going where no social media has gone before”

College media research the focus of Vol. 51

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By Bob Bergland
Missouri Western State University

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Welcome to the second College Media Review Research Annual. Although College Media Review remains in an online format, we once again are compiling all of the year’s research into an annual publication, in PDF form and also available in hard copy as a print-on-demand book.

The continued presence of the Research Annual is critical in three main ways. First and foremost, it serves as a vehicle for disseminating key research about the field. This research answers many questions both new and experienced advisers have about how college media operates outside of their campuses. Those who follow the CMA listserv know that it is peppered with questions from advisers about issues such as editor pay, content, advertising and ethics. As with last year’s edition, this Research Annual is able to answer some of those questions, providing hard data for editors, advisers and deans, going beyond just anecdotal examples. Second, this journal also provides a publication outlet for CMA members. While a few other journals have published some studies about college media, there is no friendlier home for such research than College Media Review, and no place that encourages such diverse methodologies. Having this Annual be available in print form also helps scholars who are at institutions stuck in the 20th Century who are not as accepting of online journals for promotion and tenure consideration, even if those articles are peer-reviewed. Finally, the continued existence of College Media Review and \ the Research Annual and CMA in general (the Nordin Award for research, the CMA conventions and the CMA slot at the AEJMC convention) help promote future research—sort of a “if you build it, they will come” approach, except, of course, that College Media Review has been around for more than half a century. Hopefully that future research will answer more questions posed on the listserv and elsewhere. Continue reading “Research Annual released for 2013-14”

Students more tolerant of digital photo manipulation of graphic, spot news images in college media

By Bradley Wilson, Ph.D.
Midwestern State University

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Introduction — At two national college media conventions, advisers filled the room to talk about policy development, policies ranging from when to refuse advertising to how readers can submit letters to the editor to what types of manipulation can be done to photojournalistic images and when. The advisers in each of the sessions were not the only ones indicating they wanted help developing some or better policies for such situations. Indeed, only 17 percent of respondents — and only 20 percent of college media advisers — to the survey at the foundation of this research indicated they had any policies regarding the digital manipulation of such images, a clear indication that there is room for the development of guidelines and sample policies for colleges and universities to use as a starting point. The results of this survey showed students were much more tolerant of significant digital manipulation than either advisers or professionals demonstrating need for training, discussion and clear wording of ethical principles and guidelines. Whether dealing with basic photojournalistic ethics or digital ethics, both photographs from the 2013 Boston Marathon and the abundance of prior literature provide a specific case study for discussion.

Continue reading “Research (Vol. 51): Digital Ethics in an age of instantaneous publication”

How Student Journalists Use Email in the Newsroom

Sara Baker Netzley
Bradley University 

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Abstract 
This article examines the way in which student journalists use email on the job. College students working at campus newspapers across the country participated in an online survey asking them how often they use email to conduct certain newsgathering tasks, including using email to conduct interviews with sources. It also asked about their perceptions of the quality of such interviews and their use of social media such as Facebook and Twitter. The findings could have implications for how these students will conduct themselves in professional settings upon graduation and how journalism educators should approach this topic in the classroom.

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Efforts to serve their communities strengthening

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Editor’s note: This is the second in a two-part series examining the state of college media advising. The first part discussed the role of the adviser, salary/compensation packages and job status. This part profiles student media operations, including demographics, budgets, financing support, and staffing.

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By Lillian Lodge Kopenhaver
Associate Editor, CMR

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At no time in the evolution of college student media has change been so rapid or provided so many questions and challenges as today. Nor is any media operation immune from the effects of this change.

Newspapers command the status of the most numerous of campus student media, and, as such, have been affected to a greater extent by the changes in the way we deliver information today, just as professional newspapers have faced growing challenges.

Caroline Little, CEO of the Newspaper Association of America, commented, “Newspapers continue to command a huge audience and remain the most-trusted source of news and information. While that will not change, there has been a key shift in the way information is delivered and audience is engaged” (Little, 2014).

Continue reading “Research (Vol. 52): Campus media reflect changing information landscape”

Is there a doctor in the newsroom?

Carol Terracina-Hartman
Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania
Robert G. Nulph
Missouri Western State University 

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Abstract 
This study looks at campus media programs nationwide, focusing on the roles of campus media advisers and skills instructors and their credentials and relationships with award-winning program. Data show a strong majority of advisers leading award-winning programs have 15+ years working in professional media. Additionally, non-terminal degree holders teach 67 percent of skills classes related to campus media participation. But, the literature indicates university administrations often sacrifice professional media experience for doctorates in advertising for new hires. As survey responses and prior research indicate, increasing numbers of advisers compose their own job descriptions; data collected in this new line of research has potential to alter administrative definitions and classifications of adviser and skills instructor positions.

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Faring Well Despite Uncertain Times

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Editor’s Note: This is the first in a two-part series on college media advising. This first article discusses the role of the adviser, salary/compensation packages and job  characteristics. Part 2 will appear next week and profiles student media operations, including demographics, budgets, financing support, and staffing.

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By Lillian Lodge Kopenhaver
Associate Editor, CMR

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As the song says, “The times they are a-changin’”(1964). And that is true of the college and university student media scene as well.

The three decades since this survey was first conducted have witnessed tremendous changes in the way student media advisers do their jobs and in the way the media themselves deliver the message. The biggest change, of course, is in the media themselves which these individuals advise.

In order to trace those changes, over the past three decades the College Media Association has regularly surveyed its membership to provide longitudinal data on the role, responsibilities, working conditions, compensation and status of college and university student media advisers in the U.S. These surveys request data about the media operations they advise as well. This is the eighth survey in that series; the first was in 1984, followed by replications roughly every four years up to this one in 2014. Continue reading “Research (Vol. 51): College Student Media Advisers Fare Well”