December 2018 – College Media Review

Diversity in college media — action plan and resources

Developing a Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan

By Rachele Kanigel

San Francisco State University

Keyshawn Housey (left) and Peter Egede (right) lead a march on Georgia Southern University’s campus on Oct. 19, 2018 to protest the university’s response to a student’s use of the N-word in a text correspondence with her assigned roommates. (Special to CMR) Click here for related story.

Want to improve your coverage of underrepresented communities and the issues that impact them?

Here’s an action plan and important resources to help you get your student media staff ready.

Continue reading “Diversity in college media — action plan and resources”

Increased incidents and hate crimes pose challenges for student journalists

Up Next: An action plan and resources on how to improve diversity opportunities in campus newsrooms. Coming next Tuesday in CMR.

Covering Bigotry on Campus

By Rachele Kanigel

San Francisco State University

Matthew Enfinger, editor-in-chief of *The George-Anne* at Georgia Southern University, reads the newspaper’s special issue exploring the campus community’s responses to the N-word. (Special to CMR)

Last summer, before they even met, two roommates at Georgia Southern University introduced themselves and started chatting over text. It all seemed friendly until one young woman, who is White*, inadvertently wrote this to her soon-to-be roommate, who is Black:

Her insta looks pretty normal not too nig—ish.

The message was intended for a third roommate who was assigned to share the room with them. Mortified, the woman who sent the text immediately apologized.

“OMG I am so sorry! Holy crap,” she wrote. “I did NOT mean to say that. … I meant to say triggerish meaning like you seemed really cool nothing that triggered a red flag. I’m so embarrassed I apologize.”

But the apology didn’t stop the text conversation from going viral. Before long screenshots of the exchange were all over social media.

Matthew Enfinger, editor-in-chief of The George-Anne, the student newspaper at Georgia Southern University, recognized the incident as a news story, but also as an opportunity to delve into the deeper issues it represented.

Continue reading “Increased incidents and hate crimes pose challenges for student journalists”

The art of branding and marketing college media

Shorthorn marketing team: two members of the marketing team, Javeria Arshad and Matt Weseman handing out copies of The Shorthorn on campus. (Photo: Adam Drew)

There’s an art to many aspects of marketing

By Debra Chandler Landis

Students at Messiah College in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, didn’t seem as engaged—or interested—in The Pulse, a student-run media hub comprised of a website, magazine, yearbook and radio station as the student journalists wanted to see.

Pulse branding literally can fly through the air.

Copies of the magazine, published three times a semester, remained on racks. The website, regularly updated with new content, wasn’t generating the anticipated conversations. Response to freebies with The Pulse logo was lackluster.

Something needed to change, Pulse staffers said, and adviser Ed Arke encouraged them to see what they could do.

The students embarked on a rebranding and marketing campaign in spring 2018 that found them designing a new logo, overhauling The Pulse website, and creating new Pulse posters and brochures that were in place when fall 2018 classes started.

The work is paying off. Continue reading “The art of branding and marketing college media”