Category: College Media

Developing a Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan

By Rachele Kanigel

San Francisco State University

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”

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

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”

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.

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”

The latest journalism scandal evokes memories of the man in the street

By Michael Ray Taylor
Henderson State University

On Nov. 8, after a lengthy investigation, the Houston Chronicle retracted eight articles written by political reporter Mike Ward. Many of the people quoted in these articles appear to have been invented. Ward, who joined the paper in 2014 after a long stint at the Austin American-Statesman, resigned in the wake of the accusations after they surfaced in September.

While a far cry from the journalistic norm President Trump would have us believe, fake quotes from fake people have become all too familiar. From the famous cases of Janet Cooke, Jason Blair and Stephen Glass to more recent transgressions discovered at The Intercept and CNN, some “journalists” have in fact chosen to invent people rather than interview them.

As a journalist for over 30 years, I deplore any act reducing press credibility at a time when journalists face daily attacks from the President. As a journalism professor, I worry about the ever-decreasing number of students willing to consider our maligned career. How, I wonder, can I promote ethical behavior in an age of shock radio and Russian trolls, especially when even prominent professionals take heinous shortcuts? Continue reading “Sympathy for the Devil (Almost)”

College Media Review Black Friday doorbuster

Peer reviewed research for sale

College Media Review has slashed prices for its entire library collection of research annuals by 50 percent. At $5 per volume (plus shipping and handling), these beautifully bound annuals make perfect stocking stuffers for the college media research nerds in your life.

Peer-reviewed manuscripts covering topics such as teaching media accuracy, developing tools for cross-cultural student journalism and understanding the Trump effect on student media are included in the 2018 volume, but the price extends to all research annuals dating back to 2012.

This offer extends through the end of the year.

Order here.

P.S. No actual doors were harmed in this Doorbuster special.

 

 

Content drives design. Always.

By Patrick Armstrong
Austin Peay State University

When I first started working in the Nashville Design Studio in 2012, there was an art display that always caught my eye. It was an old newspaper rack door that said “Content Drives Design” and was located in our studio meeting space. You could not miss it. Still to this day, I reflect on it with any design work I do, and any advice I give to my students.

As a designer, I always love viewing bold, powerful art that encourages readers to pick up the newspaper. It’s my belief that interesting and dynamic art such as illustrations and photography will be the reason why someone chooses to pick up a newspaper or not.

It’s in an artist’s DNA to go big, be bold, create something unique and tell a story. But do we always have to blow an idea out on a page to where it’s the only art on the page or runs the full width of a page? The answer is “no.”

Continue reading “Let your content be your guide with design”

An Ethical Analysis of the Trump Effect on Student Media 

Brittany Fleming, Ph.D.
Slippery Rock University

Mark Zeltner, Ph.D.
Slippery Rock University

Cody Nespor, B.S.
University of West Virginia

Abstract: On March 31, 2018, a Pennsylvania state representative used Twitter to confront and challenge the ethics of a student journalist, tweeting “…and then there is the “Editor in Chief” of the student blog/paper @CodyNesporSRU who pushes a lib agenda and [is] a horrible writer” to the feeds of his 5,500+ Twitter followers. Closely resembling the social media etiquette of President Donald Trump, or what we will refer to as the Trump Effect, this post caught the attention of not only the student journalist mentioned in the tweet, but student media advisers and professional journalists across the country. Unfortunately, this type of behavior is becoming more common in our society and student journalists need a framework for dealing with similar issues.

Using a modified version of the Potter Box created by Loy D. Watley (2014) as an analytical framework, this case study examines the aforementioned student journalist’s ethical action and response to the state representative’s tweet. Alternative outcomes to this specific situation will be discussed, as well as recommendations on how to handle the Trump Effect in the future, without harming the reputation of the journalist. Continue reading “Research (Vol. 55): Bullied on Twitter”

The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts, and Fake News

Book By Kevin Young

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Reviewed by Carolyn Schurr Levin

You can be forgiven if the barrage of fake news, accusations of fake news, threats of fake news, and disputes about fake news have sent your head spinning for the past year or two. Since the term fake news has invaded our national conversation only relatively recently, it is entirely understandable to desire to take a step back and learn more about the phenomenon and how we got to where we are. Continue reading “Book Review: Bunk by Kevin Young”

Kickoff set for Louisville conference

By Kelly Messinger

At the ACP/CMA conference in Louisville, CMA will launch its student research program.

Many students conduct some kind of undergraduate capstone experience in media, and that experience could earn a student an Apple Award at the New York City convention in March.

“Student research has been shown to be a high-impact educational practice,” said Kelly Messinger, committee member and adviser at Capital University. “We want to acknowledge traditional and non-traditional kinds of scholarship. Elizabeth R. Smith, Lisa Lyon Payne and I are looking forward to seeing projects students will be submitting. We welcome anyone who wants to help.”

The session, “Grow Your Academic Mullet and Get Rewards: CMA’s Call for Undergrad Research” at 3:30 p.m. Oct. 26 will fill everyone in on the details. The research must pertain to current issues in media and be produced from July 1, 2017 through Dec. 31, 2018.

“A student research initiative by College Media Association is probably long overdue,” said Kenna Griffin, CMA president elect and professor at Oklahoma City University. “Working with students to produce worthwhile academic research is a huge part of what many of our members do. Having a way for students to share their research findings makes sense. I’m excited to see the quality of work we will receive and look forward to watching students present at our New York convention.”

A January 2019 deadline for projects will be announced. Nontraditional research, such as a documentary, would need an accompanying academic paper.