Christian university takes on national politics

FloridaCoerageEdit — Coverage amidst the Palm trees: (from left) Ryan Teason, Aaron Broghamer and Brent Primus.

Student journalists take on presidential political coverage in Florida

By Danielle Mendocha
Palm Beach Atlantic University

Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Ben Carson and Marco Rubio dropped by the neighborhood the other day along with the national and international press.

Providing news coverage were The New York Times, CNN, a Japanese TV network… and journalists from Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach, Fla.

These days PBAU journalism students are covering national politics for the campus press and the nearby Cox daily newspaper and building portfolio credits along the way.

“Student portfolios that include only parking and cafeteria woes aren’t the kind of content that typically impresses an employer,” noted PBAU journalism professor Michael Ray Smith, author of “7 Days to a Byline that Pays.” “The dean suggested that PBA’s journalism program get off campus and cover the news, and what better venue than the U.S. presidential race?’

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NYC Shoot-out: Students of CMA

Photographers given opportunity to reflect on conference attendees

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By Bradley Wilson
CMR Managing Editor

I couldn’t be at the College Media Association convention in New York City this spring. It was just bad timing the week before our spring break. Yet I knew there would be an enthusiastic group of students wanting to participate in the Shoot-out. Jack Zibluk again stepped up to help with the administration.

But I wanted to get a feel for what I was missing. So working with Brandon Stanton’s basic reporting concepts in Humans of New York, I tweaked the assignment to challenge the students so we could all have a little fun and learn a little more about our conference attendees as well.

Just based on the results, I’d say everyone had a little fun and learned something in the process. It was good to see that the students had time to get out of the hotel, visiting different parts of the city that never sleeps. The top entries made me feel like I was there.

But they went beyond that. The best entries also gave me some insight into the individuals who attended the convention. The write-ups didn’t take a shot-gun approach, telling me a little about a lot. They took an in-depth approach, as Stanton does, telling a lot about a tiny piece of the person’s life. If there was ever a time to exercise what a friend of mine used to say — “If you have five minutes to take a person’s photo, spend three minutes getting to know them and two minutes taking their picture. — this is it. Get to know them. Pick one interesting aspect of their life and tell me more about that.
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Reflections on a learning experience in Vietnam

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Jay Hartwell, Fulbright scholar and CMA member, reflects on what he brought to Vietnam—and what he learned

Workshop_Graduation_photo — Jay Hartwell and big smiles from the class.

Jay Hartwell has been advising student media programs at the University of Hawaii at Manoa campus since 1997 after working eight years as a general assignment reporter in Honolulu and six years researching and writing a book about contemporary native Hawaiian culture. In 2013-2014, he received a 10-month, Fulbright Scholar grant to set up a student media program at Hue University in Vietnam. College Media Review spoke with him about the experience and his interest in Vietnam.

CMR: What prompted your interest in Vietnam?

Hartwell: I returned to Hawaii to work as a journalist in 1980 but never traveled to Asia until spring break in 2012, when my own children were grown up and out of the house. For three weeks, I stayed with a Vietnamese family whose daughter my family had hosted in Honolulu six summers earlier. I spent all my time in Hue in central Vietnam, because I wanted to learn more than I could by city hopping. While helping the family at its private school for three weeks, I asked their daughter to accompany me to Hue University of Sciences that has a journalism program. Through her translation, they requested a lecture on Hawaii journalism education for their 400 students. I put one together in a few days and during the Q&A, a student asked, “How are we supposed to get jobs if we don’t have any experience?”

That’s when I got the idea for a Fulbright grant and a Hue workshop during the upcoming Christmas break. I had 15 years with experiential learning through my university’s student media program. Our staffers get internships and jobs. Vietnam uses lectures to teach students who need/want hands-on experience to get jobs. I proposed a two-week, news magazine workshop for the Hue students during Christmas, then setting up a student media program through newspaper and magazine production classes at Hue University through the Fulbright Scholar program. The workshop succeed; Fulbright accepted; Hue agreed to have me with modifications to the proposal, and the process began in August 2013 when I moved in with the family whose daughter we had hosted.

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Getting it Right: Muslims, their stories, and your news staffs

Students do “poster sessions” in class putting a writing-and-graphics approach to their encounter with someone of another culture and language. The whiteboard poster practice led to a final poster session where they had to combine the story of their own ethnic journey with the ones they found in their feature reporting and writing.

Campus media can tell stories of Muslims in ways that help build better understanding of life for these students

By Michael A. Longinow
Biola University

Syed Rizwan Farook walked the campus of California State University in San Bernardino like any other student. Friends remember him as quiet but friendly. He was smart. He finished high school early by testing out of requirements. He made the dean’s list at CSUSB and earned an undergraduate degree in 2010 in environmental health, according to the campus university’s newspaper. But five years later, he and his wife, a woman he’d met on a Muslim pilgrimage in the Middle East, took automatic weapons into a holiday party at a county services building and killed 14 people, wounding 21 others before being killed themselves in a gun battle with police, according to the Washington Post.

Newsweek called this young man and his wife “Terror’s New Face.” Each had, in their own way, taken center stage as a “homegrown extremist.” And the result, on college campuses, was a renewed set of fears about danger and risk from students based on what they look like, what they believe, and where they — or their family — grew up, according to coverage Dec. 5 in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Can campus media stop radicalization of Muslims on their campuses, or nearby? Can it, all by itself, bridge the chasms of suspicion between Muslim students and those on American campuses nationwide? Probably not. But it can tell the stories of Muslims in ways that help build better understanding of life for these students. And the time for that is now — or yesterday.

There is no easy fix for campus newspapers to report on, write about, and provide ongoing coverage of Muslims in the Post-San Bernardino era. And the steps might seem easy. What makes them difficult is more a matter of the mind and heart than of technique.

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Book Review: ‘Beyond News: The Future of Journalism’

Author: news not in crisis; way journalists are trained is

By Carolyn Schurr Levin
Stony Brook University

In his enlightening and forward thinking book, “Beyond News: The Future of Journalism,” Mitchell Stephens, a professor of journalism at New York University, argues with great conviction that after “more than a century and a half of selling the latest facts, journalists need to sell something else.”

2016_Beyondjournalism_Book There is “not much of a living in hawking that which is given away free” on the Internet, Stephens continues. Because facts, news and information are pouring out on “our laptops, our tablets, our smart phones,” the era when humankind “hungered after information, after facts, after news,” has ended, Stevens argues. And, so, he concludes, we must now train and allow our best journalists to provide “a wise take on what’s going on,” what he aptly calls “wisdom journalism” – journalism that strengthens our understanding of the world.

Stephens forcefully argues that it’s not the news that is in crisis. It’s the way that journalists are trained to collect and present that news.

“Like a lot of ideas,” Stephens said in a recent interview with the College Media Review, the idea of wisdom journalism “challenges something that we take for granted, which is what journalism is and does,” the 19^th and 20th century notion that journalists are primarily collectors of facts. He questions “the continued clinging to this notion,” because, he writes, “Newspapers, newsreels, and newscasts . . . rank high among the forces that spurred modernism and postmodernism in the 20th century.” Continue reading “Book Review: ‘Beyond News: The Future of Journalism’”

Quate’s love of journalism spanned into her 80s

Retired adviser dies in Florida; had been affiliated with CMA since early days

Special to CMR

The late Shirley Quate’s love of journalism spanned decades—from her teen years, which found her working for her high school newspaper in Muncie, Indiana, and writing a column for the local paper, to being a member of a writing group in her 80s. As a journalism educator, she taught, advised, was active in college media associations, and retired as a professor emeritus of journalism.

A celebration of life service will be held at a later date for Quate, who died Jan. 28 at her home in Port Saint Lucie, Florida, according to her obituary, published on Legacy.com.

“She was an excellent teacher, leader, worker and friend,” said Lesley W. Marcello of Quate, who held offices with the National Council of College Press Advisers, the predecessor to the College Media Association, and also worked with CMA.

Quate held a master’s degree and doctorate from Purdue University. While teaching writing and literature as a professor at the Indianapolis campus of Purdue, Quate was also tasked with founding the student newspaper.

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Student journalists tackle national campaign coverage

Reporting stories for national, regional and college media

While voters trek to the polls in New Hampshire today, college media advisers from Missouri and Oklahoma reflect on the efforts of students in covering last week’s Iowa caucuses.

NWMS_CaucusCrew — The Caucus Coverage Crew from Northwest Missouri State (Via Twitter at #NWPolitics)

Northwest Missouri State University students, Steven Chappell go to Iowa

Steven Chappell, director of student publications and multimedia instructor at Northwest Missouri State University, and his political journalism class saw the Iowa caucuses up close and personal—as in covering and producing stories for the campus media at Northwest Missouri, located in Maryville.

A university grant helped cover transportation, lodging and other expenses, he said.

To see the students’ work, here are links Chappell provided:

This link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm0faj6jUBbJbcwoY5sEfjA connects to our video packages on YouTube.
This link: http://www.nwmissourinews.com/news/politics/?refresh004 connects to our Missourian newspaper coverage
The KNWT Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/WatchChannelEightNews/
The hashtags: #NWCaucus and #NWPolitics were used for all of our Twitter coverage.

Oklahoma students cover Iowa caucuses

The University of Oklahoma Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication sent 14 students to cover the Iowa caucuses, according to John Schmeltzer, professor and Engleman/Livermore chair in Community Journalism.

“They were there from Jan. 17 and returned to campus on Feb. 2. All the stories have revolved around the millennial involvement in this year’s election,” Schmeltzer said in an e-mail.

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Ethics conference honors Walter Cronkite, ‘the most trusted man in America’

Bob Bergland introduces a panel at the Walter Cronkite Conference on Media Ethics. Panelists discussed "Ethics in the Trenches" and included Derek Donavan, public editor of the Kansas City Star; Bridget Blevins, news Director of KQ2 television; Greg Kozol, digital content director of the St. Joseph News-Press; Ross Martin, editor of the Platte County Citizen and Adam Waltz, anchor and producer at Fox 26 KNPN. Photo by Bradley Wilson — Bob Bergland introduces a panel at the Walter Cronkite Conference on Media Ethics. Panelists discussed “Ethics in the Trenches” and included Derek Donavan, public editor of the Kansas City Star; Bridget Blevins, news Director of KQ2 television; Greg Kozol, digital content director of the St. Joseph News-Press; Ross Martin, editor of the Platte County Citizen and Adam Waltz, anchor and producer at Fox 26 KNPN. Photo by Bradley Wilson

By Bradley Wilson
CMR Managing Editor

In an era where decisions to cover something and to publish something can be made in second, not hours or days, college educators — and working journalists — continue to struggle with how to teach ethics and what to teach. Clearly, it is more than giving students a link to a code of ethics and putting them out on the streets.

To foster education in media ethics, Missouri Western State University hosted the Cronkite Conference on Media Ethics for the second year including academic presentations, panel discussions, lectures and open discussions on various aspects of ethics.

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Review: ‘Dynamics of Media Writing: Adapt and Connect’

Book finds common ground among writing styles for print, web, promotions, advertising and marketing

By Lindsey Wotanis
Marywood University

Anyone who has taught a required basic news writing and reporting course that serves as a core requirement for all communication majors—from journalism students to those in public relations, advertising, marketing, or even film—has likely heard the familiar groan, which is usually followed by a question like:

dynamics of media writing “Why do I need to take a news writing course if I’m studying for a career in marketing?”

The answer: Because in order to work well with others and achieve specific writing goals, media professionals need to understand the style and mission of their colleagues’ writing goals.

Beginning students often just don’t get it, but media writing teachers like Vince Filak do. Filak must have been sick of explaining this notion to students—and sick of hearing his colleagues groan about all the groaning—because he’s just published a new textbook called “Dynamics of Media Writing: Adapt and Connect” from CQ Press which is likely to help alleviate the frustration.

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