College Media Review

Combatting stress on the job…

Advisers deploy different strategies to try to maintain a healthy balance in their lives

By Susan Smith
South Dakota State University

Most jobs come with some level of stress, and advising a student media group is no exception. Advisers cope with that stress in a number of ways, from finding a good work/life balance to making sure students are trained to deal with day-to-day crises themselves.

Stress can bring on headaches, cause teeth grinding and mouth sores and contribute to a number of physical ailments including heart disease, according to Web MD.

Physical, emotional and environmental changes all contribute to stress. These stressors, when unmanaged, can begin to cause health problems or make already unhealthy conditions, like high cholesterol, worse, according to Web MD. Stress is linked to an increased risk of heart disease, but doctors aren’t sure how stress contributes to the illness.

Continue reading “Combatting stress on the job…”

A Journey in College Student Media

Challenges, Opportunities and Implications for the Future

By Lillian Lodge Kopenhaver

Florida International University

Ever since the publication in 1799 of the first college newspaper, the Dartmouth Gazette, and the founding of the oldest college daily in 1878, the Daily News of Yale University, college student media have attempted to mirror their professional counterparts.

With the First Amendment as a cornerstone, student media throughout history have challenged authority, reported the truth about their campus communities, ensured an accurate portrayal of facts, and sought to provide the public with information they need.

And—importantly—they have served as the foundation for the journalists of the future to train, practice and perfect their craft.

Continue reading “A Journey in College Student Media”

I’ve graduated… now what?

An outlook of employment opportunities in the mass communication industry

By Kyle J. Miller
Dr. Charles A. Lubbers
University of South Dakota

The employment outlook in any field is dictated by the balance of supply and demand. However, the available supply of college graduates and the demand for the graduates to fill a particular job category in a field can vary greatly.

According to a 2012 study by Becker, Vlad and Kalpen, 51,784 bachelor’s degrees were granted in the U.S. in 2011, and that number was only slightly larger than the year before. They also noted that during 2011, 203,561 students were enrolled in bachelor’s programs, a decline of .05 percent from the year before.

Undergraduate students are studying a growing number of specializations within the mass communication field. This reflects changes in the terms used to describe the specializations, as well as a growth in those areas as a result of newer technologies. As noted in Table 1, journalism, once the dominant specialization in the field, now accounts for slightly less than 30 percent of the students. The next largest group of students is located in strategic communication programs. Students studying radio/television generally made up 4.9 percent. Clearly the concentration of students is located in the areas of journalism and strategic communications, with significantly smaller numbers in the telecommunications field.

Continue reading “I’ve graduated… now what?”

Niche publications deliver something for everyone

By Jessica Clary
Savannah College of Art and Design Atlanta

By nature, all university publications are niche publications. The audience is typically hyper-local, similarly educated and knowledgeable about the same topics. A college newspaper article uses terms and vernacular specific to that college when describing traditions and nicknames.

College newspapers aren’t USA Today, and they shouldn’t be. They should be broad enough to deliver something for the entire campus population.

Continue reading “Niche publications deliver something for everyone”

Research: Student journalists’ use of student media

Sender-receiver, receiver-sender: A uses-and-gratifications study of student journalists’ use of social media

Vincent F. Filak
University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh

ResearchFilak — CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD RESEARCH PDF

Abstract: Uses and gratifications theory posits that audience members select media to satisfy specific needs. Social media, however, have allowed media users to select both media to consume and what media to produce/share.

This study of student journalists (n=285) revealed differences between the importance of specific gratifications in terms of what participants consumed and what they shared.

Additionally, the study examines which gratifications were most important in forming a positive attitude toward social media.

Being prepared when calamity strikes…

How College Media Can Plan For the Worst

By Carolyn Schurr Levin

In December 2012, College Media Review reported about the effects of Hurricane Sandy on the Pioneer at LIU Post on Long Island, and the College Voice at Mercer County Community College in New Jersey. Both campuses shut down, students were sent home, power was lost for days and publishing the student newspapers was, to put it mildly, a challenge.

Coping with disaster... Long Island University and Mercer County Community College. Background photo Brian Birke, Creative Commons. — Disaster and emergency planning can help media prepare for the unexpected. (Background photo Brian Birke, Creative Commons).

In the case of the Pioneer, the outside printing company for the newspaper couldn’t have printed the paper even if it had had power; it lost its roof to the storm. The 2012 CMR article, “When Disaster Strikes A College Community,” advised college media organizations to make contingency plans in the event of an unanticipated catastrophe similar to Hurricane Sandy.

Yet, over a year later, an informal email survey of college media advisers suggests that many organizations do not yet have such contingency plans.

Continue reading “Being prepared when calamity strikes…”

Working with that sports Info director behind the curtain…

CMR_sports-info-athletics_directors — Alex Johnson, Cartoonist, UIS Journal

By Justin Schneewind

Needing prior permission to interview college athletes and coaches has become the norm rather than the exception for college and professional sports journalists, who must often first go through the school’s sports information director or athletic director.

That goes for in-depth pieces and after-game interviews, in-person interviews, texts, e-mails, Facebook and other forms of communication.

Sports information directors, with the blessings of their athletic directors, are increasingly forbidding journalists to communicate with players or coaches unless the communication has been arranged first by the sports information director or other one of the sports information director’s staff.

Continue reading “Working with that sports Info director behind the curtain…”

Assessment: More than just a dirty word

By Kay L. Colley

Texas Wesleyan University

College Media Review - 3 Advisors V3

Assessment: Just the mere mention of the word can send chills up and down the spine of any new or seasoned student media adviser. Whispered in hushed tones or thrown around as an expletive, this 10-letter word connotes educational balderdash, busywork and just plain wrong-headedness to many in the ranks of college media. But much like student media advisers are misunderstood by administrators, assessment is misunderstood by many student media advisers.

According to the National Academy for Academic Leadership, assessment is a process that describes the current situation of a person, program or unit providing evidence of this analysis. Assessment involves goals or outcomes, processes and inputs. Some assessment methods can include surveys, focus groups, portfolios and direct observation with multiple assessment methods being the preferred way to demonstrate meeting goals or outcomes. Continue reading “Assessment: More than just a dirty word”

Review: “The Good Girls Revolt: How The Women of Newsweek Sued Their Bosses and Changed the Workplace” By Lynn Povich

Reviewed by Carolyn Schurr Levin

The year 2012 was a big one for Newsweek. After 79 years in print, the venerable newsmagazine published its last print issue on Dec. 31, 2012, transitioning to an all-digital format in early 2013. The move reflected the challenges of a weekly publication in a world with a 24-hour news cycle, print advertising revenue declines and a growing online audience. Perhaps as significantly as Newsweek’s digital transition, in late 2012, former Newsweek staffer Lynn Povich published The Good Girls Revolt: How the Women of Newsweek Sued Their Bosses and Changed the Workplace, her detailed chronicle of the 1970 lawsuit that she brought, along with 45 other women, charging the newsmagazine with discrimination in hiring and promoting women. That lawsuit, Povich convincingly argues in her recent book, “has become a legacy for the young women who followed us.”

Continue reading “Review: “The Good Girls Revolt: How The Women of Newsweek Sued Their Bosses and Changed the Workplace” By Lynn Povich”

Newspaper thefts, censorship efforts, roadblocks to public records and more: A Q&A with Frank LoMonte

Compiled by Susan Smith, media adviser at South Dakota State University

Illustration credit: Alexander Johnson, University of Illinois-Springfield.

A record number of college newspapers were reported stolen in 2012, and while fewer have been stolen in 2013, such thefts continue, according to Frank LoMonte, executive director of the Student Press Law Center.

Meanwhile, Hazelwood was cited in a case where a college refused to allow a student to student teach because of his unorthodox views, and some universities are attempting roadblocks to limit access to records that should be open.

CMR asked LoMonte for his take on such situations. (Please see sidebar for additional resources).

Continue reading “Newspaper thefts, censorship efforts, roadblocks to public records and more: A Q&A with Frank LoMonte”