College Media Review

A Case Study of Integrated Student Media

By Patrick Howe and Brady Teufel

Abstract

This study explores the quantifiable and cultural changes that occurred at one large college student media outlet during the five years after it combined several distinct media to form a fully “integrated” newsroom. The study draws on participant observation, in-depth interviews, examinations of web and social media analytics and written analysis performed by student leaders to identify key objectives and outcomes. It explores obstacles, both cultural and technological, that arose, and it identifies opportunities for other college media to serve audiences using a similar approach.

Continue reading “Research (Vol. 56): The Best Medium for the Story”

Papers Accepted until Feb. 1

The College Media Association is accepting submissions by undergraduate students of original, non-published traditional and nontraditional research in the form of either abstracts or research papers on current media issues. Papers will undergo a blind review process, and top research will be presented at the 2019 College Media Association convention in New York March 6-9.

Submission deadline is Feb. 1. The eligible period is for work between July 1, 2017 to Dec. 31, 2018.

Abstracts should be between 250 and 500 words. Full papers should be no longer than 25 pages, excluding references, tables and appendices. If accepted, full papers are due by Feb. 18. Papers may have multiple student authors and only be student work.

Papers are welcome on any topic that addresses current media issues. Nontraditional research, such as films, enterprise projects, web content, and performance works are acceptable but must have an abstract. Submissions from all theoretical and methodological perspectives are invited. Continue reading “Undergrad research panel to be launched at NY conference”

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”