I spent a lot of today thinking about my college career and how the times have changed. In particular, Central Michigan Life has changed a lot in the 4.5 years I have spent there as a young journalist. Philosophies are different, mentalities are progressing and new trends are taking form while old ones are dying.
This year has been a real transition year for CM Life, and it’s going to continue into the spring. It got me thinking about what college newsrooms need to be doing and, in particular, what old mentalities need to be brushed aside. I know I’ve probably forgotten quite a few things here, but these are the eight main points that came to mind (will update with more if need be):
1. Requiring those employed in your newsroom to be journalism majors (or even minors).
My hope is no college newsroom in the country is doing this. Some of CM Life’s better writers and editors over the years were not journalism majors. And these days, it is best for young journalists to focus their class concentration in other areas (political science, philosophy, psychology, English to name a few) than to spend valuable class time on journalism. Your real journalism education comes from working at your student newspaper, not by taking a class on the upside-down pyramid of writing a news story. And chances are, your professors could still be living in the old, traditional journalism world that will not prepare you for when you graduate.
2. Not encouraging young journalists to get experience in other areas.
Your college newsroom should encourage every young journalist to get experience in any platform, whether it is a reporter wanting a crack at photography/videography or a videographer looking to work with Web site management. Remember that one of your goals as a student newspaper is to train young journalists in ways classrooms could never do. Don’t be afraid of inevitable mistakes. Give everyone a shot at experience they could use in the real world — a jack-of-all-trades journalist is the journalist that will get the internships and jobs.
3. Having one person — your online editor — post all content and conduct all management of your publication’s Web site.
The days of the Web being an afterthought in your college newsroom are over. You should have a Web-first mentality and work flow across your entire newsroom — for starters, have your news editors post news stories, your sports editors post sports stories and so on. And all of them need to be thinking about SEO’d headlines, keywords, tags and excerpts. They could use that Web experience for their resume, anyway. As for your online editor, keep him or her and have them focus on other tasks such as community building via social media, aggregating stories and multimedia together and conducting live chats and discussion.
4. Maintaining a strict policy on reporters and editors participating in the online comments section.
Wondering why your comments section is turning into a ghetto of spam, personal attacks and other statements and accusations that provide little toward an intelligent discussion? Much of it may have to do with that ban you’re placing on your young journalists posting in the comments section. A few things happen when you allow employees the freedom to post: More questions are answered, more statements are clarified and, more importantly, your loyal readers are given more incentive to participate in the discussion. Knowing other people are passionate about the discussion and are reading what you have to say is the ultimate incentive to participation on key issues and stories.
5. Using social media (Twitter/Facebook) as nothing more than a regurgitation of your online stories.
These are your community platforms — especially in college, where every student and their mother is using Facebook. Don’t use these tools to “stay hip” and just link to your stories. Incite discussion. Answer questions. Clarify statements. Provide quick updates on developing stories. Encourage readers to post content, photos, etc. on your Facebook fan page. One great way to encourage these uses is by using your print publication to promote (i.e. select several tweets to print for “Tweet of the Week,” something we’ve done at CM Life every Wednesday publication). After all, chances are, your print product is your best promotional tool for your online product.
6. Waiting to post time-relevant stories until the next morning to coincide with print publication.
In this fast information age, I don’t want to wait until Wednesday morning to find out what happened at a 2 p.m. Tuesday event. I don’t care if you’re planning on the coverage making your front page — your story needs to go up when it is relevant, and that means when it is done and edited, not scheduled for the following morning. If you are that worried about your print publication being “spoiled” by your online presentation, find other ways to keep your print publication relevant. (In the case of the event, have the reporter write a second-day perspective piece… or put something more relevant on your front.)
7. Refusing to aggregate and link to outside sources in your stories online.
Pretending there is no outside world on your Web site is not a way to go about making your online product successful. Give your readers a chance to learn more from other sources and to take in other perspective on the story at hand because, for one thing, it’s safe to assume they have a broad interest in what they are reading. Watch NYU’s Jay Rosen’s explanation on the ethic of the link for more on this. One easy solution? Require your reporters to include two links with every story they write, in addition to quoted sources. Your goal should be to give your readers everything they could possibly ask for. Every unanswered question/clarification is a failure for a journalist.
8. Looking at a “finished” project and saying, “It’s good enough.”
Here’s a general one for you. If you find yourself saying “It’s good enough,” it’s probably not good enough. Always look for ways to make your college newsroom better, internally or externally. You are in a field of study that practically requires people to adapt and change on a consistent basis. What works now may not work three months from now. Stay on top of that, look for new ways to make progress and, most of all, get better at informing the public by whatever means possible.
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This is by no means a comprehensive list. There are a lot of little things college newsrooms could change, if they haven’t already. Have ideas? Please leave me a comment, or tweet it at me. I’ll be glad to add any other submissions you have.
Posted by Brian Manzullo at December 18, 2009
Journalism