Archive for October, 2012

Tulane Hullabaloo Files Lawsuit to Obtain Superdome Football Game Attendance Records

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on October 31, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

Tulane University is planning to build a 25,000-seat sports stadium on its New Orleans campus.  Will it fill up during home football games?  The Tulane Hullabaloo is suing to help find out.

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The student newspaper has filed a lawsuit to obtain “turnstile attendance records” for Tulane football games played at the New Orleans Superdome, which serves as the current de facto home field for the Green Waves gridiron squad.

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Hullabaloo editors are seeking the fan numbers, in part, to determine the suitability of the planned 25,000-seat stadium.  According to the paper, “[A] faction of neighborhood residents criticize Tulane’s plans to build a stadium of that size.  They [also] question the accuracy of the attendance numbers Tulane is reporting.”

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Apparently, the Superdome records are being held in close confidence by a private company hired to run the stadium by Louisiana state officials.  Yet, the Hullabaloo asserts, “Under Louisiana state law . . . when a public entity hires a private entity to manage a state-owned facility, the records produced pursuant to that contract are public.”

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To Be Continued…

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Related

Student Newspaper’s Lawsuit Against Oregon State Moving Forward

Alligator v. University of Florida: Newsstand Fight Now a Lawsuit

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Pitt News Pushes for President Obama Reelect, Citing Decent Record in Face of ‘Impulsive Obstructionists’

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on October 31, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

The editorial board of The Pitt News at the University of Pittsburgh has endorsed President Barack Obama for reelection, in recognition of his moderate success governing in the face of an opposition party comprised of “men and women who are nothing more than impulsive obstructionists.”

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In an endorsement editorial published Monday, the board notes, in part, “No one would want to repeat the last four years.  Yes, the economy has begun a slow recovery from recession. The stock market is up, and unemployment has finally dipped beneath the level President Barack Obama inherited from the Bush administration. . . . And while Obama’s record has often been a disappointment– he promised to close Guantanamo Bay, to end unilateral drone strikes and executive signing statements and to make progress on global warming– by signing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, fighting for a more fair tax distribution and standing up for equal marriage rights, Obama has shown he will fight for the underrepresented.”

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The ultimate rationale for the board’s Obama support seems to be the sense that with the sitting president the country can at least know what to expect over the next four years.  As the editorial concludes, “With Obama, we can look forward to more moderate, at times progressive, policies and administrative continuity. With a Romney administration, we will see a huge question mark with unpredictable consequences.”

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Related

College Media Podcast #3: RNC, Student Newspaper Presidential Endorsements & Gaming the News

Onion Article Spoofs Student Newspaper Endorsement of Obama

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Student Press Hurricane Sandy Coverage: Flashlight Tag, Waylaid Volleyball Team, Hurricane Malt Liquor Sales

Posted in Uncategorized on October 29, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

Highlights from student press Hurricane Sandy coverage.

Email or tweet me with examples of your own news outlet’s Sandy coverage.

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The Daily Orange, Syracuse University

Amid canceled classes– quite a rare event at Syracuse– The Daily Orange has published what its editor-in-chief Mark Cooper is calling a special storm edition. Among the articles in the issue: a retrospective featuring faculty and alumni memories of a 1998 Labor Day derecho (“a widespread, long-lived, straight-line windstorm”)– the last time weather led to campus-wide course cancellations at SU. All DO Sandy stories can be found here.

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The Daily Pennsylvanian, University of Pennsylvania

The Daily Pennsylvanian is maintaining an entire separate section on its website devoted to its Hurricane Sandy coverage, including a “Reporter’s Notebook” piece sharing one staffer’s glimpse of a local Red Cross storm shelter.  Earlier today, the paper also launched a Hurricane Sandy Storify to document the storm’s escalating impact on Penn and greater Philadelphia.

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The Daily Collegian, Penn State University

The Daily Collegian put out a special PDF issue tonight, a digital version of the paper that was not able to be printed and distributed around State College, Pa., due to Sandy.  The one-word front-page headline reads simply: “Frankenstorm.”  Separately, one story posted by the Collegian online that caught my eye by staff writer Adam Lidgett confirms, “State College bottle shops are selling out of Hurricane 40 oz. Malt Liquor in nearly record numbers.”

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The Harvard Crimson, Harvard University

The Crimson crew has been dutifully covering the storm’s run-up and touchdown at Harvard and within Boston, Mass.  The paper’s famed Flyby blog also features one of the more lighthearted Sandy stories I’ve seen so far: “The Official Hurricane Sandy Playlist.”  It is a rundown of a dozen storm-themed songs students should have on in the background while they study or party during their time off from classes.  Among the selected songs: Led Zeppelin’s “When The Levee Breaks,” The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s “Still Raining, Still Dreaming,” and Adele’s “Skyfall.”

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The Daily Princetonian, Princeton University

The Daily Princetonian is providing numerous updates to the Princeton community on its homepage and through its Twitter feed, including informing readers the school has switched to generator power.  Staff also put together a Sandy photo slideshow, including the shot below of two students cooking in their dorm instead of heading outside to find food.

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The Hatchet, George Washington University

The Hatchet crew at George Washington University is all over Sandy’s impact on GW and D.C.  Along with a team of photographers snapping and posting shots of external and internal damage (including water leaking into dorm hallways), they are providing live blog updates.  One interesting news brief focuses on GW professors who held online classes today amid the university’s closure and obvious problems some had venturing outside.

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The Comment, Bridgewater State University

Kaitlyn Wallace, editor-in-chief of The Comment at Bridgewater State University, has put together one of the more impressively comprehensive write-ups I’ve seen on the many sides of Sandy.  It includes a snippet on some student and staff concerns about how long it took for the school to announce its temporary closure.  And it mentions what must be a situation faced by a number of other schools nationwide– the BSU women’s volleyball team is currently stuck in Memphis after a weekend invitational due to canceled flights.

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The Columbia Spectator, Columbia University

The Columbia Spectator is covering Sandy’s impact on Columbia University and New York City with brief bursts of live updates, mainly through its Spectrum blog.  The paper’s former editor-in-chief Nick Summers also snapped and posted a shot of half-lit, half-dark Manhattan (due to blackouts) that is achieving instant viral fame on Instagram and Twitter.

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Connect2Mason, George Mason University

The latest post on the Connect2Mason Sandy live blog at George Mason University is a breakdown of what students can do for fun while riding out the storm.  Among the suggested activities from entertainment editor Helena Okolicsanyi: flashlight tag, board games, and building a pillow and blanket fort.

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The Cavalier Daily, University of Virginia

The Cavalier Daily is live-blogging the storm’s similar impact on the University of Virginia and Charlottesville, Va., including through user-submitted photos.

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NYU’s Washington Square News Publishes Standout Special Election Issue

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , on October 29, 2012 | 2 Comments »

On Friday, The Washington Square News at New York University published an excellent special issue focused on numerous facets of the rapidly concluding presidential campaign.

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As Amy Zhang, the student paper’s web managing editor, tells me, “Our goal was to move past the horse race media coverage of the election that is such an unproductive component of the political theatre during an election year.  For this issue, the WSN wanted to provide our NYU community with a comprehensive guide to all the issues that affect our generation.”

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In an introductory editorial featured in the issue, Zhang reminds readers, “There is still a week left until the Nov. 6 Election Day, but that one day will decide the next four years of our lives.  In this issue, we have featured the topics that matter most to you, like health care, the economy, and financial aid.  We have outlined the platforms, ideals, and opinions of each candidate, and we haven’t forgotten other power players: the third parties, vice presidents, and first ladies.  We . . . [also] haven’t forgotten the goodies, like best celebrity tweets or election movies, that are a staple of the political theater.  We lay this information out before you as a tool to build your own truth.”

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I’m a sucker for quality profiles, so my favorite portion: “Political Portraits,” a quartet of pieces focused on students active in various political causes– a reminder that issues raised by Romney and Obama extend far beyond the election cycle and campaign trail.

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Click here or on the screenshots below to check out the issue.

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Georgia’s Red & Black Runs Full-Page ‘Trash-Talk Ad’ Predicting Florida Football Win

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on October 27, 2012 | 3 Comments »

The Red & Black at the University of Georgia ran a full-page “trash-talk advertisement” in Thursday’s paper– against its own football team.  The ad, paid for by supporters of the University of Florida football program, features a strong-armed Gator with gritted teeth taking down a hapless UGA Bulldogs football player.

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The image aligns with the thrust of the ad, which lays out a number of reasons “Why Our Gators Will Bury the Dawgs Little Bone . . . Again.”  The number-two ranked Gators are taking on the 10th-ranked Bulldogs this afternoon in a marquee conference match-up.

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Red & Black editors are declaring the ad’s publication simply a business decision, telling one reader on Twitter, “We have to sell some ads to bring students free news.“  In the tweet below, they warn all readers about its appearance.

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A tongue-in-cheek response from a CBS Sports blogger: “It’s impossible not to be sympathetic to a newspaper at any level looking for whatever revenue stream it can, but the line has to be drawn somewhere, doesn’t it? If funds are that scarce, wouldn’t a bake sale be preferable to publishing an ad like this? A dance-a-thon? Car wash? Talent show? Krispy Kreme dougnut sale? Overpriced chocolate bars?”

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A more serious response tweet from a UGA fan:

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Related

Anti-Romney College Football Ad in Ohio State Lantern Grabs Eyeballs, Press Attention

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University of Michigan Rejects Michigan Daily’s Request for Aurora Shooter’s Grad School Application

Posted in Uncategorized on October 26, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

The University of Michigan has twice rejected a request by The Michigan Daily to obtain the graduate school application of alleged Aurora shooter James Holmes.  Holmes applied last year to UM’s neuroscience grad program.  School officials denied him admission.

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They are also denying the Daily’s FOIA request to view the Holmes application because they feel it would be “an unwarranted invasion of privacy.”  As legal counsel to the UM president told the paper: “The release of a student application in this or other cases would have, we believe, deleterious effect on the applicants and on the admissions process, and we consequently believe that the university and the public are best served by protecting the integrity and confidentiality of that process.”

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The University of Illinois, University of Iowa, and University of Alabama have already publicly released similar grad school applications submitted by Holmes.

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Michigan Daily senior news editor Adam Rubenfire outlined the process to me: “I had originally made a FOIA request for Aurora, Colo., shooter James Holmes’ 2011 UM graduate school application, back in September.  Later that month, I was denied my request, and upon appeal I was finally denied just this Tuesday.  Because we’ve previously been concerned with the actions of the University FOIA office and particularly because three other universities in states with similar FOIA laws released his application,  I felt it was necessary to write an article about the university’s refusal, to help our readers understand the university’s handling of public records.”

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Near the close of Rubenfire’s article, Student Press Law Center executive director Frank LoMonte makes two strong points: 1) Holmes is no longer a typical failed applicant.  2) “Clearly private information” can be removed or blacked out from the released application.

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LoMonte: “Once a person is caught up in a nationwide headline-making crime, that person loses any reasonable expectation of privacy in information they filed with the government. . . . Typically, public records are not an all or nothing matter.  If you can remove the portions of the record that give away truly secret information, like a Social Security number, then you’re supposed to remove only those portions and disclose the rest.”

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Related

Student Newspaper’s $16 Million Investigation Hits $3,000 Wall

Oklahoma Daily Has Filed 147 Open Records Requests So Far This Year– See Them All on Its Website

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Student Newspaper’s Lawsuit Against Oregon State Moving Forward

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on October 25, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

A years-long newsbin and free press fight has reemerged at Oregon State University.  It involves OSU administrators, a conservative campus newspaper, and what one side sees as censorship and the other as simple enforcement of school rules.

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The 60-second backstory: In early 2009, OSU officials suddenly removed a set of bins carrying the conservative student newspaper The Liberty from spots around campus.  At the time, admins. said their actions were in accordance with “an existing, unwritten policy that restricts where off-campus newspaper bins could be placed.”  It was also apparently part of a campus clean-up effort.

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Liberty staff disagreed with those rationales, vehemently.  They pointed out the paper was an on-campus pub, published since 2002 and aligned with a recognized student group.  They claimed the bin removal reeked of nothing more than censorship and double standards, providing the longtime student newspaper The Daily Barometer with “special distribution” privileges.

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A top Liberty editor said at the time: “Basically, we just want to have a couple of square feet on campus where we can place our bins.”  The paper filed a lawsuit.  A district court judge dismissed it, determining that the university had the right to afford its official student publications with certain privileges such as increased distribution that were not offered to alternative, independent or underground outlets.

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The most memorable quote, post-dismissal, came from OSU’s news and communications director.  He declared the fight more a publicity stunt than an actual free press battle: “This was very much an exercise in increased visibility. The story line: a big, oppressive, liberal university squelches a small, defenseless, conservative magazine. We’re glad this matter has been resolved.”

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That resolution, however, is now on hold.  Reversing the lower court decision, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is granting trial clearance for the Liberty to once again pursue their claim of campus distribution discrimination.

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As one of the ruling judges noted, “The policy that OSU enforced against plaintiffs . . . was not merely unwritten. It was also unannounced and had no history of enforcement.  It materialized like a bolt of out of the blue to smite the Liberty’s, but not the Daily Barometer’s, newsbins onto the trash heap.”

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A portion of a statement from the Liberty’s legal counsel: “Universities should encourage, not shut down, the free exchange of ideas.  Students don’t deserve censorship for having viewpoints that university officials don’t happen to favor. The argument that the independent student paper’s bins were confiscated to ‘clean up’ the campus was simply not believable.”

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Related

Daily Texan Newsstands Not Allowed at Journalism School Due to ‘Environmental Concerns’

Alligator v. University of Florida: Newsstand Fight Now a Lawsuit

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Student Newspaper’s $16 Million Investigation Hits $3,000 Wall

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on October 24, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

David Schick spent months on a $16 million story– before hitting a nearly $3,000 wall.  In Schick’s words, “The wall took the form of exorbitant Open Records Act costs.”

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Since late last spring semester, the editor-in-chief of The Collegian has been investigating a $16 million budget deficit at Georgia Perimeter College and the accompanying controversial removal of the school president.

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Over the summer, a new number entered– and has continued to partially hold up– Schick’s investigation: $2,963.39.  GPC administrators initially charged the Collegian that amount to fulfill a standard open records request for documents related to the budget turmoil.  The sudden, extreme fee was a gigantic deviation from GPC’s response to three previous Collegian requests.  For those requests, the school supplied more than 1,200 pages of documents, which required 39 hours of staff work to ferret out and compile, for FREE.

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So, to review…

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First three requests over the summer: handled for free.

Fourth request, very similar to the first three: Close to $3,000.

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In a letter to the school, Student Press Law Center executive director Frank LoMonte called the fourth request charge “excessive.”  After the SPLC intervention, GPC dropped the fee to a still seemingly egregious $1,900.

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Local legal counsel assisting the Collegian– obtained through the SPLC referral network– described the latter amount as “arbitrary, capricious, and deliberately designed to obstruct access to public information of obvious critical concern.”

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According to the counsel’s separate letter to the school, the paper “is willing to pay $100 . . . to obtain the documents requested.”  Schick is hopeful for a resolution soon.

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My Take: GPC officials, a bit of free advice.  You cannot erase a $16 million deficit by over-charging people who are requesting the truth.  Your school’s obviously in trouble.  The student paper simply wants to help, in part by providing answers about how you got into this mess and how you can clean it up.  Obstructing their efforts just seems lame, and out of step with the transparency needed to right your revenue ship.  As anyone who’s followed Wall Street knows, moral and economic deficits often run together.

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Related

A 20-Cent Public Records Fight Pits Cal Poly vs. Student Newspaper

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Penn State Daily Collegian Names Entire ‘Sandusky Scandal’ Staff to Paper’s Hall of Fame

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , on October 23, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

The entire 2011-2012 editorial and business staff of The Daily Collegian at Penn State University has been named to the paper’s Hall of Fame.  It is an honor almost exclusively given to individual staffers.

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Longtime Collegian general manager Patti Hartranft announced the special selection this past Saturday night at a formal dinner in State College, Pa., part of a weekend-long alumni reunion celebrating the paper’s 125th anniversary.

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As Hartranft said simply during her induction introduction, “Oh, what a year.  When I look back on this year, it’s still absolutely surreal. . . . [The students went on] one of the most amazing journeys in journalism.  I’ve never seen people with a passion and a laser-focus required to provide the world with a perspective of coverage from the inside of something no one would have ever thought would happen at Penn State.  As Penn State students, the story was happening to them.  But as Collegian journalists, they had to rise above the sheer emotion of the moment to tell the story.  And they did. . . . This was a year when sleep was overrated, when a professor told a Collegian editor to get out of class and get back to the office, when pressmen came in on Saturday night to print our [special] Sunday issue, when in January we printed so many papers [for a commemorative issue following football coach Joe Paterno's death] they wouldn’t fit in the racks– that is until they disappeared at 11 a.m. [due to immense reader interest] and we had to print more.  Placing a whole class into the Hall of Fame is a first for the Daily Collegian, but this group will always be special to the organization and for that we honor them.”

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This past summer, I named the Collegian the College Newspaper of the Year, in part for the startlingly good journalism its staff produced while reporting upon the multifaceted, complex, feral, real-time beast of a news story that is the Sandusky scandal.

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College Newspaper of the Year, 2011-2012: The Daily Collegian, Penn State University

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40 More Must-Follow Twitter Feeds for Journalism Students

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 22, 2012 | 1 Comment »

Certain sources sporting active Twitter feeds are especially valuable to journalism students.

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As I mentioned in the first part of this two-part list, some accounts provide resources, advice, and links to help students learn the craft.  Others enable students to keep up with what journalists are debating, enjoying, and attempting to understand on a daily basis.  And still others offer relevant news and blueprints for covering campus life and keeping up with higher education issues.

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Building off the accounts featured in part one– such as @NiemanLab and @SPLC– here is an additional set of must-follow Twitter feeds.  They are listed in alphabetical order.

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@acpress: Kept by staff at the Associated Collegiate Press, the largest and oldest U.S. student journalism membership organization.  More than 2,000 followers.

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@AEJMC: Kept by staff at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, “the oldest and largest alliance of journalism and mass communication educators and administrators at the college level.”  More than 4,800 followers.

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@atompkins: Kept by Al Tompkins, a beloved longtime broadcast journalist and senior faculty member at The Poynter Institute for Media Studies.  More than 7,100 followers.

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@bloghighed: Kept by staff at BlogHighEd, a blogger network aiming to “aggregate higher ed blogs from many areas: webmasters, marketers, counselors, vendors, consultants, and more.”  More than 4,900 followers.

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@bradwolverton: Kept by Brad Wolverton, a senior writer who covers college sports for The Chronicle of Higher Education, including the blog Players.  More than 2,000 followers.

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@carr2n: Kept by David Carr, a top media reporter, blogger, and columnist for The New York Times.  More than 389,000 followers.

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@CFashionista: Kept by staff at College Fashionista, “a college fashion site for those passionate about [the] latest fashion styles & trends across campuses worldwide.”  More than 10,000 followers.

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@charlesapple: Kept by Charles Apple, a longtime journalist and educator who maintains a popular visual journalism blog aligned with the American Copy Editors Society.  More than 3,500 followers.

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@chronicle: Kept by staff at The Chronicle of Higher Education, “the leading news source for higher education.”  More than 52,000 followers.

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@CJR: Kept by staff at the Columbia Journalism Review, a leading journalism industry magazine which “tracks the ongoing evolution of the media business.”  More than 19,000 followers.

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@CollegeFashion: Kept by staff at College Fashion, “the number-one online fashion, style & beauty magazine written by college students, for college students.”  More than 16,000 followers.

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@CollegeMag: Kept by staff at College Magazine, “the only uncensored source for everything college.”  More than 4,300 followers.

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@collegemedia: Kept by me, a complement to this blog. More than 2,300 followers.

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@collegeprobs: Kept by Madeline Huerta, as part of College Problems, a popular blog featuring humorous user-submitted complaints and confessions about college life.  More than 20,000 followers.

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@danieldevise: Kept by Washington Post higher education reporter Daniel de Vise, in part a complement to his blog Campus, Inc., which focuses on “campus life from a business perspective.”  More than 2,900 followers.

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@DiverseIssues: Kept by staff at the newsmagazine Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, the “premier news source for higher education and diversity issues.”  More than 2,700 followers.

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@Deggans: Kept by Eric Deggans, the television and media critic for the Tampa Bay Times who maintains the popular blog The Feed.  More than 6,900 followers.

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@ErikWemple: Kept by Erik Wemple, a Washington Post “editor-turned-blogger who’s obsessed with the media issues of the day.”  More than 4,600 followers.

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@FakeAPStylebook: A popular stream of comedic and satirical advice for journalists.  More than 299,000 followers.

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@hackcollege: Kept by staff at HackCollege, an acclaimed “student-powered lifehacking site” sporting the motto “Work smarter, not harder.”  More than 4,500 followers.

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@HerCampus: Kept by staff at Her Campus, “the #1 national online community for college women, covering style, health, love, life, and career, with chapters at 200+ colleges.”  More than 11,000 followers.

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@HuffPostCollege: Kept by staff at HuffPost College, the section of the Huffington Post behemoth focused on “breaking news from U.S. colleges and universities . . . campus life, college costs, collegiate sports, and university scandals.”  More than 39,000 followers.

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@insidehighered: Kept by staff at Inside Higher Ed, “the online source for news, opinion, and jobs for all of higher education.”  More than 39,000 followers.

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@IRE_NICAR: Kept by staff at Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc., “a grassroots nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of investigative reporting.”  More than 5,000 followers.

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@ivygate: Kept by staff at IvyGate, a leading “news, gossip, and commentary blog that covers the Ivy League.”  More than 4,200 followers.

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@jackshafer: Kept by Jack Shafer, a highly-respected Reuters columnist who covers politics and the media.  More than 30,000 followers.

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@Journojobs: Regular updates on “the latest, highest paying journalism jobs in the U.S.”  More than 3,700 followers.

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@JustinPopeAP: Kept by Justin Pope, a national higher education reporter for The Associated Press.  More than 1,600 followers.

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@macloo: Kept by Mindy McAdams, an online journalism professor at the University of Florida respected for “[a]lways doing some kind of journalism training (multimedia, social media, online), somewhere in the world.”  More than 6,800 followers.

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@mbmarklein: Kept by Mary Beth Marklein, a veteran higher education reporter at USA TODAY who covers “college admissions, college graduation, and pretty much everything in between.”  More than 3,000 followers.

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@NanetteAsimov: Kept by Nanette Asimov, a higher education reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle.  More than 3,000 followers.

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@nextgenjournal: Kept by staff at NextGen Journal, the only national news and commentary outlet by students for students, branded as “the platform for our generation.”  More than 2,200 followers.

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@nytimescollege: Kept by New York Times senior editor and author Jacques Steinberg, affiliated with his top college admissions and financial aid blog The Choice.  More than 7,500 followers.

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@RCFP: Kept by staff at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, “a nonprofit association dedicated to providing free legal assistance to journalists.”  More than 2,100 followers.

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@robcurley: Kept by Rob Curley, a highly-regarded “new media journalist, manager, and strategist” who serves as an editor at The Orange County Register.  More than 1,800 followers.

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@SPJGenerationJ: Kept by staff at the Society of Professional Journalists, as part of its initiative Generation J, “the place where future newsroom leaders can collaborate to build newsrooms of the future.”  More than 700 followers.

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@TheFIREorg: Kept by staff at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, “the premier organization defending free speech, due process, and academic freedom on college campuses.”  More than 5,500 followers.

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@webjournalist: Kept by Robert Hernandez, “one of the few true veterans of web journalism” and an assistant professor within the University of Southern of California’s School of Communication and Journalism.  More than 9,000 followers.

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@wiredcampus: Kept by four Chronicle of Higher Education staffers as a complement to the popular blog Wired Campus, which tracks “the latest news on tech and education.”  More than 8,500 followers.

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@wpjenna: Kept by Washington Post higher education reporter Jenna Johnson, in part a complement to her Campus Overload blog, which provides “a syllabus for navigating the high-powered campus social scene.”  More than 12,000 followers.

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Related

20 Must-Follow Twitter Feeds for Student Journalists

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A 20-Cent Public Records Fight Pits Cal Poly vs. Student Newspaper

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on October 20, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

An odd public records fight involving one email, two dimes, and a four-hour drive recently played out between the student newspaper and administrators at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

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Combatant #1: Sean McMinn, a reporter at The Mustang Daily, seeking a legally-allowable copy of an email for an interesting story he was writing on school policy involving professors’ in-class political statements.

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Combatant #2: California State University’s Office of Public Affairs, which handles hundreds of requests for all schools within the CSU system and likes to play things by the book.

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A 30-second recap of the fight (hat tip Los Angeles Times): McMinn asks informally for a copy of an email sent by Cal State’s chancellor pertinent to his story.  Public Affairs refuses.  McMinn files a formal public records request.  Public Affairs relents.  But they inform him he needs to either drive to their office four hours away to look at it or receive an email copy that comes with a required 20-cent charge.  Payable only in advance.  And only by check.  And only a check sent via the mail.  Which would take days.  And thus cause McMinn to miss his deadline.  Up against the ropes, McMinn asks if a friend closer to the office could stop by and look at the email for him.  No.  Late in the fight and growing desperate, McMinn asks if an exception could be made regarding the crazily low fee?  I mean, after all, it’s only 20 cents.  No.

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The outcome of the fight, according to the Times: “McMinn scrambled and found a source that forwarded him a copy [of the needed email]– just before deadline.”

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The analysis of one ringside commentator (OK, online commenter): “Do all CSU HQ staff have to pass a knucklehead exam to qualify for employment, or just the ones involved in this story?”  (My answer is pending a 20-cent check clearance.)

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Happy Saturday. :)

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Arizona Daily Wildcat Apologizes for ‘Fruit Roll Up’ Cartoon Depicting Homophobia, Child Abuse

Posted in Uncategorized on October 18, 2012 | 4 Comments »

The Arizona Daily Wildcat at the University of Arizona is apologizing for publishing a controversial cartoon earlier this week that features a fairly horrific depiction of homophobia and child abuse.

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The four-panel strip, run Tuesday, shows a father threatening his young son with bloody death and body discarding if he ever comes out as gay.  As the father states unequivocally, “I will shoot you with my shotgun, roll you up in a carpet, and throw you off of a bridge.”  His son’s– frankly, appalling– response: “Well I guess that’s what you call a ‘Fruit Roll-Up!’”  The final panel then portrays the pair laughing hysterically.

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As expected, the outrage surrounding its publication has been swift and fierce.  A portion of one letter to the editor from a UA student: “[T]his comic is inflammatory and beyond the limits of both humor and what should be published in this university’s newspaper.”

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A separate comment on a related Change.org petition: “I am disgusted at this portrayal of homosexuality. I cannot believe my tuition is going towards this vile.  I WILL NOT read the Daily Wildcat again until serious changes are made.”

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The student cartoonist has apologized.  He said the strip was inspired by childhood memories of his “devout conservative” father being upset “I had learned (from ‘The Simpsons’) what homosexuality was at such a young age.”  As he wrote, “I have always used humor as a coping mechanism, much like society does when addressing social taboos. I do not condone these things; I simply don’t ignore them. I do sincerely apologize and sympathize with anyone who may be offended . . . but keep in mind it is only a joke, and what’s worse than a joke is a society that selectively ignores its problems.”

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The paper’s editors also issued a statement of apology, admitting, “The Arizona Daily Wildcat does screw up, and acknowledging its mistakes and oversights is critical to its accountability.  On Tuesday, the Wildcat staff made a serious error in judgment in printing a cartoon that some readers felt was homophobic and inappropriate.  The views of individual staff members do not represent the views of the Wildcat, nor does the Wildcat reflect the views of the UA. However, printing the cartoon was irresponsible to our readers. We apologize.”

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Along with words, a few actions: Editors have fired the cartoonist.  They pulled the print edition of Tuesday’s paper from its Issuu archives.  And they are reviewing the paper’s editorial policies to ensure a similar strip is not run in the future.

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My Take: I have immense respect for the Wildcat.  The paper has distinguished itself numerous times in recent years, most notably its courageous, comprehensive coverage of the Tuscon shooting.  This cartoon is far beneath the standards by which it normally operates.

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It is brutally offensive.  I’ll be blunt: It is quite possibly the worst cartoon or comic depiction I’ve seen within the student press, and I’ve covered this world daily for half a decade.  If there is a socially-conscious message buried in the strip, as the cartoonist suggests, it is so hidden I don’t see it– at all.

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Related

Arizona Daily Wildcat Editors Discuss Paper’s Coverage of Shooting, Aftermath

Obama Cartoon in Daily Wildcat Called ‘Racist, Offensive’

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Student Media, Student Leaders, Faculty and Alums Protest Ithaca’s Restrictive New Media Policy

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on October 17, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

The student government, student media, and a healthy sampling of faculty, staff, and alumni at New York’s Ithaca College are protesting a restrictive media policy recently enacted by administrators.

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Late last month, Ithaca president Tom Rochon informed the campus newspaper, magazine, and broadcast outlets that student staffers are now required “to route requests for interviews with administrators through the college’s office of media relations.”  Specifically, if reporters want to speak with top school officials about anything involving “college policies and developments,” they must make first contact and get permission to proceed from a single media relations rep.

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According to The Ithacan, Rochon announced this new policy without any warning or opportunity for discussion.  There are 84 administrators on the no-direct-contact list.  (Yes, they made an actual list.)  Its aim, from an administrative perspective, is to “curb a ‘tendency [among student reporters] to rely too much on just a few people’ which . . . distracts them from their ‘actual jobs.’”

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The Ithacan disputes Rochon’s assertion that administrators are in any way burdened with direct interview requests.  In an editorial response, the paper notes the policy speaks more to a tendency Rochon has for “controlling messages as well as a tendency to act without first gauging the college climate.”

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As top eds. write, “The Rochon administration is becoming increasingly characterized by centralization and a corporate atmosphere. Students, faculty and staff should fight to keep Ithaca College the open and personal community that has made it so appealing in the past.”

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Separately, Ithaca’s student government passed a resolution calling for the policy’s repeal (screenshot below).  In a letter to the Ithacan addressed to Rochon, two top SG reps note, “It is the opinion of the Senate that this policy, while not necessarily malicious in intent, gives the administration an unnecessary level of authority over student publications at the college. Student publications serve, as they do outside of higher education, as a watch-dog of administrative policies. By limiting access to the 84 top members of the college’s administration, the institution effectively places a gate keeper between themselves and students, allowing the college to ‘sit’ on a story that it sees as potentially damaging.”

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In addition, roughly 70 faculty members across disciplines signed an open letter of concern about the policy.  Its introduction states, “As we see it, this policy has implications beyond the merely procedural. It bureaucratizes and centralizes a process that should remain free and open by allowing students to approach whomever they want. Identifying their sources and interviewing many different people is how students learn to be good journalists. Besides, an administrator is always free to decline the request for an interview or to suggest another person.”

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The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education is also against the policy.  Legislative and policy director Joseph Cohn explains, “Policies like this one, therefore, threaten the very notion of a free press and defeat the principles embodied in the First Amendment. . . . Ithaca College’s policy is too broad to accomplish the administration’s stated purpose and jeopardizes the independence and integrity of the school’s press.”

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Video: Most Students Cannot Name the 2012 Vice Presidential Candidates

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , on October 16, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

To start, I must confirm: On the whole, students at the University of Tampa seem wicked smart, energetic about learning, and engaged with the world and breaking news.  That is why the video below is so sigh-inducing.

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Just before the recent debate between Vice President Joe Biden and GOP VP candidate Paul Ryan, a student in a multimedia journalism class of mine strolled around campus real quick with a flip cam, checking to see how much– if anything– students knew about the candidates.  He started with simply asking people for their names.  It did not go extremely well.  Check it out for yourself.

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One bonus video features students recounting the strangest foods they have ever eaten, including pickled pigs lips and a guinea pig.

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Daily Texan Reporter Reflects on Covering Fisher v. Texas Supreme Court Case

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on October 15, 2012 | 1 Comment »

Andrew Messamore has arguably enjoyed the most interesting reporting day within collegemediatopia so far this semester.  He flew to Washington D.C. last week, reporting live Wednesday from the hallowed chambers of the U.S. Supreme Court.

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The Daily Texan enterprise reporter was there to cover oral arguments in a high-profile case involving the “race-conscious admissions process” employed by the University of Texas and many other schools nationwide.

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As Messamore explains in a related report, Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin involves “Abigail Fisher, a white student who was denied admission to UT in 2008.  Fisher sued UT claiming the university violated her right to equal protection under the 14th Amendment because the university included race as a factor in her application.  UT says race-conscious admissions are necessary to create meaningful diversity, but Fisher argues the university racially discriminated against her because its policies favor underrepresented groups.”

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In the brief Q&A below, Messamore discusses his coverage’s aims and what it was like reporting from inside the Supreme Court.  He also offers advice for other student journalists faced with reporting on similar broad-based issues of national significance.

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How did you end up covering the case?

I expressed interest in the case earlier in the semester.  I wanted to explore the subject.  I was an intern for the San Antonio Express-News over the summer, where I worked as a government and politics reporter.  I had come to know a little bit about the case.  I’d gone through some of the briefs and some of the filings.  I was really curious as to what the decision would be.

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Amid the many news outlets providing coverage of the oral arguments, what was your particular goal and focus?

I had a pretty set purpose.  A lot of the media have focused disproportionately on the individual stories of the case.  [For example] The New York Times took the position of looking at this through the lens of Abigail Fisher [the young woman denied admission to UT]. . . . The Wall Street Journal took this from the perspective of [Supreme Court Justice] Anthony Kennedy, who everyone is looking at as the swing vote.

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There’s a merit to using that kind of individual storytelling to explain a social issue.  But what I wanted to do was explain what was going to happen to the legal precedent and the big picture of how this case may really change the way we think about diversity and race.  I wanted to get away from focusing too much on only the people and move toward understanding how structures of thinking about race– and how race matters in our society– are more relevant and help our readers understand the subject we’re trying to get at.

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The core was also to understand the arguments.  That’s what I was there to do.  That’s what really sets the tone for the country [on any given case], what goes on in the room.

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[In part, he said, he used a portion of the argument before the Supreme Court as a way to explore the true meaning behind diversity within higher education.]  Is it a racial category?  You just admit students who are self-identified as different things.  Is it a number?  Is it a group of people you put into a room?  Or is it something else, something kind of looser, such as the concepts addressed or embodied by people when they come to university . . . including people who challenge stereotypes such as an African-American fencer or an Hispanic who has mastered classical Greek.

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Those kinds of different challenges to the stereotypes I felt were very central to this issue and I think the Court was trying to find a way to measure that.  And I’m not sure what their final ruling on that will be.

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What was it like to witness the arguments and the Justices in action firsthand?

It was really exhilarating.  First off, you’re a college journalist, working with parking meters or student organizations, these small issues, and then you walk into a room where these larger issues like race, zoning, and demographics become part of this national discussion about what it all means.  You see how these little things you cover day to day as a local reporter enter the national discussion and how it all comes together to decide the policy and law that will determine the narrative of race in American society.

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To see the Justices, the very people on the highest court, tackling the same questions you have analyzed, is an amazing experience.  You see your level of reporting and discussion entering a whole other level of conceptualizing and discussing an issue.

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I felt very honored to represent the university and to be sitting on the same bench as reporters from The Washington Post and New York Times, in a room where I was one of only a few people able to witness history unfold.  There’s nothing quite like it. . . . I was thinking, “It’s really amazing I’m here, but I’ve got a job to do.”

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What is your advice for student journalists covering a nationally-significant story like this?

The best way to get into these kinds of national issues is to not get too wrapped up in individual stories, to not get too wrapped up in the people.  Keep in mind always the bigger things going on, the bigger issues.  Keep in mind the ideas. . . . Think about how a structure of thought can physically impact the lives of individuals, but also the story of those concepts.

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Maybe it’s the chicken or the egg.  On the one end you have the broad idea and on the other end you have the person.  The egg, for me, is the idea.  Start with the idea and then go to the person.  Don’t do it the other way around.

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