College Media Matters

Roughly two weeks ago, New York Times Magazine published a profile of Joe Weisenthal, a fresh-faced, workaholic, social media whiz who serves as a writer and deputy editor at Business Insider. Upon its online posting, the instant reactions from the journalism cognoscenti seemed to be admiration and disbelief about his insane work ethic and supposed conquering of today’s nonstop news cycle. These reactions are not wrong, just incomplete. While lauded in the Times as a leader of the new wave of all-star newshounds, he is not a role model I would hold up for my own students. In fact, in a number of areas, he literally embodies the opposite of what I want them to strive for.

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An odd, public war of words has played out this week between comedian Hannibal Buress and The Daily Eastern News at Eastern Illinois University. It began Sunday evening. In a Comedy Central stand-up special, Buress ranted for five minutes near the start of his set about a three-year-old, 300-word DEN article hyping a campus show he once headlined.

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The web address: future.dailyemerald.com. The one-word header atop its homepage: Revolution. And the tagline just beneath it: “The Oregon Daily Emerald, reinvented for the digital age.” The fantastic student newspaper at the University of Oregon– long built atop a daily print edition– is morphing into a “modern college media company.” On a special site that went live earlier today, the outgoing and incoming EICs Tyree Harris and Andy Rossback and publisher Ryan Frank outline a number of big-time changes.

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An online student newspaper at Cambridge University is courting controversy for staging a pair of contests asking readers to select the “Rear of the Year.“ – In separate photo breakdowns, The Tab presents a small group of male and female Cambridge students with their butts facing the camera– fully or partially exposed or clearly outlined [...]

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His Twitter account bio features a poem: “Lookin in the mirror. Checkin My hair. What Kinda shoes have you got on there? Bitch I’m Jamie, and I like lickin’ shoes.” The “personal interests” on his Facebook page: “Mens boots, Licking shoes, Being exceptionally creepy.” He is the Tampa Bay Shoe Licker.

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How are student newspapers faring on Facebook?  From a sheer ‘likes’ perspective, most papers’ popularity on the publicly-traded behemoth is at an all-time high.  Along with Twitter and YouTube (and with a tiny bit of recent competition from Pinterest, Tumblr, and Instagram), Facebook remains the top social media and content sharing platform utilized by student [...]

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Late last month, Daniel Drake graduated from Pacific Lutheran University. It was marked by a commencement ceremony. Six years ago, he dropped out of school due to low grades. From his current cap-and-gowned vantage point, he believes that moment deserved a ceremony too.

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In an op-ed published late last month in The Hoya that I just stumbled upon, a Georgetown University student calls out the private D.C. school’s brain trust for failing to so far launch a full-blown journalism program. As rising senior Dan Healy writes at the start of the piece, headlined “Journalism Program a Major Shortcoming,” “Georgetown offers an impressive array of majors across its four undergraduate schools, including such disparate areas as medieval studies and international political economy. Yet among all these possibilities, one standard area of study remains conspicuously absent– journalism.”

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Earlier this week, The University Press at Florida Atlantic University unleashed a special issue that oozes investigative awesomeness and reveals some unsavory, ironic truths about those in power at the Palm Beach County public school. The issue’s aim: providing the down-low on the FAU Board of Trustees, the 13-member body that holds ultimate sway over the school’s infrastructure, finances, and future.

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The entire top portion of The Spartan Daily homepage has been rejiggered to deliver news of the death of Dwight Bentel.  It’s a small, fitting tribute.  After all, he’s the reason the paper exists. – Bentel spearheaded the formation of the San Jose State University student newspaper in 1934.  He also started the SJSU journalism [...]

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A recent Oregon Daily Emerald piece screams awesome and deserves greater attention, creatively telling the tale of a University of Oregon track and field conference championships triumph.  The headline: “The anatomy of 1-2-3: How Oregon’s women swept the 800-meter Pac-12 final on Sunday.” – In separate sections, staff writer Patrick Malee briefly brings the reader [...]

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In response to a student newspaper theft earlier this month, Central Connecticut State University has levied fairly substantial punishments against the soccer coaches responsible for it and the school’s athletics department. As I previously posted, Shaun Green, head coach of the CCSU men’s soccer team, recently stole and trashed roughly 150 copies of The Recorder in response to an article he didn’t like.

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One word, four syllables, lots of blushing: Traumarama.  In the latest issue of The Edge, the magazine supplement of The Pendulum at Elon University, there is a laugh-out-loud-hide-your-eyes feature on student traumarama. – The term, first coined by Seventeen magazine, involves life happenings so embarrassing they “make even the most dignified college student’s skin crawl.” [...]

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In recent weeks, as spring semester rocketed to a close, the forever-adored-nay-clichéd editor’s farewell column once again appeared ad nauseum within student newspapers nationwide. The column is a time-honored part of the college media experience, like skipping classes to work on a story, random awards from state press associations, and InDesign freezing up just before you save the most beautiful page you’ve ever laid out and will never be able to replicate.

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With commencement weekend now wrapped at many colleges and universities nationwide, it is the perfect time for a glimpse at cap-and-gown meme madness.  Top related meme themes: the academic shortcuts students take to get to diploma-ville, post-graduation uncertainties, and economic hard truths. – – – – – – – – – – – – – [...]

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