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These reactions are not wrong, just incomplete.  There is a ton to respect about Weisenthal on spec.  He has become a major player in his coverage area at a relatively young age seemingly through sheer hard work.  And he excels at many elements of news reporting 2.0, including audience collaboration, multi-platform engagement, personal branding, and real-time reporting.

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But if the profile is accurate, many of his professional routines and achievements also sadden and repel me.  Step back, and read the profile again.  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.  Three examples are below.

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He almost never separates himself from his work.  

The Times piece describes Weisenthal as “someone so absurdly passionate about the latest economic data that he forgoes sleep, night life, and the company of his wife.”  Passion is fantastic.  Obsession is unhealthy.

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His bosses express on-the-record concerns about him burning out.  He “rarely stops fidgeting with his cellphone.”  He tweets about doing nothing on Friday evenings or the weekend but working.  The photo featured in the screengrab above is an actual shot of him working in bed while his wife sleeps, an almost-daily occurrence.  A snippet from the profile: “When [his wife] really needs his attention, she said she sends him a tweet.”

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There is even one odd reference in the piece about his penchant for using the restroom “much more often than the average 31-year-old.”  I’m not sure what that means exactly.  Is it because he’s so high-strung he gets constant diarrhea?  The bathroom is his only real escape?  Even his bladder is a distraction to be overcome or multi-tasked?  Overall, it doesn’t seem like Wiesenthal has conquered the news cycle.  He is a pathetic slave to it.  As one commenter wrote beneath the profile, “Wow, that sounds like a terrible, depressing life.  He’s welcome to it, but you couldn’t pay me enough.”

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Bottom line: I teach my students to love their work and work hard, but not at the expense of having a life or a regular urinary tract.  I also teach them to value time off and stepping back– it can be incredibly restorative for the mind and inspire bigger picture thinking and new ideas.

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He is wrong and sensational a lot. 

According to the piece, “Some of what he writes is air and sugar.  Some of it is wrong or incomplete or misleading.  But he delivers jolts of sharp, original insight often enough to hold the attention of a high-powered audience.”  Is this the standard we’re now holding up for success?  Feel free to be “wrong or incomplete or misleading” or sappy or insignificant, as long as you also practice halfway decent journalism often enough to get on people’s radars.

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In part, Weisenthal is hamstrung by his chosen field and the writing he is expected to provide– involving lots of predictions and subtle and overt commentary.  There is also of course some value in publicly working through new data and breaking news, going back-and-forth on what it all means, and coming to a final solid conclusion.  But the simple fact, according to the Times, is that he is inaccurate as often– and possibly more– than he is right.

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He is also frequently sensational, again an offshoot of the outlet at which he is employed.  One fun irony: He is quoted telling the writer that the stock market is not actually headline-driven, less than 300 words after being described as working for a site that features posts almost always “wrapped with a loud, blunt headline.”

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Bottom line: I teach my students to be accurate and thorough much more often than they are wrong or incomplete, almost always in fact– even when overseeing a blog or publishing a bunch.  I also teach them to produce journalism that is evenhanded and content-driven, not simply loud, blunt and headline-driven.

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He writes too much– and not enough. 

Weisenthal apparently publishes 15 blog posts and 150 tweets a day.  I give him credit for apparently seeking news in between the lines at times by spotting quietly-emerging phenomena and reading through reports and data that others most likely scan or ignore.  (His best quote: “It’s from the subtleties that you start to see the trends.”)  But quantity often only works to lessen quality.

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He writes a ton, but even his longest entries run only a few hundred words.  And the piece portrays him as so constantly stressed about being first to post, he races to get something, anything, online, reporting be damned.  Think of how powerful his journalism work might be if he channeled his laser-focused-energies on a longer-form piece or took the time to wrangle up a ton of sources before simply rushing to post, post, post.

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Bottom line: I certainly teach my students to join the online conversation and to recognize the advantages and expectations of publishing and sharing more.  But I also urge them to not lose sight of the fact that time can work for us, not just against us.  At least every once in awhile, remove yourself from the rush and use the time you have been given to do your job to build deeper, more impacting stories.

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To learn from the work and life of someone I do want my students to emulate, check out this excellent analysis of Anthony Shadid’s reporting by UPIU’s Krista Kapralos.

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He expresses a mix of both genuine and mock disgust at the piece for containing what he sees as awkward descriptions, racist undertones, and general tackiness.  Before diving in, he literally pulls a paper with the piece printed on it from his pants pocket and intermittently reads from it and riffs on it.  In his words, “This is all real and in print.  A human being wrote this and then they sent it to a higher-ranking human being, an editor, and that person said, ‘Yeah, let’s go with that.’”

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Among other portions, he mines laughs from a redundant phrase describing his humor as focused on “comedic jokes.” (“Wait, wait, wait.  Comedic jokes?  As opposed to all the other types of jokes that are out there.  Am I missing out on a genre of jokes?”)

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Separately, although he confirms saying it during a phone interview, he mocks the student writer for noting that his shows touch on “personal stories, current events, the streets [which he implies through a pause and audience laughter is an unwordly reference], and even food.”  (“What?!  Even food!  Who else is talking about food in the comedy game right now?  Nobody, just Hannibal Buress, that’s all.  He has cornered that subject matter.  He is the Lenny Bruce of grocery store humor.”)

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He also criticizes the inclusion of a student event organizer who fully admits he invited the comedian to EIU in part because he is African-American and his appearance will raise performer and audience diversity.  Finally, Buress calls out the paper for mentioning the amount he was paid for the show– claiming it is embarrassing given the relatively low amount and does not add anything of value to the article.

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In an editorial response, headlined “Buress’ Comments Unfair, Skewed,” top DEN staff first cite the newsworthiness of including performer pay in a piece: “What Buress failed to recognize is that the budget for the event was made possible through student funding.  As a publication, transparency is a vital function of our reporting, and we believe that informing Eastern students of how their funds are appropriated is imperative to our goals.  By including how much the University Board was paying Buress, the DEN was following the same protocol by which we might cover a Student Senate or Pension Board meeting.”

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The editorial also criticizes Buress for playing both sides– telling a reporter something and then poking fun at the reporter for publishing it: “During his act, Buress admits to telling our reporter that his performances include jokes related to ‘personal stories, current events, the streets and even food.’  Buress then proceeded to mock the DEN for including this comment.  However, the blame for such a portrayal lies explicitly on Buress. If he did not wish for us to include that he talks about ‘the streets’ in his act, he should not have said it in his interview.”

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Related

College Media Villains of the Year: James Franco, A-Lister, Apes Lover, Yale Daily News Hater

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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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Among them: a print issue that will now appear twice per week instead of daily, in an alternative weekly format (see front page example below)– Emerald Monday (“Think Newsweek + ESPN Magazine”) and Emerald Weekend (“Think Rolling Stone + Wired + Vanity Fair”); the creation of an in-house tech company The Garage and a separate marketing and events division both aspiring simply “to make college life better”; and a ramp-up in “real-time news, community engagement, photo galleries, and videos on the web and social media.”

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As the leaders of the new Emerald Media Group share about the paper’s digital-first plans, “Daily is too slow. Our newsroom will report in real-time on our website, on mobile apps and through social media. We will wrap up our report with a morning email edition Monday-to-Friday. We will add blogs on topics relevant to college students, such as football, fashion and sex. We will engage with readers through whatever digital channel is most relevant to them.”

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The narrator at the close of this teaser video confirms, “We’re proud of our history, but it’s time for a revolution.“

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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 by tight-fitting clothing.

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A brief cutline accompanying each pic whimsically and almost always sexually shares a bit about each student.  An example: “Elizabeth admitted to us that growing up, her first sexual thoughts were of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.”  There is also wordplay involving the football club Arsenal and terms like astoundingly and parse.

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According to the paper, the inspiration for the contest was Pippa Middleton’s bottom and its instant rise to fame at last spring’s royal wedding.  As the intro to the male contest notes, “[T]hat wedding was a year ago, and . . . P. Middy’s once show-stopping rear is frankly so yesterday.  It’s time to find a new bum on which to focus our attentions.”

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Along with oodles of online and outside media attention, criticism has centered on sexual objectification and minority exclusion issues.  A Cambridge student: “This kind of portrayal of women as sex objects not only plays to tired gender stereotypes, but it also reinforces the message that only one kind of beauty is acceptable, and it is a thin, white image.  This is a harmful message to reproduce and one that we ought to be stepping away from.”

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Related

Topless Photo Shoot a First for Cambridge Student Paper

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He is the Tampa Bay Shoe Licker.  The young man apparently roams the city’s historic Ybor neighborhood looking to lick– yes, lick– the dirtied soles of people’s shoes.

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In a first-person news column published last month in The Hawkeye at Hillsborough Community College, staff writer Danica Jordan describes an encounter with this brazen-tongued mystery man.  It is by far the wackiest story– in a good way– I’ve come across in the student press this past year.  Throughout much of it, I was simultaneously laughing and squirming.

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A snippet:

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I spotted a young man dressed in a concert t shirt and jeans headed toward us, almost running. He was probably around 25, but his face looked innocent, almost child-like. I couldn’t tell from what direction he had come; all I noticed was the huge smile on his face. . . . The unnamed man flirtatiously raised an eyebrow as he glanced up and down [the writer's friend] Drew’s body, stopping at his feet. I laughed at the nervous look on my friend’s face, not familiar with being ogled. ‘Hey man,’ said the stranger, ‘what kinda shoes are those? They’re nice.’ . . . Quicker than I’d ever seen anyone move before, the man dropped to his knees and balanced his weight on his palms as he squatted in front of my friend. He was clearly not phased by the sticky, grimy, possibly urine-soaked pavement of 7th Avenue. Exhibiting unusual strength for such a skinny, petite guy, the man lifted one of Drew’s Nikes. He stuck his tongue out and slowly, almost sensually licked the entire length of the shoe from bottom to top, as if it were a pool of water and he’d been lost in the desert for weeks.

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Drake University multimedia journalism instructor Chris Snider has been monitoring student and professional news media Facebook usage and popularity for awhile.  It has been almost exactly a year since he last checked in on student press Facebook ‘likes.’

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Below is a glimpse at how things stand now, specifically the 10 papers with the highest ‘like’ totals.  (If I’ve overlooked a paper, please comment or email me ASAP.)  But first, the award for the funniest/most random student newspaper Facebook cover photo goes to . . . The Central Michigan Life.  (For those glancing at this post on a tiny mobile screen, he’s reading underwater.)

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10 Student Newspapers with Most Facebook ‘Likes’

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1. The Daily Tar Heel, University of North Carolina, 9,681 Likes

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2. The Central Michigan Life, Central Michigan University, 8,200 Likes

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3. The Daily Collegian, Penn State University, 7,408 Likes

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4. The Michigan Daily, University of Michigan, 6,927 Likes

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5. The Indiana Daily Student, Indiana University, 6,337 Likes

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6. The Daily Californian, University of California-Berkeley, 6,202 Likes

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7. The Crimson White, University of Alabama, 6,028 Likes

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8. The Lantern, Ohio State University, 5,499 Likes

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9. The Iowa State Daily, Iowa State University, 5,130 Likes

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10. The Yale Daily News, Yale University, 5,013 Likes

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As Drake argued in a column in The Mooring Mast, headlined “A Shout-Out to Dropouts,” “[W]hile the graduates are treated as people, the rest of us are treated as statistics.  Every year, analysts write about why some of us failed to complete all four years of our degree.  Nobody writes about all the work we did to make it through one year, or two, or three.  If we celebrate the hard work of those who graduate, why not celebrate that of those who don’t?”

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The type of ceremony Drake envisions is not aimed at “idolizing dropouts,” but acknowledging that the traditional college path is becoming less frequented.

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Prior to his recent graduation from PLU, Daniel Drake served as online editor of The Mooring Mast. (Photo courtesy of Drake.)

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“Most parents expect college to be a four-year financial commitment,” a recent Reuters report confirmed, “yet it has become so common for undergraduates to stretch out their college years that only about a third of students who set out to graduate in four years actually do so.”  The number of students leaving school prior to graduation has actually risen so dramatically in recent years that the U.S. now boasts the highest college dropout rate in the industrialized world.

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According to Drake, honoring student dropouts for work completed, regardless of degree earned, also sends a positive message about the nature of learning itself.

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As he explains in his column, speaking directly to students, “The world doesn’t end if you don’t get it right the first time.  If you’ve just realized you might not be graduating this year as planned, don’t feel ashamed about the things you weren’t able to do.  Instead, congratulate yourself for all the things you’ve accomplished.”

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To read more, click here or on the screenshot below.

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As rising senior Dan Healy writes at the start of the piece, headlined “Journalism Program a Major Shortcoming” (catch the wordplay?), ”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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Given Georgetown’s size, diverse program base, a student body with a reputation for “civic engagement,” a robust campus media, and its location in a political and news epicenter, the lack of a JOU department, college or even major is surprising.  Dear Lord, the internship and all-star adjunct and guest speaker opportunities alone make it a common sense proposition– not to mention the countless nearby orgs and power-players who might be keen to fund a journalism innovation center or political media 2.0 institute with their name on it.

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GU leaders are apparently somewhat seeing the light.  The school is rolling out its first journalism minor in the fall– an encouraging step but according to Hayes not enough to entice the type of committed, high-achieving j-students the school could be bathed in.

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As he contends, “Establishing a journalism major would also allow Georgetown students to take full advantage of a city that is one of the nation’s preeminent hubs for media activity. The District of Columbia is home to some of the titans of both old and new media, from The Washington Post and the Gallup polling organization to the assortment of new media covering Capitol Hill, yet Georgetown still lacks a journalism major that could have the potential to tap into the wealth of experience and inspiration available in D.C. . . . Georgetown students need and deserve a full journalism major.”

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The issue’s aim: providing the down-low on the FAU Board of Trustees, the 13-member body that holds ultimate sway over the university’s infrastructure, finances, and future.  It is an über-newsworthy pursuit, especially impressive given that its principal focus is a set of individuals typically untouched by– and unknown to– the student press.

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Quick, name your college or university president.  Picture his or her face.  Nailed both?  Most likely.  Now, name your school’s trustees.  Pick even one out of a line-up.  Not so much?  Still thinking?  Cue awkward silence, floor-staring.  Exactly.  Yet, in big picture terms, those men and women are more powerful than your president, provost, deans, and tenured faculty, combined.

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UP staffer Karla Bowsher first began “blind backgrounding” the board last spring, amid a sleepless night spurred by “talk of another eight-figure budget cut and rumors of another 15 percent tuition hike” at FAU.  Over the next year, she unraveled “so many bankruptcy filings, foreclosures, liens, and lawsuits in our trustees’ pasts that I needed another researcher [James Shackelford] to get through it all– and an entire issue of the newspaper to cover it all.”

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She also found real and perceived cronyism in the board’s selection, stretching directly to the office of the governor.  She pointed out the board’s lack of diversity.  And she came across actual lies within some members’ “applications or questionnaires they filled out– and submitted to state agencies– when they applied to join the board.”  In this regard, the BOT fully earns the ironic nickname bestowed upon it in the issue: “The Trusty Bunch.“

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Bowsher is a graduating senior and freelance journalist who is deservedly earning a rep as a docs, databases, and records specialist.  This report is top-notch for its reliance on inscrutable forms of evidence, a no-stones-left-unturned investigative mentality, a fearlessness at challenging (self-) important people who almost never receive this type of scrutiny, and an aggressively objective final presentation that requires no sensationalism or speculation.  It simply lays out the truth.

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Along with her work on the UP, Karla Bowsher has written for South Florida’s Sun-Sentinel, The Miami Herald, and The Broward Bulldog.  Photo: Charles Pratt / University Press

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Bowsher’s initial guiding question: Who is really running our university?  If I was an FAU student, my question after checking out the issue: Is this who should be running our university?

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Bentel spearheaded the formation of the San Jose State University student newspaper in 1934.  He also started the SJSU journalism program, now the full-blown School of Journalism & Mass Communications.  To say Bentel had a long career is an understatement– early on, he even wrote about Prohibition.  (As a local NBC affiliate shared: “Bentel said his editor handed him a gun instead of a notebook  when he was writing a story about chasing bootleggers out of town.”)

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Among many other achievements during his time at SJSU, he mentored countless students.  As retired sportswriter Bill Soliday wrote in a Facebook comment beneath a San Jose Mercury News article, echoing many others: “Forever grateful to the man I consider to be the most memorable teacher I ever encountered. A legend of the first order. Like the voice of God.”

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One other memory from a former student: “This man was such a bundle of energy that he never walked but he ran.  He was an Olympian racer of Spartan endurance and set such high standards in developing the working press it left you breathless just to see him in action.”

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My favorite snippet from the many memories featured in the Spartan Daily and other local California media: Once, when challenged by a dean on a story about football players misbehaving that the school wanted squashed, Bentel apparently told him simply, “Stick to deaning.” :)

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