Posts Tagged ‘Chicago’

Penn State Daily Collegian Publishes ‘One Year Later’ Sandusky Scandal Special Section

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on November 5, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

The Daily Collegian at Penn State University published a special section in today’s issue offering a retrospective about various aspects of the high-profile Sandusky scandal that continues to haunt the school.

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The six-page section, titled “One Year Later,” appears on the anniversary of the release of the grand jury presentment that revealed the shockingly graphic charges against former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.  It was the day Casey McDermott– the Collegian’s managing editor at the time and now its editor-in-chief– first realized “what a horrific story this would be.”

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The section includes McDermott’s personal reflections on covering the case; a by-the-numbers rundown (such as 2: the number of hours it took to take down the Joe Paterno statue in June); an exclusive report by Collegian metro editor Kristin Stoller detailing the impact of the scandal on Sandusky’s State College neighbors; an assessment of current PSU president Rodney Erickson and the school’s board of trustees; and a separate Q&A with Sandusky’s original attorney Joe Amendola.

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In a sitdown chat in Chicago this past week during the ACP/CMA National College Media Convention, McDermott told me, “I feel like I’ve grown up a lot in the past year, both personally and professionally, largely as a result of this case. . . . We’ve had to face a lot of adult themes because of this story.  We’ve had to conduct ourselves with a lot more maturity than 20-year-olds are often asked to do. . . . This story, if anything, has reinforced the idea that journalism is as important as ever and good journalism is especially important and there’s a way to do things right.  It showed me the kind of journalist I want to be.”

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At the convention, the Collegian earned multiple ACP Pacemaker awards– college media’s highest honor– including best four-year daily student newspaper.

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Related

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

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

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College Media Highlights, Lowlights from Fall 2009

Posted in College Media, Journalism, New Media, Student Newspaper, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 3, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

Fall semester 2009 played host to great feats of student journalism excellence. It also featured several callous fights and a spate of blunders that made j-students both grimace and blush.  It was a typical term.

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As students begin to sober up and look toward spring 2010, here is a quick glimpse back at the highlights and lowlights within collegemediatopia in S1AY09-10.***  The first award is below.  (Check back for more over the next few days.)

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Most Industrious Reporting: Yale Daily News & Pitt News (tie)

The Daily News boasted regular scoops and extremely thorough reporting as the top news outlet, student or professional, covering the tragic killing of Yale graduate student Annie Le.  As a Poynter feature quoted one reader proclaiming, ”I have been following this story from Austin, Texas, and time and again I find myself on the YDN site because this is where the truly excellent reporting has been.”

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Meanwhile, the Pitt News covered G-20, 360. A crackerjack team of student editors, reporters, videographers, photographers, bloggers, and tweeters braved crowds, the elements, and even tear gas and the police to provide round-the-clock, multimediated coverage of nearly every facet of last September’s G-20 political summit in Pittsburgh.  As Pitt News editor in chief Drew Singer told me, “No other news organization in the world was providing as thorough and expedient description of things as they happened than we were.”

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Runner-up honors go to The Student Life at Washington University in St. Louis. Staffers at the paper used their student connections and new media savviness to cover the now infamous Chicago bar racism incident in-depth and from numerous angles. They posted the insta-famous Rejected, Admitted photos and had their opening story on the alleged blow to Civil Rights picked up by HuffPo and a host of other national outlets.

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Separate kudos to California j-students who covered and editorialized about the tuition hike announcement fallout statewide.

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*** Semester one, academic year 2009-10 for those playing at home.

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“Journalists Hope to Save Student Newspaper”

Posted in Journalism, Student Newspaper, tagged , , , , , , , on December 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

New Expression, a student publication in Chicago that exposed more than 4,000 teens to working journalism in its 32-year history, ended in October. The executive director of Youth Communication Chicago, the organization behind the pub: “It’s the economy, and the squeeze on nonprofits, and the crisis in the newspaper industry- it’s a perfect storm.”

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New Expression Story

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The story is only marginally connected to college j-students or campus media: Columbia College undergrads had participated in a related local schools’ outreach program teaching younger students about journalism basics and inspiring them to express their opinions on current affairs.  A Columbia College student told ABC7 News in Chicago, “New Expression was kind of their form of hope, because we go to environments that take away that hope completely from these kids. For us to come down there, to give them a chance to write, a chance to say what they want to say…”

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The ABC7 story hinted at a hope of saving the newspaper.  I saw no evidence of that in the report, however, and could not find anything online but a mention of a mid-November rally to flesh that out.  For the sake of student journalism, I hope more is done and those in the know please inform me how interested parties can help.

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