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“[O]ur team has grown from about 15 to over 180 staffers, reporters, editors, and contributors.  That’s enabled us to cover major events in detail, from the death of Osama bin Laden to the debt ceiling debate to (more recently) the Iowa caucuses.  Along the way, we’ve begun interviews with major figures- including Jon Huntsman, Mitch Daniels, and Chris Van Hollen last semester alone– with questions coming from students across the country.  We’ve even had the chance to talk about our coverage and our overall efforts in other outlets, like on MSNBC.  Our primary goal remains the same: to provide a platform for our generation, vaulting our voices, perspectives, and priorities into the national conversation.”

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One of the most interesting additions being rolled out is “Make a Pitch,” an open call to students seeking to submit “a really unique perspective on a particular issue.”  It is apparently part of NextGen’s efforts to further engage with its student base.

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David Teeghman

Founder and Publisher, J-School Buzz

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J-School Buzz, an independent student blog focused with unblinking intensity on the University of Missouri School of Journalism, awes me.  At the moment, it is the only hyperlocal student blog within collegemediatopia of any significance.

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It continues to break interesting stories and trigger debates of consequence in Columbia, Mo., and beyond.  And it is staffed by students within the Mizzou J-School who are unafraid to doggedly and at times critically report on their own program, for its own good.

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As its editor-in-chief Ali Colwell writes with gusto, “It is not our job to make the journalism school look good.  We are bloggers, always digging for the truth. . . . We want to be a student voice for the Missouri School of Journalism, and we welcome conversation as well as debate.  We want to engage readers and create a site that fosters the dialogue for our amazing school that brings in the best students around.”

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As part of Teach for America, Teeghman is leading middle school reading classes.

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The man behind the Buzz deserves applause, respect, and a hyperlocal blog focused just on his hair.  David Teeghman launched the site in January 2011.  Roughly 13 months later, he can pat himself on the back for an accomplishment most j-students never muster: an actual start-up success story, one that has outlived his time in school.

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Teeghman, now a Mizzou grad, is currently taking part in Teach for America in Indianapolis, while J-School Buzz continues to be a player in the student media arena nationwide.  Just yesterday, its post about the Mizzou J-School Facebook account not actually being officially aligned with the school prompted a response from the school’s planning and communications director on Romenesko.

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For his courageousness, spirit of innovation, entrepreneurialism, and hyperlocal A-game, Teeghman rightfully earns a spot in the College Media Hall of Fame.  Frankly, it’s long overdue. :)

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“A Rising Journalist with a Vision”

By Claudia Tran

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Most of my interaction with Teeg was not during regular daylight hours or even face-to-face.  Most of the time, it was between 2 and 4 in the morning and we were communicating via Facebook, Twitter and text messaging, sometimes all of the above. In all honesty, it was usually the moments when I was right about to silence my phone or shut off the computer that the text or the chat with a new piece of advice or demand came from him, greeted with a half-groan and an eye-roll from myself [during her time as J-School Buzz editor-in-chief].

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But it was during these times I had the privilege of getting to know a rising journalist with a vision.  Certainly not liked by all– and that has been the topic of many of our conversations– it is difficult even for his most passionate, fake-Twitter-account-creating critics to deny that Teeg is not only a talented journalist, but also innovative and dedicated.

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Sure, he calls me Tranny (not only that, he encourages the world to) and enjoys likening me to a “cat continuously scared by its shadow,” but I always knew Teeg had my back and only wanted me to learn as much from the experience as he has.  He’s like a journalism equivalent of a big brother.  From him and his website I gained trade secrets far more valuable than anything a textbook or class lecture could have taught me.  He put 110 percent into J-School Buzz and never looked back.  He’s rolled with the punches, had successes as well as failures, and continues to push the boundaries in the name of our education.

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Best of luck in the future Teeg.  May you continue to be controversial– we know you will be, and remember that JSB will always stand behind you.

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Tran is a former J-School Buzz editor-in-chief.

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The video below lays out the basics of the site, which “emphasizes visuals and incorporates more interactive features, such as integration with Facebook and Twitter.”

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In a related Chronicle story, the paper’s online operations managing director Dean Chen tells Maggie Spini, “What we’re releasing is what . . . the industry generally calls the minimum viable product.  What most products do nowadays, is release the bare minimum to the market, instead of trying to predict what viewers want.”

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My Take: Over the past year, the Duke daily has become one of my favorite student press outlets.  The current staff has upped the paper’s editorial A-game to its highest levels yet.  Now, it has a fantastic site to go with it.

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The list is NOT meant to be all-inclusive or objective.  It is based on nothing more than my personal knowledge of various schools’ and colleges’ reputations, faculty, affiliated student media, classes, and feedback I’ve received in spurts from students and (mostly younger) alums.

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It is strongly biased in favor of schools that are exciting me in the digital journalism realm and that are in some way aligned with quality campus media or professional publishing opportunities.  It is biased against journalism programs and departments (only schools included here) and certain schools I simply do not know enough about (although in some respects the fact that they have not crossed my daily college media blogging radar is a sign).

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So in the end, I’m equating the list to the Princeton Review rankings of the country’s best college newspapers, without all the pretend seriousness and pseudo-scientificness.

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In alphabetical order, here are what I consider to be the best j-schools in the country:

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Arizona State University

Walter Cronkite School of Journalism & Mass Communication

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Indiana University

School of Journalism

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Iowa State University

Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication

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Michigan State University

School of Journalism

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New York University

Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute

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Northwestern University

Medill School of Journalism

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Ohio University

E.W. Scripps School of Journalism

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Syracuse University

S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications

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University of Florida

College of Journalism & Communications

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University of Georgia

Grady College of Journalism & Mass Communication

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Kansas University

William Allen White School of Journalism & Mass Communications

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University of Iowa

School of Journalism & Mass Communication

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University of Maryland

Philip Merrill College of Journalism

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University of Minnesota

School of Journalism & Mass Communication

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University of Missouri

School of Journalism

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University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

School of Journalism & Mass Communication

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University of Oklahoma

Gaylord College of Journalism & Mass Communication

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University of Oregon

School of Journalism & Communication

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University of Southern California

Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism

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University of Texas at Austin

School of Journalism

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Please let me know, politely: What other schools should be on the list???  Depending on their merits, I will add them immediately.  (To be clear again upfront, I did not include journalism programs, departments or graduate schools.)

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The basic question at the debate’s core: Should students be allowed to work for multiple, possibly competing campus media at the same time?

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The reason behind the debate: The editor-in-chief of J-School Buzz, the hyperlocal news site covering Mizzou’s j-school, recently resigned due to a conflict of interest related to her work on The Columbia Missourian, a local daily staffed by professionals, profs, and Mizzou students.

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A Missourian policy, fairly recently updated, notes, “Work for other local media by Missourian paid staff or students in staff classes (reporting, copy editing, design, photography, photo editing, graphics, etc.) is prohibited. Local media include daily and weekly newspapers and related websites in our circulation area, campus newspapers and competing broadcast outlets.

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In a post about the resignation, J-School Buzz founder David Teeghman describes the policy as antiquated in a modern media environment boasting many, many outlets– especially ones that offer students the potential for picking up different skills.

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In his words, “[The EIC who resigned] would have learned a few things as JSB’s editor-in-chief that she will never learn at the Missourian. She won’t learn much there about analytics, what content generates traffic and buzz, the difference between stories an audience ‘wants’ and ‘needs,’ how to run a popular news blog, how to respond to critical commenters and tweeters you know personally, how to keep a site running when it gets a rush of unexpected traffic, and so on.”

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While his post makes the Missourian seem like the bad guy, the comments section clarifies and fights back on numerous points– arguing that Missourian staffers DO learn the skills Teeghman says they won’t and that STUDENTS were actually the group most in favor of enacting strict conflict of interest policies.

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My take: Conflicts of interest are often unavoidable in collegemediatopia.  Some of the classics: the student working in the school’s PR office while wanting to report for the newspaper; the student joining a frat while wanting to write about an event that involves Greek organizations; the history major who finds herself editing a story involving a dust-up between history profs and the administration; and the student keeping an indy Tumblr blog while writing for the school magazine on similar issues.

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Each potential conflict must be addressed on its merits.  And while most policies and idealists have their hearts in the right place, the truth is always murkier and in need of wiggle room.  Teeghman is correct in the overall implication that independent student media tend to get short shrift in conflict-of-interest fights when pitted against long-established, school-affiliated behemoths.  But in this instance, I don’t personally see any Orwellian plot to keep J-School Buzz down.  Let the debate continue!

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By Katelyn Sweigart

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Caught in the Web is a new CMM feature created and maintained by Katelyn Sweigart, web editor of The Mustang Daily and a senior journalism student at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.  It lays out a range of web tools and platforms aimed at helping student journalists up their writing, reporting, and multimedia awesomeness.

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One Word

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This daily writing exercise is great for those who need to flex their mental muscles before writing. You are given a single word and then 60 seconds to write about it—whatever comes to your mind. It doesn’t require registration, but signing up gives you the ability to archive your writing as well as connect to Facebook and participate in the community. You can join groups within One Word, doing round robin-esque storytelling or just getting support from your fellow writers.

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750 Words

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It’s an online “journal” that keeps a daily track of your writing. The goal is to write 750 words a day. It gives you points for meeting that goal, as well as doing this consistently. You can “follow” other writers on the site. There are also challenges and other incentives, which scratches that human itch of achievement satisfaction. (Seriously, why do you think Xbox Achievements are so popular? It’s those little rewards that makes you feel accomplished.) There’s a bunch more features open to those who donate to the website. It’s definitely worth looking into. I recently found this site, so I don’t know its ins and outs completely. But what I’ve seen, I like!

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Q10

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This isn’t a site, but a program. It’s full-screen text editor that doesn’t allow you to look at your other windows or minimize it, or even let you use your cursor. You can change almost everything about the appearance: line spacing, font color, font type, first line indent, etc. There’s a word counter, spell checker, and it can give you alarms for sprint writing, or you can set up an alert so you know when you hit a specific word count. It doesn’t do really fancy formatting, but it gets the job done. And it makes typewriter sounds. How cool is that! Unfortunately, I type too quickly and it sounds like my computer is purring. It doesn’t require installation—it’s a self-contained .exe file.  Unfortunately, it’s only for Windows, and the programmer doesn’t plan on making one for Linux or Mac.

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Caught in the Web graphic by Steven Simily

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At the moment, the site’s homepage remains adorned with “Stop SOPA” material, although it is possible to access other content by clicking on their section pages or using the search bar.

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My honest first response, without any cynicism or sarcasm: The Certificate strikes me as extraneous in the age of Journalism 3.0.  I guess it’s one more polish on a student CV.  But seriously, if a student is earning a journalism degree without taking classes covering those skills, I would seriously question that school’s program.  Being a journalism graduate today should confirm you have had some experience with digital platforms and storytelling processes.  You should not need an extra certificate with the word digital in it to prove it.

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According to a separate Pitt News report, the reason for the program’s suspension was not its cost ($30,500 a year, taken from the Student Activities Fund) but the “unlimited access” faculty, staff, and Pittsburgh residents had to the papers.  An SGA member: “I think it is worthwhile and definitely something we should continue to have on campus. . . . [But] we don’t want to use the activities fee to fund something that everyone could use.”

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One action being considered is the installation of locked dropboxes holding the papers that can only be accessed by students through an ID card swipe.  The problem, according to the Pitt News, is that this plan has no timetable for being carried out.

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As a portion of the editorial calling for the program’s renewal states, “In the age of The Huffington Post, Google News and other aggregate sites, readers have more news sources at their disposal than ever before.  But not every media outlet is first-rate, and many students might still prefer reading one or two high-quality newspapers– an opportunity the recently halted Collegiate Readership Program afforded. . . . To read the Times in print is to immerse yourself in a rich, well-designed document; to browse the paper’s website is to sample a dozen or so articles, videos and graphics, none of which command your full attention.”