Posts Tagged ‘Student Newspaper’

Florida A&M Student Newspaper Delayed From Publishing & Staff Ordered to Reapply for Positions

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on January 10, 2013 | 1 Comment »

Staffers at The Famuan, the student newspaper at Florida A&M University, will not publish their first issue of spring semester early next week as planned.  Instead, on administrative orders, editorial operations at the paper have been delayed until the end of the month.  The adviser of the paper at the Tallahassee school has also been removed.  And Famuan staff have been told they all must reapply for their positions and “undergo training in media law and ethics . . . [and] more general journalism principles.”

–

The decision by Florida A&M School of Journalism & Graphic Communication dean Ann Kimbrough comes roughly a month after a student filed a lawsuit against the paper alleging defamation.  The suit contends the Famuan mishandled a portion of its reporting surrounding the November 2011 hazing death of Florida A&M music student Robert Champion, an incident that has placed the university in a harsh, prolonged national spotlight.

–

As Sara Gregory reports for the Student Press Law Center about the content under contention, “The December 2011 article incorrectly stated that Keon Hollis, a fellow drum major, had been suspended in connection with Champion’s hazing death.  No disciplinary action was taken against Hollis, according to a correction published by the paper in February 2012.  The original article has been removed from the paper’s website.”

–

According to the Tallahassee Democrat, the suit’s specific argument: “[T]he student newspaper failed to ‘exercise ordinary care’ [when reporting on the Hollis allegation], lacked a credible source for its information, and failed to investigate what amounted to ‘nothing more than unverified and unsubstantiated rumor and gossip.’”

–

1

–

Along with the pending lawsuit, there have apparently been issues concerning the eligibility of students involved with the Famuan and other student media and journalism organizations.  According to Kimbrough, a sizable block of students in the past have not met basic enrollment or GPA requirements, a shortcoming current Famuan editor-in-chief Karl Etters acknowledges but says was fixed this past fall.

–

Meanwhile, the timing of Famuan adviser Andrew Skerritt’s removal is apparently “just a coincidence,” according to Kimbrough.  It is tied to a “personnel issue” no one is speaking about publicly so far.  Skerritt is also a journalism prof. at Florida A&M.

–

Etters told the Tallahassee Democrat yesterday about the pub’s postponement: “It kind of takes the wind out of your sails. . . . It will help show the public we are taking strides to be a more solid publication.  Ultimately, I think it will be a good thing to see more people trained, but it hurts a little bit.”

–

–

Read Full Post »

University of Oregon’s Emerald Builds Special Site for Fiesta Bowl Coverage (#Interactive #Innovative #GoDucks)

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , on January 3, 2013 | 1 Comment »

The Emerald at the University of Oregon is welcoming in 2013 with a fun, furious thunderclap of online innovation.

–

In honor of this evening’s Fiesta Bowl battle between the Oregon Ducks and the Kansas State University Wildcats, the UO student student media group has taken over its own homepage.  The reconstructed web digs feature game-day tweets (all with a #GoDucks hashtag), Instagram photos (including those geo-tagged close to the stadium in Glendale, Ariz.), a reader chat board, and stories from a half-dozen Emerald staffers reporting on Fiesta football and other festivities in person.

–

The tweets, pics, chat, and content are each presented in their own vertical streams, updated in real-time, making for a fun top-to-bottom wait-scroll-browse-repeat for even casual fans.

–

1

–

Emerald publisher extraordinaire Ryan Frank: “With one screen, you score insight from beat reporters on Twitter, photos that reveal what the TV cameras aren’t catching at the game, and a place to debate big plays or missed calls.  So when the game kicks off, grab a seat, turn on the game and make us your GameDay home page. You won’t regret it.

–

The special site’s foundation was developed by Emerald staffer Ivar Vong (hat tip to digital journalism wunderkind Davis Shaver).  In a tweet this afternoon, Vong promised to reveal his development techniques in an upcoming blog post.

–

2

–

–

Read Full Post »

Campus Newspaper Publishing Book on Student Government President

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on December 30, 2012 | 2 Comments »

The Saginaw Valley Journal has put together a book on the current president of the Student Association at Saginaw Valley State University.  The book is being released in June by the same publishing company that oversees the SVJ, a for-profit campus newspaper focused on the Michigan school.  The company is owned and operated by Michael Westendorf, an increasingly innovative and intriguing figure within collegemediatopia.

–

The book’s title: “Feels Good Man– The Student Presidency of Theodore C. Goodman From the Pages of The Saginaw Valley Journal.”  (Cover image in screenshot below.)

–

1

–

As the paper explained last week in an online announcement, “Last spring, Mr. Goodman became just the second SVSU student since Armen Hratchian in 2004– and just the seventh student in 45 years– to serve two consecutive terms as president of the association.  The year before, Mr. Goodman eked out a 10-vote victory in extraordinary fashion to unseat Julie A. Boon in a nail-biting election that saw more than 880 votes.”

–

Upon learning of the news, I asked Westendorf two questions via email.  Question #1: Why?  As he tells me, “It boils down to: we had enough material on him/his tenure for a book, and I’m president of a publishing company.  That’s really it.  It’s not a profit-seeking venture, it’s just a project we wanted to do that might expand our brand a bit, and one that I think will add to our ‘library’ of quality journalism.”

–

Question #2: Why would this be of interest to anyone outside the student president’s immediate family?

–

Westendorf: “The reaction so far has been, in a word: amusement.  This, of course, is the type of thing usually reserved for national newsmakers, not local (or campus) officials, but that’s really what our coverage does with the student government here. It truly treats the student government as THE government.”

–

One folo for Westendorf, when he reads this: What does the first part of the title refer to?  (I’ll update the post when he answers.)

–

Update, from Westendorf: “‘Feels Good Man’ is an Internet meme that originated in message boards like 4chan and the like. It’s a take off of Ted’s last name (Goodman). During his first campaign, some folks joked that he should have used the ‘Feels Good Man’ meme on posters.”

–

–

Read Full Post »

Daily Princetonian Debates, Decides to Keep Anonymous Online Comments

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

The Daily Princetonian is keeping its online commenting system anonymous. After a laudably transparent evaluation process tied to the construction of a new website, top staff at the Princeton University student newspaper agreed with a reader that “[a] few nasty comments here and there is an infinitesimally small price to pay for truly free, unabridged speech.”

–

The two main arguments in favor of anonymity, from the Prince perspective: 1) Anonymity breeds greater reader engagement.  As editors note, the paper’s “comment boards have earned the reputation as the most active compared with those of the other Ivy League newspapers.”  And 2) It enables readers to feel comfortable discussing more intimate or controversial topics or expressing more unpopular views– without being held back by fear of damage to their short-term or long-term Google prints/reputations.

–

In a column late last week headlined “We’re Keeping Anonymity,” Prince editor-in-chief Henry Rome wrote, “While we acknowledge that some users hide behind anonymity to make mean-spirited or offensive comments, the benefits of anonymity far outweigh the perceived cost. On a small college campus, requiring names or log-ins that can be traced back to University accounts will stymie public dialogue. As the comments on coverage of the University’s Greek ban or of the suicide of lecturer Antonio Calvo demonstrated, members of our community who are nervous about speaking out use the ‘Prince’ comments as a way to make their voices heard. More recently, the comments on the Love and Lust in the Bubble series show the value of an honest dialogue about sensitive issues of sex and relationships that would not happen without anonymity.”

–

1

–

The Prince’s anonymous pledge is against the wishes of Princeton University president Shirley Tilghman.  As she argued in a letter to the editor late last month, “Anonymity invites candor, to be sure, but it also invites thoughtlessness, not to mention malice and spite.  In an academic community like ours, anonymous comments strike me as entirely out of place.  They are antithetical to our Honor Code, whose guiding principle is that ideas are the coin of the realm.  The Honor Code demands that students ‘own their words’ in their academic work.”

–

There were 54 comments posted in response to her letter, expressing an array of perspectives.  One retort to Tilghman’s refrain: “Some people use anonymity as an opportunity to be cruel and spiteful.  Others use it as a way to share the truth that should rightly be shared, but which people in power want suppressed.  If the Prince prohibits anonymous posting, then the former will find other forums for their malice, while the latter will more likely be silenced.  But more importantly, as a reader I would rather have the opportunity to see all opinions expressed than miss out on learning about opinions that are unpopular or unfavorable to those in power.  I can always ignore the trolls when they post.  But I can’t read the legitimate critics if they’ve been silenced.”

–

–

Related

Daily Princetonian to Stop Using Email Quotes in News Stories, Except in ‘Extraordinary Circumstances’

Princeton Student’s Column Criticizing Annual Giving Prompts Online Comments War

–

–

Read Full Post »

UNC Daily Tar Heel Columnist Discusses ‘Brown Elephant in the Room’

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

An interesting column in The Daily Tar Heel at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is pushing for greater dialogue about “the brown elephant in the room”: poop.  The call for increased fecal matter chatter is not simply about bettering our physical health, but also getting past “certain assumptions about genders.”

–

DTH columnist Jagir Patel calls its “poop stigma.”  Apparently, the lack of discussion surrounding our regular #2 activity has led to a societal belief that “[w]omen and poop are supposed to be strangers to maintain an ideal of feminine perfection.”

–

1

–

A portion of Patel’s piece, headlined “Dumping on Taboos“: “My friend recently said her long-term boyfriend gets awkward when she alludes to the fact that she poops. He gets upset, she says, when she talks about her bowel movements. She still doesn’t feel comfortable farting around him, even though he frequently farts around her, and his friends often joke about poops and toots within their bro gang.”

–

I’ve read Patel with increasing interest this semester.  He’s tackled personal issues including being gay and Indian (or what he calls “finding brown in the rainbow,“ instead of “the brown elephant in the room”) and has published pushes for greater dialogue on subjects such as sex and self-pleasure.  His view about that: “Perhaps if we chatted more about our penises, vaginas and anuses, as well as how they can most responsibly be pleased, we would have less STDs and more orgasms.”

–

–

Related

Best Student Press Column of All Time?: ‘Poop Bandit on the Loose’

Student Press Headlines That Make Me Giggle: Poop and Mold Edition

Campus Restroom Graffiti Deserves a Fresh Report

–

–

Read Full Post »

Arizona Daily Wildcat Drops ‘Illegal Immigrant’ in Favor of ‘Undocumented’

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on December 12, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

The Arizona Daily Wildcat will no longer use the term “illegal immigrant” in its news copy when referring to those who are living in this country in violation of the law. Instead, individuals who fit the description will be termed “undocumented.”

–

The decision by top staff at the University of Arizona student newspaper comes at the conclusion of a roughly two-month process that involved internal newsroom debate and solicitation of readers’ perspectives.  In an excellent write-up explaining the rationale behind the change, Wildcat managing editor and readers’ representative Bethany Barnes mentioned that the style issue seemed especially relevant for the paper “because of Arizona’s proximity to the border and how frequently border security issues come up.”

–

1

–

In the note, headlined “We’re Changing the Way We Talk About Immigrants,” Barnes argues “using ‘undocumented’ isn’t about trying to talk around the issue or dress it up as something it isn’t.  Using ‘undocumented’ is about avoiding characterizing someone’s entire personhood by one civil offense.”

–

As she writes, “While ‘undocumented’ may not cut to the chase, it doesn’t paint a false picture either.  You wouldn’t call someone who was evicted for not paying rent an illegal renter or someone who double parked an illegal driver. . . . But ‘illegal immigrant’ falsely implies that everyone who is in the country illegally is a criminal. Many of the people who are here illegally are here not because they broke the law, but because they were brought here at a young age. As a student newspaper, that situation undoubtedly rings true for some readers.”

–

My Take: Bravo on the process leading to this change especially.  The editors grappled with a seemingly worthwhile question in a very responsible way, not rushing and instead carrying out the proper legwork to learn about the related issues and perspectives on both sides.  They have been transparent throughout their decision-making and wisely invited reader interaction at the start.  It’s a model for other papers to follow.

–

–

Related

UCLA Daily Bruin Loses Letter to the Editor Over Dispute About Spelling of Word ‘Women’

–

–

Read Full Post »

Student Journalists at American University Speak for First Time About Breast-Feeding Story Controversy

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on December 11, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

The most controversial student press story of 2012 went viral before it was even written.

–

In early September, American University anthropology professor Adrienne Pine published a 4,000-word essay online alleging The Eagle student newspaper was out to get her. Her allegations quickly received national media attention. They stemmed from a story the paper had been pursuing about Pine breast-feeding her newborn daughter during a class lecture.

–

Eagle staff writer Heather Mongilio had taken on the assignment, while the paper’s editor-in-chief Zach Cohen and other editors supervised her progress. But Mongilio’s name never appeared in the published article’s byline. Instead, she joined Cohen and the Eagle as a news flavor of the week and trending Twitter topic, while caught in a swirl of nasty debate that briefly seemed to swallow the paper and students whole.

–

Late last month, Cohen and Mongilio gave their first interview about the story and the sudden super-storm that formed around them while they were working on it. Their reflections offer a fresh, behind-the-scenes glimpse at the multi-headed Minotaur that is the modern media scandal.

–

The scandals are born online, spread in real-time, pounced on by the press, spit on in status updates, and often built around loud voices, larger agendas, and first impressions, facts or full stories be damned. They are also increasingly ensnaring the campus press, almost always attached to an embedded anti-student sentiment along the lines of, “What have the kids done now?”

–

To read the rest of the story, click here or on the screenshot below to head to Poynter Online.

–

1

–

–

Read Full Post »

Temple News ‘Menstrual Struggle’ Column Goes Viral: ‘When Your Girlfriend Suffers, You Sure Will, Too’

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on December 6, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

Temple News relationship columnist John Corrigan is currently earning scorn, snark, and tons of clicks for a piece he penned on the horrors a woman’s period inflicts on the men in her life.  Gawker calls it the “Most Ridiculous Period-Advice Column Ever.”

–

In the piece, Corrigan lays out the inconveniences boyfriends suffer when their significant others enter “that time of the month.”  According to him, these include a hold on all sexual activity, frequent trips to 7-Eleven to pick up comfort food, and existing as a human piñata for the torrent of criticisms that are directed their way.

–

In respect to the latter, as he writes at one point, “When your girlfriend suffers, you sure will, too.  Although it is not scientifically proven, women can maximize their mean streak during the menstrual cycle. . . . Your appearance, your performance, your family, your friends– everything is fair game for critique when you’re caught in a woman’s PMSing scorn.  They call it a period, but an exclamation point is more appropriate.”

–

1

–

Upon publication, the column almost immediately entered viral-ville.  There are already many corners of the interwebs sporting ‘ha,’ ‘eww,’ ‘whoa’ or ‘oh God no’ reactions.  In the critics corner, the three main contentions: 1) It plays off cheap gender stereotypes.  2) It is offensive to women.  3) And it doesn’t, ahem, scream funny.

–

For example, in a pair of tweets (hat tip HuffPost), Erica Palan, the managing web editor of Philadelphia Magazine and a Temple alum and Temple News veteran, declared, ”A columnist for @TheTempleNews writes the most outlandishly offensive thing I’ve read since … the Romney campaign. . . . The thing is: If it’s parody, it didn’t work. And if it’s not parody, then it is in such poor taste that I can’t even believe it.”

–

Two comments beneath the piece expressing different perspectives: 1) “The fact that this is getting so much attention is ridiculous.  Why do we live in a society [where] people find any reason to feel they are victimized?  It’s so obvious that the author is trying to be humorous, sarcastic, and as many of you pointed out he [simply] didn’t do too good a job.”  2) “I’m a woman and I think this is absolutely hilarious.  Sending this to my boyfriend who will be equally amused.  Thanks for the morning laugh.”

–

2

–

3

–

As the tweet above hints, amid the outrage, there has been interest: The column set a one-day temple-news.com traffic record, grabbing more than 27,000 hits yesterday.

–

The paper’s editor-in-chief Angelo Fichera, via Romenesko: “The column was read by our whole staff, including men and women, before it ran.  I think they all felt that this was not meant to be taken seriously. If you’ve read his column in the past, you know this is the same tone he’s always taken. It’s not meant to be taken seriously. That being said, we’re going to take the feedback into consideration. . . . It’s definitely been a learning experience.”

–

–

Related

Rice University Student Columnist Compares ‘Period Sex’ to Bloodbaths, Airplane Food, Shark Week

–

–

Read Full Post »

‘The Post is Dead, Long Live the Post’: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Paper Drops Print Edition

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on December 1, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

The UWM Post at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee will no longer be published in print.  The culprits?  Cash flow problems, a declining audience, and a hardcore desire to digitally reinvent.

–

As staff confirmed in a special editorial published on the front page of its current issue and featured on its homepage, “This is our last print issue.  No amount of money-saving or money-generating suggestions or well wishes could save us from this fate.  . . . The truth is, our audience was no longer there. The community we served had moved on without us, and to be honest, it had been so long since we had bothered to check that we don’t even know when we lost them.  When we made the decision to pull the plug on the Post . . . [m]ore than half of the papers we printed we recycled without anyone ever even touching them. Shame on us for letting it get so bad.  That ends here.”

–

1

–

As I previously posted, the UWM paper had all but predicted its print-less endgame earlier this semester.  At the time, staff took pay cuts and dropped its print run.  But in an open letter online, eds. noted, “Even with these measures in place, we will be lucky if we can keep printing through November.”

–

Now, at November’s end, the pub’s print luck has run out.  Its next frontier: the online sphere.  And within it, staff are seemingly going for broke.

–

2

–

To their credit, the Post leadership is thinking big, aiming to present its readers with something they have never seen before from the outlet.  The Post 2.0 will sport “boxes,” “nuggets,” and “scopes” in place of articles, sections, and beats.  And “disruptors” will soon join the staff to tinker with digital tools and keep on top of new online production and consumption habits.

–

For example, as the Post explains about its rejiggered website, “The entire home page is a real-time feed of the Post’s collective content.  Each piece of content is self-contained within a box, providing the information and easy sharing links.  The boxes float together into the feed and are organized chronologically, with each new piece of content bumping down the old in an endless scrolling stream.”

–

–

Related

Student Newspapers at Two Milwaukee Schools in Financial Trouble

UW-Milwaukee Campus Newspaper Plans to Sue Former Student Government President for Halloween Theft

Student Journalist Spotlight: Jonathan Anderson, Ultimate College Press Freedom Fighter, UW-Milwaukee

–

–

Read Full Post »

Racist Video by University of Minnesota Duluth Student, Alum Prompts Email Alert, Apologies

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on November 27, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

A shockingly racist video featuring two young women– one a recent alumna and the other a student at the University of Minnesota Duluth– prompted UMD officials to send a school-wide email alert expressing their horror at its creation, posting, and spread.

–

In the roughly five-minute video, the women wear blackface and talk over each other– making derogatory comments and playing off the worst stereotypes connected to minorities.  They repeatedly refer to themselves as n-ggers, “claiming to be from the ‘black hood,’ needing some ‘fried (expletive deleted) chicken’, and likening themselves to looking ‘like apes right now.’”

–

–

The school’s initial response: “We have seen the video; we abhor it.  This is unacceptable behavior for anyone, and we at UMD are extremely unhappy to be associated with it in any way.”

–

The Statesman, UMD’s student newspaper, identified the women and obtained apologetic statements from them about the circumstances surrounding its creation.

–

As one of them wrote to the paper, “We were doing facials and it happened to have been a brown facial mask.  We had to leave it on for 12 minutes.  During that 12 minutes, we horribly decided to make a video that we regret and are not happy about.  This was made over a year ago.  I am saddened and sick to my stomach and sorry for anybody it offends. It was not mine or hers intention at all and we are embarrassed about it. We understand we cannot do anything about it now but apologize and inform people we did not paint our faces or put that on to purposely make a video.”

–

–

The video was recently posted anonymously on YouTube under the account UMDHate.  YouTube subsequently removed it for violating the site’s hate speech policy.  The video embedded here contains the original, wrapped with commentary at the start and close by an individual who is angered by it.

–

–

Read Full Post »

Miami Hurricane Defends Controversial Pieces Perceived as Promoting Adderall, Other Study Drugs

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

Controversy recently ensnarled The Miami Hurricane at the University of Miami for its publication of a “special Adderall report” that included a column and staff editorial seen by some as promoting the popular “study drug” and others like it.

– 

The column at the heart of the mini-blow-up, headlined “Stressed-Out Students Should Take Advantage of Pills,“ implores readers, “Medicate, Miami. You’ve earned it.”  The paper’s editor-in-chief calls it satirical, although it reads as straightforwardly snarky.

–

As the student writer contends, “You can’t really blame college students for ‘abusing’ study drugs. . . . A UCLA study shows that college students face more work and stress than ever before.  And with prescription study drugs being handed out like PEZ candies on campus, why wouldn’t students take advantage of them? . . . It’s hard to abuse a drug whose main side effects are productivity and finding linear algebra interesting. I can’t list the number of all-nighters I’ve pulled with the help of Concerta [a study drug] in order to cram a semester’s worth of writing into one night.”

–

–

A separate staff editorial on Adderall’s widespread illegal use confirms “college students will find a way to get the drug even if it isn’t prescribed to them. Whether they buy it from someone who has ADHD, buy it from someone who obtains it illegally or steal it from a friend, where there’s a will, there’s a way.”

–

–

As the editorial, headlined “Magic Pill Can Enhance Focus, Drive,” concludes, “You can blame the system. You can blame college professors. You can even blame society for not making exceptions to the rule that some students must ‘do it all.’  Whichever way you look at it, students have been forced to search for ways to boost their drive, and Adderall is indeed a solution.  Adderall won’t make you smarter or invincible, it just heightens your drive to finish study guides, research papers, and projects. Others shouldn’t look down on those who need– and welcome– the extra push.”

–

Upon publication earlier this month, the pieces– particularly the column– apparently spurred an outsized helping of “criticism and discontent” among Hurricane devotees.

–

As the pub’s EIC Allison Goodman confirms in an editorial, “People have shared their opinions over email, Facebook, Twitter, and through comments on our website. Most have scrutinized the editors’ decision to publish the satirical commentary, which was by a writer who has turned to Concerta– legally prescribed– to enhance his academic performance. Many have questioned the credibility of the Hurricane for publishing such a piece.”

–

The question seemingly at the heart of the credibility issue: Are the pieces irresponsibly supporting, and even encouraging, illegal drug use/abuse or simply pointing out the drugs’ accepted benefits and obvious popularity among students?

–

One student critic, speaking to the “Medicate, Miami” columnist: “[I]t is highly unethical and irresponsible for a person in [your] position to . . . advocate prescription drug abuse.  This is not a brave civil rights stance.  It is an attempt to convince readers that his own abuse should not be condemned, but instead supported by the community.  Prescription drug abuse is a major problem in our country, and South Florida ranks highly among the most affected regions. . . . While the First Amendment gives us the right to freedom of speech, and with that right you can advocate all the drug abuse you want, to use the Miami Hurricane to do so is a severe violation.”

–

–

In response, Goodman defended both pieces and rejected calls by some to retract them.  As she writes, ”I’d like to make it clear that the opinion columns published in the Hurricane . . . represent the views of the individual columnists, and not the Hurricane or its editorial board.  Choosing not to publish a column because we disagree with it would be inherently biased.  It’s also worth noting that nowhere did the staff editorial endorse illegal Adderall abuse– that was never our position, and we would never intentionally encourage students to turn to an activity that could harm themselves or the university.  The editorial, the product of organized staff-wide discussion, merely recognized the pressure students face that sometimes lead them to do things like take Adderall to boost their focus. . . . There is obviously a fine line between choosing not to chastise our peers for illegal drug use and encouraging this illegal drug use– but we treaded it carefully.”

–

–

Read Full Post »

Red & Black Editor: Georgia Tech Paper’s ‘To Hell With Georgia’ Football Rivalry Issue ‘A Lose-Lose for Everyone’

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on November 25, 2012 | 1 Comment »

Yesterday afternoon, the University of Georgia football squad tore apart in-state rival Georgia Tech University to earn a shot at the SEC title and a berth in the BCS national championship game.  In a column published the day before the shellacking, Red & Black opinion editor Blake Seitz at UGA unleashed a similarly harsh editorial smackdown of sorts aimed at the Technique, Georgia’s Tech’s student newspaper.

–

The focus of Seitz’s ire: To Hell With Georgia, a special satirical issue published annually by the Technique prior to the UGA-GT game.  Over the years, within the issue, the Technique staff has not-so-subtly poked fun at general UGA stereotypes including “alcohol, rednecks, farm animals, and lots of dawgs.”

–

–

Among the headlines topping faux stories in the current issue focused on UGA: “Sesame Street Too Hard for UGA Students, Romney Right All Along”; “Red Solo Cups Deemed Reusable”; “Honey Boo Boo to Talk at Graduation”; “Tater Tot Addiction No. 3 Biggest Craze After Drinking, Incest”; and “Cars in Athens Pimped Out with Tape.”

–

A separate editorial cartoon depicts a beer can, wine bottle, needle filled with meth, and a DVD containing pornography as “UGA Study Guides.”  Also in the issue, a two-page spread sporting nothing more than the huge, blood-red words “To Hell with Georgia!”  As a tiny strip of text underneath the words notes, “This space provided as a public service by the Technique.”

–

–

Apparently, it’s all about tradition.  As an editorial on page two explains, “Some 101 years ago, the first edition of the Technique . . . was a four-page paper that focused primarily on the upcoming football contest with Georgia.  It predicted, arrogantly and incorrectly, that the Jackets would triumph over the Bulldogs.  From these ‘modest’ roots, the present day Technique came into being.  It is these roots that we as a staff honor when we produce ‘To Hell With Georgia.’ . . . While the jokes [in the current issue] may tend to be the same [as those in previous issues], lame or just plain crude, we stay dedicated to the fact of honoring our humble beginnings.”

–

–

Nearby, at UGA, Seitz isn’t buying it.  The Red & Black opinion editor views the issue’s stories as the antics of an editorially deficient enterprise and a student body fueled by “undying hatred.”  In his response column, he compares the Technique– and by extension all of Georgia Tech– to “that annoying younger brother you never wanted, who you tried to asphyxiate with a pillow that one time before your mother caught you.”

–

–

His take on “To Hell With Georgia” specifically, provided prior to the UGA-GT game: “When, on Saturday, Coach Richt and the boys lay an almighty stomping on the Jackets, and Tech fans are left to yell, ‘Why, why do we continue to field a team in this sport?’ in the smoldering wreckage of their defeat, it will fuel the vicious circle of Georgia Tech’s existence: hate will beget hate, which will beget more silly editions of the Technique for us all to read.  So I guess that’s a lose-lose for everyone.”

–

–

Related

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

–

–

Read Full Post »

Marshall Student Newspaper Column on Football Team Plane Crash Causes Controversy

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on November 19, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

A large contingent of Marshall University students, staff, and alums are annoyed and angry at the moment.  The focus of their frustration and ire: a column in The Parthenon student newspaper claiming the annual ceremony honoring the victims of the 1970 football team plane crash “has become devoid of meaning” and, for current students, is “just a motion we go through every year.”

–

As student columnist Henry Culvyhouse writes, “[T]he ceremony is a long-standing tradition at Marshall. Mountaineers burn couches, Yale has the Skull and Crossbones, and Marshall has this crash.  It’s the sort of thing that we carry on, like Thanksgiving or Christmas.  Like many traditions, this ceremony, I argue, has become devoid of meaning.  The students who attended weren’t here when this happened; they had nothing to do with it.  It’s a duty, something we always do and that’s that.  However, as the years pass, it loses its power.  I can see how in the decade that followed the crash, the campus community bound themselves together in solidarity but at this point, it’s just a motion we go through every year.”

–

The piece has set in motion a rapid, heavily critical response from all quadrants of the Marshall community, in the form of letters to the editor, local radio rants, more than 250 online comments, and a response column in the Parthenon penned by two current Marshall students whose relatives died in the crash.

–

As a Parthenon editorial notes, “The response to this column has been incredible– countless emails, phone calls, tweets, Facebook comments, and even threats have been fielded by members of the Parthenon staff and exchanged by so many who place Marshall University near to their hearts.”

–

–

A portion of the response column from the affected Parthenon staffers: ”My mother lost both of her parents on the Marshall plane crash, Dr. and Mrs. Ray Hagley. My father lost his father, Eugene Morehouse, the play-by-play announcer for the Thundering Herd. . . . I am not seeking sympathy, nor am I entitled to any special treatment, but it is hard for me to sit back and watch something that my family and I hold so dearly be disrespected in such a foul manner.”

–

Separately, a commenter beneath the article explains, “Kid, you just do not get it.  The crash does not define Marshall. Marshall’s response to the crash is what defines Marshall.  You have missed the entire point.  When we remember, we not only honor them, but we celebrate a an incredible community that serves as a living testimonial to all that is good about human resiliance and the healing power of love that makes us who we are.”

–

For his part, the columnist Culvyhouse admits, “I actually used a hammer when I should’ve used a scalpel.  I thought I was using a scalpel.  It was a complete and utter failure in precision on my part.”

–

–

Read Full Post »

State Press at ASU Going Digital-First, Shifting From Daily to Weekly Print Paper

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on November 18, 2012 | 1 Comment »

The State Press is doing nothing less than “re-inventing the college newspaper for the 21st century.”  Late last week, the Arizona State University student paper announced a big, bold, headfirst leap into the digital journalism wonderland.

–

The State Press 2.0 will premiere in January.  It will drop its daily print edition in favor of a bulked-up weekly and “digital products [that] include a new website optimized for viewing on mobile devices, updated iPhone and Android apps, as well as a new iPad app.”

–

As an editorial about the upcoming reinvention shares, “Each day, we ask ourselves: What is the future of journalism? . . . There are many unknowns, but one thing is certain: Our way of doing journalism is not the way of our parents or professors.  Our journalism unfolds in real time with a deadline of ‘now.’  It is fast-paced, demanding, and continuously redefining itself.  We are a part of that ‘now’ generation, and in order for the State Press to provide this kind of journalism, we must think digitally.”

–

–

Along with accepting the changing news landscape and proactively meeting readers’ increasing online, social media, and mobile needs, ASU student media director Jason Manning says the shift will also be an educational nirvana.  Great quote alert: “The truth is our students are probably not going to be asked to layout a daily print newspaper when they hit the professional world.  They’re going to be given assignments that involve data, computer programming, social media, writing for the web, digital design, videography, and a number of other skills that we teach now and will be able to teach more thoroughly with this new approach.”

–

The State Press is the third A-list, award-winning daily student pub to execute an all-out digital shift, following in the footsteps of The Red & Black at the University of Georgia and the Emerald at the University of Oregon.

–

–

Related

Revolution in Georgia: Student Newspaper Goes Digital First

Oregon Daily Emerald ‘Reinvented for the Digital Age’: Announces Revolutionary Changes

–

–

Read Full Post »

Tribune: Marquette Journalism Program Changes Trigger ‘Frustrations Among Students That Cannot Be Ignored’

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on November 15, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

A new editorial in The Marquette Tribune raises concerns about recent changes to the Marquette University journalism program, aligning them with the media industry’s larger perceived “dumbing-down.”  Among other critiques, editors cite an apparent over-emphasis on teaching students superficial self-promotion techniques, possibly at the expense of needed journalism principles.

–

As the piece (hat tip Poynter’s Julie Moos)– headlined “A Call for a Conversation About the Journalism Curriculum“– notes, “Courses that once focused on the nuances of news writing and beat reporting now teach students how to write the most gripping cover letter and create the perfectly polished LinkedIn profile. We were once taught to prioritize context, fairness, and critical thinking. Now, re-tweets, pageviews and self-promotion come before all else.  We do not presume to grade the curriculum’s effectiveness here; that must be done, in time, by administrators and faculty members. We do, however, recognize frustrations among students that cannot be ignored.”

–

–

The Tribune’s serious editorial is coupled with a satirical smackdown of the j-program online.  The current top post on the paper’s Onion-like blog The Turnip outlines a new faux assignment for Marquette j-students: live-tweeting their sleep cycles.  As an imaginary professor is quoted declaring, “We are doing something revolutionary.  Most, if not all, live-tweeting up until this point has been during consciousness. We are going a step further.”

–

–

Within the post, satirical plans are also unveiled regarding Twitter’s takeover of the Tribune itself– to be renamed the Twibune, since it will “publish its articles and columns purely as tweets.”  The conclusion: “Journalism professors could not be reached for comment when asked whether life itself should be replaced by Twitter, as they appeared to be too busy live-tweeting the question asked to contemplate an answer.”

–

Yowzer.  Let the conversation begin.

–

–

Read Full Post »

Older Posts »

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 4,016 other followers

%d bloggers like this: