How Are Student Journalists Changing News?

How are STUDENT JOURNALISTS changing news?

Photo contributed by Grady College

New Age Storytelling Conversation with Daily Cardinal multimedia editor Grey Satterfield

By Jennifer Gleason

The University of Wisconsin-Madison, home of the Badgers, is also home to not just one but two competing newspapers on campus.

The Badger Herald and the Daily Cardinal have competed since 1969—the latter was founded in 1892.

The Daily Cardinal boasts that it is the predominant source for news on campus.

“It’s definitely interesting,” Grey Satterfield, multimedia editor of the Daily Cardinal, said. “You’re always keeping tabs, following them on Twitter, Facebook, wherever… I know for a fact that it keeps you at your best everyday knowing that someone else is always printing.”

Satterfield, a communication arts major at UW, said that working indirectly in the journalism field has given him a unique look at the inner workings of a newspaper.

“We had a couple of people putting videos out (before me), but once all of them graduated the videos stopped, so unfortunately everything fell apart,” Satterfield said. “My take on multimedia in a student publication is that the trick is that you’re obviously skilled with video and cameras but more importantly editing. The issue is that the hardcore comm arts majors rarely want to work for journalism.”

Before becoming multimedia editor, Satterfield was photo editor.

And despite fitting into the communication arts department, his interest in journalism has grown since working with the newspaper. “(The position is) definitely a great hands-on experience,” Satterfield said. “You hear (journalism) professionals say ‘You should be good at everything,’ which is a little disheartening—obviously you can’t be good at everything— but I can take classes in the j-school on writing and reporting and work on expanding my (Adobe) Premiere skills, and I think that’s incredibly beneficial.”

Satterfield calls it getting “the best of both worlds.”

“The Herald does a poor job putting out their multimedia

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I know for a fact that it keeps you at your best everyday knowing that someone else is always printing.

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- GREY SATTERFIELD

or telling people about their multimedia content,” Satterfield said. “I know that they have a YouTube page, but I haven’t seen anything on a regular basis. We’re the only one consistently putting up multimedia content.”

At the time of the interview, Satterfield was also diligently working on a slideshow of the day’s football game against Indiana University. The slideshow showed several action shots from the game, creating a sense of movement without the need for video.

Satterfield’s goal is consistency—whether the content is video, slideshow or audio, he wants to put the audience in the middle of the action.

“I try to get multimedia involved with every desk—news, the arts page, life and style, sports,” Satterfield said. “The thing with video is that it’s a bit more challenging than writing news stories is because there’s a lot more moving parts.”

Instead, Satterfield tries his best to cover what can be covered in a multimedia way and makes up for what he cannot by producing video packages for the web later.

“News-wise, (the videos are) rarely that timely,” he said.

“The thing with making videos is that you need to come in ahead of time… What we’ve started to do is put together other videos, and we’ve ended up putting ‘em out Fridays and Saturdays.”

The Daily Cardinal’s goal is to drive in web traffic with more than just news.

Some of the video packages the staff has generated in-

It can be difficult for the Daily Cardinal multimedia staff to be at every breaking news event, so the staff creates unique video packages for viewers, such as a series called “Live from the Nest” in which local bands setup in front of the arts desk in the Daily Cardinal office and perform an intimate, acoustic set for the editorial staff. Their most recent show was a band from Wisconsin called Phox.

Graphic by Jennifer Gleason

volve videos on how to make an old fashioned, how to cook a gourmet dinner for two and a series called “Live from the Nest” where local bands perform by the arts section desk in the Daily Cardinal office and are recorded for the web.

Their latest “Live from the Nest” feature was a band called Phox, a six-member band from Wisconsin who describes themselves as “post-childdub-brorock.” The video is approximately 13 minutes long and make the viewer feel as though they are at the intimate show.

“I think everything has to come back to the website,” Satterfield said.

Social medai links always lead back to web content.

For Satterfield, social media should preview what’s on the website, not spoil it.

The editorial staff has also found creative reasons for their readership to stay—for example ticket giveaways to concerts. “How do you get people to care about your content?” Satterfield says incentive helps.

Because of the Daily Cardinal’s efforts to stay in touch with their audience, when the publication has something im-

portant to report, the audience pays attention.

“Multimedia is interesting because it exists exclusively on the web, so it’s a little bit easier to track,” Satterfield said.

Despite the fall off in multimedia content before Satterfield took the position, through appropriate tagging and a loyal audience, his content generates 100 to 250 views per video.

“Starting from nowhere, that’s great,” he said.

It’s proof for Satterfield that he’s doing something right.

Satterfield said if he has learned anything from the Daily Cardinal, it has been how to be a professional and generate content.

“It’s the ability to come to work and know that people are counting on you,” he said. “I learned how to take something seriously because other people are.”

“I think (the most important skill is) that ability to always find a story, and because you’re always looking for a story, you soon discover that everybody has one”—proof that the art of storytelling is not lost with student journalists. g

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Sydney Patterson, managing editor of University of South Carolina’s The Daily Gamecock, joined 60 other student editors at the Management Seminar for College News Editors in Athens, Ga. The editors had to cover a mock shooting through multimedia.

Photo contributed by Grady College

Student

New generation of

By Jennifer Gleason As readers shift from text-based learners to image-based learners, the demand to keep up with an evolving audience takes its toll on news organizations—particularly newspapers.

Selling a print product in a digital world may be a challenge, but for student journalists across the country, it’s a challenge worth meeting head on.

For students who receive most of their hands-on experience from print publications, the journalism business is about convergence.

The New York Times published an article by reporter Jennifer Preston titled “Black and White and in the Red.” The article focused on the difficulties many student newspapers are facing to keep their print products.

“In the last year in particular, we have seen a contraction in the marketplace,” said Tammy Nelson, vice president for marketing and research for the marketing company re:fuel, in Preston’s article. “The measures a lot of college newspapers took in recent years, maybe cutting editions from five days a week to four days a week, trimming sections now and then, got them through the downturn. But they are having to look at other ways now to be profitable.”

Student editors have the same goal as professionals: to keep the business running so that reporters may continue to serve the community.

“Our advertising revenue varies each year, but last year we brought in about $42,000,” Blythe Steelman, managing editor of the Flor-Ala, said. “For the 2013-2014 year, we are currently at approximately $18,000. We added a public relations intern to our business staff this year to handle all of our marketing and promotional events.”

The Flor-Ala is the newspaper for the University of North Alabama. Located in Florence, Ala., the University of North Alabama has over 7,000 students enrolled with over 39,000 residents in the surrounding community.

Ad profits vary from publication to publication, some

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Journalists:

journalists changes news media grossing much larger numbers, and some falling in the red week after week. Despite urges to move to a completely digital format, many university publications still hold onto their printed publications. “(Nelson) warns that college papers that eliminate too many of their print editions do so at their peril,” Preston reported.

“Re:fuel research shows that students still enjoy picking up copies, free and convenient as they are, stacked in the student union and dorm lounges. In 2011, 60 percent of students read their college paper—a testament, if you will, to its importance as an outlet for student concerns, from tuition increases to the quality of food in the cafeteria. Of those readers, 60 percent preferred print, while 16 percent preferred to get their college news online.”

However this statistic may be outdated.

Julia Craven wrote an article for USA Today College titled “College newspaper circulation drops as digital media use grows.”

The article was published June 7 and examines digital news consumption by the public.

“Daily circulation numbers decreased 0.7% for U.S. newspapers from March 2012 to March of this year, according to data compiled by the Alliance for Audited Media — and college newspapers are not exempt from this reduction,” Craven reported. “Sixty percent of Americans under the age of 25 get their news digitally, based on a 2012 study conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.”

Luckily for journalists, the Internet allows reporters to be more creative in the ways stories are told: video coverage, slideshows, crowd-sourcing, eye-catching graphics , interactive maps and polls and comment forms for readers.

Millennials, those born between 1977 and 1992 according to Pew Internet and American Life Project, are inherently online “users” and have less difficulty adapting to the demands of social media than the Baby Boomers and older generations may have.

These skills as a user gives student journalists the upper

Newspaper Circulation & Readership 2011: 60% of students read college

papers

16% of students preferred to get

college news online

2012: 60% of Americans under the age

of 25 get their news digitally

0.7% From March 2012 to March 2013, daily circulation numbers for U.S. newspapers decreased.

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Student media seems to be finally getting with the program.

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- DAN REIMOLD

hand in adapting to the new business model because most have an understanding of the new media already.

“We created the position of a social media editor in fall of 2012, and we expanded our multimedia editor’s responsibilities the same semester,” Erica Techo, managing editor of the Red and Black, said. “The social media editor is responsible for consistently posting on our Facebook and Twitter accounts. This … greatly expanded our presence on social media, and we saw a large jump in followers and general interaction with our stories after this position was made official.”

Craven reported that an expansion in the business can increase not just readership but the number of students willing to join the staff of college news media. The new positions and technologies gives students, who are not interested in writing, a chance to contribute to the publications.

“Student media seems to be finally getting with the program,” said Dan Reimold, college media scholar and professor of journalism at St. Joseph’s University, in Preston’s article. “A lot of innovation is happening right now.” g

Photo Illustration by Jennifer Gleason

Student editors use social media and the internet to deliver news efficiently and effectively to their audience. VSU’s The Spectator uses Twitter the most.

Opinion:

Make some room for Millennials Millennials, aka Generation Y, are the most

technology-obsessed generation thus far.

But that obsession gives us an advantage.

If any generation is going to usher the journalism world into the new century, it will be the generation that has trained the social media and technology monsters lurking in the millennium cave that Baby Boomers—and even some of Generation X—have yet to brave.

We live in a digital world, and our obsession with this digitalized stuff helps us train others on how to use social media and technology, as well as how to manipulate and generate content to evolve the business.

For example The Crimson White, the student newspaper serving University of Alabama, published an issue on April 25—a special edition year in review—and the entire issue was styled to look like Buzzfeed’s website.

Buzzfeed is known for its multimedia and snippets of information of educational and entertainment value—its popularity predominantly stems from the Millennials’ use of it.

The Crimson White’s issue is 32-pages long and highlights the biggest stories and factoid lists about people and places across the UA campus.

That’s something you won’t catch the New York Times doing anytime soon, despite the fact that Millennials are old enough to pay taxes and start businesses of their own, thus they are the new captive audience.

By using a template similar to a website their readership easily recognizes, The Crimson White editorial staff is gaining a loyal readership that goes beyond hard-hitting news. If we, as journalists, can relate to our audience, we can make them listen when the bigger issues arise that we have to report on.

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We have the ability to reach out to our audience because we understand the technology and the way they communicate.

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It is our job to keep the public informed.

The Crimson White’s website is just as engaging, featuring large, dominant graphics with most of the stories. The website regularly displays graphics and multimedia that tell the story without long-form copy. “(Millennials) have tapped into different workplace and social abilities than any generation before them,” Lexy Gross, of USA Today, reported in September.

Conferences for student journalists tell us how we can take what we know of social media and use it for news.

Note they rarely have to teach us what it is or how to use it—they know we get it.

We have the ability to reach out to our audi-

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ence because we understand the technology and the way they communicate.

Much as CNN iReport crowd sources for stories, so do student journalists when they reach out for feedback and information. We understand that our generation enjoys having input. They want to know and be in the action and talk about it.

However, it is rare for recently graduated journalists to find organizations owned by their age group, and sometimes delivery of such interaction and innovative storytelling might be harder to come by.

Perhaps our biggest challenges aren’t what define our generation, but what hold us back. We are misunderstood resources in our field.

Gross interviewed Jamie Matheson, a college senior and founder of a start-up business, who recognized the tension Millennials may feel upon entering a workplace: “My friends who graduated recently come from a college world, where the tools necessary are at their fingertips—then they go to the workplace where they haven’t been adopted. So they’re asked to do grunt work.”

We’re told in journalism conferences, in classrooms and even as staff members of university publications and organizations that the world of

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journalism is competitive—that we’ll battle for CNN and New York Times jobs and help the business evolve with our creativity and experience.

That’s all we’re trying to prove: that we can help keep journalism alive.

At the end of the day, journalism is a business.

As student journalists, we want to find jobs after graduation that will consider us assets to the workplace because our voices are just as important. g

Editorial written by Jennifer Gleason