blend Fall 2010 // Volume 5 // Issue 1 // Ball State Produced
FACT OR FICTION? Eight publications myths completely busted Also in this Issue:
SocializE your
Yearbook
D
esign Year of the
blend
welcome l brian hayes I received an e-mail today announcing a job opening that really caught my eye. The title of the position was “one-person-band reporter.” My first thought was “how cool would that be to get to follow a band around the country and write about them!” Then I quickly realized the difference a hyphen can make and that it wasn’t about music at all — it was advertising an entry-level reporting position for a television news station.
Fall 2010 Volume 5 Issue 1 Blend Magazine c/o Department of Journalism Ball State University Muncie, IN 47306 SES DIRECTOR Brian Hayes EDITOR Megan McNames EDITOR AT LARGE Tom Gayda BUSINESS MANAGER Megan McNames CONTRIBUTORS Casey Nichols Reno High School Sammi Moss OFFICE STAFF Sarah Bergsieker Anna Kaiser
Brian Hayes is the director of Secondary Education at Ball State University. He is a former adviser of student publications at Lawrence North High School in Indianapolis. Hayes has worked professionally for several newspapers.
Designer Chelsea Kardokus
I’m sure you all have your own stories about how the weak U.S. economy has impacted you over the last few years. We’ve all been affected in some way. But the reality is that nearly every industry has seen a downturn in profits over the last several years and the media industry is no exception. In their heyday, newspapers and television stations would send their own reporters and photographers across the country to cover events that may be of interest to their local audience. Nowadays, news organizations use the photographs and stories of sister operations and wire services to cover those events. It’s not that they don’t want to send local reporters to cover out-of-state stories anymore; it’s just that it’s gotten too expensive to do so.
Blend Magazine is published by the Secondary Education Services office at Ball State University. Call 765-285-8900 for advertising information. You can always e-mail the staff at blend.mag@gmail.com. FOR NSPA Logan Aimone executive director Emily Griesser member services director Kathy Huting contest/critique coordinator Marc Wood communications director Suzanne Taber administrative assistant Tahera Mamdani accountant FIRST AMENDMENT Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
The ad went on to list that the person who will be hired must be able to “report, write, shoot, edit, post to the web, go live, and create strong, trustworthy relationships with viewers and sources.” Sounds easy, right? Considering that not more than 10 years ago many companies would have hired two, three or possibly even four people to do all of these jobs, the job actually requires quite a few vastly different skills.
Think about how much travel and lodging has risen recently. The cost of checking extra luggage/ media equipment on an airplane alone can easily add hundreds of dollars to a flight. Not to mention that the first tax that seems to be raised in every U.S. city facing a budget crisis is the food and lodging tax. With smaller ad and subscription revenue, media outlets are doing everything they can to remain viable. While the moratorium on hiring in the news media seems to be letting up, many of the jobs you are now seeing posted are hybrids of what they once were. A few years ago, someone coined the term “backpack journalist.” The idea was that journalists would eventually need to start carrying a backpack with them to hold their pen and paper, audio recorder, camcorder and still camera because they would need to “do it all.” Today, we know this really isn’t going to be the case because of the iPhone and other smart phones. At best, a journalist may need to carry a charger in his or her pocket. Nonetheless, the concept of being a backpack journalist is more valid now than ever. To be profitable, companies are looking to hire people who can report, write, shoot, edit, post to the web and go live on scene. They are looking to hire recent college graduates and young professionals because they generally have more technical skills associated with being a backpack journalist and may have even taken college classes that would be beneficial to them in this area — not to mention they are cheaper to employ.
table l of contents 5 nspa
11 q&a with Matthew Tully
23-26 staff manuals
6-7 ask kim
12-15 welcome to... reno HS
28 design of the year
8-10 social media for YB
18-21 publications myths
31 my story
nspa l logan aimone
Make 2010-11 the best ever You still have time to make 2010-11 the best year on record and to try some new endeavors to improve your media operation. Here are eight things you can try. That’s one a month for the rest of the school year.
1. Be excellent. Excellence isn’t settling for pretty good. Good enough is not good enough. Set goals to improve with each edition or deadline. 2. Put yourself in a position to tell stories in the mostappropriate format. There’s really no excuse today for not having at least a basic website where you can post a PDF version of the printed paper. Ideally you update news throughout the school day. An online presence opens up a new universe of multimedia opportunities. Logan Aimone is the executive director of the National Scholastic Press Association.
3. Get into social networking. Facebook and MySpace accounts are free. Connect with readers (and alumni, parents and community members) by asking for tips, photos and letters. Expand your printed coverage with social bookmarking by posting links at a site like Delicious.com. Share photos via a site like Flikr.com. 4. Add multimedia. Sometimes, the most appropriate format to tell a story is with videos, slide shows, still images, audio or text. Add these tools to your toolbox.
5. Start Tweeting. The microblogging site Twitter.com allows 140-character messages to be posted. These are great for simple updates and links to stories online. You can also follow people to get trend or news ideas by using a hashtag (a # and a word/phrase). 6. Follow the law. Obey copyright for images and audio. Search the Creative Commons-licensed photos on Flickr to see what is available for no charge, just the photo credit. Know your rights, especially if you live in a state that grants rights to student journalists. 7. Be the No. 1 source. Be serious about being the top information source for all things about your school. If someone wants to know a fact, score, date, time — whatever — be the place they turn to for that information. You can record your own sports stats. Find out how good it feels to scoop the local paper. 8. Remember your role on campus. Regardless of the type of media you work with, your role on campus is to inform and enlighten your audience. You have a responsibility — an obligation, even — to take that seriously and to do it well. Your audience needs you to tell them the things no one else will tell them.
28th Annual Multicultural Journalism Program June 17-26 The Multicultural Journalism Workshop at The University of Alabama is one of the premier workshops of its kind in the country. If you are accepted into the 10-day program tuition will be waived and all supplies, housing, meals and field trips are free.
applications available at aspa.ua.edu
ask l kim
Keep your program thriving
Kim Green directs the student publications at Columbus (Ind.) North High School. A 2006 Dow Jones Newspaper Fund Distinguished Adviser of the Year and 2009 JEA Distinguished Yearbook Adviser of the Year, the publications Green’s students create are consistent award winners.
For the first time in 12 years and the second time in 33 years, I’m teaching English classes — two freshman sections and not by choice, necessarily, but by necessity. Perhaps your school has suffered from budget cuts — overcrowded classes, laid-off teachers, an uncertain future. At my school, one of two high schools in a small Midwestern city, we’re in pretty good shape financially, but to remain viable, the corporation set super-high enrollment numbers for classes to go. For example, we needed 48 students to enroll in beginning journalism to split it into two sections. Thirty-nine signed up. And 39 kids now crowd into a room that seats 24 and has only 24 computers. Still, we didn’t want to turn anyone away. The survival of our staffs depends on numbers, too. So what does this have to do with you? Plenty! In tight budget times, all of us in scholastic journalism need to band together to keep our programs alive and healthy. Advisers like me and like yours can’t do it alone. We need you, we need your parents, we need the community. Here are some tips to keep your program going.
Announce Publicly celebrate your successes! Use your local media (newspaper, radio, public access television, etc.). Use your school and school corporation websites. Submit briefs announcing yearbook delivery, newspaper/magazine distribution dates, conference/ convention/workshop attendance, Quill and Scroll inductions, college acceptance and scholarships for staff members’ who plan to study journalism/communications, etc. Publish press releases about your school — clubs, classes, community service, etc. Nobody at school should know more about the cool things going on there than kids on 6 | Blend Magazine | Fall 2010
student media staffs.
Get word out
Freelance
Use the power of word-of-mouth referrals! Nothing beats word-ofmouth referrals, and social media — in particular Facebook and Twitter — provide widespread wordof-mouth referrals!
Be a freelancer. Write stories, shoot video or take photos for them. Many appreciate stringers! Even if you’re submitting letters to the editor or photos for the weekly “Gotcha!” feature, include your staff affiliation as part of your credit.
Bring guests Bring in local editors/education reporters in guest speakers. Familiarize them with your programs. Let them know you will work with them to cover your school — and be sure to do it! If local media does not have one, suggest a weekly or monthly “Classrooms” page or segment and contribute to it!
Enter contests Stay on top of contests and scholarship opportunities and enter them. All the national student organizations — National Scholastic Press Association, Columbia Scholastic Press Association and Quill and Scroll — have contests for both media and individuals. Your state scholastic press association, as well as universities with journalism programs in your state or region, also provide opportunities to showcase your best work. Professional organizations, such as the National Women’s Press Club and the Society of Professional Journalists among numerous others, are also good sources for contests and scholarships. Enter, try and try again, and then send press releases reporting on successes. Ask your adviser to send all-school (and all-central office administration) e-mails for any of the above! I guarantee that your choral and band departments, as well as other elective areas with which your program competes for students, do it!
If your staff or program doesn’t have a Facebook page, create one. If you create one, update is regularly. Tease upcoming issues, segments, yearbook coverage. Include photos and videos. Tag “friends” of your page in the process! Use your own Facebook and/or Twitter account to publicize your staff. Our web editor updates her own status with our URL on each new upload. The number of site hits quadruples each time! Our newsmagazine staff updated their statuses about the upcoming issue the night before the first distribution day, and all issues were gobbled up before 7:30 a.m. Heck, we even had kids coming in before the staff arrived, asking for a copy! More important, we had kids coming in at 7:35 a.m., asking for a copy. Have some of your most enthusiastic staffers visit freshman and sophomore English classes prior to scheduling to spread the good word about being on a staff. It does make an impression! Student representatives at open houses, 8th grade parent nights, course fairs and any other opportunity to demonstrate what your staff does also make an impression. We always schedule a late-night work session for 8th grade parent night in February. The kids wave parents and students in to answer questions or give a quick pitch about how cool being on staff really is! They even show what they’re working on to further emphasize their points. Start early; invade middle schools! Two of our seniors dedicated their senior project to working with middle schools — one is a yearbook staff mentor at one middle school
and the other is conducting a sixnight journalism skills workshop for the other middle school. Ask to work with or be a guest speaker for their staffs. These are especially important recruiting tools if your middle school has no journalism program, or if like ours, the schoolday program gets cut back to an after-school program. Use all your resources, parents included! A former photo editor’s mother advises a middle school newspaper in our district. She schedules a “tour” of our department each year for her staff. We exchange copies with them. A former newspaper editor’s mother teaches English at our high school. She asks for classroom sets of our newsmagazine and openly advocates for her best students to join our program.
beyond journalism. Be a professional. Whether you’re selling ads or covering a controversial topic, practice balance, fairness and ethical decision-making. Our kids have found that as awkward as it may seem to dress for success, then to smile, make eye contact and shake hands with business owners, doctors, chiefs of police or superintendents, adults are pleased with kids who practice professionalism. And don’t forget the power of a thank-you note handwritten, not e-mailed! Have a media representative at all school board meetings. You put a face on your program for some pretty powerful people to associate with.
Send your newspaper and yearbook to middle school libraries. Include a sticker, letter or insert, inviting students to consider getting involved when they get to high school.
Be sure to introduce yourself to administrators. Host a leadership breakfast at the beginning of the year for your principal, assistant principal(s) deans and counselors to meet all your staffs’ leaders and members.
Go online
Get Feedback
Remind staff members to “talk up” their experiences online. Even during stressful deadline times, say something making it seem cool to be the first car in the lot in the morning and the only car in the lot that night at deadline time! And practice the old adage: If you can’t say anything nice (or fun!), don’t say anything at all!
Ask for feedback. It takes a thick skin, but it works wonders for gaining respect for your program. Our newsmagazine staffs send tearsheets to their sources with a “Credibility Sheet” attached. It’s a half-page “how did we do?” questionnaire — name spelled correctly, quoted correctly and in the context of the interview, preparedness of the interviewer, comfort level for being quoted again.
know your own power You and how you represent your staff and program says a ton about their credibility. If you are just a class-period staff member, it will show. Whether you like it or not, you represent your media in every aspect of your life. Carry your ethics lessons with you
We ask our seniors to fill out a questionnaire called Senior Sages. They answer questions about life lessons they learned while in our program as well as why younger students should get involved. We use these on a handout we have available at course fairs, open houses and parent-teacher conferences. Seniors, you are leaders, and your words and experiences are persuasive.
Brag about former students who are in the profession or involved in collegiate journalism. One way to accomplish this would be to create a journalism Hall of Fame and invite honorees to your end-ofthe-year banquet or program to be honored. Include a Hall of Fame link on your website. Above all, do your job the right way. When some local groups demanded adult control of all student-produced media as the result of our newsmagazine’s story package covering teens’ casual attitude toward oral sex, the fact that our kids handled the topic professionally, used highest possible authorities as sources and presented their findings without sensationalism gained support for their right to maintain control of their content. Community members came out in letters to the local paper two-toone in their favor, the school board voted 5-2 to keep their forum status, and to this day, our principal maintains that our kids are “more professional than the professionals.” Powerful stuff, indeed.
“Be proactive.
Make it an aspect of your civic responsibility. Do something!”
Admittedly, I’ve only scratched the surface of ways you can help maintain your programs. Student journalists, like yourself, are movers and shakers in your schools and probably have ideas that will revolutionize this business! Share! Submit them to Blend! Write articles for Quill and Scroll magazine, your yearbook company’s publications and other journalism magazines and websites! Present your ideas at state and national conventions! Apathy on your part or on your staff’s part is the only sure way to watch your program succumb to cuts. Be proactive. Make it an aspect of your civic responsibility. Do something! I know I’m not sitting around, bemoaning the fact that I’m teaching English! In fact, I am doing some heavy recruiting from and PR work with my freshman English classes alongside Shakespeare and Latin and Greek roots! Fall 2010 | Blend Magazine | 7
SocializE your
Yearbook
Tap into the social network to improve your coverage By Casey Nichols Face it, teens today are putting the five W’s and H out there every day. Facebook would be the third largest country in the world. Twitter is going mobile quickly (mobile phone tweets are up 62 percent since April) and social networking has become much more than a passing fad. It’s a new language and evolves into alternative formats constantly.
“Social media takes the pulse of our audience for us if we just listen.”
According to a Rotoworld.com study completed in April of this year teens spend nearly 13 hours a week on social networks. That is certainly a significant portion of student life.
ed several years ago by creating profiles to contact their audience. Papers like the Palo Alto High’s The Campanille and its sports offshoot the Viking were ahead of the curve in tweeting news and sports scores.
High school yearbooks like our sister school Whitney High in Rocklin respond-
These are responses all scholastic journalists, in fact all journalists, must make in
8 | Blend Magazine | Fall 2010
today’s world. We must become backpack journalists. But there’s another shift few have begun to explore. Social networking influences not only “how” we cover, but “what.” It redefines what is of news value to teens. It reminds us that life happens between events, and that’s something in which everyone participates. For yearbooks in particular social networking offers high school staffs the opportunity to bring value to their product by keeping the program as part of high school students’ constant conversation. Savvy staffs are posting daily blurbs, reminders for events and sales updates.
More, our Rocklin High’s staff plans on letting the world know when students are covered in the yearbook with fan page Facebook posts. “Yearbook pages sent to printer today, these peopl e are on them,” is one sample planned. It’s not enough to try and cover students three or more times in the yearbook, you have to let them know. The language of today’s teen is social networking, so this is a prime tool for starting the whisper campaign essential in making yearbook a more than onetime event. Social networking also influences what to cover because it is “daily life” that is the fodder for social networking. Yes, teens list the big events on their Facebook and MySpace. But more often they are fretting over their new schedule as Whitney’s stu-
“Teens spend nearly 13 hours a week on social networks.” dents did in the week before opening the 2010-11 school year. Or they bemoan having to finish “Catcher in the Rye” by Monday. All summer they posted about being behind on AP work. On Sept. 27 one of our students posted simply, “Glee, you complete me.” These are prime coverage opportunities in the form of briefs or by expanding the story.
ranked ahead of all special events when students were asked what they wanted more of in their yearbook. Only being in the book three or more times themselves (71.2 percent), signing space (71.5 percent) and seeing their friends in the book (63.3 percent) could compare. The survey had 354 responses in a school of 1,716.
Social media takes the pulse of our audience for us if we just listen.
For the past two years we developed a more specific plan for our goal of being an inclusive yearbook. We accepted the challenge of getting every student in the book three or more times. In conjunction, we made our year-round presence more active through webpages, school announcements, public celebrations and finally Facebook. The yearbook staff and its work became a part of everyday life.
Research showed our staff this is what readers want to see and read more of in their yearbooks. In the past two annual surveys “more daily life” (63.6 percent)
Covering daily life in photos, anecdotes, quotes and lists was the only tool that could open the door to including everyone. Seemingly small events like Fall 2010 | Blend Magazine | 9
«
They can send and receive invites to events to be covered either online or in print.
Covering
Daily Life Every staffer of the Rocklin staff interviewed five students about the five most important things to them. The following topics emerged as aspects of students’ daily lives that were perfect for coverage in their yearbook. The percentage indicates the percentage of students who mentioned each topic in their responses:
What Students I’m in it three or more times
Faith 16 percent School 33 percent The staff collected 520 responses. 10 | Blend Magazine | Fall 2010
30.8 percent 63.6 percent
Every day photos and quotes A cover I like My enemies are in it
Rocklin already sold yearbooks to 71 percent of its student body It is an affluent upper middle class suburb where 99 percent of students have the Internet at home and 86 percent have Facebook. But through weekly surveys on the Web to increase awareness and all of the above the sales rate increased to 82 percent during a time when the economy was plunging.
Sleep 5 percent
71.5 percent
Sports coverage
Friends 83 percent
Food 24 percent
63.3 percent
Room to sign and write
Starbucks raising the price of drinks become secondary coverage opportunities which can include a wide variety of students.
Music 13 percent
71.2 percent
My friends are in it
Family 86 percent
Sports 44 percent
Want
Rocklin staffers asked students “What matters in your yearbook?”
How do you expand coverage to include more daily life topics? Any way you can think of. Rocklin has both a Facebook profile (with 550 friends) and a fan page. We laughingly call the profile page “the stalker page” because we can test what students are posting. Much like trending topics in Twitter, it gives us coverage ideas we might have missed. Staffers also regularly read their own Facebook news feeds with coverage in mind. In addition, we are interviewing the 300 students who are still at Rocklin and were in the book only once or twice to find out what specific things interest them so we can find ways to get them in the book. Often these are students who are not involved in school activi-
58.2 percent 8.8 percent
“Students would always prefer to read
their own words to ours.”
ties but they are involved outside school. Even if they have a passion for X-Box or as one student indicated, they practice water skiing 10-hours a week, we generate coverage opportunities and reflect important parts of student lives. Another tool described in the sidebar was to have every staffer interview five students about the five most important things in their life. The results were clear, and gave new direction and thought to our coverage. Family and friends appeared in more than 90 percent of the results. So the staff can ask itself, how often are we finding family and friends angles? More importantly, why isn’t that angle touched on in 90 percent of your spreads? We also found as expected a strong presence for faith and food (we called these the four ‘F’s). But we got a long list of story ideas ranging from a favorite local donut shop to identifying a group of skaters and snowboarders.
It opens the door to more daily life and directly influences other decisions. Social media teaches us alternative styles of writing from the “status update” format to the 140 characters of tweeting. It’s a snapshot or scan style of writing and reading which demands concise use of language. And again, our on-campus research reveals that students would always prefer to read their own words to ours, so quotes and anecdotes dominate our writing. We still expect excellent reporting to gather these. Admittedly this shift in coverage is more easily accomplished in a chronological book, but it’s not limited to these. It does challenge yearbooks to think outside the traditional five sections and realize it’s all student life. Students don’t have separate Facebook accounts for their club membership, or sports, or just friends — it’s all blended. That should teach us something in organizing yearbooks, even if we create the traditional sections we can cross over with coverage and provide multiple avenues to draw in readers. Scholastic journalists are challenged to meet the demands of a social networking audience. Yearbook can’t think in time chunks which we will reveal all at once on a single day. We must meet the challenge every day constantly updating our reporting status. «
q & a l matthew tully
Stories are all around you Q: How did you go about getting permission to go into Manual High School?
A: Indianapolis public schools are very good about that. All I did was send an e-mail to the school district the day before the school year started. I honestly didn’t know I would be there the entire school year. All it took was me sending a quick e-mail to the school district. Q: How did the students react to your presence, and how did you gain their trust over time?
Matthew Tully is a political columnist for the Indianapolis Star. During the 2009-2010 academic year, he reported from Manual High School, an underperforming public school in Indianapolis. Since his columns were published, the community has reached out to help the school and its students.
A: That’s a great way of putting it. It took some time. The first two columns I wrote were pretty tough on the school. I got into a lot of the overarching problems that were affecting the school. So initially some of the students didn’t like that I was there. They thought I was making the school look bad ... There was another group of students that liked that I was there. They liked that people were getting a real factually straight look at what life is like at one of these schools. Over time, I think there was a wide acceptance that I had tried to tell a well-rounded story of Manual High School. Let me add: How I gained their trust. I think the main thing I did was I just kept coming back and showed an interest in what they were doing. I just listened and observed. It wasn’t about me. I wasn’t there to talk or give my opinions. I was there to see what they had to say. Enough students saw that when I wrote, their voices were in the columns. I worked hard to make sure that they were heard ... so if I did gain their trust I think it’s because I was there long enough that by the end of they ear they knew that I was interested and really cared about their school. Q: How did you go about finding story ideas? A: It’s one of those things that you know it when you see it. I don’t have any great method for finding column ideas. What I do is talk to as many people as possible, I observe as much as I can. If I was there I tried to spend time in the dean’s office or the principal’s office or go to a game after school. It’s hard to define exactly what makes a good column. I think for me it was a compelling person. And there are so many of them there. I remember meeting this one young person ... She seemed to kind of own the school. She seemed older than all the other students. I was intrigued by her. I talked to her and she was so focused on what she wanted to do with her life. Then she started telling me about her problems ... When someone stands out like that and you meet them and they’ve been through a lot but they aren’t letting that hold them down, that’s
a column. You can tell that people would care about that ... I think the key is just to be curious, to talk to people. For me, I always think that if I find something that is interesting, there’s probably a good chance other people would too. I also made sure to always ask people at the school, whether it was the students or staff, ‘hey what do you think I should write about, what do you think would be an interesting story to hear?’ to get other perspectives. Q: You’ve said before that it’s important to share stories about what people are doing right in addition to what is going on that’s wrong. Why? A: The stories about what is going on wrong have to be told, but I think when people are reading the paper and watching the news, they aren’t just looking to be depressed and hear about what’s going on wrong. For one thing it’s a way to keep people interested and our job as journalists is to be balanced and tell the full story. If I wrote about the school and only write the bad stories, that’s not a balanced representation of the school. If I only wrote the good stories, that’s also not a balanced story ... I was trying to give them a real feel for what it’s really like in one of these schools, that if you went and spent an entire year in one of these schools, what would you see? Some days you would walk away heartbroken, some days you would walk away inspired. Q: Do you have any advice for current high school students who struggle with generating story ideas? A: Sure. First, accept the idea that high schools are fascinating places. I think people that are in the schools don’t realize it. Every student, every teacher has a story. When you are in the middle of something it’s hard to step back and realize what’s happening. Talk to people. Be interested in their stories. Try to meet people that you don’t know. It’s easy to talk to the people you do know. Get to know the people you don’t know, their concerns, their interests. As a journalist, be curious. Be accepting of other ideas. And work really hard on your writing. If you have a great compelling story to tell and you haven’t mastered the art of telling it, your readers aren’t going to get the full impact of your story or column because you haven’t found the right way of telling it ... Show your work to as many teachers, friends and relatives as you can. Accept their criticisms. They are your readers, they are worth listening to to see what they have to say. Just be curious, that is the most important thing.
Fall 2010 | Blend Magazine | 11
CHECK OUT
THIS NEWSROOM 12 | Blend Magazine | Fall 2010
ÂŤ
The staff of the Re-Wa-Ne give us a look at the ebb and flow of life at their Reno, Nev., High School.
Fall 2010 | Blend Magazine | 13
Interviews
Interviews can be con d yearbook room, with ucted in the students st by from oth op er classes. The staff a ping municate lso comwith their read page upda tes and a T ers via Facebook witter feed .
z i u Q s t n e v Current E
a nts take m stude up-to-date s li a rn u y l jo h Schoo eek to sta Reno Hig ents quiz each w ev current ews. n e th on
As the 7:35 a.m. bell rings, students pour out of room GB7, not from the seventh period yearbook class, but to their first period classes at the start of the day. Most of the seven senior editors, including Maggie Ball, Alaina Brodsky and Mac Salmon stop in before classes begin to secure cameras and laptops or refrigerate lunches. Being a part of Re-Wa-Ne yearbook is more than just having an elective class. Work begins before staffers arrive on campus and ends well past the 2:30 p.m. bell that sends everyone else home at the end of the school day. Throughout the day, camera-carrying staffers shoot photos of science experiments, English presentations and other activities during their regular academic classes to maintain an accurate picture of what happens on campus. At lunch, the room is busier than the cafeteria upstairs, full of students who make themselves comfortable in their second home, caching up on life, homework and what they need to finish for coverage
editor Leigh Herzik before class begins again. Fifth and sixth periods, while adviser Lizabeth Walsh has prep time and teaches sophomore English class, the editors have time to work in the Mac lab, finishing their editorial duties by helping the advertising editor, Daira Melendez, with early submissions of Diapers to Diplomas spaces, designing sidebars and creating spreads before the seventh period bell rings and all the staffers fill the room and take the weekly current events quiz.
Photography
Cameras and lapt ops can be rent ed from Quickly finishing the quiz, staffers pre- the yearbook lab. Students of te n photo gr ap h their regular ac pare to storm the computers to work ademic classes th ro ug ho ut the day. on their spreads, upload photos and promote their own work to the photo editor, Pegah Saeedi, while the others interview students, collect pictures and sneak into the kitchen to grab whatever is left in the refrigerator. sters s and po vide rd a o When the last bell rings, staffers head off b lk a pro ards, ch k room to participate in sports, like groups ediWhitebo ut the yearboo information. o t tor, Megan Winkel, or to take pictures of through ss to importan ce c a k ic sporting events and after-school activiu q
s d r a o b e t i h W
Reno High School has an enrollment of 1750 students. The Re-WaNe yearbook has earned Columbia Scholastic Press Association Gold 12 14 Blend | Blend Magazine | Fall 2010
ties. Some remain in the room to squeeze in extra time to work on the computers or send yet another set of reminder notices to people who did not show up to be interviewed. Since Walsh’s son has football practice until six, students have plenty of time to polish their work before heading home. As the clock approaches midnight, some editors fire off texts to their staff buddies, reminding them of party food assign-
ments, while others flood social media and update the yearbook Facebook page and Twitter feed, adding reminders for the book’s more than 600 friends and followers to purchase yearbooks and submit photos and Diapers to Diplomas spaces by their respective deadlines. Drifting off to sleep in the early morning hours of the next day, staffers’ brains are swamped with design ideas and looming deadlines as they prepare to do it all over again in just six hours. «
Medals and All-Columbian Honors, National Scholastic Press Association First Place and All-American awards for more than a decade. Fall 2010 | Blend Magazine | 15
NANCY KUEI YEARBOOK ADVISER
SHE DOESN’T LOOK LIKE A LADY WITH 129 KIDS. With deadlines approaching and so many students counting on her, you might think high school teacher and yearbook adviser Nancy Kuei would look a bit more tense. Fortunately, with her Herff Jones representative by her side, Nancy has it all under control. By working hard to identify and solve her challenges, we help Nancy rise above the day-to-day stress so she can focus on her students. Our experienced representatives understand the small things that make each yearbook special. We get to know the school’s unique culture and share a genuine concern for the students. Then we manage the details, deliver advice and do whatever it takes to make the yearbook unforgettable for the students, the faculty…and for Nancy, too. DOWNLOAD OUR FREE WHITEPAPER ON THE VALUE OF AWARDS PROGRAMS FOR STUDENT DEVELOPMENT AT HERFFJONES.COM/AWARDWP
herffjones.com/awardwp
© 2010 Herff Jones, Inc.
F T I C C TION? A F OR
EIGHT things you’ve heard about Publications and why they aren’t true BY TOM GAYDA NORTH CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL ADVISER Blend 17
These
MYTHS
WERE made to be BUSTED
In order to prove my point I must engage in activity I will dispute. Cut me some slack. Here’s the tale of how I became a mythbuster. Old journalism pros throw out a lot of “nevers” and “rarelys” when in fact rarely is never an appropriate response to a journalist’s question. You’ve heard these folks: “My professor always said …,” “I was taught to never …” or “The Whatever City Times editor once said …”
that were spread as gospel. But when a pro speaks, we listen, and often take preferences to mean rules. This kind of thinking is rampant in the scholastic journalism field. One person presents a session that introduces a concept hotter than the invention of sliced bread, and bam, followers accept the concept as the only way to do business. If another presenter claims something is “out,” it is “out.” And so on and so on.
journalism trends are not one-size-fits-all.
What the folks who recycle these tales don’t always get is that their old professors or bosses weren’t preaching fact, they were merely preaching preference.
Which comes to the point where I break this rule. I was once told a journalism teacher who says to never do something isn’t stating a rule, but a preference. Hard to argue with that logic. If you stop for a moment you probably can’t find in any text the “hard-and-fast” rules
18 Blend
Here’s the scoop: develop the publications you and your staff can be proud of. Scholastic journalism trends are not one-size-fitsall. Be unique and independent. Try new things every year, if not every issue. This almost became far more ironic. In determining the myths I wanted to bust I thought I would interview several experts for this article. Then it hit me: the folks I would interview would share their preferences as fact and perhaps not go out on a limb like I was looking for. So, here’s the way I see it.
MYTH 1: Leave that nameplate alone! Uh, yeah, right. Nameplates have evolved tremendously over the years. What used to be super-sacred, nameplates now are covered with art, put atop pictures or reduced in size to allow for a creative design. Magazines have long practiced this concept and been able to survive.
MYTH 2:
Don’t use the Internet to interact with sources! Time to get our head out of the sand. Facebook and Twitter have become invaluable tools to help reporters find sources and information. Search for a major media outlet that doesn’t use social media and you’ll come up empty. Sure, an in-person interview is best, but don’t let old “rules” keep you from tapping a resource that is beyond valuable.
MYTH 3:
Serif typefaces should be used for body copy! Here’s the news: you can use sans serif, too. Check out popular magazines or the documentary “Helvetica.” There are plenty of examples that show sans serif body copy in action. The simplicity of a smooth sans serif can achieve a look for your publication. Much more than readability is involved. Think of the overall design. You’ll likely find people will read your publications if they are smart and designed well. Most people outside of journalism don’t know the difference between a serif and a sans serif, anyhow!
MYTH 4: Circles and squares, not for photos! We no longer live in just a rectangular world. A series of square photos can create a neat look. Just one square, if the content in the photo is strong, can also work. A circle-inspired design can be fun and youthful, a look many student publications could be after. Remember, if someone tells you to “never” use a circle, they’re really telling you they would never use a circle.
MYTH 5: After the first issue, don’t change your paper!
GET R
EADY
MYTH 6:
TO
BREAK
Leave A PICA, between every element on the page!
The pica rule is a good, if not a great, guideline, however there are dozens of examples where this rule is tossed out the window. If clustering photos together, a hairline of space — unless the photos actually touch, gasp! — might be plenty. Or, to achieve a clean, elegant design, leave at least two picas of space between elements on the page. Extra space can eliminate the need for lines and/or boxes.
THE R
ULES
MYTH 8:
There are absolutes when writing
MYTH 7:
Create dominance with only one element! Many would tell you a page or spread needs a dominant element that is at least two to three times larger than the next biggest thing on the page. That, too, is a decent guideline, but can hardly be followed every time you design. Sometimes, a group of items become a dominant element, or, your design is striving for a balanced look and multiple items of the same size are used.
This has always seemed silly, as some students will only ever have one year to participate on a student publications staff. If the headline type you picked in August looks bad in October, or your folios just aren’t cutting it anymore, experiment and get them right. It’s OK to tweak your work as the year progresses. Fall 2010 | Blend Magazine | 21
Get it done
FOR FREE Audacity
We asked Journalism Education Association Digital Media Chair Aaron Manfull to share some of his favorite free media editing software. For more information about digital tools, visit www.jeadigitalmedia.org.
Garage Band
Audio HighJack
audacity.sourgeforce.net
standard on Mac
www.rogueamoeba.com/ audiohijackpro/
iMovie
MovieMaker • PC
• Video converter for PC and Mac
standard on Mac
www.microsoft.com
handbrake.fr/
FileZilla
Drop Box
Google Docs
filezilla-project.org
www.dropbox.com
www.google.com
• PC or Mac
• Mac
Record or edit
audio
Handbrake
Edit
video • PC or Mac
• PC or Mac
• Share online
Transfer
files Soundslides • PC or Mac
• PC or Mac
Picasa
Photoshop.com • Online access
• PC or Mac
GIMP
soundslides.com
picasa.google.com
photoshop.com
gimp.org
Edit and share
photos
Wordpress
• Web themes and content management
OpenOffice.org
• Word processing and spreadsheets
Want more information about these and other free programs you can use in your classroom or at home?
Everything
else
22 | Blend Magazine | Fall 2010
see it l online
Visit www.blendmagazine.org for the full “Get it done: For Free” article and links to valuable technology resources.
wordpress.org
openoffice.org
The Staff advice for
students an d teachers!
By Brian Hayes For many secondary courses, the classroom teacher has a fairly easy time communicating classroom rules, course expectations and disciplinary procedures to students. This, for the most part, is accomplished with a one-page course syllabus and the occasional sign posted around the classroom. But in a student media publications class, this becomes a lot more complicated. A one-page syllabus is no longer enough. There are far too many circumstances, variances and situations that arise that require a more thoughtful explanation. This is where the creation of a student publications staff manual becomes more of a program necessity than a program option. The staff manual is the lifeblood of a student publication — whether it is a broadcast program, online news site, yearbook, newspaper or magazine.
You want to know the proper etiquette and procedure for answering the publications room telephone? The answer can be found on page . You want to know the protocol for contacting a potential advertiser about buying ad space in the yearbook? Turn to page 21. You want to know why you shouldn’t accept a free dessert from a local restaurant that is being reviewed for the school paper? Please see page 16.
Over the years, my conception of a staff manual has changed. What used to be a four or five page photocopied and stapled handout at the beginning of the school year has evolved into a robust publications how-to guide. Virtually everything a student would ever need to know about the function, operation and finances of a publication would be found in the staff manual.
Give it a nice design too, using a variety of font styles (e.g. semi-bold, italic, black) to emphasize headers, subheads, important words and other information. Use group photos and pictures of students working on publications to add visuals and variety to the design. An online staff manual can easily do all of this too — and it can be much more cost effective.
A key to producing an effective staff manual lies in its presentation and organization. Break up the content into easily understood categories. If you are creating a hard copy, use tabs or dividers that are clearly labeled to identify sections. Assemble it in a nice binder with a cover sheet and table of contents, or have it printed and bound at a copy center or in your school’s graphic arts department.
«
* Awesome
Manual
Fall 2010 | Blend Magazine | 23
* The staff manuaManaging l
Staff Manual Contents
The staff manual is the premier resource and reference guide for all student publications. It should be the first place students turn to when they have questions about publication policies, procedures or duties. Here are some ideas and descriptions of what to include and how to organize your staff manual.
Editor
> Letter from student editor(s) and/or adviser – welcomes students to another exciting year on staff and explains the purpose of the staff manual Managing Editor
> Mission/vision – explains the mission and vision for the publication
Editor
Page Eds
1. Table of Contents 2. Introduction/Opening
should a nticipate question s that m ay arise th roughou t the yea r about what to do in a variet y of situa tions.
one Reporters very elp e
ls h ickly Visua nd qu a t s r de to un
Photo Editor
Page Eds
3. Staff Organization
Reporters
> Staff hierarchy/job descriptions – a listing of all staff members, job titles and job descriptions
4. Content/ Editorial Policies
Design
Photogs
> Open forum/student voice – explains the purpose of the student publication, who determines the content, its intended audience and emphasizes that it is a “student” publication
Press
> Obituaries – what is the policy for covering student and faculty deaths? What is the justification for such a policy?
Press Pass
> Content and coverage – explains how publication content is decided > Letters to the editor – explains the guidelines and requirements for submitting a letter to the editor > Guest writers – explains the guidelines and requirements for submitting a guest column
> Profanity – explains the policy on publishing profanity in the publication — what if it is part of a direct quote?
> Conflict of interest – explains how students do not write stories about sports, clubs or organizations that they are involved with in order to limit bias — also explains that journalists don’t accept freebies for the same reason
> Naming minors – explains the policy for naming minors who may or may not be involved in a crime
> Corrections – explains the procedure for correcting facts, figures and name spellings that appear in published stories
> Anonymous sources – explains if, when and how they are considered, if at all
> Staff editorials – explains their purpose, how are they determined and who writes them
> Advertising – explains ad restrictions and the editing, design and approval process
24 | Blend Magazine | Fall 2010
5. Staff Policies > Expectations – explains the overall expectation of students on staff > Leaving campus/driving – explains the policy regarding students leaving campus to sell ads or run errands during the school day — or is it even allowed? > Grades – explains how grades will be determined and if there are opportunities for extra credit > Deadlines – explains why deadlines are important and what happens if a deadline is not met — is there a process for getting a deadline extension? > Meetings – explains their purpose and why are they important. Is there an attendance policy for meetings? What happens if a student has a time conflict?
> Interviewing – provides tips and explains the research/process that goes into conducting a good interview > Leaving class – explains the procedure for leaving class to conduct interviews or go to the restroom
> Absences – explains the class attendance policy > Food/drink – explains the policy for having food and drinks in the classroom
> Disrupting classes – explains the policy for disrupting other academic classes to conduct interviews
> Work nights – explains the purpose and staff requirements for staying after school for work nights — are there any exceptions?
> Student conduct – explains the expectation of student conduct on staff
> Staff communication – explains how staff members are expected to communicate with one another
> Press passes – identifies the appropriate times and places press passes can be used, who can use them and if there are any limitations or restrictions
> Plagiarism & dishonesty – explains what happens if a staff member if found guilty of it
6. Technology Policies > Cell phone – explains when it can/cannot be used > Facebook/other social media – explains how can it be used effectively and when is it not appropriate — can it be used in class? > E-mail – explains how can it be used effectively and when is it not appropriate — can it be used in class?
Editor
> Computer games – explains the policy for playing computer games during class > Online news updates – explains who has the authority Managing Photo Editor Editor to update online news stories and when/how it should be done Page Eds
Design
Photogs
> Copyrighted/Internet photos – explains when is it appropriate/not appropriate to use in a publication > Photo manipulation – explains when and to what extent this can be done — and how to properly identify such a photo
et forg t ’ n o D ff e sta h t e dat ! to up year very e l a manu
*
Press Pass
> Digital camera checkout – explains the checkout procedure > Laptop checkout – explains the checkout procedure > Audio recorder – explains checkout procedure and what a reporter must do before recording interviews > Technology use/abuse – explains the publications technology use and abuse policy and what happens if a camera/laptop/audio recorder is broken or damaged in your possession «
> Internet use – explains what is acceptable and not acceptable Reporters
Fall 2010 | Blend Magazine | 25
7. Flow Charts > Brainstorming – states staff requirements and gives a step-by-step explanation for brainstorming content > Assignments/ladder – gives a step-by-step explanation for finalizing content, assigning stories and making the page ladder > Writing – gives a step-by-step explanation for writing, editing, correcting and finalizing stories > Photography – gives a step-by-step explanation for assigning photos, attending events, downloading imagines, selecting images, editing images and saving > Graphics – gives a step-by-step explanation for brainstorming, assigning, reporting, writing, editing and creating graphics > Design – gives a step-by-step explanation for designing, editing content, writing display copy and editing pages > Editing – gives a step-by-step explanation for editing pages and finalizing the entire product
8. Business and Advertising > Ad sales – explains staff requirements/ obligations/expectations for overall course completion/grades, if applicable > Contact e-mail/telephone call – provides an example of an initial e-mail and/or phone talking points to introduce yourself and the publication as a legitimate advertising resource > Contact letters – provides an example of an initial contact letter > Ad contracts – provides a sample of the advertising contract > Ad sizes and costs – provides a sample rate card for the publication > Publication dates/deadlines – provides a list of publication dates and ad submission deadlines > Payments and billing – provides a sample of the ad invoice and follow-up contact letter > Subscriptions – provides a sample subscription form and list of publication dates > Advertising policies – explains the publications advertising policies 26 | Blend Magazine | Fall 2010
*
Organize your staff manual in sect ions, using clearly labele d tabs or dividers to se parate each section.
9. School Information > Important school information including mailing address, phone numbers, school financial data, school personnel data, performance data, graduation rates, student demographic and enrollment data, notable facts, important historical dates, etc. > List of all sports schedules > List of all head and assistant coaches for all sports broken down by fall, winter and spring — also provides room/office numbers and e-mail addresses > List of faculty advisers/supervisors for all student organizations and extra-curricular activities, including room/office numbers and e-mail addresses > List of all teachers, administrators and staff room/ office numbers and e-mail addresses
10. Student Inspiration > Samples of good design, packages and stories from a variety of sources
Parting thoughts > A well-planned and organized staff manual can accomplish a lot of things for a publications staff, and it can be changed and adapted to fit your individual needs. It doesn’t have to be perfect the first time you put one together. It is an evolving document that will grow, change and improve each year. «
Newspaper Page/Spread Finalists
Grayson Cameron | Redwood Bark Redwood HS | Larkspur, Calif.
Jane Culkin, Amelia Kucic, Marjie Ruby, Grace Michaels | The Surveyor George Washington HS | Denver, Colo.
Yearbook Page/Spread Finalists
Anna Glendening, Natalie Mabile, Marissa Gitler, Hanna Kirby The Clan McLean HS | McLean, Va.
Kayla Davidson | Hornet Bryant HS | Bryant, Ark.
D
Cara Eckert, Hollan Linn, Caleb Quinn The Wolf’s Howl Timberland HS | Wentzville, Mo.
Chelsea Weis | Aurora Wausau HS | Wausau, Wis.
esig ear Y of the
Sarah Hudson | The Crimson Courier Cypress Woods HS | Cypress, Texas
Erin Tachi | Legend William R. Boone HS | Orlando, Fla.
gn r
Benjy Mercer-Golden | The Standard American School in London | London, England
Sarah Brand, Chantelle Cloutier Minotaur | Bloomingtondale Sr. HS Valrico, Fla.
Tyler Hein | The Scout Overland HS | Aurora, Colo.
Sravani Mannuru, Sara Walls | Governor John B. Connally HS | Austin, Texas
see it l online Visit www.studentpress.org/ nspa/winners/design10.html to see these designs up close!
(Illustration finalist) Edward Yeung Ilium | Troy HS | Fullerton, Calif.
M agazine Page/Spread Finalists
April Hernandez | Pegasus Burges HS | El Paso, Texas
Alyssa Minnis | The Coup Brian Masters | Mirage James W. Martin HS | Arlington, Texas Seminole Ridge HS Loxahatchee, Fla.
Sam Gasmer, Sophia Penske Tenth Muse | Harvard Westlake MS Los Angeles, Calif.
N ewspaper Page One Finalists
Michael Stolle The Harbinger Shawnee Mission NE HS Prairie Village, Kan.
Sarah Strand | The Voice Courtney Seddon Marin Academy | San Rafael, Calif. Panther’s Tale Derby H | Derby, Kan.
T
Taylor Brown | Dart St. Teresa’s Academy Kansas City, Mo.
Taylor Parker, Emma Claucherty The Viking Longboat Haslett HS | Haslett, Mich.
he NSPA Design of the Year awards are co-sponsored by Adobe Systems. Categories include Illustration, Infographic, Newspaper Page One, Newspaper Page/ Spread, Yearbook Page/Spread and Magazine Page/ Spread. The contest yielded a total of 496 entries. Judges selected finalists based on the following criteria: | Effective use of photos, art, graphics and typography | Established visual hierarchy | News judgment for Newspaper Page One | Contemporary appeal | Suitability for respective audience. Visit www.studentpress.org/nspa/winners/design10.html to view all the entries in all categories.
(Illustration finalist) Rosie Steinbach The Viking Log | Forest Grove HS Forest Grove, Ore. 30 | Blend Magazine | Fall 2010
my story l sammi moss
You and your staff are tremendous Being editor-in-chief is like falling off a swing backwards and getting all the wind knocked out of you. Every day. The job comes with the responsibilities of editing stories, teaching, mediating squabbles, evaluating and the hardest part: keeping the staff motivated. It takes a lot of understanding, creativity, courage and energy to keep staffers motivated. But once you get it right, nothing can hold you back. The thing that makes inspiring the staff the hardest is that not everyone is sparked by the same things. I’m motivated by making my little sisters proud. Some of my staffers are motivated by grades, others by food. One or two people are triggered by being honored in front of the class, but others would rather be thanked in private. This is where understanding comes into play. As editor, it is important to be in-tune with each staff member and what makes him or her excited and passionate. When we design the Century Star, there are always snacks and music. Once we are finished with the paper, we honor three staff members who really worked their hardest. Sometimes, it’s the simplest things that can make a person want to give their all. Sometimes, all it takes is setting a goal. At the beginning of the year, my staff set a major goal, one thing they wanted to accomplish over the entire year. It took some creativity to come up with what that goal should be and how we would measure our progress, but already it has staffers excited. We made a poster that serves as a constant reminder to work our hardest. We also do a cheer at the beginning of class every single day. Passed down by our last editor, it goes like this: “I am tremendous! I really am tremendous! And I’m going to do tremendous things! I don’t just think it — I know it! I believe! I am good! Woo!” When we were at the Ball State University journalism workshop this past summer, we chanted it several times every day. It really did make the staff feel tremendous. We have gotten several annoyed glances but my response to that has always been, “Doing it is worth being considered annoying.” Once you decide to join in you feel completely confident, like you can take on anything. Sounds a lot like motivation, right? Exactly. It takes courage to stand in the middle of a crowd and start shouting “I am tremendous!” but it pays off. Set-
ting the example of confidence is important. Leaders have to be confident, hard-working and caring (especially if that’s what they expect from their staff ). Otherwise staff members will think it’s OK to do their work “good enough.” The most important part of motivating a staff is to make sure every single person knows how crucial they are. I told my staff on the first day of school that if any one of them slacks off, the whole paper suffers. A writer can work their hardest, and if the photographer and designer don’t do their best, no one will read the story and vice versa. I tell each staff member individually why I need them, why I am so happy they are on my staff. It gives each person responsibility and confidence.
Sammi Moss (in green and white scarf ) is editor-inchief of the Century Star at Century High School in Bismarck, N.D. She is seen here with other Star staff members.
see it l online Visit blendmagazine.org to see the Century Star staff’s “I am Tremendous” cheer in action.
Honestly, there is no textbook answer when it comes to how to motivate a staff. I’ve found several methods that work for me, and it may be different for every other newspaper staff. All I know is that when everyone on my staff is working their hardest, I can’t stop smiling. I can’t contain the pride I get when someone tells me how much they loved our paper. I can’t hold back the joy I experience when my inbox is flooded with texts from my staff who are overflowing with ways to make our paper even better. There is no feeling like being editor-in-chief. Yes, it’s like falling off a swing and getting all the breath knocked out of my body, but it’s also like being lifted off the ground and dusted off by nineteen of the most amazing, confident, talented people in my life.
Fall 2010 | Blend Magazine | 31
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