Students Say ‘Sure’ and Get the News Reported

 

Home page of MMU Times, thanks to some new students getting involved.

Advising an online student news site has been a journey. The Mount Mercy Times at Mount Mercy University, where I teach, gave up a print newspaper last year.

I’m sure it was the right move. We were throwing away too many printed copies, and finding a newspaper in Iowa with a press to handle our small press run was becoming too difficult—too much cost, too much waste, too much hassle. Thus, now we’re the online Mount Mercy Times.

The biggest disadvantage of that is, even if the printed papers were mostly tossed, they were a visible reminder to the campus that the Times exists, and the need to fill a print edition pushed the students to organize, collaborate and get things done. Sadly, with no print deadline to push us, the Times produced far less journalism last year compared to years before.

It did not disappear, but it hasn’t yet found its legs as an online news source.

Still, today was a hopeful day. Mount Mercy was set to announce a new football program today, a big deal—but one of my few staff students (we’re still building the staff for this year), the sports editor, had class at the same time as the announcement was being made.

However, in a general education communication class I teach, there is a student who had expressed some interest in writing for the MMU Times this semester. The Oral Communication class ended at 11:20 a.m.—would this student be willing to rush over to the Plaster Athletic Complex, take a camera with him, and cover his first story?

He thought about it for a second. He has a science test this afternoon. But, heck, he had a few minutes. “Sure,” he said.

So, Jonas shot a picture of me to get used to the camera, and then took off. But a few minutes after class, he and Lillian, another student from the class, saw me walking across the Rohde Family Plaza, heading for the library. “Professor Sheller!” Lillian yelled. “Where is the ceremony?”

At the Plaster Athletic Complex. A quarter mile from where we stood. In 10 minutes. Jonas looked a little doubtful. “Can you give him a ride?” I asked Lillian. I would have offered, but I ride a bike to work and Jonas would not fit on my bike's front handlebars (besides, I had to meet a student in the library and could not go to the ceremony myself anyway).

She thought for a second. “Sure,” she said.

Sometimes, “sure” is the best thing you can have a student say.

Jonas, chauffeured by Lillian, covered his first news story—a major one, as it turned out, that ended up on the top of the Times home page.

Jonas Gutierrez, MMU students, writes his first story for the MMU Times, I hope he writes many more.

Not all my problems with the story were over, however. As anybody in the news business can tell you, shooting images and writing a story is only the start. Who would edit the story?

As it happened, Keira was in the Times office to take a mid-term exam in a PR writing class. Would she be willing to have me, both her professor and the Times faculty advisor, have her take a brief break to read and copy edit a story Jonas had just finished typing?

“Sure,” she said. Well, I don’t recall if she used that exact word, but it seemed to be the word of the day, and in any case, she agreed and did it so she said “sure” in spirit.

Keira Carper in the MMU Times office, where today she edited her first Times story. In the middle of a mid-term exam.

The ceremony started at 11:30 a.m. I put together a shell of a story based on a statement posted by MMU, so Jonas could have a head start entering his information. When he came to the Times newsroom in the library at about 12:15 p.m., he said “here is the camera, now I have to go take my exam.”

Great—but any chance you could add your quotes and finish the story before your exam? He didn’t exactly say “sure,” but I’m sure he meant it, because, again, he paused for a second, thought about it, and then agreed to do it. The story was drafted by 1. By 1:30, Keira had edited the story. By 2 or so, it was posted to the MMU Times web site.

Cheerleaders at ceremony. One of the images made for MMU Times by Jonas Gutierrez.

Well, reporting news on the same day is one advantage of being an online news source, over being a paper printed twice a month. Nevertheless, it was a roller-coaster of a day for me—would we have a story? Would we have images? Early this morning, it seemed like the stars would not align, but here we were in the afternoon with a news web site updated.

There’s more to come. Another student shot more images at the ceremony, and I’m sure we’ll update the Times web site with a longer photo gallery from this big day as soon as I get my hands on the Times camera that she used. And our sports editor will be collecting campus reaction for a second-day reaction story on the news.

Still, score one for student news media at MMU. They pushed themselves, and scored a sports news touchdown today. And may many more students say “sure” and keep student news alive at Mount Mercy University.

Welcome to the Blogosphere, New Writers

Students writing blog posts in library commputer lab.

As I often do in media-related writing classes, I am requiring a group of students to maintain their own personal blogs.

There is a baker’s dozen of students in the class, and I’ll update this post in about a week when they establish their URLs.

I require blogging for several reasons—mainly, so students in communication are comfortable with the genre and aware of it. But also to get students into the habit of thinking of their writing as public performance that anybody can see.

So, after I post the links, you all are invited to follow them. I’m looking forward to what these 13 new blog writers will have to say.

I hope some of them will keep their blogs going after the semester is over. Most of all, I hope they all benefit from being forced to write regularly in a different voice and style than other, academic writing, that they are doing for me.

Sam Hits a Nerve And Sami “Isn’t A Blogger”

Screen shot of Sam's anti-biker rant.

Blogging is an interesting media activity, one that a blogger I know called “emotional nudity.” It’s another genre of writing that students who aspire to any communication career should be comfortable with and understand.

Blogs, of course, have a mixed reputation. When a recent Coe graduate was arrested for an attempted terror attack in Canada, part of the way this lost and lonely young women found fellow dark and lonely people to plot with was through social media, including a blog.

But, that doesn’t make blogging all that different from any medium. After all, Hitler’s rise to power was partly fueled by his book “Mein Kampf.” Newspapers, magazines, books, movies, TV shows—all have and are used to spread terrible ideas and violence. But, as a proponent of the Marketplace of Ideas, I would observe that all of those media also can be used to educate, inform and positively persuade.

The internet is a bit different only in that facilitates unusual connections.

She doesn't have to hate not being good at blogging because she is. Good at blogging.

Anyway, 10 new blog voices have joined the internet babble, courtesy of a class writing assignment. One student, Sam, wrote a rant against bikers. One of my other blogs is called “CR Biker,” so you pretty much know how I felt about that. Was he yanking my chain? Perhaps, but that’s what a blog is for.

She is a blogger.

Samantha, aka Sami, is a bit profane on her personal blog—but I don’t think she does anything beyond what you would expect in this rather personal, emotionally nude medium. Hers is a blog worth reading. And she claims on her id that she is not a blogger. All I can say is au contraire.

And Madison also has a very visually stunning start to her blog.

One student, Meghan, is in the “mommy blog” school. Another student, also a mom, has a son who is planning his wedding, and Billie blogs about her experiences as a grown up in a young-adult world.

Each of the students is seeking to develop an online voice that is worth listening to, and to display themselves as writers. Take a glance and see what you think. Don’t troll them, please—but blog writers are partly rewarded by getting feedback on what they say:

Billie
Madison
Shavonda
Todd
Meghan
Matt
Jacob
Sam
Cody
Samantha

See her winter photos.

And, for the record, my two other blogs:

CR Gardenjoe
CRBiker

See what you think. And if you comment here, maybe you can suggest what you think are interesting blogs that Communication, Journalism, Multimedia or PR students should follow. Or just answer this question: What are your favorite blogs, and why?