The Recorder's Google heritage and CCSU
Type in "student newspaper, outrage," into the Google news search engine and up pops the Rocky Mountain Collegian, for colorful advice it recently offered the president. USA Today reports:
The Collegian, reports the Coloradoan, is self-supporting and has lost $30,000 in advertising revenue since this editorial appeared. Its editor is under pressure to resign.
The other newspaper that pops up in the Google search is The Recorder, the CCSU student newspaper, for its recent news making cartoon. The higher education journal Diverse has a history of college newspaper cartoons of similar character, but pointedly says that The Recorder "set a new level for campus racism and sexism."
It's been a more than two decades since I was an editor of The Recorder. Some of the people I worked with at that newspaper became lifelong friends. The newspaper was hard work but we loved it. It was wonderful learning experience that helped me set a career direction.
A longtime friend as well as fellow editor at The Recorder alerted me to the recent controversy and I think our shared feeling was sadness.
The university president, Jack Miller, is understandably worried about university's image and is recommending steps for improving journalism at CCSU.
Miller is calling for a "full-time faculty member to serve in both a mentorship capacity with student publications and a teaching capacity." That's a great recommendation.
I could have used the help Miller is suggesting. The Recorder certainly needs this help today -- and not just because of the cartoon.
There is a lot to like about The Recorder. Remove some of its bad editorial decisions from the picture, and you can find professional and earnest news reporting. The print design, in the PDF copy I looked at, was very good. The Recorder's staff has some solid talent on it and you can tell that they are working hard.
But The Recorder is too married to print and isn't keeping up with the online shift. The Recorder’s Web site is several years behind the times and the newspaper's focus is on the weekly print product. To really provide training opportunities for its staff, The Recorder will have to offer online delivery with frequent updates, multimedia and tools for audience engagement.
Miller wants to see journalism offered as a major, which is another solid recommendation. Even though print newspaper jobs are in decline, new media jobs appear to be growing. (See this piece by Mark Glaser at MediaShift for insight) A journalist today needs content management skills, which includes an ability to work with html, Adobe Photoshop, film and sound editing tools, among other things. People with journalistic and technical skills are in demand.
Another good reason for journalism/new media training at CCSU is the rise of citizen media. Today, anyone can create a media outlet and more and more people are doing so. Sending graduates out into the world with new media communication skills is a noble goal for this university.
Miller outlined a number of actions related to cultural and diversity awareness raised by the cartoon and addressed by other writers, (Google news search, "CCSU, cartoon"). I want to focus here on issues related to the operation of The Recorder.
Miller is taking some actions that may hurt The Recorder. He wrote that the university won't advertise in The Recorder. But that move just illustrates another reason why The Recorder needs professional help: There's no advertising or very little in the printed publication or Web version.
Miller defends free speech but not The Recorder. He is urging "the Media Board and other existing oversight boards look further into making substantive, constructive changes in ameliorating the situation at the Recorder.” He doesn’t outline the range of possible actions. But Miller wants something done.
The Media Board has real power: It controls the money. And since The Recorder isn't making much effort to sell advertising, it's at this board's mercy.
Cutting off The Recorder from its funds doesn't kill free speech at CCSU. Perhaps I am wrong to even explore this, but I can see arguments that question the need for a student publication supported by the college. The first step, to stop advertising, has been taken. Critics can argue that anyone can set up a blog about CCSU at almost no cost. The Recorder’s opponents may argue that a print publication is no longer needed, and the best course for the university is to transition the campus to independent media outlets and remove a liability.
But cutting the newspaper's funding is a drastic step that punishes everyone at The Recorder. It will garner much opposition, change the character of the debate, and hurt Miller’s plans for a journalism program on many levels. The Recorder is a vital part of the campus. If its flaws, as its critics seem to suggest, represent larger problems on the campus, then all that is accomplished by hurting The Recorder is upending what can and should be a vehicle for fostering debate and free exchange for addressing campus problems. The question should be: How to improve The Recorder?
Many of The Recorder’s writers are doing good work and there is genuine effort to cover matters of interest on the campus. But The Recorder doesn’t have an effective editorial decision making process and it dearly needs one. It has already apologized, last spring, for one column and has followed it with a similarly grave mistake. The cartoon was offensive to the extreme.
It's going to take some time, many months, to hire a full-time faculty member who can also serve a mentor, as recommended by Miller. As an interim solution, CCSU can hire a consultant, one or two editors at local publications or some other person with professional experience to serve in a mentoring role and provide feedback and story critiques, and meet in person with the editors. An added benefit of this for the staff may be real insight into local journalism job market.
The Rocky Mountain Collegian's argument for its four-letter message to Bush is that it "accomplished more than any other staff editorial we've written this year." In other words, what the Collegian received was an awful lof of attention, especially because of its placement in the Google news search engine.
But the Collegian's editorial gets its velocity from the newspaper’s credibility and role in that college community, and not because its editorial contains fresh nuggets of wisdom. That is true for The Recorder as well. Had the editor published that cartoon on his personal blog nobody would have noticed. The blog world is full of this type of content and most of it is ignored.
I don't think the staff of The Recorder really realizes what it has or why the stakes have become so high. Everything it publishes appears in news search engines. There are many, many independent blogs and Web sites that would love that exposure but aren't included in news search engines. This also means that The Recorder is watched by news outlets. If it breaks a story, that report may get picked-up by other news organizations. Its reporters are making an impression on editors statewide and nationally.
The Recorder has an audience reach it didn’t have five years ago, so quickly has the world changed. But, consequently, The Recorder today is a student publication in name only. It is a news outlet with enormous power to shape perception about CCSU globally.
The university campus is no longer the sheltering place it once was. My mistakes at The Recorder didn’t follow me after graduation. Everything these students do is now part of their indelible Google heritage and Central's as well.
The paper acknowledges that the editorial was "immature, unnecessary and offensive," but says this piece "accomplished more than any other staff editorial we've written this year
The Collegian, reports the Coloradoan, is self-supporting and has lost $30,000 in advertising revenue since this editorial appeared. Its editor is under pressure to resign.
The other newspaper that pops up in the Google search is The Recorder, the CCSU student newspaper, for its recent news making cartoon. The higher education journal Diverse has a history of college newspaper cartoons of similar character, but pointedly says that The Recorder "set a new level for campus racism and sexism."
It's been a more than two decades since I was an editor of The Recorder. Some of the people I worked with at that newspaper became lifelong friends. The newspaper was hard work but we loved it. It was wonderful learning experience that helped me set a career direction.
A longtime friend as well as fellow editor at The Recorder alerted me to the recent controversy and I think our shared feeling was sadness.
The university president, Jack Miller, is understandably worried about university's image and is recommending steps for improving journalism at CCSU.
Miller is calling for a "full-time faculty member to serve in both a mentorship capacity with student publications and a teaching capacity." That's a great recommendation.
I could have used the help Miller is suggesting. The Recorder certainly needs this help today -- and not just because of the cartoon.
There is a lot to like about The Recorder. Remove some of its bad editorial decisions from the picture, and you can find professional and earnest news reporting. The print design, in the PDF copy I looked at, was very good. The Recorder's staff has some solid talent on it and you can tell that they are working hard.
But The Recorder is too married to print and isn't keeping up with the online shift. The Recorder’s Web site is several years behind the times and the newspaper's focus is on the weekly print product. To really provide training opportunities for its staff, The Recorder will have to offer online delivery with frequent updates, multimedia and tools for audience engagement.
Miller wants to see journalism offered as a major, which is another solid recommendation. Even though print newspaper jobs are in decline, new media jobs appear to be growing. (See this piece by Mark Glaser at MediaShift for insight) A journalist today needs content management skills, which includes an ability to work with html, Adobe Photoshop, film and sound editing tools, among other things. People with journalistic and technical skills are in demand.
Another good reason for journalism/new media training at CCSU is the rise of citizen media. Today, anyone can create a media outlet and more and more people are doing so. Sending graduates out into the world with new media communication skills is a noble goal for this university.
Miller outlined a number of actions related to cultural and diversity awareness raised by the cartoon and addressed by other writers, (Google news search, "CCSU, cartoon"). I want to focus here on issues related to the operation of The Recorder.
Miller is taking some actions that may hurt The Recorder. He wrote that the university won't advertise in The Recorder. But that move just illustrates another reason why The Recorder needs professional help: There's no advertising or very little in the printed publication or Web version.
Miller defends free speech but not The Recorder. He is urging "the Media Board and other existing oversight boards look further into making substantive, constructive changes in ameliorating the situation at the Recorder.” He doesn’t outline the range of possible actions. But Miller wants something done.
The Media Board has real power: It controls the money. And since The Recorder isn't making much effort to sell advertising, it's at this board's mercy.
Cutting off The Recorder from its funds doesn't kill free speech at CCSU. Perhaps I am wrong to even explore this, but I can see arguments that question the need for a student publication supported by the college. The first step, to stop advertising, has been taken. Critics can argue that anyone can set up a blog about CCSU at almost no cost. The Recorder’s opponents may argue that a print publication is no longer needed, and the best course for the university is to transition the campus to independent media outlets and remove a liability.
But cutting the newspaper's funding is a drastic step that punishes everyone at The Recorder. It will garner much opposition, change the character of the debate, and hurt Miller’s plans for a journalism program on many levels. The Recorder is a vital part of the campus. If its flaws, as its critics seem to suggest, represent larger problems on the campus, then all that is accomplished by hurting The Recorder is upending what can and should be a vehicle for fostering debate and free exchange for addressing campus problems. The question should be: How to improve The Recorder?
Many of The Recorder’s writers are doing good work and there is genuine effort to cover matters of interest on the campus. But The Recorder doesn’t have an effective editorial decision making process and it dearly needs one. It has already apologized, last spring, for one column and has followed it with a similarly grave mistake. The cartoon was offensive to the extreme.
It's going to take some time, many months, to hire a full-time faculty member who can also serve a mentor, as recommended by Miller. As an interim solution, CCSU can hire a consultant, one or two editors at local publications or some other person with professional experience to serve in a mentoring role and provide feedback and story critiques, and meet in person with the editors. An added benefit of this for the staff may be real insight into local journalism job market.
The Rocky Mountain Collegian's argument for its four-letter message to Bush is that it "accomplished more than any other staff editorial we've written this year." In other words, what the Collegian received was an awful lof of attention, especially because of its placement in the Google news search engine.
But the Collegian's editorial gets its velocity from the newspaper’s credibility and role in that college community, and not because its editorial contains fresh nuggets of wisdom. That is true for The Recorder as well. Had the editor published that cartoon on his personal blog nobody would have noticed. The blog world is full of this type of content and most of it is ignored.
I don't think the staff of The Recorder really realizes what it has or why the stakes have become so high. Everything it publishes appears in news search engines. There are many, many independent blogs and Web sites that would love that exposure but aren't included in news search engines. This also means that The Recorder is watched by news outlets. If it breaks a story, that report may get picked-up by other news organizations. Its reporters are making an impression on editors statewide and nationally.
The Recorder has an audience reach it didn’t have five years ago, so quickly has the world changed. But, consequently, The Recorder today is a student publication in name only. It is a news outlet with enormous power to shape perception about CCSU globally.
The university campus is no longer the sheltering place it once was. My mistakes at The Recorder didn’t follow me after graduation. Everything these students do is now part of their indelible Google heritage and Central's as well.
Labels: CCSU, student newspaper
