One Newsroom, Three Voices
Bold new publication class will prepare students for an evolving
industry
By
Yvonne Daley
SLUG! REPORT
In fall 2000, the Journalism department will combine its publication labs
into one class. It's a bold and, we think,
innovative but necessary response to changes in the industry. Here's a brief
synopsis of why we're implementing these
changes and how we envision our new class will work.
Until now, our publications have operated as distinct entities -- a
newspaper, a magazine and, most recently, an online
news magazine. Each had its own class. Rarely did students from one
publication write or shoot for one of the other
publications or discuss the different demands and challenges inherent in
newspaper, magazine or online writing and
photography or, for that matter, the different thought processes required to
write and photograph for these divergent
publications.
Your professors, however, have observed that the life of the journalist
is not so neatly compartmentalized. Many
newspapers now have online sites; traditionally, material has been shoveled
from the newspaper onto the online
publication with little adaptation. That is changing, however, as it should.
Developers of newspaper online sites are beginning to take advantage of
the tools available to them in terms of
interactivity, video and sound capability and links to other sources of
information. At the same time, online writing is
evolving as a genre in its own right with specific demands for lively
language and concise summaries, navigational tools
to help direct readers through long pieces and graphics that add surprising
new dimensions to the written work.
Simultaneously, print publications are responding to pressures brought on
by the growth of online resources.
Specialization, more useful graphics, summary sidebars, reader response
columns, improved storytelling and an
increase in lifestyle stories are just a few of the adaptations that have
come into the world of print journalism in
response to the growth of the Internet.
As working journalists, your professors have seen their own careers
change and evolve to meet these demands. Most
of us write and/or photograph for a variety of publications -- daily
newspapers, news and specialty magazines and
online publications. Adaptation and flexibility are the name of today's
game.
To succeed in today's industry, therefore, journalists must be armed with
the ability to tell a traditional news story, to
write an informed magazine piece and to present material in an engaging and
direct manner for an online publication.
Photographers, too, need the skills required to plan and complete photo
profiles, essays and stories for the different and
evolving formats.
Today's journalists need technical skills as well and, at the least, a
rudimentary understanding of how the Internet
works.
In addition, there are lots of jobs out there in online publication. Many
of these pay more than do traditional print
publications. We don't want money to be our -- or your -- primary
motivator, but we do want you to get a job when you
graduate. Most of all, we want to prepare you to succeed in this new and
exciting climate.
THE NEW CLASS
All these changes prompted our decision to combine our publication classes
under one umbrella. Rather than writing
or taking photographs for only the newspaper or magazine or online
publication for an entire semester, beginning in the Fall 2000 semester, all
publication students will be in the same class and will write or shoot for
all three formats.
From the beginning of the planning process, students will be taught how
to decide which is the best format to use for a
particular story and how to research, write, shoot and design the material
to take advantage of the distinct advantages
of print and online publication.
THE PUBLICATION
Our new publication will be called Golden Gate [X]press to reflect our
long history as the Golden Gater while bringing
a contemporary feel to the publication.
The publication's mission will be to explore and portray student life in
the Bay Area. This subject will be presented
with a different voice and focus in the newspaper, magazine and online
formats.
The newspaper will focus primarily on student life in the Bay Area as
seen on campus. We will continue to cover
student government, campus crime, innovative classes and policies on campus
but we will do so with the perspective
that our campus is one in a larger community of colleges, universities and
learning centers in the Bay Area.
The newspaper will contain news and feature stories that occur off campus
but only when we judge that the material is
needed by our students in order for them to better understand their world.
The magazine section will explore student life in the Bay Area from a
more in-depth vantage point with profiles, feature stories,
investigative pieces and trend stories that embrace a wider audience of
readers.
The online publication will look at student life in the Bay Area from an
even broader perspective by bringing in stories
from area colleges and universities and showing the faces and issues of that
audience. We hope to develop a calendar
of on-campus events for the newspaper and a calendar of events of general
interest to Bay Area students for the
online publication.
THE TEAM APPROACH
Rather than being assigned to a particular publication, students will be
assigned to a team: news; arts and
entertainment; lifestyle; fitness and sports; health, science and the
environment; and business. The range of our stories
will also be broader than we have traditionally envisioned.
For example, students on the lifestyle beat will write about housing,
transportation, drugs, sex, addictions and trends -- issues that have always
appealed to our student writers and photographers -- but they will also
explore cultural, class and race issues as they relate to the Bay Area's
student population and attempt to provide useful information and
access to resources that would be of particular use to our readers.
Students will have to think their stories through differently, working
together with their editors and advisors to
determine which format is best for which story, whether a word or photo
story, and how best to tell it in the chosen
format.
They will learn how to write budget lines, memos or query letters,
depending on which publication they are targeting.
Finally, they will work in rotation on production, learning something
about each of our formats -- newspaper, magazine and online publication. We
hope these arrangements will foster a
team spirit and help students to feel part of a larger production -- one
that serves the campus and the wider community
as well.
THE LEARNING PROCESS
In the process, students will find stories that could be told for any of
our publications -- the newspaper, online source
and the magazine -- depending on their focus and research. They may try
their hand at writing or shooting the same
material for all three.
For example, a student assigned to the lifestyle beat and writing about
housing in the Bay Area might write a news
story about toxic mold discovered in a dormitory at San Francisco State
University. That story might be followed up
with an investigative magazine article on how the university handled the
situation and the severity of the health risks of
breathing the mold. The student could even team up with a student on the
health beat and do an in-depth story about
the risks of mold and mildew inherent to our damp environment.
That same student might then write an online piece exploring other indoor
pollution problems on other Bay Area
campuses and the students' and administrators' response to those problems.
Or that student might write a breaking
news story for either the newspaper or the online publication if some event
-- the closing of a dormitory, for example
-- happened.
You can see how, with this arrangement, students can develop small areas
of expertise while also learning how to
research and write/photograph a story for different mediums. At the same
time, the student might develop enough
authority on a given topic to be able to write a compelling, informed
opinion piece.
As you may have noted, there will be no opinion team per se. (There will
be an opinion editor) We believe that too
many of our students write opinion pieces based primarily on their own
reactions with little research and reporting. We
will have opinion pieces on our publication but they will be written by
students who have become informed about a
particular issue and are, therefore, capable of writing in a convincing and
knowledgeable voice.
THE MONDAY CLASS
In order to teach our students the skills needed to write and shoot for
our new publication, we have decided to use
our Monday classes in a more formalized manner.
Your advisors are developing a series of lectures, panel discussions and
visits by professionals to review (and in some
cases teach for the first time) such skills as: how to write a feature
story; the magazine story formula and how to write
a postcard story for an online publication that will contain everything the
reader needs to know about a subject.
In these Monday morning classes, you'll learn the basics of html coding;
how to use photographs differently for all
three formats; how to write a breaking news story on deadline; and how to
use news stories and short features as
building blocks as you become proficient enough in a subject to write an
informed magazine story.
We'll also explore how writers best collaborate with photographers and
vice versa; how to create interactivity in an
online story through links and referrals; how to put a human face on a story
about policies, trends or breaking news;
and how to write arts and entertainment stories so they engage both those
who know something about your material
and those who are learning about it for the first time.
Also, we'll use our Monday classes to explore philosophical and ethical
issues. We all know that the possibility of
instant news has created new challenges for journalists, especially in term
of accuracy and accountability. We'll discuss
ways to improve the quality of reporting and photography in all mediums, how
to avoid stereotypes and how to write
about sensitive issues in a direct but helpful manner.
Finally, we'll devote 15 or 20 minutes of our Monday class to an overview
of some of the stories and photographs we
have published, rewarding the best and gently using those that failed as
learning experiences.
In our classes, we will remember that we are a community of writers,
photographers, editors and advisors and we will
treat one another and one another's work with respect and honesty.
THE WEDNESDAY CLASS
At our Wednesday sessions, we will break into teams with your student
managing editors and team editors leading the
classes. Those classes will be used for deciding which format a story should
be told in, when it is due and how it will
be presented in words, photo and design. Rather than having story and photo
quotas, students will have weekly
assignments, due Monday, no questions asked.
Under our new procedures, therefore, stories and photographs will be due
on Mondays. Story ideas -- presented as
either budget lines for breaking news or short stories and as memos or
queries for longer stories -- are due on
Wednesdays.
Students working on longer pieces with longer deadlines will be required
to submit building blocks to show the steps
they are taking to develop a longer story. In many cases, those building
blocks could be stories -- profiles, for
example, -- that could be published on their own.
Team editors will do initial assigning of stories and will work with the
managing editors to determine which format the
story will be presented in first -- the newspaper, magazine section or
online site. Your editor-in-chief Millie Mayfield will be
general assignement editor, overseeing the process and assigning breaking
news stories, in conjunction with the news
team editor and the managing editors.
PUBLICATION MANAGEMENT CLASS
Simultaneous to all this, your student editors will be taking a new
course that we think is the first of its kind in the
country. The course is called Publication Management. It's based on the
observation that we have never really offered
our students a course in how to pull off the difficult and stressful job of
managing a publication and supervising student
peers.
In our new Publication Management class, we will show you how to use the
coaching process to edit stories and
encourage student writers and photographers. We will have an expert in
stress management provide us with tools for
negotiation and crisis resolution. We will brainstorm ways to motivate
students, edit without insult, give a peer the bad
news that his or her work isn't making the grade and tackle management
problems as they come along.
ADVISORS
To pull all this off, your faculty will dedicate more advising time to
the publication than ever before.
The lead advisor, Yvonne Daley, is organizing this new course and
developing the syllabus, arranging our Monday
classes and inviting experts in to talk to us. She will oversee the
publication of the magazine format as well as advise
the arts and entertainment and the fitness and sports teams. Yvonne will be
available as a writing coach two days a
week. She is also developing and will teach the Management Publication
class.
Austin Long-Scott will be the advisor to the newspaper, overseeing
its production, and will be advisor to the news and
business teams. He will also work with an opinion editor to improve the
quality of student editorials and be our
resident expert on issues of ethics and fair play.
Rachele Kanigel will oversee the online publication and its
production and will advise the lifestyle and health, science
and environment teams. She'll be working with students to help draw an
audience of readers to our online publication
and make it more useful through links and interactivity while also stressing
the importance of maintaining high
journalistic standards.
Ken Kobre will work with photographers who will be assigned to a
universal photography desk. He will oversee
photo and photo illustration production and work closely with photo editors
to ensure that our new publication has
more and better photographs that will help us understand and appreciate
student life in the Bay Area. He'll also be the
faculty liaison between writers and photographers, working to improve
collaboration and communication.
Theresa Allen, a professor from Boston University who is visiting
us for the fall semester, is an expert in online
journalism and the conversion of traditional print and Internet
publications.. She will also assist our online production
team and advise us on design, formating and publication issues. Theresa will
also help us understand the ways in which
our three formats can both supplement and complement one another. She will
work closely with our student designers
and Web production team, step in as secondary advisor to the magazine as
well as the arts and entertainment and the
fitness and sports teams.
Our illustrious leader, Journalism Chair John Burks, will also be
on hand. John has promised to join us occasionally in
our Monday morning discussions and to volunteer as a coach and advisor to
the editorial teams.
EDITORS
We've chosen your editors with these changes in mind, looking for
students with energy, stamina and commitment to
our new approach to our student publication. For the past month, your
editors have been meeting with students and
with each other, as well as with the entire faculty, to plan next year's
fall semester publication.
We want to have team editors assigned before the end of the spring term
and get students who have completed their
first semester on a publication thinking about and preparing stories for the
fall semester. To that end, we will have
several planning sessions over the summer. Our overall thought is that the
better prepared we are, the more successful
this course will be for you. Please get involved.
Your editor-in-chief, Millicent Mayfield, has been managing editor
of the Golden Gater during the Spring 2000 semester and
has worked closely with writers on the planning and execution of stories.
She's really excited about our new
publication and has her own great ideas for future stories.
Millie will oversee the entire production, setting tone and voice for the
publications and riding herd on assignments and
deadlines. One thing Millie has made clear -- she wants our publications to
have a new and unifying voice, something
that sets us apart from other similar publications. That voice will be
smart, savvy, informed and useful, written with our
readership in mind and with their concerns and interests foremost.
David Baker is managing editor for the print publications. David
hasn't been on a publication here at SF State but he
was an editor at his junior college and has been busy observing production
of [X]press magazine. David will
supervise the production editors for the newspaper and the magazine, help
students plan building blocks of stories and
work with the other editors to keep the stories flowing. David's greatest
asset is enthusiasm and a conviction that what
we are trying to do with our new publication -- educating students to be
able to work in print and online -- is the right
way to go.
Lakiesha McGhee will be online managing editor. She has been a
star writer for [X]press online this semester and has
written extensively about Proposition 21, education, race and class. She
believes these issues are important to students
living in the Bay Area and will, along with her role as editor, be our
resident expert in these subjects.
Our photo editors are Dorothy Kimmel, Tadd Cortell, Colin Fisher
and Saliena Reichart. They are all gifted
photographers, currently working on publications and eager to dedicate
themselves to ensuring that more of the work
of photographers is presented in print and online. One of the wonderful
things we can do with our new format is
present an online photo display to showcase a full spectrum of photographs
taken for an assignment for our
newspaper or magazine where space is more limited.
Dorothy will serve as coordinator between editors, advisors and
publications and Tadd hopes to be an advocate for
photographers in the coming semester.
Something new this year is the edition of a student time-management
coach. We've asked Donna Gifford, a
technology writer who wrote for the feature section of [X]press magazine
this semester, to take on this role. One of the
things that Donna has learned in her professional life and as a student is
how to juggle several writing assignments at
one time.
That's something many of our students could benefit from learning. How do
you complete one story while researching
another and thinking about what to do next? Donna will be on hand to help
students sort all that out. If you end up
behind in your work, we'll suggest you book a session with Donna.
OUR HOPE
We think all these changes will be useful to our students. We know that
the first semester or two of implementing these
changes will have their chaotic moments but we believe the end result will
be worth the struggle and work we've put
into bringing these innovations to fruition.
We hope you agree and will be part of the process. If you want further
information, wish to comment or want to take
part in our planning sessions, please email us at the following addresses:
Millicent Mayfield mfmayfield@hotmail.com;
David Baker dbamagnet@earthlink.com;
Lakiesha McGhee lmcghee2@aol.com;
Dorothy Kimmel dkimmel4@yahoo.com;
Saliena Reichart pixtaker@sfsu.edu;
Tadd Cortell, Tadd@creative.net;
Colin Fisher colin202@yahoo.com;
Donna Gifford dmgifford@earthlink.net;
Yvonne Daley ommar@stanford.edu;
Austin Long-Scott longscot@sfsu.edu;
Ken Kobre kobre@aol.com;
Rachele Kanigel rkanigel@hotmail.com;
John Burks jburks@sfsu.edu
