An experienced SPJ executive board to focus on meeting recruitment

Alex Felser, Reporter

Last year’s nationally top-ranked Society of Professional Journalists chapter has one big focus in the upcoming year: involvement.

The newly elected executive board held their first meeting together last week and are “focusing on recruiting new members for next year,” said Junior Taylor Mirfendereski, next year’s Chapter President.

Mirfendereski, along with the rest of the executive board, has been involved with SPJ since her freshman year.

“I’ve invested so much and saw it grow throughout the years. I wanted to help and represent the organization,” Mirfendereski said.

SPJ has been one of the most important organizations to Mirfendereski, who has been Vice President the previous two years. This encouraged her to help SPJ continue to grow and stay involved, she said.

Mirfendereski is also excited about the new executive board. Each person brings their own strengths and diversity that helps a lot in event planning.

Freshman Sandhya Kambhampati, next year’s co-programming chair, enjoyed planning different meetings and organizing events for the chapter as one of this year’s freshman liaisons, which motivated her to run for an executive position.

“It’s a good organization to get involved with and next year I will get to help plan meetings for future freshman and members,” Kambhampati said.

SPJ’s biggest event this past year was the Sunshine Summit, which brought together students from all over Ohio to Ohio University to discuss press freedom issues confronting student journalists.

“We want people to realize we do these events,” Mirfendereski said.

As far as for the events, “we would like to increase attendance,” said junior Emma Morehart, next year’s vice president.

Morehart, who has been treasurer the past two years, feels she has a lot of experience on how the executive board works and looks forward to working with Mirfendereski next year, despite having an internship fall quarter.

Sophomore Sarah Grothjan, who will be next year’s publicity chair, hopes to inform students about SPJ and the resources it offers.

“My goal for next year is to simple spread the word about our chapter,” she said.

“It’s a great organization for anyone who wants to learn more and keep up on the facts in our field,” said junior Gina Mussio, next year’s secretary.

“I want people to look forward to our meetings each week. I have gotten so much out of them, and I’d love other students to as well,” Grothjan said.

“Every year we continue to grow,” Mirfendereski said.

Freshman Shout-out

Alex Felser, Reporter

INC asks four freshman about first-year experience

Kevin Noonan
News and Information
First year: “First year went really well. I think I was involved in both print and broadcast, which helped, and all my classes went really well. Couldn’t ask for much more out of my first year.”
Advice: “Try all different types of journalism. There are all different kinds. See what you like even if you know what you want to be. Be diverse.”

Steve Uhlmann
News and Information
First Year: “I got a lot of hands-on experience and learned a lot about the field of journalism.
Advice: “Do as many things as you can; I already got an internship from being involved”

Anna Rumer
News and Information
First year: “It was the best year of my entire life. It went really well, and I got really involved with The New Political. Super sweet, published news.”
Advice: “Go out for different things; you never know what you’re going to like.”

Brooke Bunce
Magazine
First year: “It went very well, because I was able to get involved in a ton of things and was able to get a lot of journalism experience since I had none in high school.”
Advice: “Be fearless if you want to get involved with something; go right ahead and try to get involved as much as you can. Upperclassman and people involved like it.”

OU waves goodbye to fourth dean this year

Story // Alex Felser, Reporter

In midst of a hiring freeze, this school year at Ohio University seems to have slowly become a year of lost deans.

Last week, Dean Gregory Shepherd of the Scripps College of Communication announced his decision to leave the Scripps school to become the Dean of Communication at the University of Miami, making him the fourth dean to resign in less than a month.

“I absolutely loved my time here as dean which made it a hard decision to make,” said Shepherd who became the full-time dean of the school in 2006.

“I’ve been fortunate to work with a great faculty and staff in the college that all have pulled together to make the Scripps College what it is,” Shepherd said.

Robert Stewart, director of the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, believes Shepherd is taking a step in the right direction from his standpoint.

“It didn’t surprise me that another school was interested in him, and I think it makes sense on his interests that he took the opportunity,” Stewart said.

“It’s a tremendous opportunity that I’m excited about…and (I am) attracted to being part of an exciting future for the place,” Shepherd said.

Shepherd said he will never forget when the $15 million gift was formally announced that resulted in the naming of the college.

“Just a fantastic moment and amazing experience,” he said.

Shepherd’s latest focus as dean has been on cross-college interaction between both faculty and students. Something he believes will continue even with his departure.

“We don’t have one good school and four decent ones; we have five great ones…And it is students who are demanding that we allow them to put together programs of study that allow them to experience more of what this college has to offer that so few others do,” Shepherd said.

Shepherd also believes the new Schoonover Center for Communication will bring the schools physically together in a way that faculty and students from all across the college will have interac- tion on a daily basis for the first time.

Stewart agrees and still supports the cross-college projects.

“His momentum will probably continue at a higher rate and his legacy will be more interactive across the college.” Stewart said. “Whether at the same rate will depend on who steps in.”

ImPRessions promotes long night to raise money

Story // Alex Felser, Contributing Writer

In its fourth year, Up ‘til Dawn’s annual event, OhioMoves, decided to change the format of their six-hour fundraiser for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital by adding a Battle of the Bands event.

Seven different acts performed during the event on Sunday including three bands, two solo acts, Title IX (Ohio University Women’s Chorale a cappella ensemble) and a rapper, with the winner being determined by the amount of addresses collected from their fan base. The winning band, Flow Town Four, received a cash prize of $175 raised by ImPRessions.

Volunteers stuff envelopes for the letter sending party.

OhioMoves was the unique name conceived by ImPRessions for this year’s Up ‘til Dawn’s annual event in which the organization raises money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital through a letter sending party campaign requesting donations.

Up ‘til Dawn is a nonprofit student-run organization located on college campuses all around the country, which raises money for the hospital located in Memphis, Tenn. St. Jude’s relies completely on donations to fund its operations and is known for never declining a patient without health insurance. Brad Jones, the executive director of Up ‘til Dawn on OU’s campus, played a key part in organizing the event with support pro- vided by Account Executives Cori Sherman and Colleen Veeley of OU’s ImPRessions.

“They play a pretty substantial role,” Jones said.

ImPRessions managed the advertising and coordinated sponsorships to help fund the event, Jones said.

Also, they hung banners, advertised through Facebook and Twitter, sent out press releases and visited various student organizations to spread the word of the event.

Planning for the event began in September 2010 and was considered highly successful with roughly 2,300 letters drafted on Sunday, Sherman said.

Admission to the event was a payment of $5, or people could bring in addresses for use in the letter sending party.

As for funding the event, almost everything was donated toward the cause.

To cover the costs of napkins, plates and other necessities, smaller events such as fruit sales on Court Street helped generate the money, Jones said.

Baker supplied free use of facilities while ACRN supplied the sound system. All acts involved in the competition donated their time. And local restaurants, Abrios, Broney’s, GoodFellas and Pita Pit contributed to the food supplied.

As for the reason of format change this year, “It was kind of boring last year,” Sherman said, adding that the decision to have a battle of the bands put a new twist on the event in “hopes people [would] have more fun with it.”

“We [wanted] people to stay for more than an hour like in previous years,” Sherman said.

Although people were able to donate at the event, “the main goal [was] to have people bring in 20 addresses,” Sherman said.

Students and organization that attended the event were able to have it count toward any community service requirements they may have needed fulfilled.

“We want[ed] people to not view the event as community service, but as a battle of the bands and to come out and have lunch and watch bands,” Sherman said.

As for counting the donations, it typically takes two or three weeks for them to start coming in, Sherman said.

A few incentives promoted participation this year as all attendees who provided 20 addresses received a T-shirt, and those who provided 35 addresses were entered in a drawing to win an Apple iPod Touch.

As for everyone else involved, “There’s no incentive for us to perform,” Jones said.

“We expect[ed] people [would] just want to participate because they know it’s going toward a good cause,” Jones said.

Up ‘til Dawn also plans to team up with ImPRessions for a 5K scheduled in the spring.

While Ohio University is in the midst of a hiring freeze and anticipated budget cuts, Tom Hodson recently started his new position as interim director and general manager of WOUB.

Hodson, the former director of the Scripps school, will now face a new task of taking on the financial difficulties WOUB is facing.

He is replacing former director, Carolyn Bailey Lewis, who applied for state disability retirement in early October and is expected to hear the official ruling this week.

Hodson, who was notified Nov. 26, 2010 by Dean Gregory Shepherd of the College of Communications regarding his promotion, only had one month to develop a “game plan” before officially beginning his new job on Jan. 3.

Shepherd asked Hodson to take on the new role because of his “unique set of skills and experience (and)strong association with the broadcasting business, but also great experience as an academic leader,”  Shepherd said.  All of which play a factor in Hodson’s goals.

During his month of planning, Hodson identified three main goals to focus upon during his time as interim director.

The first of his goals  is “making sure the center [WOUB] is financially solvent and on a good financial footing,” which is “a major challenge with dwindling service resources.”  This includes maintaining the center’s six TV and six radio stations.

Hodson plans to research what money is available for WOUB and identify cost saving efficiencies while planning to “keep the same services or figure out how to improve service but at a lesser cost than in the past.”

For starters, Hodson plans to use much more website-based distribution to reduce cost.

He will also be researching some national Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) content to determine how cost-effective they are compared to more locally produced shows.

With the next fiscal year beginning in July, WOUB will not know its budget allocation until March at the earliest.  From there, Hodson expects to spend from March to June tailoring the budget.

“The budget is a huge issue, with so many unknowns,” Hodson said. Historically, the annual budget is around $5 million, although it’s expected to decrease this year with anticipated budget cuts.

WOUB receives the majority of their funding through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) who helps underwrite the cost of the PBS content.  The problem WOUB is currently facing this year is PBS changing their formula for programming fees, and the money received from CPB are from essentially interlocking formulas, Hodson said.  Meaning both will need to be determined before WOUB will have any idea of the upcoming budget.

WOUB receives funding from grants, donations and directly from the university just as other units of OU. This  is dependent on all the sources of revenue the school is receiving.

Also on Hodson’s to-do list is the integration of the center with the five Scripps schools to help make it possible for students to receive academic credit for certain jobs performed at WOUB.

“[We] want to promote use of student and faculty together,” Hodson said.

Approximately 250 students work through WOUB without receiving academic credit, though some do earn a small amount of money, an aspect Hodson wishes to improve.

“[We want to] give students real professional experience with academic credit,” Hodson said.

Most work done at WOUB is categorized under volunteer enterprise when used to update professional portfolios.

It is already a work in progress since Hodson has started reaching out to the schools to integrate them more toward an academic mission. He will also be working with classes and talking to directors to see what common ground they currently have.  Currently, Hodson said there is some linkage between academics and WOUB but nothing very productive.

Eventually, Hodson hopes to update and modernize the approach the center takes to news and entertainment and bring it more into the 21^st century.  With technology having changed  more in the past five years then in the past 60, it presents a major problem, Hodson said.

“I am especially interested in seeing WOUB become an even more important player in the education of our students, providing them cutting edge experiences in all aspects of media production and delivery,”  Shepherd said, indicating it will be a problem that Hodson can solve.

Some of the more modern and cutting edge techniques are surprisingly more cost-efficient, Hodson said.  For example, “It’s much cheaper to populate a website than to do a live television program.”

Although the budget will have an effect in the development of the center, “The budget won’t keep us from modernization,” Hodson said.

Meanwhile, Hodson is unsure if he will fully become the permanent director and general manager at WOUB.

“I have an uncertain time frame here,” Hodson said.  “These are times of change and excitement in the media professions and we are dedicated to ensuring that our students graduate with the abilities to lead the way.”

The discovery story of Ted Williams is one that could inspire just about anyone. It offers hope to the homeless man, searching for means of survival. It offers encouragement to the healing addict, that there is life after dependence. But what does it offer to the journalist, laboring day after day, who finally made an impression?

It was a long night of studying when, from across the room, my friend pulled up a video someone had e-mailed him. That was the first time I experienced The Voice. I was shocked — as most were — when I saw the face issuing the words, sounding just like the professional dialogue of a radio host.

A reporter from The Columbus Dispatch allegedly had the first video copy, the same one that many of us first saw on YouTube. There are many sides to the story surrounding the exposure of Ted Williams’ talent, but underneath all of the politics lies a powerful story.

I bet I can tell you the first thing that came out of just about everyone’s mouth when they first caught wind of this story: “Wow, what a lucky break.” But when I think of this story, I see that it can be boiled down to more than any fabulated coincidence. In fact, it is this kind of story that many of us will someday strive to find. In turn, this is the standard of work that can offer new inspiration to our studies and our time spent in the E. W. Scripps School of Journalism.

Some controversy has risen following the release of this divisive story. Many believe that Williams caught a break that he didn’t deserve, considering his sticky past that has been called to attention. Apparently, this was a past that Williams’ newly found fame could not shake. Just days after his video hit the Web, news circulated that he had broken his alleged sobriety. In response to this controversy, Williams checked himself into rehab.

In my opinion, this validates the fortune he came upon. Given the opportunity, it seems that Williams will try to turn his life around, and he deserves that second chance, no matter what luck or talent may have brought him to it. The point I’d like to stress here is this: If one journalist’s inkling can bring this much favor to a man who has an exceedingly shaky track record, imagine the possibilities when applied elsewhere. This single account shows us all the effect that any one piece of journalistic work can have.

Setting aside the personal convictions anyone may hold on this topic, it is an anecdote alive with morals that journalism students should be thinking on mulling over. Such ethically challenging stories are the ones that keep our field in constant flux, reminding us to set our own standards as well as our own priorities.

If this can get you thinking on one thing, let it be your motivations for your future career.  What will be your incentive to flourish as a professional communicator? If you’re still riding on, “Because I like to write,” maybe it’s time to dig a little deeper. Stories like the discovery of Ted Williams prove that if we set out to use our talents to make a difference, we may hold the power to change lives.

With the new methods of journalism emerging (or rather, merging), many  aspiring journalists wonder exactly where the industry is heading, what works and what doesn’t.  For magazines, the production options appear to be determined simply by what works financially while still achieving specific goals. The campus publications at Ohio University provide insight into this magazine production world.

OU’s print magazine, Backdrop, distributed throughout campus since winter of 2008, uses various sources of income to produce an issue.  With print copies distributed each quarter, approximately 30 percent of the magazine consists of advertising, which is how most of its funds are acquired, said Annie Beecham, a 5^th-year senior and publisher of Backdrop.

Backdrop also holds fundraisers, , receives aid from the Student Activities Commission (SAC) and $20 quarterly dues from the magazine’s members, Beecham said.

When it comes to expenses, Backdrop’s main cost is printing the actual magazine, consisting of 48 pages.

“Sometimes if we have events we need money for, odds and ends, or if we print flyers, that can add up,” Beecham said.

Elizabeth Sheffield, Scripps senior and editor-in-chief of Backdrop, said that these smaller costs are often out-of-pocket expenses.

Beecham also commented that Backdrop breaks even with every issue and maintains the constant expenses for each  quarter.

“It’s not how much can we spend, so much, it’s how much is it going to take,” Sheffield said.

Backdrop also has its content available online.

“There’s no incentive to hoard the information and make it only available in one location. Since the students don’t have to pay for the magazine, the objective is to make it obtainable regardless of any obstacle,” Sheffield said.

Beecham added that page length extensions are to be added when the funds are available.

“I’ve been really happy and kind of surprised that, while everyone harps about this economic crisis that we’re going through, that we’ve really done as well as a non-profit organization,” Sheffield said. “Even though we live in a college town and in one of the most impoverished counties of Ohio, I’m impressed that we manage to do this and that it works every time. We’d be lying if we said it was easy, though.”

Conversely, OU’s first fashion magazine, Thread, uses similar financial approaches, but with slightly different goals in mind.  Utilizing a strictly online medium, Thread faces different challenges.

“The main reason we wanted it to be online was to expand our readership from just here in Athens,” said Jamie Ratermann, founder and editor-in-chief of Thread. “We get not only Ohio, but all over the United States, and we’ve gotten overseas (readership).”

Ratermann added that the concept of an online magazine “is still a new idea.”

Publishing costs for the magazine on the website are approximately $200 to $300 per issue. Styling is an important part of the magazine, since it is a fashion publication, Ratermann said.

Last quarter, Thread began adding advertisements in the magazine, which help  pay for a large quantity of the costs. The magazine also plans to use SAC funding this quarter

“I’ve looked into printing costs for other things, and I know that printing costs can get up to thousands of dollars,” Ratermann said. She added that with publishing twice a quarter and having no page limits for the magazine, online publishing is more financially efficient.

Ratermann said  that the recent integration of print and online, because  many people don’t desire to purchase print anymore,  is what makes Thread successful and “effective for students who might not have the cash.”

Ratermann also commented that being online is helping model magazines such as Vogue, and that “the application (of online) is where we’re headed.”

The university’s magazine publications, while differing in content and publication processes, demonstrate that the goals of a magazine can be achieved, whether they are to provide full-access or go global.