Connecting Music to Media

ACRN is Ohio University’s All Campus Radio Network, but they are much more than just Internet radio. ACRN does everything from previewing local shows to reviewing albums.

ACRN focuses primarily on college rock. Their website, ACRN.com, is home not only to their online radio stream, but also their editorials. In the past ACRN has been able to gain access to many big name bands, such as Blink 182, Manchester Orchestra and Heartless Bastards. As far as feature their writing is concerned, ACRN tends to focus on the local music scene.

“We are in Athens so we need to focus on what is going on in Athens,” said Hannah Cook, managing editor of ACRN.

However, ACRN members strive to be more than just a music organization on campus.

“ACRN is about finding your voice,” said Cook. “We give students more chances to write creatively. That is why we focus on feature stories.”

A New Brand of Journalism

SPJ workshop teaches young journalists the importance of online branding

Grothjan demonstrates the basics of coding.

The age of journalism has gone digital. At least according to Ohio University student Sarah Grothjan, who indicates that students must find a way to brand themselves online, or they take the risk of going unnoticed.

Grothjan, a junior Carr Van Anda major and Society of Professional Journalists’ publicity chair, led an SPJ workshop Monday highlighting the importance of creating an online personal presence.

“Everyone should at least buy their own domain,” Grothjan advises. “Even if they don’t use it right now, they’ll want access to it in the future, if only for SEO [Search Engine Optimization] purposes.”

Her audience, a mixture of JSchool students from different sequences, listened intently as Grothjan guided them through the steps of creating a web page, designing the format and eventually getting it published.

Opportunity for Excellence

Students invited to submit media work

The Ohio University chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists has been given the opportunity to submit entries to the Mark of Excellence awards free of charge. Each student who is an SPJ member can submit two entries of their work and they will be reimbursed by the JSchool for the entry fee.

The Mark of Excellence awards are given annually by SPJ’s national chapter to honor the best in student journalism. The awards offer categories for print, radio, television and online collegiate media. Entries are first judged at the regional level. Next, first place regional winners advance to the national competition and are recognized at the SPJ spring conferences.

Mark of Excellence submissions are due January 25, by midnight. This is the first year that the JSchool is paying these fees. OU SPJ President Taylor Mirfendereski brought this to attention.

“Every year we never have a turnout of entries like we should with how nationally known our program is,” said Mirfendereski. “SPJ always has winners every year and we understand that money is an issue for college students. So by being allowed to have two entries paid for, students are given a tangible benefit.”

“Generation Y” Logs On, Tunes Out

The latest DIY tips, celebrity gossip and newest apps are available literally at the fingertips of smart phone users. This is a generation where social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook have become the source of news for current events both domestic and international. In technology-infused environments from the classroom to the workplace where accessing information is easier than ever, many Americans still are tuning out important information in the media.

Americans now pay less attention to international affairs and consume less foreign news. Domestic news continues to dominate new American media. According to the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, 59 percent of Americans say they regularly watch the local news in their area. This has decreased significantly from the more than three-quarters of American who regularly watched local news in the early 1990s, but is largely unchanged from 2000.

“Our generation is so used to getting things instantly, everything is available in one click, and I think that makes us less interested in taking time to read and digest a traditional news story when we can get the gist in a 140-character tweet instead,” said Karah Finan, an OU junior studying journalism and political science.

Scripps Alumna Shares Tips for Time Management

When it comes to being successful, time management is a key component.  Jill Del Greco, an OU Scripps alumna, is an expert at time management and meeting pressure deadlines everyday at her job.

She has been working at the WHIO news station in Dayton as the crime and courts reporter for the past five years.  The members of the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) skyped with Del Greco this past Wednesday evening to get an idea of what deadline reporting is all about.

As Del Greco began to describe an average 10-hour shift at the newsroom, many RTDNA students were in awe of all she manages to get done.  She even jokes that when she wakes up in the morning she “gets ready in front of my computer.”  She is constantly checking on the news beats and following up on old stories as well.

Scripps Student Spotlight

OU broadcast student Ryan Boyd talks about his JSchool experience

It’s been written that everyone has a story. In each Inc issue, a reporter will interview and profile a J-school student, asking him or her about extracurricular involvement, past experience, and future plans.

Name: Ryan Boyd

Year: Sophomore

Sequence: News and Info Gathering (Broadcast Journalism)

Q: What programs or organizations are you involved in here at Ohio University?

A: I am an anchor for “Ohio Sports Zone” with AVW Productions. Another AVW production show I’m on is “life and adams.” I am the color commentator and writer for Ohio Hockey. Something I have that doesn’t necessarily count for Athens but for my career is I write for an NHL website called ice insiders.

Q: In your opinion, how does being involved benefit not only you as a student, but for you future career as well.

A: “Being involved is important because it gives you opportunities that classes can’t give you. I know classes are important but there are so many general requirements and classes like that, that truthfully don’t do a lot for your major. So I have the opportunity to work with other people who are interested in the same things and I get to learn first-hand how to be on TV, be on the radio those types of things; not only does it better my experience here for classes I’m going to be taking in the future but it also benefits me for the future because it’s what I plan on to be doing for the rest of my life.”

SPJ Students Learn to Utilize Journalism Apps

SPJ VP shows students how to use apps while working in the field

The Society of Professional Journalists started off their winter quarter meetings with a look into the ever-growing list of applications for smart phones and tablets that can be applied to journalism.

With technology constantly evolving and improving, it is becoming more important for journalists to see the benefits of using apps that can help them in the field.  The smart phone is starting to become the eyes and ears for those working on a breaking story.

While being stuck behind a desk is not the ideal situation for journalists trying to cover a story, smartphones like the iPhone, Android, and Blackberry have apps that now make a journalist’s daily work much easier.

App Expert and Vice President of SPJ, Emma Morehart, led this meeting by explaining some of her favorite and most useful apps. 

Column: Networking with a Washington, D.C. Flavor

Inc. co-editor Emma Morehart deserts “networking,” makes friends instead

Networking. Say it aloud. Taste it, really savor it. I’ll wait.

I know, you’re probably as sick of that word as I was. I used to think it tasted kind of bitter like the pink nail polish I stubbornly bit off my nails during my self-proclaimed tomboy childhood.

Networking. We journalists love it because it pads our resumes and, let’s be honest, we’re generally good at it. But we also hate networking because it feels fake and overrated. Our clips should speak for themselves, right? We’re the watchdogs. We’re the good guys! No brown-nosers need apply.

While waiting to cross the busy street in Georgetown, Morehart poses for a photo taken by her best friend and Inc. co-editor, Graylyn Roose.

Networking, networking, networking – let’s just get comfortable with it now – networking. All of the professors, alumni and guest speakers who told you to network were right (like how my mom was right about the gross nail biting habit).

A few weeks ago, I returned from an internship in Washington, D.C. I worked for the Office of Public Affairs, the communications arm of the Administrative office of the U.S. Courts. Months before, with law school in my future, I sought out internships that combined journalism and law. I had a chat with Tom Hodson, a Scripps alum and professor, who insisted I contact Richard Carelli, the Senior Public Affairs Specialist who later became my boss. After working for the Associated Press, getting his law degree, and taking a job with the courts, Carelli became one of E.W Scripps School of Journalism’s Distinguished Alumni.

For three months, I lived in D.C. with Kevin Zieber, a Scripps journalism grad, and Ryan Ford, another Scripps college alum. By the end of the internship, I had made more new Bobcat friends in D.C., many of them former Scripps kids, than I would have if I had stayed on campus for fall quarter. And I emphasize the word “friends.”

Column: Scripps Students Face the World Head On

Senior year is a busy time for every Scripps student. After almost four years of newswriting classes, unpaid internships, and lectures from our parents about the real world, it’s time for us to try it out for ourselves. The long holiday break is over and final tuition payments are coming due. It finally feels like the beginning of the end of college. It’s enough to make us want to sign up for another year … or three.

Last quarter I was lucky enough to get a taste of the real world a little bit early. Like many Scripps students, I took a quarter off for an internship. The change to intern with NBC’s Today Show in New York City was truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I was gone all fall quarter, getting accustomed to both the brand new task of living in America’s biggest city and working for a national morning news program.

For college students in general, the thought of working in the so-called “real world” is intimidating. It feels like a big change. Even though we work hard in our classes and strive to learn more in our extracurriculars, nobody really knows what to expect. The 6 a.m.’s seem daunting, a stark contrast to the 11 a.m. or noon starting times we’ve been able to schedule as upperclassmen.

But if the experience I had last quarter is any indication, there’s good news for Scripps students: we’re far more ready than we think we are. Working with shining stars in the field (like former OU student) Matt Lauer and Ann Curry, it was hard not to feel a little intimidated at first. I had experience internships beforehand, but never on a national scale.

I was smart to brace myself; they kept our schedules packed. No busy work for us. The other interns and I accompanied reporters and producers on local shoots, answered wacky calls from viewers at the front desk, and logged hours of tape. We came early and stayed late, learning firsthand about the time demands required in the news business. We were all lucky enough to spend at least two early mornings a week in the control room, running errands and watching the senior producers coordinate a four-hour show. I can’t say I got much sleep during my time in Manhattan, but I’m not sorry about it. It was the best way to learn.

Journalistic trends mark significant alterations to the industry

Story // Mat Roberts, Reporter

Henry Anatole Grunwald, most commonly known as the editor-in-chief of Time, Inc., once said, “Journalism can never be silent: that is its greatest virtue and its greatest fault. It must speak, and speak immediately, while the echoes of wonder, the claims of triumph and the signs of horror are still in the air.”

In essence, journalism has evolved into the world’s single most dominant source of information and a gateway to communication with people around the globe. Though the job is never ending, the tenacious force that is journalism is a rapidly transforming system. The birth of the age of the internet, email, and the powers of telecommunication  have sparked a new generation of journalism, and in my book, there are three precise ways in which the industry has morphed.

Civilian journalism has struck the media world in an effective fashion. CNN has created iReport, which has developed into a site for anyone online to upload videos, pictures, and personal story ideas. Currently, the most popular streaming news within the site is the Japan earthquake disaster, in which many people have traveled to share their unique input. Now, news outlets around the world are asking citizens to deliver their stories and media, with some offering a paycheck at the end of the deal. The Yahoo Contributor Network allows writers, photographers, and videographers the opportunity to publish local content and get paid at about 10 dollars per story.

For journalism students, it has opened a new door of experience- “Being a part of the Yahoo Contributor Network helps me in all terms of writing a successful story. It gives me a real life consensus on meeting deadlines within the system and a realistic sense of one day being in the journalism workforce,” said Molly Wheatley, a freshman journalism student at Ohio University.

Fronteras Columbus, a bilingual weekly newspaper for Latinos living in central Ohio has posed the “freelance” idea for publishing. Anahi Vinazza-Moore, Fronteras’ editorial coordinator said, “My primary job is to properly align stories that come in from out hired freelancers. Most of our work comes from out hired freelancers that report within the central Ohio Latino areas.” Although mostly all published content that is revealed to the public is from full-time reporters and staff, the civilian journalism idea has grown to increase both production and the availability of different perspectives onworldwide information.

The next recent change in the journalism business Twitter, or even more broadly all social networking sites. Twitter has slowly evolved into a machine-like news outlet of its own, allowing people to post quick quotes. ESPN uses Twitter to pull quotes from major athletes; their “tweets” have become valuable sources of information on sports related topics. The idea has proved to be very effective so far; professional athletes can leak information on injuries, trade updates, or personal problems. Or they can talk trash to their following fans. Other major networking sites such as Facebook are  used by businesses to gain support and “likeability” within a closely connected network. Social networking will continue to open the door for businesses to grow and share information at a pace that was never achievable in the past.

For people that want to share experiences and report on an everyday basis, blogging has become the latest trend and a memorable catalyst for a changing journalism industry.

“I plan to start my own blog soon, so I use my social networks, primarily Twitter, to gain credibility and stay on top of Cleveland sports,” said Jerod Scheetz, a freshman journalism student at Ohio University.

 Blogging is not only an idea of itself, but it easily connects to both civilian reporting and social networks. Similar to Scheetz’s story, reports and social networking can be a way to gain experience, which in turn can  grow into an opportunity to begin a successful blog. The blog creation is slowly up and coming and will eventually open up jobs in the online journalism market, but for now it is last on my list.

For some, journalism is a dying piece of history on the move that will never stop growing. It will never be as important as it was in the past because of this new age of change. Perhaps those that say so are right, but in the eyes of Burton Roscoe, “A news sense is really a sense of what is important, what is vital, what has color and life – what people are interested in. That’s journalism.”