Carr Van Anda winner shares passion for local news

Kayla Hanley, Reporter

Ever wondered who was number one on the Klu Klux Klan hit list? Well as it turns out, renowned publisher H. Brandt Ayers was after covering the March of Washington for his community newspaper, the Anniston Star.

Last Monday Ayers was awarded the 72^nd Carr Van Anda award, which was established in 1968, by the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism and is the highest journalism award the school gives.

Ayers is the current chairman and publisher of the Anniston Star, which serves as the site for news in all of east central Alabama. Ayers also has a current column with the newspaper titled “The news stops here.”

H. Brandt Ayers (left) receives Carr Van Anda award.

“I was born into [the business] and I just didn’t have the skill to be a drummer in a rock band.” Ayers said.

Ayer’s grandfather was the first publisher for the Anniston Star who passed the position of owning the paper on to his son who then passed it on to H. Brandt Ayers.

The Anniston Star is a community paper that Ayers said he holds very true to his heart.

“Local stories are the lifeblood of a community. Caring about everything in the community has the same impact with the publishers, as with the citizens,” he said. “There is no passion in the writing of a New York Times writer compared to a writer of a community newspaper.”

Throughout his years of writing, editing, and publishing for the Anniston Star, the one memory Ayers said impacted him most was when the newspaper published an article about a white man being convicted of murdering a black man, by an all-white jury. The trial was called the Night Rider Murder in which Ayers said a “white KKK thug was convicted of murdering a black man,”  and every person on the jury allowed for their names to be published on the front page of the paper to show that the murder was not right.

Ayers said this was a turning point for the Anniston Star because it showed their community that they were going to do everything to publish their opinions and what they believed was right.

“In community newspapers nobody is afraid of giving their opinion. We try to be fair, and we dig through to cover, or uncover, stories in and so our community believes in it,” Ayers said.

Ayers has a very strong passion for local and community news and believes that there should be a community newspaper in every town.

With regard to the changing field of journalism and the future of print news Ayers said, “We at the Anniston Star are the centripetal force pulling everyone to the center, yet the field of journalism is in trouble.”

However, Ayer has hope for the future of journalism and local news.

“Are we going to survive? I think we have to,” he said. “The news is the only connection our readers have connecting them to what’s going on in the world around them. I am absolutely convinced that until the repeal of human nature there will be a need for us.”

 

Which one fits you? Characters in journalism beyond the classroom

Nicole Spears, Reporter

Edging our way into the real world, some of the situations we find ourselves in suddenly seem to lose their glamour. We used to idealize the adult world in all its glory, yet, as we learn the typical “bills won’t pay themselves” lessons, these optimistic view can, at times, slip away. The same can happen with our views of the journalistic lifestyle. With classes and internships always on the forefront of your mind, the very things that drew you to this career choice can fall to the backburner. For a friendly reminder of all the glitz and glamour that can make journalism appear so attractive, briefly allow yourself to submit to the stereotype. Here are some of our generations’ favorite characters in journalism who can inspire the bustling, caffeine-dependent, brooding qualities within yourself.

Jenna Rink: The Child at Heart
13 Going on 30
Innocent Jenna finds herself in the wrong place at the wrong time. Her naïve perspective puts a twist on her day job as a fashion magazine editor in New York City. This positive, though slightly out of place, attitude, ends up bringing her unexpected success with her boss. Jenna can inspire all of us to go back to the basics, and not to be afraid of adding a creative flair to our work.

Ray Embray: The Guiding Light
Hancock
This defeated public relations specialist takes on the biggest project of his life when offering to repair the image of Will Smith’s character, Hancock. Ray, having just launched a failed campaign for a corporate charity, is now challenged to keep up with the PR disasters that his newest client creates. Kind and gentle, Ray does his best to navigate his life and others’ with his strong moral compass. Ray’s character serves to remind us that our values should be incorporated into our daily lives, and work is no exception.

Miranda Priestly: The Fearful Leader
The Devil Wears Prada
At first glance, it’s hard to see why anyone would idolize Miranda Priestly. She may hold the glamorous title of executive at a New York fashion magazine, but her diamond-hard exterior is far from inviting. Yet, as she faces challenges in her personal life, we see that this mask of mercilessness comes off to reveal a warm heart with good intentions. Miranda teaches us that everyone deserves a second chance, even that intolerable person you’ll work under someday.

Clark Kent: Nothing Short of Superman
Smallville
The character of Clark Kent unites comic book fans, sci-fi fanatics and–journalists? This super natural being exaggerates just about every macho role you can conjure up. His heroic alter ego always gets him the best leads on the crime beat in Metropolis, where he holds a day job as a reporter for the Daily Planet. Clark brings his best to work everyday, something that we could all aspire to do.

 John and Jenny Grogan: The Love Story
Marley & Me
This charming, true-life duo shows that competition can be healthy in a romantic relationship. After relocating from Michigan to southern Florida, John and Jenny land jobs writing for competing newspapers. When Jenny finds herself scoring front-page stories, John is left writing obituaries. Yet, as life has it’s way with the two, John finds his family dog Marley as a brilliant inspiration for the weekly column he is eventually granted. This animated pair show us to how to find inspiration in everyday life.

Rory Gilmore: All About the Drama
Gilmore Girls
Rory’s tale is one with its fair share of twists and turns. Although she always has some family or romantic drama interrupting her pursuits in life, she carries straight A’s as a Yale undergrad, as well as the title of editor at the university’s prominent newspaper. Rory’s ideal resume grows as she goes on to apply for internships at the New York Times, and follows a political campaign as a reporter for an online publication. Rory is a role model for every preoccupied student: even when you have a lot to juggle in your life, you have to make your dreams a priority.

Social media finds homage offline and in classrooms

Story // Raquel Harrah, Reporter

As social media begins to grow in popularity by the second and with the scope of journalism broadening to include these features, the top journalism schools across the country are beginning to offer classes specific to social media to accommodate future job requisites.

“This is an exciting time in journalism with new developments daily in the tools we can use to tell stories,” said Ann Schierhorn, professor at the Kent State School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Although Kent State University does not offer courses exclusive to social media at the current time, Professor Schierhorn said that social media is integrated into several news classes in addition to extracurricular media outlets on campus that further aid in teaching students the basics and tools of social media.  A new course will soon be offered in multimedia reporting that further expounds upon social media as a tool for reporting news.

For now, students are focusing on three essential cores of social media in relation to the journalism industry.

“At the Kent State School of Journalism and Mass Communication, students use social media as a method of reporting, publishing and promoting their work,” Schierhorn said.

Traditional courses are transitioning social media into the curriculum through means, such as using Twitter as a reporting tool in Newswriting, Schierhorn said.

“They blog in a host of courses ranging from Magazine Publishing to Ethics,” Schierhorn said.  “In reporting courses, they use Facebook to send out questions and find sources. On election night in Reporting Public Affairs, they tweet.”

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is another top journalism school that now includes social media into their curriculum, said Assistant Professor David Cupp.

Ohio University is following the lead. While no courses titled “Social Media” are offered, this topic is an integral element in many journalism classrooms.

Professor Cindy Royal from Texas State University said students should also take initiative to learn these tools on their own.

Students must take it upon themselves to keep up with the evolving industry and, in turn, faculty members will follow their lead if students express the importance of a certain skill and an eagerness to learn more.

“If faculty sees that you’re bringing in guest speakers, they’ll see that they have to catch up and the effect will permeate. It’s almost at the point where it is becoming critical,” Royal said.

With the first student chapter of a social media club in Texas, the School of Journalism and Mass Communication
at Texas State University is making great strides in social media education.

Texas State University now offers a class that focuses on social media in the professional sense called Intro to Multimedia: Social Media at Work.  The course teaches students how to use social media as an asset at work, teaches tools for success, and teaches students history and background to increase their knowledge base of the newcomer transit for communication.

These courses can be extremely beneficial to journalism students unfamiliar with social media at work or unfamiliar with the networking benefits.

“I’ve really found that with students in my class, there have been a lot of successes,” said Professor Royal at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Texas State University. “I always hear, ‘I met someone on Twitter and got an interview.’ It’s great to hear those successes, it works,” said Royal.

In addition, classes at Texas State University integrate blogs as commenting forms.  Twitter is used in the classroom, hashtags are integrated as a discussion forum in class, and Facebook groups are designated for some classes.

Like all skills taught in the classroom, these are taught in a manner to prepare students for the job market.

The New York Times recently received slack for releasing undisclosed details of the new Facebook Deals launching in Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, San Diego, and San Francisco.

This service will focus on interests singled out by Facebook users in hopes of bringing deals that are relevant to that specific user as a form of advertisement and business promotion.

“It holds a lot of potential,” said Royal about the Facebook Deals service. “Like anything, it depends on how well it’s executed. [There are] a lot of opportunities for people to be inundated with that type of advertising.”

If it proves to be successful, social networking sites may be the main form of advertisement of the future. Without a concrete knowledge base of the professional workings of social media, students’ attempts to find a job may be futile in comparison with students better prepared and suited for the market.

While social media may be integrated into curriculum, the foundation of writing a story and producing it should be considered no matter what vehicle of communication is chosen. The essentials that are still being taught remain because the form of media is pointless without a captivating and accurate story.

“My opinion is it’s really more about having a engaging story. Get it up on the web and share it, then integrate a YouTube video in the blog and figure out how they work together,” Royal said.

Journalists add new asset to their media toolbox

Story // April Jaynes, Reporter

Last Monday, April 25, Storify opened to public users, providing audiences with more story variety and a chance to tell their own.

“Storify”, a verb meaning, “to form or tell stories of; to narrate or describe in a story,” is an online platform that allows users to combine various types of social media, along with personal text, in a story.

The platform is simple to operate and offers a convenient approach to gathering information from social media sites.

www.storify.com

Users can input links and search Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google, Flickr and RSS feeds to aid in their storytelling by simply dragging and dropping the items into the story.

Co-founder and former AP reporter Burt Herman said in a New York Times article by Claire Cain Miller, “We’re really trying to put together computer science plus storytelling and journalism to think creatively about how you can blend the two worlds.”

The Storify blog said it was opening its beta to the public “so many more people have the chance to tell stories in this new form and join the future of storytelling online.”

Professor Hans Meyer said he received his private beta invitation the day before the site went public.

While Meyer says he’s not sure how many readers are aware of Storify; he said he thinks one of the reasons the platform exists is “because it recognizes the fact that a lot of people are getting their news from social media and they’re getting it in an unfiltered way.”

Prior to going public, experienced journalists have taken advantage of Storify’s user-friendly platform by providing audiences with reliable social media to aid in creating major news stories.

Andy Carvin, Senior Strategist and Social Media Desk for NPR, uses Storify to report on what’s happening in the Middle East and the crisis in North Africa.

The Storify blog also says that the day of Storify’s most views, consisting of more than half a million, came in March when the tragic earthquake and tsunami struck Japan.

Meyer said that Storify “encourages reporters to do the reporting” and allows journalists to organize information in a way that the average citizen doesn’t.

“We have to stop thinking that we’re the only ones who provide the content,” he said. “There’s lots of people tweeting. There’s lots of information out there, but journalists are the best at, and well trained for, analyzing that information, adapting it to the audience and checking it for accuracy.”

Meyer also said he hopes small news organizations that may not be experienced with social media sites will use Storify to help them integrate social media into their news coverage.

“When you’re using social media, it forces reporters to go beyond their traditional sources and to really look at members of their audience, see what they’re saying and see what value they add to the news story,” Meyer said.

Meyer encourages students to investigate Storify.

“Use it. Collect some tweets, comment on them and pull them together,” he said. “Let’s see what happens.”

Turmoil erupts over New York Times digital subscription

Story // Raquel Harrah, Reporter

Another shadow of uncertainty is cast on the future of print journalism as more and more news industries are beginning to shut down certain free services and offer digital subscriptions instead.

On March 28, the New York Times said goodbye to their free website and App services and announced their plan for the future: digital subscriptions. Joining the bandwagon of other top news industries like The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times outlines the changes made through digital subscriptions in a “Letter to Our Readers” written by Editor Arthur Sulzberger Jr. Sulzberger went so far as to call this major alteration an “investment in our future.”

Already in effect, the enactment of digital subscriptions now limits unsubscribed online readers to only 20 articles per month. Smartphone and Tablet App users will also experience a change in their news availability by only receiving access to “Top News,” unless they take the initiative to purchase one of the three packages the New York Times offers for digital subscriptions.

This questions how or even if digital subscriptions will impact the malleable journalism field. According to Ohio State journalism instructor and advisor to The Lantern, Dan Caterinicchia, partial digital subscriptions have already been attempted and were generally not well-received.

“They tried this already. They tried to put certain columnists along the paywall but they decided it didn’t work,” Caterinicchia said. “But now that the iPad has just exploded, and there are millions of people that are using it, they probably think the market has hit a critical mass that even if they sacrificed some of the market, enough people would pay for these services.”

Customer loyalty seems to be the premise of their idea for success but remains something hard to gauge and predict.

“People are used to certain things being free. You may have to pay for print and even if it has a web, it most likely will be free. That is the biggest challenge that is facing not only media, but also business and market. We’re not making money or haven’t monetized this way, so we have to start charging,” Caterinicchia said.

Caterinicchia said this assumption that people will pay for subscriptions is the “million dollar question.”

“What is that level, how many people do you have to bring that makes alienating some worth it?” Caterinicchia said.

Every new shift in media creates the same questions of the future. It is a topic often perseverated that can never be certain.

“Publications that are medium to small in size have to show everyone else that it is possible to do [digital subscriptions] online. They were having these conversations five and ten years ago. We just don’t know,” said Caterinicchia.

One INC writer goes where pretty much everyone else has gone before

Column // Matt Rancourt, Contributing Writer

I am about to embark on a journey.

I’m not sure where it will take me. And I don’t know how long I’ll be gone.

OK, I lied. I know the answers to both of these questions: to a website and for about 15 minutes, respectively.

But hey, a little bit of suspense never hurt anybody. And now that I’ve got your attention, I can tell you some more about this journey of mine.

It is my maiden voyage into the strange new world of Twitter.

However, before I begin this magnificent undertaking, I think it would be a good idea to review some of the ground rules for using this new technology. After all, I don’t like to jump into anything without adequate consideration.

Aside from large buckets of chicken wings, that is.

Anyway, as the agenda from INC’s last meeting reminds me, it’s time for me to quit putting this off. (Seriously, am I the only journalism student who doesn’t have a Twitter account by now?)

So let’s talk about what Twitter should (and should not) be used for:

1. Sharing information with others
Say you’re hiking in the mountains one peaceful afternoon.

Suddenly, Big Foot drops down from a tree, does a short dance for you and runs away.

After recovering from the shock caused by the encounter, you have an overwhelming desire to   share what you’ve just seen.

Immediately upon returning home, you log onto your Twitter account and post the following message:

“OMFG!!!! SAW BIG FOOT TODAY IN MTNS!!!! HE’S REAL!!!!!”

Congratulations, you’ve just delivered breaking news via tweet.

Of course, no one is going to believe you because you damaged your own credibility by typing in all caps and using the acronym “OMFG.”

Also, it probably didn’t help that you claimed to have seen Big Foot.

Nevertheless, the concept is still valid.

Whenever you witness something newsworthy, Twitter is a great way to break the story.  Likewise, if you happen to find something online that you think others should know about, then you can issue a tweet with a link to the material.

Sharing is caring, after all.

However, it is possible to share too much. This brings me to my second point, regarding what you should not share on Twitter: your personal life.

I’m sorry, but society doesn’t care about that wart you need to get removed, or how drunk you were last night when you made out with your buddy’s dog.

And the more you post junk like that, the quicker your number of followers will shrink.

So either keep the tweets relevant or go back to annoying people on Facebook.

2. Gathering information from others
This one has more to do with the people you are following than those who are following you.

Who are you following on Twitter as of right now?

If the list includes mostly members of the media, community leaders, maybe some professors and a few friends who are occasionally good for a laugh or two, then you’re on the right track.

However, if you’re getting live updates from Lindsay Lohan in jail every time your phone lights up, you’re probably doing something wrong.

Let me put it this way: Twitter is perhaps one of the greatest tools for initial information gathering ever invented. As a journalist, you need to ask yourself who is tweeting things that would be most valuable to someone in your position.

Hint: It’s usually neither the athletes nor the celebrities. Well, unless you’re in the business of covering athletes or celebrities. ESPN, for example, thinks that anything appearing on LeBron James’ Twitter feed (dinner plans, crude jokes, plots for revenge against those mean people who booed him in Cleveland, etc.) is relevant to our daily lives. And I’d be willing to bet Entertainment Tonight feels the same way about Ashton Kutcher’s tweets.

Everyone else, on the other hand, would likely prefer to be following The New York Times’ feed when it announces that President Obama has done one or more of the following: ended the recession, paid off the national debt, captured Osama bin Laden, slowed global warming or fostered world peace.

Even if he never does any of this stuff, wouldn’t it still be cool to think you’d be among the first to know whether he did?

Anyway, the main idea is to make wise decisions when choosing who you will be reading tweets from in the future.

3. Shameless self-promotion
This last guideline directly ties to the two aforementioned tips.

It’s like a sequence of events: Potential follower likes one of your tweets, potential follower looks at your page to see who you follow and sees respectable individuals (in other words, you don’t maintain a Twitter account just to stalk famous people), and finally, potential follower becomes actual follower.

Why is this important?

Because the more people you have following you, the more of an opportunity you have to promote your “brand.”

As a journalist, you can use Twitter to provide links to some of the other work you’ve done. This allows others gain a better feel for your writing talents than 140 characters would allow.

Just finish a new blog entry? (Note to self: When done with Twitter, start a blog.)

Tweet it and  link to it.

Just write a story for The Post?

Tweet it and  link to it.

Just wrap up another column for INC?

Sit down in front of the computer with a bucket of chicken wings and sign up for Twitter.

Community journalism course gives students reality check

Story // Leah Petrovich, Contributing Writer

Working for a city’s top-notch newspaper or news station is the ideal job for many journalists; however, it is clear that not everyone will get that New York Times position. If the “big leagues” aren’t for everyone, another path that comprises the majority of post-college jobs may be the path more often taken — community journalism.

Associate Professor Bill Reader will teach Journalism 362, an elective course offered during Spring Quarter 2011.

Reader has been employed at Ohio University since 2002, and he is approaching his  third time teaching this course.

“Professors have specific areas of knowledge, but do not always get the chance to teach the courses of their expertise every year,” Reader said.

Fortunately, Reader, a national expert in community journalism, is able to teach this elective course once again next quarter.

Reader has spent his entire professional career involved in community journalism. A graduate of Pennsylvania State University, Reader got his start in the journalism field with various positions at daily papers around the State College, Pa. area.

“Community journalism is where journalists gain their early experience, but most often it turns into how they make their living,” Reader said. “This class is a reality check. ‘Big league’ jobs are in finite numbers.”

The course will cover the whole aspect of community journalism: print, online and radio. Reader said that it will be more about theory and discussions than hands-on work. Discussions about newspaper and radio will be prevalent in the class because they are very community-based, rather than television-based, which is more regional.

Since students can expect the class to be more discussion-based, reading and conversing about current issues in community journalism will be another aspect of the class. An assignment Reader raves about is an analysis of the students’ hometown media.

“The students usually gain a new appreciation for their hometown paper because they understand what they really do. However, they could find out it is worse than they thought, as well,” Reader said.

The final project will be a prototype of community journalism. Chelsea Toy, a former journalism major in the Honors Tutorial College, and a top graduating senior of 2010 from the School of Journalism, began a blog about barrel-racing for her final project. Toy still continues this blog today.

The course covers issues journalists are currently facing. It is a three credit hour class and will be offered on Mondays and Wednesdays from 1 – 2:30 p.m. with only 17 seats available in the class.

Journalists meet criticism head on in competitive industry

Harsh critiques teach journalists how to shoulder critical reviews

Story // Raquel Harrah, Reporter

Writing is an art, a delicate act. It is a form so personal to the creator that the criticism that often accompanies it is less than welcome. However, in a fast-paced industry like journalism where criticisms never a stranger, why does critique continue to sting?

The main reason critique is comparable to squeezing lemon in a fresh wound is a result of the emotions and values wrapped up in the product. At times, this creates conflict with the purpose of a journalist: to remain unbiased and to separate from the emotional context in order to deliver a fair and accurate story.

So why is it so difficult for journalists to accept criticism?

Think back to November when New York Times dance critic, Alastair MaCaulay, was criticized for his critique of a ballerina who danced in “George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker.”

“Jenifer Ringer, as the Sugar Plum Fairy, looked as if she’d eaten one sugar plum too many,” MaCaulay wrote in a dance review on nytimes.com. A storm of arguments ensued the comment with MaCaulay continuously and unapologetically defending his review.

While MaCaulay’s display of retaliation may appear to be the most self-fulfilling solution, maintaining journalistic integrity in an alternative manner may prove to be more beneficial.

“As an editor, my instinct is to jot down a defensive, angry, retaliatory editor’s note to tack onto the end of a critical letter to the editor,” said Terry Smith, editor of The Athens News. “But that’s unprofessional,and is to be avoided at all costs. To the reader, it just looks defensive and immature when an editor’s hackles get raised at the slightest criticism.”

While criticism remains tough to stomach, it is vital to journalists.

“In many cases, the journalist is holding someone else over the fire, or being critical of people in the public eye,” Smith said. “So in order for them to give criticism, they must be able to take it. Otherwise, nobody will take them seriously.”

Placed in a fast-paced environment that breeds competition, criticism can create feelings of inferiority and helplessness. It is especially evident in a journalism school where students can’t help but to feel like the person next to them has an extra notch of skill and experience.

“(Criticism) is like having no arms and getting punched in the face. You want to hit back but you can’t. All you can do is figure out how to not get punched again,” said Shane Darrow, an online journalism student in the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism.

And that is exactly what a journalist must do — take the hits and punches without swinging back, and correct mistakes to ensure the punches do not return.

“If a professor or editor is critical of your writing style, or your knowledge of AP Style, figure out what you’re doing wrong and correct it,” Smith said. “If it’s another student being critical, and you doubt they know any more than you do, then take it with a grain of salt. You always have to consider the source.”

It’s also important to understand that those who criticize are not doing so for personal enjoyment. In the absence of constructive criticism, mistakes often go unrecognized and are repeated.

“When I’m criticizing someone, the entire purpose is to spur improvement, so that the mistakes don’t happen again,” Smith said. “There’s nothing I hate more than to scold a student reporter for AP style errors and then see the same errors recur over and over again.”

While Smith encourages that criticism spurs improvement, it is equally imperative to look at the silver lining that accompanies a harsh critique.

“I wrote newspaper columns for many years, and I often received criticism for them,” Smith said. “But in this business, you learn to appreciate any evidence that people are reading your stuff, even when it is critical.”