We're finally getting soundslides down here at my mid-sized paper. If you don't have it, you most likely will within six months: It's cheap and handy.

Since we're getting it, I figured this was a good time to put a bit of a public service message out there to anyone going into newspapers: You'll likely be using this product, so spend a few minutes to use it correctly.

I've been looking at soundslides presentations since The State News at MSU started doing their own groundbreaking, home-grown versions, and one thing has disturbed me a ton: Most papers leave captions turned off. For example: This or this. They're nice, but they lack default access to a layer of information that would be easy to provide.

I had always thought that this was a flaw of the soundslides software until I saw this. In the first two (and most other examples available), captions are hidden behind a button, if they're available at all. In the third, captions are automatically turned on.

Now I know that we have a choice (which, incidentally, is what convinced us to finally purchase the product).

We can try to be TV stations (we'll fail), or we can be the next step in what was formerly known as print media, with a blend of images, sounds, text to provide information and links to even more information. Newspapers' strength has always been their ability to provide exactly as much context as a reader wants, whether he or she is browsing the headlines or reading a 48-inch story all the way through, complete with breakout boxes. Now it's up to us in the next generation to keep that context available instead of letting it wither.

Do you think we're up to the task?

Labels: career_advise, college_media, education, flash, journalism, maestro, media, multimedia, news, newspapers, online, story_planning, student_press, video

Read this very good story on Poynter.org about a bill moving through Washington's state legislature that would make students responsible for content in school-sponsored student publications in high schools and colleges.

Here's the gist: "The bill would make newspaper advisers responsible for teaching journalism, style and grammar, but even they would not be responsible for content. Nor could they be disciplined or fired for something that appeared in print. If problems arise, or if the journalism adviser lacks the training to help student editors make appropriate decisions, the principal could still exercise prior review -- just not censorship, Washington Rep. Dave Upthegrove, who sponsored the bill, said in a phone interview."

College papers aren't facing this pressure much -- yet. It's primarily high schools. But this is an incredibly progressive, and important, move in Washington that's gaining lots of support.

I remember in my high school newspaper class, our teacher/adviser never had to censor our work, she'd just often repeat "Be sure this can get across the principal's desk at the end of the month." As a total ignoramus about the importance of journalism, I just wrote fluff and didn't think twice, like all the other writers. Imagine what I could have learned if my teacher could focus on educating us about the importance of an aggressive, inquisitive student paper.

Please read this whole thing, and even check out the feedback comments at the end. Maybe you can add your own memories of a high school newspaper situation.

Labels: ethics, journalism, law, student_press

After seeing the latest development in the Zach Fox saga unfold, I have to wonder how this will affect Fox's career. I'm sure he meant to stir things up, but probably not to the point of getting negative national attention. It brings a few questions:

-How revolutionary can college journalists be if they're worried about their future careers?

-Does this scare true revolutionaries away from even trying for journalism and journalism-related degrees?

-Am I reading too much into this? Most likely. I'm guessing most college writers and editors don't really worry about this type of thing.

Finally, would this specific event have happened if the USC paper was financially independent? I must admit, I was a bit surprised to see a school-dependent student paper in a media market as large as the one surrounding USC. Even Toledo's student paper has taken a decent stab at going it alone financially; why not USC's?

Labels: campus, college_media, financially_independent, fox, newspapers, student_press, usc