This drives me nuts about my journalism school...

[bmags]

I go to U. of Missouri (MU campus), which has the, perhaps self-acclaimed but I've heard it elsewhere as well, distinction as the #1 journalism school in the country. That's all trivial, though. But it's clear MU, Medill (NU), Columbia, and UNC are tops, tops of an education many in the profession consider useless.

 

But here is my qualm. At MU, if a newspaper or magazine major, you will work at the Missourian. It is a daily that serves the town of Columbia. Not a student newspaper all about the University, but it's supposed to cover the town. So every semester for this J4450 class, you have a new batch of kids writing this newspaper, covering a town most are unfamiliar with, and ending up getting some weird struggle between useless stories about student life and life in the town profiling a small business owner.

 

There are a very large # of reporters.

 

Today, this story appeared:

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/...4-percent-2007/

 

Violent crime increases 34% in 2007. The cause we get in this story, is the hilarious "criminal assault" charges rose. You can't get much more literal than that, criminal assault rose, so violent crime rose. But what bugs me is that with all these reporters, we won't go out and assign them to find out what is going on. Why did crime increase so much? Is it an outlier year, or is there something going on in places like first ward, the poorest ward in Columbia, that is never covered in the paper (why would students be there)?

 

And why won't it be covered? Because that takes a long time. It's tough enough that you have reporters inexperienced with the town they are in, but they also have one semester, and their grades are mostly based off of # of clips, or articles, in the paper. No student would take on a story like that b/c it would take a lot of work and a lot of time and at the end of it, you'd be behind the student who covered 26 BBQ festivals (like me.)

 

For the oldest J-school in the world, and #1 in the world, we're certainly teaching journalists to do the current garbage level of reporting, listen to officials, report it. Job well done, informed citizen.

 

Sorry for the long post.

[CanOfCorn]

I go to U. of Missouri (MU campus), which has the, perhaps self-acclaimed but I've heard it elsewhere as well, distinction as the #1 journalism school in the country. That's all trivial, though. But it's clear MU, Medill (NU), Columbia, and UNC are tops, tops of an education many in the profession consider useless.

 

But here is my qualm. At MU, if a newspaper or magazine major, you will work at the Missourian. It is a daily that serves the town of Columbia. Not a student newspaper all about the University, but it's supposed to cover the town. So every semester for this J4450 class, you have a new batch of kids writing this newspaper, covering a town most are unfamiliar with, and ending up getting some weird struggle between useless stories about student life and life in the town profiling a small business owner.

 

There are a very large # of reporters.

 

Today, this story appeared:

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/...4-percent-2007/

 

Violent crime increases 34% in 2007. The cause we get in this story, is the hilarious "criminal assault" charges rose. You can't get much more literal than that, criminal assault rose, so violent crime rose. But what bugs me is that with all these reporters, we won't go out and assign them to find out what is going on. Why did crime increase so much? Is it an outlier year, or is there something going on in places like first ward, the poorest ward in Columbia, that is never covered in the paper (why would students be there)?

 

And why won't it be covered? Because that takes a long time. It's tough enough that you have reporters inexperienced with the town they are in, but they also have one semester, and their grades are mostly based off of # of clips, or articles, in the paper. No student would take on a story like that b/c it would take a lot of work and a lot of time and at the end of it, you'd be behind the student who covered 26 BBQ festivals (like me.)

 

For the oldest J-school in the world, and #1 in the world, we're certainly teaching journalists to do the current garbage level of reporting, listen to officials, report it. Job well done, informed citizen.

 

Sorry for the long post.

 

Are there full time journalists there? Professionals? Or is it like the campus radio station at Illinois, where the general manager and sales director are the only full timers (unless it has changed) and the rest is students?

 

Either way, that's not good journalism. Someone should be assigning them stories, not based on #, but based on 1) what you are interested in covering and 2) depth and research and writing of pieces. Maybe you should be the pioneer and delve into the 1st Ward.

[bmags]

The editors and copy editors are all full-time editors and professors.

The student journalists are split into beats (public health, education, public safety, Jeff. City beat, etc) where the stories are assigned based on those topics. So you have your Beat editor giving out stories and ideally the students are coming up with their own. The problem is it's all reactionary journalism b/c we are so green not only as journalists but in this town. They don't utilize the resources they have (huge # of journalists) to make a team and say, hey, find this out. The only time that happened was for when the tigers were #1 in the nation and a group did every single angle there was. I just think this is an example where we should take 10 journalists, tell them to go to first ward, talk to everyone, and figure out what pressures and movements are going on there. Not just asking the police chief what's wrong. Hell, ask the cops what they are seeing and check it out.

 

 

 

[maggsmaggs]

I am currently in the class, and so far while still annoying at times, I have not driven myself crazy and am not there 24/7. So far, it has not been too bad, maybe partially because I have a sports beat, but so far not too bad.

[bmags]

you're in 4450 already?

 

the hours don't drive me nuts. I got by with the editors loving me, I didn't have to be there that often. It's more that we produce an awful paper.

Edited February 15, 2008 by bmags

[maggsmaggs]

you're in 4450 already?

 

the hours don't drive me nuts. I got by with the editors loving me, I didn't have to be there that often. It's more that we produce an awful paper.

yeah, I entered my sequence a semester early. I have a grading conference this weekend, so it will interesting to see where I lie.

[bmags]

Yeah sports is different. I'm at the copy desk now. But do me a favor next budget meeting and mention that we should actually find out why instead of covering shallowly.

[sox4lifeinPA]

A pirate walks into a bar with this enormous steering wheel stuck down his pants.

 

The bartender can't help but ask: "What's with the wheel?"

 

The pirate replies: "Arrrggh. It's drivin' me nuts."

 

 

 

 

enjoy.

[CanOfCorn]

A pirate walks into a bar with this enormous steering wheel stuck down his pants.

 

The bartender can't help but ask: "What's with the wheel?"

 

The pirate replies: "Arrrggh. It's drivin' me nuts."

enjoy.

 

Very funny...I don't get it.