The College Press and English Higher Education

Motivating Students With Media

The college press: Four factors in flux

(or, some contemporary issues that show the diversity of U.S. student media)

1. OFFICIAL CAMPUS SPONSORSHIP OR INDEPENDENCE?

2. CENSORSHIP VERSUS OFFENSIVE OR IRRESPONSIBLE CONTENT

14 Ed. Law Rep. 75, 9 Media L. Rep. 2352Catherine M. STANLEY, Jeffrey A. Goldberg, Michael Douglas, and Christopher Ison, each individually and as Editors of The Minnesota Daily, The Minnesota Daily, and The Board of Student Publications, Appellants,v.C. Peter MAGRATH, individually and as President of the University of Minnesota, and Charles H. Casey, William B. Dosland, Erwin L. Goldfine, Lauris D. Krenik, Robert Latz,David M. Lebedoff, Charles F. McGuiggan, Wenda Moore, Lloyd H. Peterson, Mary T. Schertler, Neil C. Sherburne, Michael W. Unger, Verne Long, Willis Drake, and David Roe, each individually and as a member of the Board of Regents of theUniversity of Minnesota, Appellees.No. 83-1058.United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.Submitted June 14, 1983. Decided Oct. 11, 1983.

3. NEW MEDIA VERSUS OLD GATEKEEPERS

There’s going to be something we’re going to miss in journalism that will be very regrettable. I hope the young people who have developed Facebook and Google will say, ‘We need to fix the information system and we need to get information to people that’s well-researched and investigated.’ -- Bob Woodward, U.S. reporter of Watergate scandal

4. BALANCING EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES WITH INDEPENDENT, STUDENT-DRIVEN CONTENT

Student newspapers are the training ground for future editors and journalists. There is no way to replace the hands-on experience a young writer gets conceiving a story, doing research, tracking down interviews, writing on a deadline, and having his/her work edited… This experience prepared me for my future jobs much more than most of my classes. -- Kathryn Kysar, poet and professor, Minneapolis

Part II: Why motivate students with media?

“Taiwan's BBS is certainly a different animal, but although it may be a good way to discuss any and all controversial subjects of the day,

its authors don't really have the responsibility to get all the facts right that

student journalists have.”Trista DiGenova-Chang, Taipei journalist

familiar with many European universities

1. MEDIA PRODUCTION MOTIVATES STUDENTS TO LEARN AND USE FOREIGN LANGUAGES

2. STUDENT MEDIA MOTIVATE STUDENTS TO BECOME WRITERS

3. STUDENT WRITERS LEARN POLITICAL SKILLS FOR PUBLIC DISCOURSE AND DEBATE

I've found over the years that the brightest, most thoughtful, engaged, patriotic young employees that I've ever hired were active in high school and college journalism.

-- Lucy Dalglish, attorney and reporter

4. STUDENT MEDIA PUT UNIVERSITIES, ADVISORS AND STUDENTS IN TOUCH WITH A WORLD OF LEARNING RESOURCES

5. STUDENT NEWSPAPER READERS SHARE AN IMAGINED COMMUNITY AND GAIN ACCESS TO THEIR UNIVERSITY’S HISTORY

“Reading a newspaper is like reading a novel whose author has abandoned any thought of a coherent plot.”

-- Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities