The ups and downs of student media

I have really enjoyed working for the Kansas State Collegian. That being said, it hasn’t always been a cakewalk.

There are days, like today when I feel like a babysitter dealing with unruly, others where I feel like a proud parent. What I love and hate the most about working in student media can be found in the name itself: students. Don’t get me wrong I love working with my fellow K-Staters, we’re just not all on the same level. At times that can be really frustrating. Most of us are learning as we go, and a great deal of what we do is learned through trial and error. Sometimes I merely yearn for less guess work.

It was really exciting to meet new people as a freshman reporter and learn from the upperclassmen editors. Working as a desk editor taught me how the importance of patience,  newsworthiness and the importance of teaching others. Being the Editor-in-Chief has taught me more about working with people and meeting their needs than any other job I think I have ever had. Basically everything I have done in one way or another for the Collegian has been a baptism by fire because everyone I have worked with, including myself, is learning a skill as we put together a daily edition.

Last fall a journalism professor approached me to congratulate me for being hired for a second time as Editor-in-Chief of the Kansas State Collegian. He told me that I would do an excellent job and then decided to let me in on a secret of his:

“Working at a college paper will be the hardest job in journalism you ever have.”

There are days like today when that couldn’t ring more true.

I’ve dealt with many problems: missing ads, poor communication between editors, stories falling through, angry sources, entire sections of the paper needing to be redone in only a couple hours time. No big deal. It has been stressful at times, but I’ve also had so much fun hanging out in the newsroom with my fellow staff members. These people are more than colleagues to me. I have spent so much time with many of them that they are practically my extended family. I don’t regret working for the Collegian one bit.

It's the small things that make this job enjoyable.