Newsrooms « Tim Schrag

Archives For November 30, 1999

Alumni Status Obtained

May 24, 2012 — Leave a comment

I graduated. There I said it. Don’t expect me to be overjoyed about the situation. My collegiate career has come to a bittersweet ending.

On May 12 I walked across the stage in Bramlage Coliseum and was officially declared a graduate of Kansas State University. (That being said I still won’t actually receive my bachelor’s degree in the mail for about another month.) The commencement ceremony itself was long and full of tweets until the 3G went out in Bramlage. The university president did tell a great joke about the jayhawks though. However, I don’t really consider that to be the point in which my college career ended. Instead I like to think my K-State adventure came to a conclusion when I signed the acoustic drop ceiling in the Kedzie Hall newsroom, a tradition that dates back to the 1960s. The signatures include many former Collegian desk editors, Editors-in-Chief, staff writers and special guests from K-State and famous names in journalism like Bill Snyder and Bob Woodward. I’m really proud to be part of this Kansas journalism history found in Kedzie hall.

Be comfortable with the decisions you make… and have some fun too.

When I think back on my time at K-State, I truly feel blessed for the education, friendships and opportunities I received there. I’ve learned so much in these past four years that it seems impossible to quantify it all. I’m not sure I’m ready for this time to end. That being said I’m not sure there’s much left here for me as an undergraduate. (I have a terminal case of senioritis and I find freshman to be odd.) Sure I’ll miss the people, especially the folks at the Collegian, but most of my classmates have moved on to new and exciting adventures of their own. It’s time to leave Manhattan and see what happens next…

In A.Q. Miller School of Journalism and Mass Communications, Alumni Status, College Students, Football, JMC, Journalism, K-State, Kansas, Kansas State Collegian, Kedzie Hall, Manhattan, Media, MHK, Newsrooms, Student Media, Tradition

News Team: some assembly required

October 5, 2011 — 1 Comment

I’m not a huge fan of group projects. In fact I wrote an editorial about group projects around this time last year. They stick in my craw and I think on the whole they are unnecessary. I can’t seem to go a single semester without having at least one. The problem never lies in working with a group. I think group work is great. It will be impossible to be successful in the professional world of news media without being able to collaborate. The problem I continually see is scheduling conflicts. Trying to sync the schedules of three independent college students has proven to be rather difficult, if not irritating for everyone involved. These last two weeks alone, my media convergence group has tried to meet two times and failed to do so (not because we are blowing each other off, but because things just seem to keep hindering the process).

We may not even up to Ron Burgundy's standards of journalism, but we're getting there.

Luckily for us, the professor of the class has decided to cancel classes for the next several meetings to allow us to work on the project. Today, after another failed attempt to meet up, we all agreed the best time to work together is going to be during Thursday’s class meeting time. It is probably the only commonality among our schedules.

The good news is we do have a very well thought-out convergence package; we will be telling a sequence of stories about Fake Patty’s Day here in Manhattan, a fake holiday that dates back to the mid-2000s’. Currently, the City Commission in Manhattan is trying to change the way the holiday is regulated in the local bar district, Aggieville. We will create a print story outlining the history of the fake holiday and recent development surrounding it’s regulation. Additionally, we will do a podcast and standup package to go with the print story.

This is a set of stories I really want to do. I think we have the potential to tell them in a way that will captivate our audience.

Fake Patrick, pray for us. In Ron Burgundy we trust.

In A.Q. Miller School of Journalism and Mass Communications, College Students, Fake Patty's Day, Group Projects, JMC, Journalism, K-State, Kansas, Kansas State Collegian, Manhattan, MC580, Media, MHK, Newsrooms, Nick Weller, Student Media

A post from Burt Hall

September 21, 2011 — Leave a comment

Wow. I cannot believe it’s already week 5 of the fall 2011 semester at K-State. I also cannot believe I’m stuck in another boring lecture here in Burt Hall. The football team is 2-0 and has a huge game coming up this weekend against the University of Miami. I also happen to be tied for second place in the Collegian’s weekly pick ‘um. Talk around the newsroom has been about the collapse of the Big 12 and EMAW for the last 5-6 days. I’m closer and closer to graduation. The newspaper is getting more and more streamlined and the design just gets better and better. You can see a great example of that here on the EMAW front page of Monday’s Collegian:KSU-9-19-11 pg01 I’m very close to finishing my first project for MC 580. (There will be more to come with that as soon as I finish the sound slide.) I can’t help but wonder what happens next…

I can barely plan past next week let alone December or God forbid May. There is one thing I do know: Biochemistry in society has to be the most interesting/boring class I have ever taken at K-State. I suppose I should work on that.

In A.Q. Miller School of Journalism and Mass Communications, Big 12, College Students, Editors, Football, JMC, Journalism, K-State, Kansas State Collegian, MC580, Media, Newsrooms, Student Media

Everybody’s a Critic

September 12, 2011 — Leave a comment

I am fully aware that perfection is impossible to obtain. Imperfection is what humbles us and helps us grow. Sometimes I feel like I have more humbling moments than others. Today alone I’ve dealt with wisecracking critics of the Collegian. Quite frankly I welcome corrections, complaints and concerns. Good, bad or indifferent I want to make the Collegian better, but I absolutely hate when people call in to say things like “The Collegian sucks,” without providing a reason why. I think it’s childish and downright mean-spirited. Sometimes it seems that people forget that college students are putting together this college paper. Most of us are still learning the tricks of the trade.

Luckily there seems to still be a great deal of support for the Collegian. To those that support the Collegian, thank you very much. It makes what we are doing that much more worth it.

Last night I sent the last page of the Collegian’s 9/11 Commemorative edition at 1 a.m. thinking this is an awesome issue. What ended up happening was less than awesome. The stories were great, the design, magnificent, the problem: we made some headline and info graphic errors on the pages 1 and two. It’s a sad day, but life goes on. I try to look at it in a glass half-full sort of way by brushing it off and working on tomorrow’s paper.

In College Students, critics, Editors, Journalism, K-State, Kansas State Collegian, Media, Newsrooms, Student Media

Some self reflection

September 9, 2011 — Leave a comment

I am currently sitting in my Biochemistry in Society lecture, bored out of my mind, reflecting on what I’ve learned three weeks into the fall 2011 semester. For some reason this student presentation on dieting just isn’t holding my interest. Go figure. Things seem much different than they were only two weeks ago. For instance when I started school classes were the last thing on my mind… in some ways they still are. However, this week I have been able to sit through an entire class without thinking about Kedzie Hall or even the Collegian. Week one brought me almost an entirely new staff with a huge learning curve, but the content of the paper has been fairly solid, we’re reporting on things ranging from the weather, to teacher’s salaries, to the Big 12 fiasco.

I’ve really been impressed with how fast my editors have taken responsibility for their duties and taking ownership of their parts of the paper. Things were touch and go for a while, but things are finally starting for really click and come together. We’ve consistently beat deadline for the last two weeks. They all bring such interesting perspectives to the Collegian. I do wish they’d be a little bit more vocal at daily meetings, but I think that will come with time.

On Sunday the editorial board went out to get to know each other a little bit better. What a fun group of people. It was really cool to hang out with them in a non-work situation and not talk about the paper.

More importantly more and more people seem to be coming into the newsroom interested in writing for the paper. I owe a big thank you to the Professors in the A. Q. Miller School of Journalism and Mass Communications who have either made writing for the Collegian a class requirement or are offering extra credit for doing so.

I really enjoy working with the new writers and talking to underclassmen interested in writing for the paper. Their energy, in many cases nervous, reminds me of my freshman year.

This week the first project for the my media convergence class was assigned. I’m supposed to make a sound slide and a podcast. (I’ve written news articles, feature stories, made television packages and stand-ups, but for some reason I have never dealt with strictly audio.) The professor gave us the project yesterday and basically pushed us off the deep end and said go make a podcast. I guess it’s time to give it the old college try.

In A.Q. Miller School of Journalism and Mass Communications, Big 12, College Students, Editors, JMC, Journalism, K-State, Kansas State Collegian, Media, Newsrooms, Student Media, Uncategorized, Weather

The magic of the newsroom

September 8, 2011 — Leave a comment

Getting paid to have conversations with others is what got me interested in journalism, but newsroom conversations are what sealed the deal. The sounds, chatter, shouting, questions about AP style that fly about in a newsroom, even the nerdy discussions about grammar and word choice are just entertaining to me. Not to mention the snappy one-liners and guest appearances that make Kedzie 116 seem like a sitcom.

Don’t get me wrong the discussion is not always that intelligent. Journalists are trained to have dirty minds so that unintended phrases it doesn’t appear in copy. I’ll leave that one alone. There’s a general understanding in the Collegian’s newsroom that the comments made there stay there. We spend so much time together, that not only have we built a level of trust, but we understand what other writers and editors are going through.

Today alone I heard writers and editors voice their opinions on the Big 12, grammar, and balanced reporting.

Those that work in a newsroom understand the dynamic, it’s a place for open discussion and sharing of thoughts… even if there not fit for print.

In Journalism, K-State, Kansas State Collegian, Media, Newsrooms, Student Media

Tim Schrag