Student Media « Tim Schrag

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

Podcast: Complete

September 21, 2011 — Leave a comment

Nick Weller is a senior in journalism and digital media at K-State. In the podcast I recently made he tells the story of his first time on air.

Let me start by saying I felt very uncomfortable using Audacity to edit this podcast. The program fought me the whole way through, but I think must have been merely the growing pains of learning a new program.

I made this podcast for my MC 580 – Media Convergence class, the capstone course in my program today. Nick Weller, a senior in journalism and digital media at K-State, tells the story of his first experience on air in this podcast. I interviewed him last week and strung this podcast together during my downtime here in the Newsroom. I’m not going to take all the credit, Nick did show me a thing or two about the Audacity program before I began to start cutting this podcast. I owe him a big thank you. Anyways, I hope you all like it.

Here’s the link to the podcast.

In A.Q. Miller School of Journalism and Mass Communications, College Students, JMC, Journalism, K-State, MC580, Media, Nick Weller, Student Media, Weather

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

The ups and downs of student media

September 7, 2011 — 1 Comment

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.

In A.Q. Miller School of Journalism and Mass Communications, College Students, JMC, Journalism, K-State, Kansas State Collegian, Media, Student Media

Tim Schrag

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