Should college newspapers embrace multimedia?

[Chris O'Brien]

A series that ran in the UCLA Daily Bruin this week indicates a split in college newsroom about whether to expand into multimedia. What do you think? If everyone on campus picks up the print edition, why should a college newspaper bother?

[Erin Ehsani]

College newspapers should absolutely embrace multimedia to sustain the viability of journalism. I was the editor of my university newspaper, and while I gained valuable editorial planning and managing experience, my growth was stunted with an antiquated publishing system and lack of innovation. It did not translate into job opportunities, and I was (temporarily) left at the station with my liberal arts ticket. Sigh.

Journalists should go where the people are - whether that's online or through print as a "portable distraction" on the way to class, work, or riding the bus. Don't you think it's our responsibility to use the necessary medium to deliver the news people need?

If this culture change *isn't* happening in college newsrooms, where does that leave the journalists of the future? College is the time for innovation. It's much harder in the hierarchal and bottom-line realities of the 'real world.'

[Shannan Bowen]

I never did much with multimedia in college - besides collaborating with graphic artists and our online producers at The Daily Tar Heel, but now I'm wishing I would have. I've only been out of college for one year, and I've had a chance to learn and sharpen some multimedia skills while working at my newspaper, but a college newspaper is the perfect setting to learn, practice and showcase multimedia. I went back to visit my college newsroom over the holidays and found one girl working on a multimedia assignment in class. She also showed me some that she did for the DTH's Web site. Please look at some of the DTH's multimedia at www.dailytarheel.com. I'm really proud that they've branched out more than ever this year into the multimedia world. Some of their examples are slideshows of events, short videos and photo galleries. I know the editors at my newspaper are quite impressed with young journalists who have multimedia skills, so those who take a chance at practicing and applying those skills at a college newspaper should be in good shape when it comes to finding jobs!

[Elana Varon]

Multimedia is the future. I don't think print is going to go away entirely, but I doubt there are going to be too many print-only jobs down the road. We're encouraging all of our reporters, including those primarily dedicated to print, to learn multimedia skills, and we're doing some exciting projects. Student journalists have a terrific opportunity to learn how to tell stories in multiple formats--and to choose which format (photo, audio, video, text, some combination of them all) is the most compelling.

[Bryan Murley]

Every recruiter I have spoken with places a premium on the ability of student journalists to adapt to the changing industry and be able to gather information that can be used on the web. Ignore this at your peril.

The reverse of this question is why not? Why *wouldn't* a student learn multimedia these days? The tools are cheap, the space readily available, the upside potential enormous. Sure, it's more work, but that's the nature of the beast. The alternative is a rude awakening when you leave college and find out nobody wants you because you don't understand the Internet.

[Bryan Murley]

If everyone on campus picks up the print edition, why should a college newspaper bother?

Oh, pick me! because we're not just training students to work at the campus newspaper, but in the industry of the future. Sure, college newspapers are somewhat shielded from the changes facing the industry, but the students still leave. They still have to get jobs to keep journalism going. If they don't learn it from us, then the college media experience will become irrelevant.

When I was leaving college, the main thing that got me noticed was my experience with the campus media. I'd hate for a future generation of student journalists to find out that their college media experience was not useful to their futures. Sure, everyone on campus reads the campus newspaper, but that's not reality. That's the campus.

[Kerry Mickelson]

Given the way people consume information in “bytes” these days as well as the demand for more engaging information about the story; absolutely. The more you can develop your skills in story telling on different platforms the more people you will reach.

The group at NPR that designs the systems constantly works on removing technical hurdles in order for editors/reporters/producers to be able to transfer the same information to many platforms, but different mediums tell stories differently. Understanding how those technologies convey what you’re telling your audience, reaches a broader audience.

[Chris O'Brien]

Kerry: I think your last point is a critical one. It's crucial that we understand how people consume and interact with information on each platform. Just republishing isn't enough. Great journalism looks different on each device or publication. That said, it is a challenge for folks in the newsroom to tailor their storytelling across lots of platforms in that manner given time constraints. I'd love to hear how other folks deal with that challenge.

[Elana Varon]

Agree, time (and other resource) constraints are a serious consideration. Some observations:

1. Creating templates for stories in different formats facilitates reporting and production of common story types (e.g. slideshows, infographics, news stories).

2. You should put the most effort into the format that lends itself best to the story you want to tell, and in which most readers will want to consume it. And think hard about whether the incremental effort to repurpose the material is really worth it in terms of the additional audience you're going to get. The better your metrics about your online readership and what it wants, the easier such decisions are to make (#1 helps, too).

3. Decide who has responsibility for repurposing content. The writer? The editor? The Web producer or developer? The answer depends on the material, the medium and your publishing model, but the general idea is to have the work done by the person who can do it most effectively. We repurpose a lot of online material for print (not just stories created as text, but also audio transcripts. Occasionally photos, though the repurposing of photos tends to go the other direction, from print to online). But we need our online writers to keep creating new content. So it's up to print editors to do any reworking or updating a story needs to make the transition.

4. There's no getting around that good journalism takes time and professional journalists will work long hours. The trick is to make sure you're putting the most effort into the most compelling stories for your readers.