 Daily Kent Stater Editor Bryan Wroten (right) in the newsroom, talking with section editors, the morning following the March 4, 2008, primary election in Ohio. 
Revolution in the NewsroomIn Franklin Hall, faculty, and students embrace convergenceBy Rachel Wenger-Pelosi, '00Mojos. One-man-band reporters. Bubble journalists. Call them what you will, today’s reporters are toting more than just notepad and ink to cover the story. The journalists’ toolboxes are brimming with technological tackle — digital and video cameras, audio recorders and a laptop computer equipped with Internet access and editing software. Where are the photographers? See the Mojos. What about the videographers? Ask the bubble journalists. “‘Mobile journalists go out with a notepad, a video camera and a digital camera. They write the story, capture the audio and video and file to the Web,” says Bryan Wroten, editor of the Daily Kent Stater for Spring Semester 2008, senior newspaper journalism major and honors student. “‘Bubble journalists’ are reporters who are able to encompass and handle it all.” While some might debate whether or not a story or video should be reviewed by an editor prior to being uploaded to the Web, from Wroten’s viewpoint, there isn’t necessarily a right or wrong way to handle the situation. “It’s just one approach that can be used to see if it works,” he says. “It is weird for me to think that as a newspaper journalist, I will have to do all of these things and more.” Beyond the byline Today, journalism, public relations and advertising majors are expected to have additional skills, with nothing subtracted from the already heaping plate of requests from the industry, says Jeff Fruit, director of Kent State’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication (JMC). “Yes, you have to have strong writing skills; yes, you have to have good critical and analytical thinking skills; and yes, you have to have some expertise outside the program. All of these are things that our alumni say they had in order to compete in the marketplace,” Fruit says. “But now we’ve added multimedia skills to the list; and you need to be better in something other than your core area of expertise, whether it’s writing, photography or videography.” Today’s multimedia environment suggests that students need to be great at one thing, pretty darn good at something else and have a working knowledge of everything else, he says. “That was not the case 10 years ago, and that was not the case when I was in school. Being good at one thing was enough,” Fruit says. “Today, for many students, it’s not. You need to have a broader range of skills.” Exceptional writing skills remain critical for students in JMC, but to clinch their dream job, they need “a little something more,” Fruit says. The list includes competent photography abilities, videography know-how, some Web or page design and proficiency in blogging or podcasting. The JMC curriculum adjusted to assist students in understanding today’s media audiences. In the past, mass communication was one-way, with the industry compiling news and information and sending to readers. Today, audiences are more engaged in the process, Fruit says, with the Web giving people a voice via posting comments to a news site or blogging. The school’s audience analysis course discusses the change in focus from mass to targeted audiences. Fruit adds that this new knowledge of a multimedia and multiplatform delivery of news and information should be understood by journalists, but also by public relations and advertising majors. For example, JMC’s Public Relations Online Tactics course helps prepare students to utilize the online realm. “Several of our PR students came back with glowing reviews from their internships. Supervisors said that these students became the ‘social networking gurus’ because none of the other employees understood how to use Facebook or YouTube,” he says. “Our students were familiar with these things, not necessarily because of anything we did, but because they were comfortable in the social networking environment when they went into the workplace, and they helped that business move ahead.” In addition to comprehending multimedia, students must have an entrepreneurial sense. Whether at an educational institution, newsroom or corporation, they should understand what they are contributing and that their efforts are mission-critical to the business, he says. “Good ideas are now more in play, no matter where you are sitting at a business. There are going to be opportunities to move up, move out and move on if you are thinking that way,” Fruit says. Students can now acquire all of these skills and much more while working shoulder-to-shoulder in the school’s new home in Franklin Hall — a dwelling for all that is convergent savvy.  Jeff Fruit, director of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, leads a tour of Cleveland Plain dealer editors and business managers through the renovated Franklin Hall. Fruit traces the first rumblings of media convergence to a 1996 Poynter Institute seminar. Kent State JMC was selected as an “up and coming” program, one that was investing in curriculum for the 21st century. “JMC faculty visioned with the folks at Poynter about what the curriculum needed to look like for where they thought the business was going at that time,” Fruit says. “That was our launch into the world of new media. We were several years ahead of the curve at that point in time, and we’ve worked very hard to stay there. It’s a daunting challenge for students and faculty to keep up with the changes.” Ironically, Fruit, now in his sixth year as program director, says the buzz surrounding media convergence started at about the same time the program underwent an accreditation process in 1996 and was found out of compliance with facilities. With Taylor Hall housing print media, public relations and advertising, and the broadcast and radio programs occupying the Music and Speech Center, JMC was split a quarter mile apart, in two facilities, as it had been for quite some time. This accreditation deficiency and a spike in student enrollment in the 1990s are what placed the program on the university radar and led to its inclusion on the capital improvement list to be able to gather all of its programs under one roof in Franklin Hall. ` In 2005, Franklin Hall slowly metamorphosed into a high-tech, convergent-friendly dwelling for the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. The $22 million renovation, with $15.5 million coming from state capital funds and about $2 million in private support and gifts, included five main contractors and 30 subcontractors. As of fall 2007, students and faculty are reaping the benefits of the four-year project. Collaboration abounds, with rooms named for corporate sponsors, including the FirstEnergy Interactive Auditorium, the Gannett Collaborative Classroom and the Cleveland Plain Dealer Classroom. A gift from the Dix Family, longtime JMC supporters, will provide decades of Stater editors to have an office in the converged newsroom named after Helen Dix, ’38, M.A. ’64, the first female editor of the Stater and longtime JMC supporter. More than $4 million in technological investments complete the upgrades, including Black Squirrel Radio integration, JMC/student media computers, classroom audiovisual equipment and a cutting-edge TV2 broadcast studio complete with a 3-D virtual studio. Student media are taking advantage of the converged newsroom, a space at the end of the second floor where The Daily Kent Stater, TV2 and Black Squirrel Radio join to report news to their respective audiences, as well as team up to produce content for KentNewsNet.com, a collaborative Web site launched in spring 2007. Discussion about how the converged newsroom would be utilized happened long before the move. A student media task force talked about how student media would handle a breaking news story, an everyday news story and other projects and planning, Wroten says. “We had to make sure we were communicating with each other.” Kaitlyn Lionti says that as a freshman she wasn’t aware of the variety of student media outlets available. “Being in different buildings created a divide with student media. Some people viewed us as competitors, which should not be the case,” she says. “We have two different media that are trying to do the same thing. We have the same goal, which is to get the news out there.” Lionti, now a senior broadcast journalism major and news director of TV2, adds there is usually little disagreement about which stories are covered by a particular student media outlet. “For the most part, news can be handled by newspaper, radio or television — it’s just the way we go about it,” she explains. “We are getting used to the idea that a broadcast and print reporter can work together on a story. They can talk about angles and share interviews. They are encouraged to bounce ideas off each other and in the end, have two stories about the same thing that communicates two different perspectives.” At first, Lionti says, she was concerned about the difference of opinion among student media leaders regarding news judgment, but to the contrary, everyone is open-minded about the news delegation process. “We are open to others’ opinions, and if there is any kind of disagreement, we try to work it out,” she says.  Presenters make use of a high-tech classroom, addressing students attending the Social Media Boot Camp and Leadership Summit. A renovated Franklin Hall enabled instructors and guests to interact with students as the region's social media experts provided hands-on workshops and seminars in podcasting, blogging, search engine optimization and other online tools. Decision-making processes in the converged newsroom and new developments in student media are supported by curriculum, Fruit says. While it is challenging for faculty and students to keep up with changes stimulated by convergence, Fruit says it’s critical. At a journalism educators conference he attended last summer, other programs were discussing their five- or 10-year curricular reviews, but JMC’s perspective is that the review needs to take place on a continual basis. “We need to be reevaluating what we’re doing all of the time,” he says. “We have informal groups that meet every summer to discuss how we can change things. Sure, it’s sometimes about changing and adding courses, but it’s also about what faculty members are doing to make things happen. It’s having a lot of little experiments going on at the same time: in classrooms, one-on-one, in small groups, with good ideas coming from wherever they are coming, and then building upon what is working. If something is going along pretty well, and people are getting into it, then we should run with it.” For example, Fruit says the birth of the KentNewsNet.com Web site is driving some curriculum changes. “We noticed that students are trying out some new things on the site, and as faculty we know that we need to do what we can in the classroom to provide support for what they are trying to accomplish,” he says. David Smeltzer, assistant professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, says that when it comes to technological enhancements and changes he, like students, is on a learning curve. “But I have to try to be ahead of students on that curve.” For example, while Smeltzer worked with sophisticated production equipment many times before, most of it was analog video. Franklin Hall’s production studio is now all digital. “My old way of thinking about what you can do and what you can’t do with a video signal is completely out the window because we are dealing with digital information,” he says. The complexity of the equipment is what students would see in an outside broadcast environment, Smeltzer explains. The equipment before was rudimentary and basic. While students could learn on it very well, it didn’t necessarily transfer into the professional world. Lionti says the technology makes JMC unique in that few stations in the United States are utilizing sets of this kind, especially for live broadcasts. The addition of the broadcast station’s 3-D rendered set allows TV2 the versatility to change set backgrounds at any time, she says. Her goal as TV2 news director for the spring is to smooth out any issues with broadcasting and operating in the new building and studio. She wants to build a solid foundation so the station can really “take off” in the fall, even though she graduates in May 2008. “All of the changes in the past year have really made this a great opportunity for me,” she says. “A lot of my friends who graduated last year were disappointed that they didn’t get to be a part of the Franklin move. “Some of the transitions have been a challenge, but I wouldn’t change a thing in the process. It’s totally been worth it.” For more information and to read some JMC student success stories, visit www.kent.edu/magazine. |
