Help wanted: Calling all Owens students who want to jump on board

A want ad designed by managing editor Cathy Zeltner, which is also the Outlook's Facebook cover photo.

   I haven’t posted on the progress of the Owens Outlook lately, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t made progress!

   Over the past few weeks the Outlook editors visited the Bowling Green State University student media office, began their staff recruitment effort, and attended to about a dozen little other details that kept them quite busy.

• The BGSU visit was a definite highlight. When we walked into the bustling student newspaper office last week, it was a thrill to see nearly a dozen youthful faces look up from their MAC computers. They were busy putting the paper to bed, and the student journalists/photographers/graphic designers were laying out their pages for the next day’s edition of the BGNews, which publishes a broadsheet newspaper three days a week and also has an online edition. Josh and Cathy brought back lots of ideas that will help The Outlook with organization and training.- Thanks to student media adviser Bob Bortel for letting Josh and Cathy listen and learn!

• Josh and Cathy are frantically recruiting student staff for the Fall. They are hanging flyers throughout campus and posting online announcements everywhere, including in the My Announcements section on Ozone, and on their Facebook pages. There is also a new 'employment' form to fill out if you’re interested in contributing.

• Because editors Josh and Cathy will be the only paid student staff members, we brainstormed at the meeting yesterday to come up with other incentives for student workers. These are still being discussed and will be announced at the Outlook’s first meeting (TBA).

• Josh is working on providing a media company to install convenient outdoor newspaper kiosk boxes throughout campus so the paper can be picked up anytime. It’s a great idea that I hope gets implemented.

• The editors are still working on completing the new Owens Outlook staff policy/style manual. This will help keep all student staff members on the same page regarding everything from press law/ethics to font styles.

   To keep us moving at such a brisk pace we have meetings every two weeks. It includes Josh, Cathy, Mike the IT guy, our administrative boss Chris G. and myself. This helps keep us motivated and on track. So far it's working!
   I must say that this couldn't happen without the hard work and high enthusiasm from Josh and Cathy. These two editors never cease to amaze me with their ability to get things done. We are also lucky to have administrative support from Chris G. and IT help from Mike. What makes them care so much? I will try to answer that question in the next blog post.
   In the meantime, go to the online edition of the Owens Outlook and READ ALL ABOUT IT!

The trials, tribulations of a student media adviser: press freedom

Original layout of The Outlook.

My redesign. Articles are fake, and
photos are by me.

   Sometimes even I think we’re totally nuts for believing we can buck this 21^st Century online newspaper trend.
Many people might think we’re being too optimistic, even unrealistic.

   Despite the naysayers and my fear of failing, we are going forward with our plan to revive a great tradition of providing a campus newspaper that can be physically held, passed around and archived in a scrapbook. 
  We had our first meeting last week to discuss our expectations and plans for the future of The Outlook.

   In attendance were Chris Giordano, dean of Student Life at Owens, our IT guy and co-adviser Mike Jerzykowski, and me. This meeting was important because I had a laundry list of questions for Chris, who will be our administrative boss:

·      What’s the financial state of The Outlook now? Do we have money?

(Yes, we have money. More on that later)

·      What’s the time table for our first printed publication?

(Spring 2014)

·      Can we join the College Media Association and go to conferences?

(Probability is high)

·      Will The Outlook be free of censorship, and be a public forum for student expression?

                                                                          A free press
   I emphasized that this latter question on censorship was the most important because my involvement depended on that answer. There was no way I was going to oversee a student media staff that would be treated like a glorified media relations firm.

   While earning my MA in Journalism Education it was drilled in my head that the freedom of the student press is an inalienable right of people in a free society. It is absolutely paramount that student newspapers everywhere be free to cover news, even if it isn’t always positive.

   Case in point: When the Owens nursing program lost its accreditation in 2009, it was the local media that broke the story and continued to provide updates. The Outlook student staff never touched the subject. I was flabbergasted.

   With that lost opportunity for student journalists in mind, I wanted Chris to know that I am a believer in freedom of the student press, a First Amendment right made strong by the Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District, the Supreme Court's landmark 1969 ruling affirming that the First Amendment protected students' right to wear protest anti-military armbands in school.

   This quote made famous by Justice Abe Fortas is still popular today:

“It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”

   Chris told me he feels the same, and has already spoken about this issue with the administration.  He assured me that The Outlook would be free of censorship as long as it was ethically and legally fit.

  While press freedom was my primary issue, Chris voiced his own concerns.

  1.  There is no staff policy manual, which is the operational Bible for the organization. It includes the mission statement, policies, Code of Ethics, staff management procedures, publication calendar, writing/editing/layout procedures, type specifications and advertising guidelines. 

   A policy manual keeps the staff organized and the operations of the print/online newspaper standardized, which is essential considering the high student turnover rate in a two-year school.

   2. How will we actually publish the paper? We are starting from scratch, which means designing it, and finding a publisher to print it. We all agreed we won’t be ready to publish our first edition until Spring 2014. We want to do it right, and rushing it could jeopardize a good thing.

   We came out of that initial meeting with high hopes. After the meeting Mike and I walked down the hall to the Outlook office and immediately shared everything we talked about with the two student staff editors, Josh and Cathy, who were relieved to hear they would be included in our bi-monthly meetings from now on.

   In the meantime, Chris will work on the finances; Mike will search for a publication house and update/improve the online presence; and I will create the staff policy manual and train the staff on everything from law and ethics to basic news writing and layout & design.   

   The student staff will assist us in all aspects, and then they will eventually take over. It will be their newspaper, after all.

The trials, tribulations of a student media adviser: the beginning

The front page of the May 5, 2003 issue.

Sometimes you get what you wish for…you just have to be patient. And I was very patient.
   It’s time to announce that this Fall I will be the new adviser for Owens Community College’s newspaper The Outlook.
   It will be a huge challenge, considering I’m an inexperienced adviser and there is no newspaper, at least not the old fashioned hold-in–your-hands kind. There is an online version that’s staffed by two dedicated students but there's a big problem ... this version seems to be ‘out of sight and out of mind.’
   That needs to change.

   The beginning

   I first noticed The Outlook when I started teaching photography courses at Owens in 2006. Over the years I’ve been paying attention to the over-sized broadsheet, which was filled with mostly canned stories that had nothing to do with the Owens community.
    At the risk of sounding critical, the paper was physically too big, the stories were too generic, the photography was weak, and the layout was stale. A skeleton staff of mostly non-journalism majors can only do so much.
    The Outlook first made its debut on May 5, 2003. It started out 10,000 copies strong, according to a news release touting the new student-run paper.
   “More than 20 students from a variety of program areas collaborated to produce the first edition,” wrote Brad Meyer, director of Public and Media Relations at the time. “An additional 50 students have expressed interest in working on the future issues of the newspaper.”
   But over the years that interest has obviously waned. It doesn’t help that the one and only journalism course was dropped last year. So how do you maintain a quality campus newspaper when there are too few journalism students to support it?
   Anyway, in 2010, I had the opportunity to unofficially redesign the newspaper. I was a graduate student in Kent State’s online Journalism Education program, and one of my classes was Teaching News Design, taught by Jon Wile, the Washington Post’s A1 news designer. The final project for the course required redesigning a newspaper using InDesign CS5. I chose The Outlook as my homework assignment.
   However, shortly after that redesign the hard copy version of the paper ceased and it went completely online, as is the growing trend these days.
   Though my attempt at redesign didn’t pay off, there was another way I could help. Because I teach the Intro to Photojournalism course, I got my students engaged with The Outlook. This is how Cathy Zeltner got involved. Cathy took the Intro to PJ class last year out of curiosity. That curiosity has since turned into a possible career option. She quickly went from being a staff photographer to the photography editor, and is now the current managing editor. Lynn Redding, another former Intro to PJ student, is the current photo editor. The current editor-in-chief, Josh Widanka, is taking the course this Fall.
   Between the four of us, plus Mike, our IT guy and co-adviser, we are committed to bringing the newspaper back to print.
   So, this is the beginning of an unpaved road never traveled. For the next year I will document the trials and tribulations of being a brand new adviser. I will share how a small staff at a small college reverses an online newspaper trend.
   I have been patient long enough.

   (Next blog post: Our emerging plan to return to tradition)

Social media keeps us connected, informed and competitive

  Do you ever feel overwhelmed with social media?

  Do you Facebook, Tweet, blog, connect with LinkedIn and maintain a website?

 Are people left behind if they don’t do most of these things? Is being hyper connected really necessary? I pondered these questions this week when I finally broke down and started a website.

  Most everyone I know is connected through some sort of social media, mostly on Facebook. If I drew a pyramid for social media populations, Facebook would be the base. For nine years Facebook has been connecting billions of people to each other. It’s so eclectic that it appeals to nearly every person on the planet. If you’re really private, you can limit your contact to just 10 close friends or relatives. Or you can have more than 1,000 ‘friends’ and counting, like my mom.

    "Privacy is dead, and social media holds the smoking gun." - Pete Cashmore, Mashable

   There is no doubt Facebook has its problems, like invasion of privacy and copyright issues. But that’s another story.

  Next would be Twitter, the 140-character micro-blogging service.  This is geared more for the professional, as it LinkedIn. Twitter and LinkedIn both have about 200 million active subscribers.

    I check my Twitter account several times a day because I like the articles and tutorials posted by educators and photographers I choose to follow. Twitter allows me to stay informed with people and industries I wouldn’t normally be privy to, primarily educators and the media. I retweet way more than I post because it’s all about sharing information.

    Then there’s blogging, a free and easy way of publishing stories, photos, videos and even novels on the web. I maintain two blogs through Blogger: the one you're reading now, which is more personal, and the Intro to Photojournalism course blog. Both allow me to express myself beyond 140 characters. I share each blog post on Facebook and Twitter, giving my Facebook friends and Twitter followers the choice whether they want to read what I have to say, or not.

    Finally, the website. Finding a suitable website host was not easy. There are dozens of companies that offer websites. I started by Googling websites for photographers, and narrowed them down to affordability and simplicity. I ultimately chose Squarespace, which allows me to control the content without needing to know how to code.

The homepage for my new website,  which includes a photo gallery and a CV.

  Websites are a great way to showcase a photographer’s work because they have a variety of templates that include photo and video galleries. Websites are a must if you own a business, are job hunting, or simply want to share your work. 

  I chose to create a website because many students have them now, and I want to understand the process of searching, choosing and maintaining a website so I can better relate to them. Having a website allows me to appear more professional, and that’s the image I want to portray.

  So, am I overwhelmed with social media? Not at all. Being social media savvy keeps me connected, informed and competitive. My family, on the other hand, thinks I'm too connected; but that's another story, as well.

"When you give everyone a voice and give people power, the system usually ends up in a really good place." - Mark Zuckerberg, CEO & Founder of Facebook

Tips on how to prepare a competitive photojournalism portfolio

Blade supervisor Dave Zapotosky views student portfolios.

   It’s that time again. Hundreds of student photojournalists are scrambling to find summer newspaper jobs. Fortunately, paid internships still exist despite the dismal job market .

   This blog post focuses on helping PJ students prepare a competitive portfolio, which is the most important tool in landing an internship.

   A portfolio is a visual showcase; a collection of work that basically defines the skills and interests of the applicant. Seriously, in about 1/125^th of a second a photo editor can tell whether the photographer is a good fit for the newspaper.

   Many newspapers, including the Toledo Blade, hire summer interns. The hiring process for this summer’s Blade intern began in January, and by the end of February Jeffrey Smith from Central Michigan University was selected out of 70 applicants.

   So what helped the chosen one rise to the top? What made him so special? He had the best portfolio.

   A good portfolio includes three vital components: Great photos, strong captions, and a good organization and delivery method. 

   As I recently watched Blade photo supervisor Dave Zapotosky and photographer Andy Morrison go over this year’s crop of portfolios, I asked them to share their concerns and tips.

   Let’s start with the photos, the heartbeat of the portfolio.

        The Photographs

·    Offer visual variety. Include your very best selection of sports, news, features, portraits, and at least one photo story. Editors want their new hires to hit the ground running, even though they expect them to be a little green. Stating in your cover letter you can handle the work isn’t enough. Demonstrate it. Spread the love. For example: 20 photos of portraits aren’t as convincing as five portraits, five sports, five features, and five spot news. Also include a solid photo story. Be very, very choosy in your selection.

·      Don’t overindulge your college life. Editors aren’t too impressed with shock value: images of drunken students depicting wild nightlife; sexual ambiguity for the sake of it (performing drag queens); and nudity. Know the newspaper’s readership. Our newly-hired intern’s leading photo on his website is a man walking goats past a cornfield – our Midwest flavor.

·      Show off your technical skills. Do you have a firm grasp of lighting? Do you know your camera controls? Is your use of motion and depth of field evident, appropriate, overdone?

·      Do not over process your photos in Photoshop! Instagramish, over-processed, hyper contrasted, super-saturated photos and sun-flared pictures will not earn you extra points. Less is best. Crop, tone and color correct. Shoot it right and edit tight.  

The Captions

·      Include complete captions with every single photo! Captions explain what the photos are about. Make them super easy to find. Andy and Dave were very frustrated when they couldn’t find captions or had to apply effort to find them. This is a deal breaker!

·      Ensure your captions are complete. This is the journalism part of photojournalism. Answer the 5 Ws and the H. Watch your spelling and grammar. Complete sentences. Use present tense when explaining the 5Ws.

The Delivery

·      This is still evolving. In days gone by, we’d submit a page of 20 slides with a caption sheet. Now there are blogs, websites, CDs, flash drives, Dropbox.com, and who knows what else.

- Dave prefers a CD or flash drive that includes two folders: one for single images and one for the photo story. This allows him to simply drag each folder into Photo Mechanic and view all of the photos at once. He said he doesn’t want to open a lot of folders (one for portraits, one for sports, etc.), considering how many folders he already has to open. When he’s ready to read the caption, he clicks on the Information icon.

- Include no more than 20 images in each folder.

·      Might be good to call and ask each editor how they prefer to view your portfolio. This will save you a lot of work and possible heartache.

·      If you have a website or blog, include the URL in your cover letter. Again, make sure your blog is easy to maneuver, and the captions are easy to find.
-  Make your cover letters unique to each particular newspaper. Form cover letters are sometimes quite obvious. Make sure you study each newspaper before you apply. Again, this is knowing your audience. At this point in your collegiate career you should know what "do your homework" means.
   Well, that’s about it. Good luck to all students applying for internships!

    Here are more tips from working pros:

·      Tips by Peter Power

·      How to Make Portfolios by Mark Hancock

·      20 'Great' examples

Craving the need to turn blank slates into finished products

   This morning I had a very strong urge to want to create my own newspaper.
   It's not a new feeling. For a long time now I've been missing the glory days when I was a military newspaper editor responsible for planning and designing an end product. I loved the challenge of turning blank slates into finished publications. Back then I wrote stories on typewriters and shot black and white film, and the editing tools were whiz wheels, pica poles, reduced-sized dummy sheets and fingers (used to count headline sizes).
   This urge was so overwhelming that I drove straight to the Owens Bookstore before my 9 a.m. class and bought the Adobe Creative Suite 6 Design Standard for Educators.  I bought the suite for InDesign CS6, which replaces the old-fashioned design tools from the 20th Century.
   I have no idea what I'll end up doing with my new purchase, but I constantly crave to tell stories and place them on a page.
   One good example of what can be done is J. Bruce Baumann's Posey Magazine.  He is an experienced photojournalist who created this magazine "for and about Posey County, Indiana."  I'm certainly not capable of being that ambitious, but I'm still inspired by his own need to tell stories for the love of it.

Soundslides now offers a hosting site, finally!

   Ever since I've been teaching Soundslides at Owens Community College, I've been unable to generate an embed code for publishing the projects...until now.
   Ten minutes ago I discovered that Soundslides now offers a hosting site for Soundslide projects. Soundslides is offering six months of free hosting, and I immediately signed up for it. Then it's only $12 a year after that. I can't tell you how excited I am that this publishing issue has been resolved.
   So many students have created Soundslides projects that couldn't be viewed because we didn't have access to a website, which was needed to create the HTML embed code. Now I can generate their embed codes and they can post their projects on their blogs. Here's the link to the site: http://support.soundslides.com/index.php?pg=kb.page&id=154.
   Problem solved! Thank you, Joe!
   The following Soundslides project is the community project the Intro to Photojournalism class shot and produced during the Fall of 2012.