Advice for student media editors
Posted: August 21st, 2010 | Author: Ed Walker | Filed under: Journalism, student unions | Tags: advice, student media, student newspapers, student radio, student tv, student unions, websites | 9 Comments »
It’s been three years since I was editor of the student media at the University of Central Lancashire. Blearly eyed, cold pizza and a whole lot of fun is how I remember it – but I thought I’d offer some advice for all those about to begin what will be one of the best year’s of their lives.
Being in charge of the student media is a tough role. You will be working for an average of £1.50 an hour for all the hours you do, you’ll never really be able to switch off but you will sit back one day and go ‘Shit. Yeah. That was good.’
So, here we go, here’s my far from definite guide for how to have a good year running your student media (this is general advice covering radio, newspaper, TV and online).
Don’t get too attached
You will only be there a year. Don’t get too attached to the idea of doing it. If you seek re-election, good luck. But your maximum tenure can be two years and by the end of that you’ll be ready to leave. Don’t treat each issue like a baby, as soon as you send to print you need to be thinking about the next one. Once the station shuts down for Christmas, you should be thinking about January. The team focuses on the issue or the show, you look beyond and offer something more long-term.
Listen to your team
Your volunteers are the most important thing to you. They will be the ones to pull you out of the shit. If you’ve graduated, you’re not a student anymore. You get paid money, they don’t. They are still students, you’re not. Things can change very quickly on campus, new trends, new issues and you’re not going to be involved in the same way. Be a friend to your team, have an open door, advice some life advice on stuff like money/housing/course problems.
Also remember what a wide audience will consume your media. Students aren’t just 18-year-old-beer-loving-away-from-home-for-the-first-time-freshers, they might be returning to study for a top-up degree or doing a postgraduate degree and completely focused on their career. Appeal to a wide audience and make sure your team reflects this diverse readership.
Be fearless…
You’re only there for a year, so grow some balls. Got a splash? Make it a damn good story. Go the extra mile, put in the extra two hours. Find the extra contact. Is it going to annoy someone? Then it’s probably news.
…but make friends with a law lecturer
Your team won’t respect you if you take risks and leave them exposed. Make sure all bases are covered. You are responsible for what goes on those pages or out on the web, so check the hell out of it. Make friends with a media law lecturer, ask them to informally look over anything contentious. No one wants to get sued do they? Least of all your cash strapped Students’ Union that is facing the biggest financial challenge it’s ever faced with the impending higher education cuts.
Get ready for feedback
People will be reading/listening/watching what you’re producing. Always remember that and make sure you respond. The letters page should be vibrant, don’t find yourself having to make up letters to fill it. Respond to queries, explain your decisions and defend your team. Be prepared to invite disgruntled readers into your office to discuss a story, be prepared to have a blazing row with the owner of the University book shop in-front of the rest of the team. Don’t be a wimp, make your case but if you do make a mistake there’s no harm in apologising.
You find the leads, let the team do the rest
Don’t write anything or do your own show. Hopefully you’ve put the time in previously as a reporter or show host. But, you will in your position be privy to information and contacts your team don’t have. You’ll attend meetings, get reports and other things that make good stories. Give them to your team, don’t keep everything that’s half-decent for yourself to try and build up a portfolio. You’ve got the whole paper, radio station and a lot more to run. However, if there’s an editor’s blog or column make sure you do a good job of it and keep it up-to-date and on the bleeding edge. If you speak often people get bored, if you speak occasionally but hitting the mark with what you say then people will listen.
Be a stickler
You want everything to be the best. You’ve got 12 issue, you’ve got 36 hours of programming, you’ve got 12 programmes going out on Internet TV. It might be student media but that doesn’t mean it needs to be shoddy. Pull out all the stops, don’t just nick an image from Google Images get a proper one with a proper camera. Get good kit and argue about the budget until you’re blue in the face. Check everything, spelling, facts, names. Don’t get anything wrong.
Distribute
What’s the point in producing the damn paper if no one is reading? What’s the point in broadcasting if no one is listening? Go out of your way to promote the student media. Distribute it yourself around campus, as soon as the delivery truck arrives get it out their. Give the team a bundle to take on their way to a lecture at that far off campus building (they’ll need the exercise, all student journalists end up piling on the pounds). Hassle the printers if it doesn’t arrive on time, bring delivery forward an hour. Up the print run for good issues. Push it outside the campus boundaries. Get your radio station streaming online, promote it in the uni library, push for money for a two-week FM licence. Put the website address on t-shirts.
Recruit! Recruit! Recruit!
You can never have too many volunteers. Why? Because the numbers will dwindle as the year goes on. It just will. Do talks at the beginning of the year, promote people if they are good. Encourage people. Put up posters. Create a big email list. Hold an end of year awards. Do anything and everything you can to get people involved and keep them involved.
Use the summer
The summer is quiet. If you’re going to change the design around, do it in the summer. If you want to improve the website, do it in the summer. Create a calendar and put key events in it. Spend the summer meeting with contacts who will give you stories. When the crunch time arrives in September you want to be so prepared so you know exactly how the next 12 weeks are going to play. If you sit around doing nothing during the summer you will have a rubbish year.
There’s some advice, I’m sure there’s plenty more. I’m certainly not saying I was the best student media editor, I made plenty of mistakes, dodgy calls and there’s so much more I could have done but I do know our work won awards and we caused quite a stir with some stories.
Image credit to makeyougohmm
If you’ve got advice for student media editors, memories from your time in student media or you’re about to start a year running student media and have questions then leave your comments below
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Ed Walker and Nick Petrie, adam parker. adam parker said: RT @ed_walker86: New blog post: Advice for student media editors: http://bit.ly/d6t9gR [...]
Great post Ed, this brings back many memories for me.
I was involved in Redbrick (www.redbrickonline.co.uk) for three years and your point about finding the leads and then passing them on is very true, it is your place as editor to guide and lead, but you have to know when to let people get on with the job at hand.
Sometimes younger and less experienced student journalists just need some space to grow and someone to place a little bit of trust in them.
You also need to remember that you are their safety net, your reporters need to know that you have their back and that you will back them to the hilt.
My favourite point you have made is that you must be fearless. I think this is the single most important quality – it doesn’t mean being stupid or gung ho, but you do have to stick your neck out from time to time.
My biggest bit of advice would be to take risks – you will never again be in an environment where you have so little to loose and so much to gain again.
If you can’t take risks in that environment, you are never going to be able to when the stakes are higher later in life.
Finally, Ed’s last point about making mistakes will ring true with all student editors, but surround yourself with a good team (I recommend having a stunning capable deputy editor as well) and put the time in and these can be reduced, but never eliminated.
That’s very true Nick about having a good deputy, or a good ‘senior’ team of people who can help run sections, the radio station etc. I always thought it should be able to function without you being there – rather than everyone permanently waiting on the person at the top to make a decision.
Thanks for your comment, really interesting.
Would you mind if I share your insight with the SU staff members (previously known as AMSU!)
@Andy Smith – Sure no worries, as long as you link to the post
Great post, Ed.
The thing that shocks me most in regards to problems that other editors face is SU interference. I’ve heard copious comments about publications not running stories that criticise SUs etc. because they will not be allowed.
Student publications should be in place to criticise these people for wrong doings and for that reason I feel it’s best that publications have nothing to do with the SU.
@Rebecca It’s a tricky one about how that operates. Some student publications are completely independent and have to source their own advertising to survive, others are societies so get some Union funding but have to source own adverts and retain a level of independence. Others are funded directly from Union budgets and the level of independence will be dictated by the relationship between the editor (elected normally) and the rest of the executive members and permanent staff.
It’s an interesting issue and there are different models out there. I agree, student media should be allowed to hold the organisation to account – after all they receive a lot of public money every year to fulfill their objectives. I’m sure NUS has some guidance on how they should operate.
Fair play to Union’s, if you fund something you don’t want it to turn round and be constantly biting the hand that feeds – as ultimately that hand will be withdrawn.
[...] all those student editors out there Ed Walker has written his how to guide. It highlights the strengths a student editor needs and points out the common pitfalls [...]
You forgot enjoy it and have a laugh. There are so many times that I wanted to kill several Communications Officers at my SU, but hiding his phone above the plastic ceiling tiles and calling it, or forcing the picture editor to create a beef jerky mountain and then climb it made those days we were up til 4am seem all the more worth it.