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In her words:

Over the past month, The Whit . . . has published several controversial stories about our Student Government Association. It got heated. The Montclarion (the college newspaper at Montclair State University who has been in legal battles with their SGA over similar issues as ours) published an editorial supporting us. The American Civil Liberties Union and the Student Press Law Center were unofficially advising us. It was bad and well…is still unresolved.

The controversy reached fever pitch when we published this editorial— a slamming review of Rowan’s SGA and their practices. It was, to use their word, “harsh.”

I agreed with the publishing of the associated article and editorial the entire week up to its publishing and as soon as the paper the news stand and we hit publish for it to go online, I was immediately hit with regret.

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She later wrote it was a campus visit by the fearless authors of The Soprano State, a book exposing corruption at the highest levels in New Jersey, that ultimately swayed her to accept the Whit‘s tough love as a journalistic necessity and to embrace the mantra heading her post: “Don’t Be Scared- Question Authority!”

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One of the toughest issues student press outlets face is going after its own. A student newspaper is held up as an outlet for students, by students, making tough love or an outright attack on one of its brothers or sisters in arms something akin to a mother lamb feeding her young to the wolves. (After all, according to stereotype, student media should only be going after school administrators!) The other tough spot for student journos: You often have to look the object of your disaffections in the eye immediately and repeatedly after publication. Kostic mentions that she personally likes several members of Rowan’s student government. For student journalists, especially on small campuses, the reality is that those you wish to feature will often be friends, acquaintances or at least connected to you probably through less than three degrees of separation. As long as the extensive, in-your-face coverage has been accurate and not reached the point of simply being piled on, the Whit should be proud of its efforts.

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One portion of the editorial stated:

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Though the pressure on [the former top editor] must have been great, her decision to resign was a mistake. The Towerlight just achieved its independence last year . . . Her resignation, and the column’s discontinuation, demonstrate that the Towerlight, though nominally independent, won’t stand up to the administration in defense of its content.

But more than [the editor], [Towson president Robert] Caret is clearly in the wrong. . . . Caret ought to respect and value the independence of the Towerlight, even if he disagrees with its content. The newspaper is for the students, not the university president, and it’s unfair for him to attempt to impose his personal tastes and preference on an independent media outlet.

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The Daily Cal has published the popular “Sex on Tuesday” column since the late 1990s. Separately, here is a new Campus Progress post outlining what it feels is the problem with student sex columns, in response to a Nation piece outlining their virtues.

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The snippet is part of a larger video series being put together under the direction of standout Daily editor Gary Graca aimed at spotlighting the paper’s significance in the lives and careers of its most distinguished alums.  Check it out below!

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Student paper answers critics of opinion column: Late last week, a Boston University student sounded off in The Heights about the rise in educational and professional opportunities for the disadvantaged and historically underrepresented.  It was basically a rip on Affirmative Action.  In the student’s words: “The Civil Rights movement is over, and it is time to accept that we cannot artificially accommodate for everyone.” The opinion has spurred a ton of criticism, including some for the Heights itself for publishing such a rancorous piece.  Now, the paper is fighting back, defining its role in starting the conversation: “The Opinions section of The Heights is a public forum for this University. This space is reserved for the thoughts, ideas, and arguments of members of the BC community. With this in mind, the pages of our newspaper can be the epicenter of many discussions, particularly the most difficult, which are generally the most necessary. We will never publish any piece with the intention of offending or inciting bitterness, yet we will never shy away from material that may cause heated dialogue.”

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Roy, the Wildcat‘s Web Director, chatted with me recently about the paper’s online reinvention and offers some advice for students seeking to chart a similar path to the online journalism promised land.

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Write a six-word memoir of your Wildcat experience so far.

Good preparation. Great exposure. Best people.

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How did the paper’s online reinvention play out?

Back in the mid-1990s, the Arizona Daily Wildcat was one of the first college newspapers to buy into this Internet fad. While we’ve faded and fallen behind the curve recently, it was my mission to not only redesign and brand a new online portal, but also change our workflow and way we deliver the news. Of course, there’s no way one single person or idea is going to change a newsroom — it takes a group effort to execute.

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What was the toughest part of the experience?

Restructuring workflows are never easy. People are always set in their ways, and believe it or not, those ways aren’t faring too well in today’s information-feasting newsgetters. New this year: Section editors immediately received more duties. Copy editors upload the stories to the web. Our photo editors upload photos and slideshows. Reporters have shown interest in producing video clips to go along with their stories. There’s no easy way to tell somebody they have more responsibilities on top of their regular day-to-day operations. But there’s no easy way to practice journalism either.

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Standout redesign memory.

Just the day we went live with our new design. Probably the closest thing to giving birth I’ll ever experience.

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What new Web features do you envision being audience hits or journalistically successful?

I visit the Salary Database quite regularly. I doubt I’m alone. It’s cool to see how much our professors earn and where the school is spending our money. Of course our regular video reports adds another dimension to rich content, but the more in-depth enterprise pieces can definitely go viral. I redesigned the Web site this summer in order to best feature our content, photos and multimedia. So far, traffic-wise, it’s been a huge facelift and allows us to brand our product much better than most professional news organizations.

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What advice do you have for j-students looking to up their own news outlets’ Web game?

Buy a BlackBerry and communicate with everyone around the clock. This summer my Dad asked me how many hours a week I’ll work with this new position. I laughed and said the Internet rarely turns off.  So be prepared to work your a** off.

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What is the coolest part about being Web Director of a top college media outlet?

Having the resources that most real papers don’t even have. With the size of our newsroom and staff, there’s no limit as to what we can do. That, along with our market. Our campus of almost 40,000 is pretty big, but multiply that by the number of parents, alums and prospective students that are interested in the UA— that’s a pretty huge audience and a huge reason why a viable web presence is important. Dad loves reading the Police Beat.

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You wake up in ten years. Where are you and what are you doing?

Boston.com editor-in-chief.

Panelists at the “From Journalist to Entrepreneur” session at the 2009 Online News Association conference in San Francisco say it’s time to stop thinking and start doing. Om Malik, founder/CEO of GigaOM, said this is the best time for young journalists to try out ideas.

“The only option for people in our profession is to take a chance,” he told conference participants Saturday morning.  He also said it’s important not to rely on the classroom to learn entreprenuer tools.

“You go to college to be the CEO of Enron,” he said. “You drop out of college to be Mark Zuckerberg.”

While the other panelists didn’t encourage becoming a college dropout as a way to innovate, they also pushed the carpe diem approach.

Ann Grimes, acting director of the graduate journalism program at Stanford University, said it’s important for students to be realistic about their skillset and to work with others who can compliment them.

“You’re not a technologist. You’re not a software coder,” she said. “If you’re a journalist, you probably don’t come from that angle. Let those people deal with that problem.”

The panelists also discussed failure, which is never a fun topic for journalists. However, in the startup environment they stressed that it’s important to fail early and accept failure as just another rite of passage.

“One of the toughest things we’ve seen with our students who have tried to move from reporting to the business side is they think they know the answer,” Grimes said. “You have to take that idea, test it out, come up with a new prototype, go back out, get new feedback and then refine your idea.”

So don’t just sit there, what are you waiting for?

He discussed Twitter’s explosion to the social networking scene and the interplay between journalists and Twitter’s millions of users across the world. He suggested that tweets are clues, not news in themselves. Journalists should then follow up with their own fact-finding and analysis, Williams said.

Williams also discussed how Twitter functions as a network, not a stand-alone site, that allows people to find information that is relevant to them. Today, Williams said, the site will introduce a geotagging function for developers. He didn’t specify when that feature would be rolled out for the public.

Perhaps more important than the specifics of Twitter, Williams addressed the role of innovation in the current media climate and some of his own experiences with failure.

“Create something you want to see in the world,” Williams told the audience near the end of the keynote. He went on to add that would-be entrepreneurs should focus on what they can give rather than conventional notions of “what sells.” He also encouraged innovators to take chances while, at the same time, learning to embrace the idea of failure.

If you’re in San Francisco for the conference, I’d love to meet up with you. Follow me on Twitter (@jmsummers) where I’ll be live-tweeting many of the sessions I attend. If not, many sessions are featured on Livestream where you can send in your questions for all the panelists.

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The blog offers current journalism students a glimpse into their not-so-distant futures, as rising journos battle with the career realities, new media craziness and fallacies, and bureaucratic technicalities of being a twenty-something (or thereabouts) newshound in 21st-century America.  Or as the blog dubs them: “Generation J.”

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The headlines of some recent posts offer a clue about the content mix: “Can Hyperlocal Save ‘Old’ Media? Should It?“; “Doing the Unthinkable– Turning Down a Job Offer“; “Formulating a Back Up Plan for Your Job“; and “Young Journalists’ Role in the Future of Journalism.”

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Here’s a snippet of a sample post penned with grace by a dear friend of mine, Renee Petrina, who until recently was a standout staffer at The Indianapolis Star.  The post is titled, “Surviving a Layoff- A Mental Game”:

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I was on vacation, driving down I-20 in South Carolina with my mom and dad, when my cell phone rang. I recognized the work number and knew that it was over. . . . I am proud to say I did not cry. At least not in front of anyone in management. I started texting my coworkers to thank them and say it was an honor to work with them. Thinking about my nightside teammates and how much I’d miss them, emotions bubbled up. My parents got to hear me scream an expletive about Gannett before I bawled my eyes out in the car. . . .

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Getting laid off by phone sucks, no lie. But being away from the office helped me in so many ways. Rather than sitting alone at home questioning my worth after the layoff, I was surrounded by family members who love me unconditionally. I got home-cooked meals and desserts. Mom and I went shopping for some interview clothes. . . . Not to imply that I didn’t work to find work. I stayed up to job hunt online while my family went to bed, and ran up my cell phone bill calling past bosses for advice.

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Two weeks after the layoff, I went back to the office to get my things. I had more than a suitcase full of editing reference books, family photos and snacks in my desk. Lugging that is tough work, even harder in heels and a suit. But dammit, I wore heels and a suit. For me, dressing up gives me a boost. If I look good, I feel good. . . . I had reframed the issue: I did not leave the paper; the paper left me. I was valuable. I was awesome. It was their loss. A month later, I was moving into a windowed office with my name outside the door. I’m proud to be a member of Ball State’s journalism faculty. Layoffs are a mental game. I’m pretty sure I won.

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DiBranco’s original pitch for the piece immediately piqued my interest because (as my quote and some of my past research attest) I truly consider this sub-section of the student press to be of magnified importance that goes far beyond the student sex columns’ and magazines’ obvious entertainment and titillation factor.  These pieces and publications explore *real* issues involving student sex and socialization, the type of information left out of many public school curricula, stereotypical media representations, Internet pornography, and even parent sex talks.

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In addition, the movement is blazing a path toward greater openness surrounding all sexual orientations and proclivities.  It also helps balance a still-present gender gap in sexualized media representations, in which females are often left out or objectified.  As one former female student sex columnist declared, ”A sex column is a significant statement of female rights. Not only am I a female columnist, but I am writing about a topic considered taboo and improper for a woman.”

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The sudden surge in the number of student columns and magazines directly on the heels of “Sex and the City” led many to characterize their existence as a passing fad.  More than a decade later, they still exist, and their numbers are growing stronger and continuing to cause controversy and debates.  As Dartmouth alum DiBranco shares, “This summer Dartmouth saw the launch of a journal of gender and sexuality, Sir & Madam (ahem…S&M), with articles and creative writing covering YouPorn, being a drag queen, a preteen girl’s awakening of sexual desire, and the rainbow of gender and sexuality. Regardless of accusations of unwholesomeness, sex doesn’t seem headed back into the campus closet anytime soon.”