How Community College Journalism Can Thrive

“To be living in interesting times is to be cursed.” - Chinese proverb.

This is becoming too common a motto for community colleges that are losing, or have lost, their school newspapers.

Out of 29 community colleges in Washington state alone, over half of those schools have lost their papers. The reasons include budget cuts, elimination of journalism programs, and lack of student interest.

“Who’s your zombie?” asked the panelists at a discussion titled “How Community College Journalism Can Thrive Amid Cannibals and Zombies.” It was one of dozens of sessions at the Associated Collegiate Press national convention March 1-4 in Seattle.

According to Andrea Otanez, Everett Community College instructor, the “zombies” are a vast array of many different topics. These include not keeping journalism relevant at community colleges, a campus that doesn’t fully support the paper, fast-moving technology, and online websites replacing print.

How can students and staff make it to where these “zombies” don’t come onto every community college campus, totally wiping out the school newspaper and the journalism program?

Jeanne Leader, dean of Everett Community College, said the enemy is within the campus. Journalism is not expensive to have around, and newspapers always seem to do better with a journalism program, she said. Schools need to keep papers in the budget.

“There are certain community colleges that get bad press from the students and the staff about certain articles that were written,” said Leader. “We’re here to inform the community about what is happening, not about people’s hurt feelings.

“If they don’t like what was written, then they shouldn’t have said anything. Our challenge is to engage the community, and if stories are not relevant, then how will we inform the community and move forward as a student newspaper?”

Leader suggested paying students from $10 to $20 for each article, that way students are encouraged to get more involved. Leader also said that every paper should be about quality and quantity. It doesn’t matter if the campus paper is only a few pages long. As long as the articles are well written, that’s what counts.

To get students more involved, Leader suggested hosting a booth and giving away “swag,” such as free food, games, or free merchandise with the paper’s logo. It is all about under-selling and over-delivering.

Aaron Alan, a Seattle-area community college student, said his school no longer has a student newspaper because there wasn’t a budget for it and the students weren’t supportive of the paper in the first place.

“My school has been without a print newspaper for about four years now,” said Alan. “We were told that the reason why it got cut was because of certain articles that were written, and that they were not very suitable for the students to know.

“Students have the right to know everything, and if the only reason why they shut us down is because we wrote about a staff member that was doing something illegal, then I know we’re doing our job right.”

Alan and some fellow students have created an online edition of their old newspaper, and are continuing their journalism endeavors, informing the students about the community.

For more information on what is happening to today’s newspapers go to www.whoneedsnewspapers.org.

At-A-Glance:

What: How journalism can thrive amid negativity conference

Where: Seattle, Washington

When: March 3, 2012

Speakers: Jeanne Leader, Everett Community College
                Andrea Otanez, Everett Community College
                Michael Parks, Pierce College
                Rich Riski, Peninsula College 

                Aaron Alan, Seattle-area community college student