Daily Campus

[couch 'em]

Yeah right, most people writing for the paper are liberal arts majors - not people with real classes.

Have you ever taken a liberal arts class? Do you know how much time goes into them? I am a business major, but also take photography classes and I can tell you that those photography classes take WAY more time than any business class.

I was joking, jeeze. Liberal Arts classes involve lots and lots of time writing papers and reading.

[blkjack34]

Yeah right, most people writing for the paper are liberal arts majors - not people with real classes.

Have you ever taken a liberal arts class? Do you know how much time goes into them? I am a business major, but also take photography classes and I can tell you that those photography classes take WAY more time than any business class.

You, OBVIOUSLY, haven't taken cost accounting. Try that class out and tell me what you think!

No, if you read more closely, i am a business major as well... and have taken three accounting classes!

[Kritter47]

When I worked there, covering something not related to SMU was not an option (only in part because we didn't have access to the AP wire, and I'm sure anyone had ever heard of the internet at that point - I sure hadn't).

SMUguy is right: there are TONS of relevant stories that could be written.
...

As someone who wrote sports for the DC for four years fairly recently (women's soccer four years, men's soccer one), while your intentions are good, you're a little bit off base.

First, there can only be so many stories on a given subject (with the sport being the given subject) unless you're writing for a very, very focused audience. The DC is not that. Many people on campus, for better or worse, don't care about SMU sports. I heard feedback on maybe one of my soccer stories over four years. If you don't get feedback that your primary audience, which, in this case, is people on campus and not necessarily alumni or people who read online, you assume that people don't want those stories.

Second, there are huge time constraints on a student journalist, with the emphasis on student. The stories that you mention, while ambitious, have a big element of chasing sources/research, much of which can only be accomplished between the hours of 9-5 on a school day. Yes, you have some free time, but studying, internships, homework, and things like lunch also have to fit. Plus you would like to have some aspect of a social life in there, since when you really become a journalist, that completely goes out the window.

Third, I don't think you mentioned it, but someone talked about class credit. You aren't going to get class credit for sports stories unless you specifically arrange it with a professor, and even then, they'll usually only take one a semester. Hell, I did a directed study specifically about sports writing, and only one really featured an SMU athlete (for a variety of reasons). Very, very few of the journalists that graduate go straight into sports writing at a school like SMU (I know of myself and two TV reporters who did from last year's class), so the professors concentrate on what the majority of us will start with - hard news. And to keep the class on an even level, they usually have requirements like "meeting story," or "trend/study story" that have to be met. Most sports stories don't come close to that.

Fourth, the media relations department at SMU sucks when it comes to dealing with DC people. They look at you as kids who don't really deserve to be there, and are totally less than helpful when it comes to tracking sources down. I spent three months chasing a basketball player for an interview last year and never found him. Now, if I was a professional journalist (like I am now), I would have had the time to find him and the clout to raise hell with the SIDs for making it so difficult. But as a DC/student, there wasn't a chance they were going to go out of their way to help me, and I didn't have the time to mess around with them. Frankly, they don't care about the DC coverage, or at least they never seemed to with me. All they want is positive PR from major media outlets.

Fifth, there's a huge time crunch involved with layout and page design. It takes several hours to design a paper. I never spent time on the desk, but I knew kids who did. They would get up to the DC offices at 5 and leave at midnight four days a week. Anything they wanted to cover had to fit into the daily contraints of layout, copy editing, design, headline writing, and so on.

Finally, ideally, a student-journalist's desires extend beyond the edge of campus. Yes, there are stories to be told. But you can learn a lot from simply being around big-time events and having the chance to cover/write about them. I had the opportunity to write about the Cowboys during my time at SMU, and what I picked up there, through experience and observation, is just as valuable as what I learned covering the soccer teams. You can't simply cut off the outside world because you're on campus.

I realize many of you are starving for fresh SMU content every day. But the DC, due to a lack of resources and the learning enviorment where the writers often aspire to things bigger than the Hilltop, is not the ideal place to find that.

[RGV Pony]

When I worked there, covering something not related to SMU was not an option (only in part because we didn't have access to the AP wire, and I'm sure anyone had ever heard of the internet at that point - I sure hadn't).

SMUguy is right: there are TONS of relevant stories that could be written.
...

As someone who wrote sports for the DC for four years fairly recently (women's soccer four years, men's soccer one), while your intentions are good, you're a little bit off base.

First, there can only be so many stories on a given subject (with the sport being the given subject) unless you're writing for a very, very focused audience. The DC is not that. Many people on campus, for better or worse, don't care about SMU sports. I heard feedback on maybe one of my soccer stories over four years. If you don't get feedback that your primary audience, which, in this case, is people on campus and not necessarily alumni or people who read online, you assume that people don't want those stories.

Second, there are huge time constraints on a student journalist, with the emphasis on student. The stories that you mention, while ambitious, have a big element of chasing sources/research, much of which can only be accomplished between the hours of 9-5 on a school day. Yes, you have some free time, but studying, internships, homework, and things like lunch also have to fit. Plus you would like to have some aspect of a social life in there, since when you really become a journalist, that completely goes out the window.

Third, I don't think you mentioned it, but someone talked about class credit. You aren't going to get class credit for sports stories unless you specifically arrange it with a professor, and even then, they'll usually only take one a semester. Hell, I did a directed study specifically about sports writing, and only one really featured an SMU athlete (for a variety of reasons). Very, very few of the journalists that graduate go straight into sports writing at a school like SMU (I know of myself and two TV reporters who did from last year's class), so the professors concentrate on what the majority of us will start with - hard news. And to keep the class on an even level, they usually have requirements like "meeting story," or "trend/study story" that have to be met. Most sports stories don't come close to that.

Fourth, the media relations department at SMU sucks when it comes to dealing with DC people. They look at you as kids who don't really deserve to be there, and are totally less than helpful when it comes to tracking sources down. I spent three months chasing a basketball player for an interview last year and never found him. Now, if I was a professional journalist (like I am now), I would have had the time to find him and the clout to raise hell with the SIDs for making it so difficult. But as a DC/student, there wasn't a chance they were going to go out of their way to help me, and I didn't have the time to mess around with them. Frankly, they don't care about the DC coverage, or at least they never seemed to with me. All they want is positive PR from major media outlets.

Fifth, there's a huge time crunch involved with layout and page design. It takes several hours to design a paper. I never spent time on the desk, but I knew kids who did. They would get up to the DC offices at 5 and leave at midnight four days a week. Anything they wanted to cover had to fit into the daily contraints of layout, copy editing, design, headline writing, and so on.

Finally, ideally, a student-journalist's desires extend beyond the edge of campus. Yes, there are stories to be told. But you can learn a lot from simply being around big-time events and having the chance to cover/write about them. I had the opportunity to write about the Cowboys during my time at SMU, and what I picked up there, through experience and observation, is just as valuable as what I learned covering the soccer teams. You can't simply cut off the outside world because you're on campus.

I realize many of you are starving for fresh SMU content every day. But the DC, due to a lack of resources and the learning enviorment where the writers often aspire to things bigger than the Hilltop, is not the ideal place to find that.

will there be another installment today with your sixth through tenth points?

[ClassOf81]

What a pantload! But here goes:

First, there can only be so many stories on a given subject (with the sport being the given subject) unless you're writing for a very, very focused audience. The DC is not that. Many people on campus, for better or worse, don't care about SMU sports. I heard feedback on maybe one of my soccer stories over four years. If you don't get feedback that your primary audience, which, in this case, is people on campus and not necessarily alumni or people who read online, you assume that people don't want those stories.

If the students/faculty reading the paper aren't sports fans, then they won't read the sports page regardless of what's in it. Therefore, there's no difference between writing a "Bamba Fall is really tall" feature or printing box scores from the World Series. The DC sports section is supposed to be for SMU sports fans.

Second, there are huge time constraints on a student journalist, with the emphasis on student. The stories that you mention, while ambitious, have a big element of chasing sources/research, much of which can only be accomplished between the hours of 9-5 on a school day. Yes, you have some free time, but studying, internships, homework, and things like lunch also have to fit. Plus you would like to have some aspect of a social life in there, since when you really become a journalist, that completely goes out the window.

Uh huh. If you want to chase a story and eat/study/have a social life, you can. I did. Others have. I'm sure the current staff does. See an athlete between classes. Everyone has a cell phone now: call a coach between classes. Leave messages. Hell, in the era of e-mail, entire interviews can be done via e-mail, so you can fire off your questions at 3 AM (after the "social life" part of your schedule) and pick up your answers at lunch. It can be done.

Fourth, the media relations department at SMU sucks when it comes to dealing with DC people. They look at you as kids who don't really deserve to be there, and are totally less than helpful when it comes to tracking sources down. I spent three months chasing a basketball player for an interview last year and never found him. Now, if I was a professional journalist (like I am now), I would have had the time to find him and the clout to raise hell with the SIDs for making it so difficult. But as a DC/student, there wasn't a chance they were going to go out of their way to help me, and I didn't have the time to mess around with them. Frankly, they don't care about the DC coverage, or at least they never seemed to with me. All they want is positive PR from major media outlets.

You have a legitimate point here. I don't know who's in the current media relations department, so I have no way of knowing if they are useful or not. But we ran into the same problem, and all it took was a sit-down with the director. We talked about how we could get more access, what could be made available, etc. In turn, he talked to us about acting like actual reporters, being AT every game (or at least every home game) rather than just regurgitating what came over the fax machine (see how old I am?) Basically we proved that covering our specific teams thoroughly was important, and they became far more helpful.

Fifth, there's a huge time crunch involved with layout and page design. It takes several hours to design a paper. I never spent time on the desk, but I knew kids who did. They would get up to the DC offices at 5 and leave at midnight four days a week. Anything they wanted to cover had to fit into the daily contraints of layout, copy editing, design, headline writing, and so on.

Right. It's that way at every newspaper in the world. If that's the career you choose, get used to it, and deal with it.

Finally, ideally, a student-journalist's desires extend beyond the edge of campus. Yes, there are stories to be told. But you can learn a lot from simply being around big-time events and having the chance to cover/write about them. I had the opportunity to write about the Cowboys during my time at SMU, and what I picked up there, through experience and observation, is just as valuable as what I learned covering the soccer teams. You can't simply cut off the outside world because you're on campus.

Of course not. But you didn't write about SMU soccer on the CowboysFans website (or whatever media outlet you wrote for), because that's not what the readers were going to that publication to find. I don't want to get on PonyFans and read about Terrell Owens or Avery Johnson or Mike Modano, either. There are legitimate stories about each, but that doesn't make this the right venue for any of them. There's just far too much SMU-related news that can be written.

I realize many of you are starving for fresh SMU content every day. But the DC, due to a lack of resources and the learning enviorment where the writers often aspire to things bigger than the Hilltop, is not the ideal place to find that.

Good thing PonyFans.com is around, then.

[jtstang]

I thought the DC did a commendable job of covering the Willis hate crime accusation debacle.

[MrMustang1965]

I thought the DC did a commendable job of covering the Willis hate crime accusation debacle.

Yes, it did. The DMN was scooped.

You have a legitimate point here. I don't know who's in the current media relations department, so I have no way of knowing if they are useful or not.

The newly-hired director of media relations at SMU is Kent Best. Not sure of his background.

[smu diamond m]

Yeah right, most people writing for the paper are liberal arts majors - not people with real classes.

Have you ever taken a liberal arts class? Do you know how much time goes into them? I am a business major, but also take photography classes and I can tell you that those photography classes take WAY more time than any business class.

You, OBVIOUSLY, haven't taken cost accounting. Try that class out and tell me what you think!

No, if you read more closely, i am a business major as well... and have taken three accounting classes!

Well, how about a midterm that is one problem. Twelve pages. 7 flow schematics. And about 150 given data. Took roughly 60 man-hours to do it. Screw your liberal arts classes.

[MustangStealth]

The newly-hired director of media relations at SMU is Kent Best. Not sure of his background.

Wasn't he the original drummer for the Beatles?

[Beavr10]

When I arrived at SMU in 2000 the paper had 8 to 10 editors and a full-time faculty advisor. The writers for the paper also covered some of the writing for the Yearbook.
Since then they are down to 3 to 5 editors and the faculty advisor left in '03. The journalism writing standards have dropped in favor of television media and that takes away from capable writers that used to be forced to write a certain number of columns per semester. The enitre paper is understaffed, underpaid and overworked.
I covered men's soccer for 3 years, women's soccer for 2 -- basketball when they couldn't find another kid to go to the women's game vs. Boise State. I covered club rugby, club soccer, club hockey and intramural championships. Football had a few people but they always asked me to write the personal blurbs. I started a sports column highlighting individuals and that ran for 19 weeks straight. I'm not trying to toot my own horn. most schools would have split that between 7 or 8 kids. Lets just say they weren't lining up out the door. And it all sucked, long days, $7 an article, longer nights, no rewards.
If I hadn't just enjoyed covering SMU I would have thrown up the white flag like so many students before me. Half the student body doesn't even pick up the paper. So the writers began to write about what they want to write about. Today that shows more than ever.
But do me a favor, before you rip them. Try it! After your 9 to 5 go to a men's soccer game @ 7pm, watch it until 9 (pray it doesn't go to OT) - stay after until 10 to get player and coach interviews. Then slam out 450 to 800 words -- they would rather have 1,200 so they don't have open space. Then edit it and have it ready for print by midnight. Then in two weeks send me an e-mail and if I like your article I will send you $7.

[MrMustang1965]

The newly-hired director of media relations at SMU is Kent Best. Not sure of his background.

Wasn't he the original drummer for the Beatles?

That was PETE Best, I believe.

And it all sucked, long days, $7 an article, longer nights, no rewards.

Welcome to journalism, kid.

I don't know who's in the current media relations department, so I have no way of knowing if they are useful or not.

The newly-hired director of media relations at SMU is Kent Best.

His most recent position was communications director for Texas Health Resources based in Arlington. Prior to that he was a communications specialist at Texas Tech. He's also been a freelance sports writer.

[Kritter47]

First of all, I apologize for the rantiness of last night. But I'd just written four stories in a day and watched on of my favorite teams get their butts kicked, so I was cranky.

If the students/faculty reading the paper aren't sports fans, then they won't read the sports page regardless of what's in it. Therefore, there's no difference between writing a "Bamba Fall is really tall" feature or printing box scores from the World Series. The DC sports section is supposed to be for SMU sports fans.

The DC sports section is for sports fans on campus. Most kids I knew cared a whole lot more about the Cowboys/Mavericks/Nascar than they cared about SMU sports. That's sad, but it's not the DC's job to fix. They should cover/report/run wire on what the readership wants to read about, and in most cases, that's not SMU sports. It's up to the athletic department to change that.

If the football team starts going to bowl games regularly and the basketball team gets to the NIT/NCAAs, or if soccer starts getting any significant student attendence, then the DC have a reason to cover them more. But it's not the DC's job to draw attention to SMU sports.

You have a legitimate point here. I don't know who's in the current media relations department, so I have no way of knowing if they are useful or not. But we ran into the same problem, and all it took was a sit-down with the director. We talked about how we could get more access, what could be made available, etc. In turn, he talked to us about acting like actual reporters, being AT every game (or at least every home game) rather than just regurgitating what came over the fax machine (see how old I am?) Basically we proved that covering our specific teams thoroughly was important, and they became far more helpful.

See, even when I approached Sutton or the assistant SIDs with particular problems, it never changed. They were still avoidant, even in the simplest things like helping me arrange interviews. And it created a real catch-22. If you get the athlete by yourself, the SIDs pitch a fit and threaten to cut off access for not going through them (especially since you're the student paper and not someone they consider it important to maintain relations with). But they wouldn't help you arrange interview time either.

I even heard comments from some athletic department members felt the DC should never write negative/investagative stories about SMU sports. The SIDs never came out and said that, but it was clear they felt the same way.

Right. It's that way at every newspaper in the world. If that's the career you choose, get used to it, and deal with it.

If you're a copy editor it is. But most major papers, and some smaller ones, have completely seperate people for writing, editing and layout. The DC, by and large, does not.

I think the sports staff might be much smaller than it was when you were there too. When I was there, there was me, a sports editor, a maybe another writer once in a while. I couldn't do anything with football (for conflict of interest reasons) and often couldn't get my schedule to work for basketball or some other sports. Journalism students (non-DC employees) and many of the other writers had no interest in covering sports, so if the SE or the few writers didn't have time to get to a story, it didn't get written.

Of course not. But you didn't write about SMU soccer on the CowboysFans website (or whatever media outlet you wrote for), because that's not what the readers were going to that publication to find. I don't want to get on PonyFans and read about Terrell Owens or Avery Johnson or Mike Modano, either. There are legitimate stories about each, but that doesn't make this the right venue for any of them. There's just far too much SMU-related news that can be written.

But that goes up to the problem with the majority of on-campus readership not caring about SMU sports. They care more about TO and Johnson (but not really Modano) than they care about Fall, Bennett and Wideman.

Again, it's not the DC's job to write about SMU sports. It's the DC's job to write about sports people care about on campus, and right now, the most relevant sports on campus are the Mavericks and Cowboys. If you want more coverage in any paper, not jus the DC, then the athletic department needs to make the major-interest sports relevant to students again.

Good thing PonyFans.com is around, then.

Hey, I agree with you there. SMU-specific coverage like ponyfans, right now, is the ideal. I love seeing what you guys dig up now that I'm far-off-campus.

[Stallion]

you have a very odd perspective-of course its the job of the Daily Campus to write about SMU Sports over the Dallas Cowboys. Does the Hillcrest High School Paper have the same dilema too? Didn't think so. That's the difference between the SMU paper and the DMN. All SMU students have interest in activities at SMU. Not all Dallasites have an interest in SMU.

[MrMustang1965]

you have a very odd perspective-of course its the job of the Daily Campus to write about SMU Sports over the Dallas Cowboys. Does the Hillcrest High School Paper have the same dilema too? Didn't think so. That's the difference between the SMU paper and the DMN. All SMU students have interest in activities at SMU. Not all Dallasites have an interest in SMU.

You've got to be kidding?

Kritter: you're a shoo-in for an editor's position at the Bevo Corporation's flagship newspaper with that perspective.

[Peruna2001]

If the football team starts going to bowl games regularly and the basketball team gets to the NIT/NCAAs, or if soccer starts getting any significant student attendence, then the DC have a reason to cover them more. But it's not the DC's job to draw attention to SMU sports.

So...why even have a sports section? I wonder how many students know that we have a #1 soccer team. I'm not sure how often it is reported, but stories get people interested in things. That's why celebrities have PR people. Why do I even know the name Paris Hilton? She's only a celebrity because the press has made her one.

The paper is there to draw attention to anything SMU (including sports).

It's not a journalist's job to let the stories come to them. He/she creates the story. Find an angle that makes it interesting to people. Apparently the DMN has figured that out. There are new stories almost daily about football. On Sunday, there was an article about the new basketball coach. If the DMN can find reasons to print stories about SMU, why can't the DC?