Chapter 1,2,3, 6

Chapter 1-3


Mythmaking

Guidelines for report: page 3

Student press that is relevant to its campus makes service its ideal purpose
A self regulated student press is a free student press.
A responsible student press should reasonably be expected to maintain a level of professional performance and ethics pertinent to its purpose and restricted by its resources.
Financial independence is a cornerstone of true freedom and responsibility of the student press.
The role of the student press advisor is to help students to transfer their theories to practice.
The free student press is free to all who have something worth saying.
This was not adopted by the College Media advisors, but I like it.


On page 8 the author notes that because college journals and journalists have been treated as miniatures of the real thing, they have behaved that way. If the matter [of obscenity etc] was approached in a more mature and professional manner by the institution (OR STUDENT GOVERNMENT) the college journalists would respond in kind.

Advertising produces considerable revenue for most colleges. Page 9 Hopefully Katie will get on the ball this year. I really need someone to show her all the ropes. No one ever showed me and we just called all advertisers last spring and told them about our situation and that we would contact them in the fall... I am clueless in that department.


On page 10 The University is not legally the publisher of a campus paper, the paper cannot be censored, student editors cannot be summarily dismissed for their writings and the courts’ ruling of libel and obscenity for the general, commercial press apply to the college press also.

Administrators cannot require prior submission to an advisory board and that college officials cannot censor expression they dislike. Page 12

“The mere dissemination of ideas-no matter now offensive to good taste- on a state university campus may not be shut off in the name alone of ‘conventions of decency’” page 13 What about private?


The student editor makes an editorial judgment on the choice of materials to go into the newspaper. It said the editor’s refusal to run the advertisement was not government action, and therefore the first amendment prohibited judicial interference with the decision of an editor. Page 13

Chapter 2 Independence

Out of the 26 listed points for “independence” from the school, The Triton does #14, and #15

The Triton does not contain ECKERD in it and we have subscriptions to parents, alumni, ASPEC, trustees etc. Not many newspapers are completely independent. Complete independence removes the institution form responsibility for the student paper. Page 19

The author says on page 18 that a prescription for independence would mean reliance on advertisers, those who appeal to mass markets. Few editors think their paper is for mass audiences. Most are specialty papers aimed at college students.

Page 21 Journalism departments should be ready to provide practical advice to student papers whenever the papers want it.

The commission requested that an autumn professional journalist seminar be held for student editors and that skilled newspaper experts be brought in to discuss reporting, editing and other journalistic techniques. Page 21 We should see how much it would cost to bring in people from the Poynter institute…


On page 30 there is an indented section in the code for the Michigan Daily. I think something like this needs to be included in our bylaws. I have only seen the by laws once. Maybe we need to reexamine them.

On page 33, there is an instance where the student government voted “no confidence” in the student editor and went to the board to have him fired. The board turned down the senate, but could have fired the editor. IF and when we get out of the ECOS side of things, can they do a similar thing?
On page 38 The ideal situation in both public and private colleges is the establishment and maintenance of an atmosphere of freedom of expression for student publications.

Most colleges that claim they are independent, are not according to the guidelines at the beginning the chapter. They have a faculty advisor, don’t pay rent for their space, use student fees, use college equipment etc. It would be very difficult for the Triton or any other small private college paper to be fully independent. Very few student newspapers are truly independent.

The question is do you really want to be fully independent? I think that the Triton needs to be independent of the student government, but still be a college newspaper, by the students for the students, with student activity money, NOT allocated by ECOS to ensure our freedom as the press and freedom of expression.

Chapter 3
Funding…oh boy

Student activity fees should be used for the paper.

On page 46 some student s sued their college for using student money to fund the paper. They disagreed with its contents and wanted their money pulled out. The paper could not run without student funds and so the paper shut down. EEK hope this never happens.

P 47 There is no legal, philosophical, or practical reason not to allocate student fee monies to the campus press. Use of the student money for a well-written well-edited, reasonable and intelligent campus newspaper is a positive way to provide for freedom of expression and effective communications in an ongoing and stable manner. This is educational achievement. I LIKE THIS.

Advertising is going to be very important this year, especially with the budget cut. Man, some of the campus papers get over 100,000 dollars to function. JEALOUS! We are at 18,000.

The author makes a really good point on page 57 saying that in the past 20 years publications have been weakened because administrative and student gov’t officers disagree with contents of the paper, and the money “would be convenient in other places” Budgeting officials should understand the need for adequate and stable financing of student publications. (But they don’t, or they do and they want to see us squirm)



Chapter 6

Publisher

College papers seem to be confused about whom or what is the publisher of the paper. In Eckerd’s case, the publisher is the College, and if a person needs to be named it is the head of the college, President Eastman.
The student government is not the publisher.

A lot of colleges seem to confuse publishing and printing. Our printer is NPC Newspaper Printing Company in Tampa, and I have final say before it is PDFed there.

On page 93 the author says that the college can not be considered a publisher, but a publishing agency. A publisher is an individual who performs management functions for the owners of the publishing company or agency. Some colleges have not designated anyone to perform these functions.

On page 94 the authors says that since the student staff controls content, it, in effect, under the leadership of the student editor (me), serves as publisher, even if the university provides advice, technical help or financial assistance. I think this should be written somewhere. So when we get the board up and running, will the board be the publishing agency and the staff is the publishers?