This was forwarded to me by one of my professors regarding ABC News’ recent decision to lay off a number of employees and move toward the use of multi-functioning journalists. The following was written to my professor by Stephen Coon, a former coordinator of the Electronic Media Studies department of the Greenlee School of Journalism:

Although there has been a trend toward using journalists who can report, shoot and edit, the inevitable result is reduced quality and accuracy.

The average viewer might not notice immediately–or even care–but those of us who practice the craft will see the further degradation at all levels.

When local stations and networks choose cost savings at the expense of good journalism, we all suffer.

What does this mean for me?

Should I stop working on my writing, editing, production, and web skills to focus on one area? If so, will I become a better journalist – or will I even have a job?

Furthermore, is this a message our school should be sending? Can we as students be taught to perform in multiple areas of journalism, or are we expected to perform in a “degraded” manner when we graduate just because we’re gaining multiple skills?

Can I be a good writer, a good editor, and a good web developer? Or am I limited by my school to be either mediocre in many areas or good in one area?

Let me know your thoughts.

Editor’s Note: I originally posted this article in the Winter 2009 edition of the Midwest Notes, a publication serving the Midwest district of the national honorary band fraternity Kappa Kappa Psi.

Within every organization, there tends to be driving force for member participation. Whether it’s a common goal or a set of beliefs, each group has a set of factors that inspire its members to work together and accomplish something. Though different, each organization tends to share one thing in particular: a leader charged with inspiring his or her members to do their part. As a brother of the Iota Omega chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi, a brother of a social fraternity (Beta Theta Pi), and a member of other student organizations, I’ve noticed a number of positive and negative leadership traits that impact motivation within a group. The following are a few traits in particular – I hope you can apply these to your own life, wherever you may go:

Tone

As a leader of a group, you’re expected to handle both successes and failures of your organization. It’s important that, as a leader, you set a tone best relates to your members. For example, in my social fraternity, our president is very approachable, easy-going, and comical. I think this approach has been successful for a group that contains a lot of guys from different backgrounds and of distinct personalities. Our president has been always able to share successes and failures with the organization, and he’s been able to hold members accountable for their actions. The fact that he’s set a tone for our organization helps him do exactly what he needs to do as a leader.

Follow Through

On the Iowa State University campus, I serve as the general manager of a student-run television station. In regards to development as a group, the members of the station (which is run as a standard student organization) are not used to a structured system. I’ve been working to increase our awareness on campus and cover more content, and I’ve run into the problem of motivation on a couple occasions. One of those occasions involved getting people rounded up to film a story. There was a great story idea, and I’d told our members the great things about covering this story. But as the weeks went on, I became busy and personally less motivated to follow through with it. Because I stopped organizing the story, the other students involved just let it go, and it was forgotten about. I learned that it’s important for a leader to follow through with motivational exercises, promises, and goals set by him or her in the beginning to create success.

Foster Brotherhood and Sisterhood

Brothers of Kappa Kappa Psi and sisters of Tau Beta Sigma put forth many hours of work each semester with no monetary payment. In fact, most are expected to pay dues for their membership. However, I’ve noticed that as a brother, I’m more motivated to work on a project if I’m doing it as a brother and not as an individual. Service projects and other events are both more meaningful and easier to accomplish when I feel like I’m living out the purposes of my organization with my fellow brothers and sisters. The leaders of my chapter have done a tremendous job of fostering a sense of closeness within our group, and I think it’s safe to say that we all feel like a family when we meet. As a leader, it’s important to keep your members comfortable with one another and to increase their bond with every project or goal that is carried out.

When I come home for Thanksgiving break (or any break for that matter), it always ends up being bittersweet. It’s great to see family and friends after a long time at school, but I get so annoyed sometimes.

Out of “the bag,” I’ve chosen the concept of money as it relates to teenagers. Teenage girls, specifically. I have two younger sisters, 18 an 17 years old. Hannah, the 18-year-old, has a job and is currently going to a community college. Abby, the other one, is a junior in high school and has no job.

Hannah works at a funeral home, where she’s serving as an “intern” because she plans to go to school to be a mortician. She gets plenty of hours, and I think she’s really learned to appreciate the money she receives for her hard and long hours there. Previously, she’s worked at HyVee and didn’t have the greatest experience. She’s since moved to this job.

Abby, however, doesn’t have a job. I recall when I was 16 years old and she was 12 – she’d harass me for not having a job since “all the other kids my age had jobs and I’m not cool like them.” I soon became employed at Fareway and never heard about it again. But now, it seems that she’s at the point where she’s requesting money from my parents all the time (and by requesting, I mean harassing), and not appreciating the fact that they spent time earning that money and that she was probably going to spend it some careless manner.

Today, for example, while my dad was sitting at the computer, Abby spend probably ten to fifteen minutes asking if they could go buy Rock Band, a video game, that sells for nearly $200. My dad, who still gives her some kind of an allowance, repeatedly said it was ridiculous. She persisted for a while before giving up and stomping away. Unfortunately, an incident like this is a pretty calm one.

I think Abby once searched for a job but was turned down and hasn’t tried since then. She refuses to start a new job search or attempt to make money any other way. I also learned that she’s been trying to get Hannah’s boyfriend to buy her alcohol (with who’s money? I ask). Her priorities seem to be a lot different than mine as a junior in high school: no job, money from parents, alcohol vs. job, little money from parents, and not alcohol. But I digress.

Will she get a job and start relying less on my parents? When will she get out of this fantasy “live off of my parents” world? Will it be easy? I don’t know.

In high school, I participated in a class called WCTV. I served as technical director during my senior year and really enjoyed the experience. The program continues to grow, more noticeably on the technical side of things.

WCTV is a student-produced television program operated out of a studio at Webster City High School in Webster City, Iowa. The class recently visited the ITEC conference in Des Moines and broadcasted (tape-to-live) a show in front of a live audience to celebrate their 10th season. They did a great job!

So this is it. The first real post using WordPress. Since it is 1:25 a.m. and I have class at 8:00 a.m. tomorrow, I’ll spare you the time and energy and write a short post.

I live in a dorm room. During the freshman year of my Spring semester at ISU I became quite bored and decided I’d launch an endeavor to learn a little bit more about technology. I decided to purchase a cheap (but new) desktop computer from BestBuy, specifically and e-Machine. I then attained a copy of Windows Server 2003 through the ISU Computer Science department (they offer software to students enrolled in ComSci classes). I then went through the process of installing the server software connecting to the network. All went well, and I purchased the jplhomer.org domain name from GoDaddy.com.

Next, I configured the web server. Of course, I’ve been using IIS for the duration of this site’s existence, and I’d like to port over to Apache as soon as possible. It sounds like I’d get a better appreciation for the file system and structure of a server using the Apache software.
Either way, all went well, again.

I designed a rough draft of a website, using PHP and MySQL. I played around with a blog using AJAX and a back-end administration interface, but found that to be too much work. Early this semester, I discovered the magic of WordPress. I was browsing the Internet for fancy CSS designs when I ran across http://www.webdesignerwall.com and learned that they ran their site completely with WordPress. I hope to do the same.

I plan to publish my resume and written works on other pages of this site. Hopefully, I’ll continue to publish blog entries pertaining to my opinions and other matters of public dispute for which I insist I have a voice. That’s all for now!