Newsroom's Exclusivity Intrigues Students
By Nathan Shapiro Sprinkles of flurries tumble to the ground one afternoon just as classes let out and students shuffle between buildings past the east side of the library. Even in their haste, many take the time to look up at the scrolling text ticker or the flat screen panels playing cable news that adorn the windows of the School of Journalism's “Newsroom of the Future.” As darkness settles on the steps between the library and Staller Center, the humming green glow of the newsroom’s marquee and the subdued lights through its glass-faced wall draws the eyes of on-lookers. But even with its prominence on the academic mall, this beacon in the night remains a mystery to many on campus waiting to be unraveled. “I don’t know anything about it. I know it’s new,” says senior Michael Herman, a history major and political science minor. “I follow politics all the time so that’s why I look at the screens. I like it -- I think it’s a good addition.” Herman says he would like to see more of the newsroom up close. He probably won’t get the chance, because its use is strictly limited to journalism majors, minors and to those students whose classes take place there. “The school of journalism raised the money to pay for this facility and it was specifically built for the School of Journalism,” says Marcy McGinnis, the school’s associate dean. “We were interested in having a facility that would teach journalism students how to be journalists,” and not be another SINC site, she says. If the doors were opened to students en masse, McGinnis predicts that “it would be packed to the rafters and all of a sudden the students we built it for would be pushed out.” Gabrielle Robergeau, 21, a senior journalism major, makes the most out of the newsroom as she can outside of class. She uses the Mac computers and their software, such as Photoshop and Final Cut Pro, to work on her online magazine, The Pearl. Robergeau says she appreciates the solitude from the rest of the campus’ non-journalism students. “If it were to be open to non-journalism students, I’d be worried about the problem of availability and the problem of accountability,” she says. “Would they be as careful with the equipment? They don’t care if they mess it up, in my opinion.” Among journalism students alone, newsroom workspace is tight. The growth of the program has led to the upstairs of the newsroom that contains most of the computers to be used solidly from 8 a.m. until 10 p.m. four days a week. “We’re already hitting a wall where students are having a tough time working on their projects,” says McGinnis. “I wish I could have five of these things around campus, but you know how expensive this was and it’s just not possible.” McGinnis says the total cost of the newsroom was $1.3 million. To accommodate the growth in the program, the school is moving classes that do not need the equipment and software of the newsroom to other facilities and computer sites on campus, like Earth, Space and Sciences. They hope to have fewer courses in the newsroom by fall 2008 to allow students to use it more outside of class time. The next round of facilities development for the School of Journalism is a broadcast media center in the ECC building. It may alleviate some of the newsroom’s capacity problems by including workstations in the anchor studio, like those seen in many professional studios. But this plan is subject to fund raising and technical issues, such as connecting the workstations to the main journalism server in the newsroom. Even if the newsroom itself is restricted to journalism students, it’s not meant to be a well-kept secret. “One of the reasons that we wanted to do it in the center of campus and I added the extra ‘bells and whistles’ like the ticker and the TVs was to bring attention to it,” says McGinnis. “Our goal is to grab those students who don’t even know they have an interest in journalism,” Standing outside in the chilly air, Michael Herman looks toward the newsroom. “If they had something like that I first came here, I probably would have majored in journalism,” he says. |
Funny thing about that, I
Funny thing about that, I think the newsroom and the all activities that go on there have actually driven me away from journalism, the opposite effect Marcy had hoped for. Anyway, good story.