Remember to be professional

Many times it seems as though a scholarship job or a part-time job during college doesn’t matter. We work our way through four years slaving away in front of a grill or pouring beers or sitting at a desk for a professor or administrator. It isn’t our dream to do those jobs forever. So sometimes we treat them as a joke.

That is a huge mistake.

At the Index, we are always hiring. Always. Partly because we want everyone to have a chance to work here and get experience if they are passionate. But the biggest reason we are always hiring is because people are always quitting. And at the most frustrating times. Or, people take on a job and decide halfway through that they don’t want to continue. Or they don’t do their jobs and we are forced to get along without that person. We don’t like to do it, but we have fired staffers and editors before.

Sometimes staffers just don’t enjoy the work. Sometimes they have too many commitments. Sometimes they figure out they don’t like the job. Sometimes they are just lazy. So often times a staffer will quit. The trouble is, often times that person quits about an hour before their story is due. Or they quit after getting an assignment, hoping or praying we won’t make that person finish it.

What those people don’t think about is that we have to make up for that work. We run a 20-page paper every week. We have the same amount of space to fill every week. We have to cover the news every week. So when a reporter or photographer or editor quits, the rest of the staff is responsible for picking up the slack. And an hour before a story is due is a difficult time to give the assignment to someone else. But that is what we have to do.

I understand some reasons for quitting a job. I do. But what I cannot understand is that employees think it is appropriate to quit when that person knows we are counting on them for a story or an ad or whatever. Because this isn’t a game, it isn’t a club. Working at the Index is a real job. And as such, the Index deserves our respect.

Finish a task you are assigned, give appropriate notice. Be kind and considerate to your fellow coworkers. Not just on the Index staff, but for any job you do. Be mature. Otherwise, I really do think there are consequences to leaving a job the wrong way. You miss out on a reference, a positive letter of recommendation and the trust and respect of your coworkers. Like many jobs on campus, here we are all friends. There is nothing worse than letting your friends down at the last second or when they need help the most.

Just remember that no matter how small or insignificant a job might seem to you, that job could get you hired somewhere else if you put in the time. Give respect and remember that your actions have consequences.

 

Keep on readin’

Brenna

HvZ: The Aftermath

News Editor Andrea Hewitt, who wrote last week’s story about HvZ, asked to use the editor’s blog as a place to discuss why the Index chose to run a story about HvZ. We received quite a bit of backlash about the story, hopefully this will help to clear up any concerns about why we thought it was newsworty.

Let me start out by saying this isn’t an apology or retraction. I’m not sorry about how HvZ was covered in the last edition of the Index. I’m writing this to clarify why I decided to run an HvZ story and why I chose that angle. The job of assigning stories falls on the assistant news editor Dan Warner and myself. Each week, we sift through potential story ideas and decide what we want to cover based on some criteria ­— the main question we consider being “Is this newsworthy?”

As you all know, HvZ is played once a semester. The newsworthiness is not the fact that it’s happening. People already know it’s happening, or can assume it is by the fact that hundreds of students are running around campus with nerf guns and bandanas wrapped around their head/arm. The newsworthiness exists in three main points, which I think are laid out clearly in my article,

1. The two incidents that happened

2. HvZ is trying to become an organization and the risk management concerns with a game where hundreds of college students are running all over campus

3. HvZ is holding an invitational at Truman April 2.

This isn’t a community bulletin where your mom submits clips about how great you ran a game of tag on campus. I’m not your mom. My goal as news editor is to inform readers of community and campus news with the most accurate information available and without bias. I didn’t include any commentary on HvZ. I have no personal vendetta with the game. If I wasn’t in the newsroom 20 to 30 hours a week, I’d consider strapping on a bandana and rolling up some socks.

Look guys, I’m not mad that 7 to 8 percent of the student body is probably egging my house right now. We’re not so different. Journalism is my passion much like HvZ is many of our readers’ passion. I’m just reporting the facts, not trying to break your spirits.

One last thing: Thanks for the feedback. I don’t want to speak for all the editors, but feedback, negative or positive, is a well enjoyed at the ‘Dex. Talk to me if you feel you’ve been wronged by an article. We are eager to talk with you about editorial decisions we make. Let’s keep the lines of communication open.

Andrea

Election coverage analysis – what a night!

This fall 2010 has been a busy one for the Index. Well, pretty much any news outlet in the country — it was election season. And we had been prepping all semester for our Nov. 2 live coverage of local and state elections. Tuesday was quite a hectic night.

On top of putting together our usual 20 pages of content, we were developing a special basketball preview section and covering election results (in nearly real time!).

Now, the Index doesn’t do much real time coverage. Even breaking news takes some time to get out to the masses — and we don’t just shovel breaking news onto the website without thoroughly editing it first. But this was as real-time as the Index has ever been. Reporter Kaitlin Davis, who was stationed at the Adair County Courthouse throughout the night, brought the election results packet back to the office around 9 p.m. From that point on, we were updating results from that packet and from state-wide election results found on the Secretary of State website, for a good two hours.

It was an adrenaline filled evening, and my first experience with live coverage of an event. Here are some things I learned from our 2010 Election Day coverage.

1. You better be 100 percent sure.We didn’t have time to carefully step through each line of the results packet we received. We had to quickly and accurately interpret hundreds of statistics crammed into 20 pages. Myself or our News Editor Andrea Hewitt would read off results, type them into a Google Doc, and our Online Editor Patrick Gross updated the website with our around 40-word updates. This happened every few minutes for about two hours. And we didn’t have the option of being wrong. We had to be sure that what we told Patrick was absolutely correct — otherwise hundreds of people would read incorrect information before we realized it needed to be changed — and the last thing we want to do is misinform people.

2. You better be willing to run, not walk. We worked with News 36 and KTRM throughout the night, and several times I sprinted down the halls of Barnett to their offices, trying to figure out which outlet had live interviews with candidates, confirming things sources had announced live on air before placing it on the Index website and sharing information with them as it was passed along to us. And that is part of live coverage in any medium. I burned my calories that night, and it paid off. We caught some amazing quotes from candidates interviewed on-air, because we knew when they would be on. It also helped because our reporters roaming about weren’t able t talk to all the candidates that night.

3. Sharing can be good — but be sure you trust the middle man. Because of our small staff and our inability to be everywhere at once (especially because all editors had to be in the office to put together our normal print edition), we did receive some information from News 36 and KTRM. However, as we were listening to a live phone interview with candidate for the Missouri Senate District 18 race Brian Munzlinger, I thought I heard him say that incumbent Wes Shoemyer had called and conceded to Munzlinger. However, I had been doing about 1oo things at one time and wanted to be certain I’d heard what I thought I’d heard. So I sprinted down the hall to the radio station to get a confirmation from someone who had been working in their control room. Unfortunately, no one in the KTRM office had been listening to the interview. I felt frustrated that I couldn’t get a confirmation right away, since there were at least three people in KTRM while the interview was happening, but I realized it is also important not to rely on other news sources for information. We heard the confirmation later, but I wish I could’ve gotten it then and there.

 

I’d say overall the coverage went smoothly. I’m happy with how hard everyone on staff worked last week, and while I’m grateful every week isn’t election week (phew!), it was an exciting night.

Hope that is an interesting peek into a crazed night at the Dex.

Keep on readin’,

Brenna

Election Coverage 2010!

Check out our Election coverage tomorrow and Wednesday! We’ll have results, analysis, photos and lots of fun!

www.trumanindex.com

Also check out News36 and KTRM 88.7 from 8 – 10 p.m. There will be special guests, political analysts and candidate interviews.

Make sure and vote tomorrow!

Keep on readin’,

Brenna

All eyes on: The ‘Dexers

I want to use this opportunity to tell you all a little bit more about what we do at the Index. As a staff, we often find the community has many misconceptions about us, and what we do. I’d like to give you the opportunity to learn a little bit more about us, and hopefully, clarify some questions we often hear from readers.

First, when we say we are a student-produced newspaper, we mean it. Every single aspect of our paper, from writing stories to designing to selling ads to making all the tough decisions that a business, espcially a newspaper, has to. We do it all.

Professors are not included in our day to day operations. Our adviser, communications professor Don Krause, does just what his title implies. He advises. We come to him for advice, for answers to hypothetical situations or his opinion on an ethical issues — but he doesn’t make any of those decisions. He doesn’t stand over our shoulders and tell us when something is wrong. He doesn’t do a final edit on the paper before it goes to print. In fact, he doesnt see the paper before it goes to print. We don’t want him to. We don’t want any control over the product we put out 28 times a year. And he’d rather stay out of the process as well.

So when we say we are student produced, we mean it. Absolutely, 100 percent student produced. And thats the way we want it.

That means that sometimes, we make mistakes. Bone-headed mistakes. We try to keep them from happening as much as possible, but we aren’t perfect and we aren’t professionals. But we hold ourselves to a very high standard, just like we have for the past 102 years. And hopefully we will for another 102 years.

Second, because we are entirely student produced, we all (about 65 part-time and full-time employees) juggle a lot. We’re mostly all full-time students. So along with our 12-17 credit hours, homework and social lives, we work anywhere from 5 to 50 hours a week for the Index (the hours of a reporter writing one story a week to the editor in chief, me). Don’t feel sorry for us, we love it. This isn’t about me telling you our sob story. We just want the community to understand us a little better.

Because of the crazy hours we work on top of our Index duties, we work at odd hours. Monday – Wednesday, most of us arrive in the office for production around 5 p.m. We leave (depending on our respective jobs) anywhere from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. So our hours can be wonky. So our business hours have to be adjusted because of our lives as students. We can’t work 9-5. And sometime that frustrates people who try to get in touch with us. We aren’t dissing you, we aren’t ignoring you. We just operate on a very different work schedule. If you’ve tried many times to get in touch with us to no avail, you can email me at index.editor@gmail.com. Just know that we want you to call us, email us or smokescreen us. We’re just extremely busy kids, trying to balance life with work with school. And sometimes we are able to fit some sleep in there.

That is just a small peek into the world of the Index. What we do, who we are, and why sometimes you might only get a voicemail here at the office. Know that we really love what we do, bringing the news to you 28 times a year. We just want you to know a little bit more about us.

Keep trying to get in touch with us.

Call us – Index office – 660.785.4449, Index ad line – 660.785.4319

E-mail us – index.editor@gmail.com, indextips@gmail.com (see “about” at www.trumanindex.com for the e-mail addresses of other editors)

*if these don’t get a response, you can e-mail me personally at brennamcdermott11@gmail.com.

And as always, keep on readin’.

-Brenna

Balancing campus and community coverage

Hi all,

As a student-produced newspaper, obviously campus activities and news is important to us. We, reporters and editors alike, think it is vital to let our fellow students what is going on around campus. We take that job very seriously. We try to cover where your money is going, who is leading you, any changes to academic or student life and anything else we think you would want to know.

But there is a second responsibility we feel. We think we owe it to our community readers to cover Kirksville life and goings on. Crime, City Council, new businesses, and recognized individuals throughout Adair County. We want to cover all of this for you, our non-Truman readers.

So how do we balance between the two?

We don’t want to favor one or the other. Yes, we are first and foremost Truman students. But I hear from the community. There are many Northeast Missourians who tell me they read US first. We listen when we hear things like that. So we do our best to balance.

On Monday nights, myself, Managing Editor Jack Nicholl, News Editor Andrea Hewitt, Assistant News Editor Dan Warner and Design Chief Sarah Schneider meet to talk about the layout of the news section for that week’s edition. One of the things we take into consideration is balancing news front with community and campus issues. We think about what YOU, the readers, whether students or residents, will want to know about. And we try to give you the best of both worlds.

So, if you don’t agree with the way we prioritize news, please let us know. We do our best to give you the most important news right away. We do our best to balance. We’ll keep doing our best.

Thanks, and keep reading.

Brenna

TruLife expands coverage

You might notice something different about TruLife this year: We’re moving outside of our comfort zone!

That’s right, we’re making every effort to expand our feature writing to things we aren’t directly connected to.

When Features Editor, Blaise Hart-Schmidt, and I sat down to discuss the direction we see TruLife heading, we both agreed that too many stories that had been written in the past were tired, used and overused. How many stories about happy couples on Valentine’s Day can someone read? How many times do we need to write a feature about the same old club on campus?

We wanted our features to be more focused on people, expand beyond the borders of Truman and take more risks.

The purpose of a feature is to tell a story. It’s a chance to be creative. And what is more interesting than people? This week, you’ll find a piece on professor of photography Priya Kambli. She has a history of living in two cultures, two worlds and we told the story of her photography book, which takes those two worlds and merges them through her photography.

We’ve made a significant effort to move outside of the borders of Truman campus and Kirksville. Check out our coverage of LaPlata’s Possibility Alliance this week, or last week’s story about the new acupuncturist outside of Kirksville.

We’re also taking risk. That same acupuncture story took one reporter into the world of Eastern medicine. She experienced those needles in her hands and feet first-hand. Yet still wrote an objective story on Eastern medicine in Kirksville.

We’re taking chances, we’re trying to be more creative. What do you think about our TruLife content this year? Do you see an improvement? Is there something you’d like to see covered?

Please let us know. And as always, keep on readin’.

Index website redesigned – for you!

www.trumanindex.com

Check ot our redesigned website!

Myself, Managing Editor Jack Nicholl and Online Editor Patrick Gross sat down last April to discuss a complete overhaul of the Index’s website.

We took many things into consideration when we sketched our dream website.

First, we wanted our website to look better. The previous website was bland. No color, small fonts and a boring look overall. So we’ve thrown in some color, emphasized our featured stories a little more and made some important things ‘pop’ a little more, such as our Editor, Photo and Sports blogs.

Second, we wanted our website to be more readable. The previous website was difficult to take in at once. Seeing all the top stories meant scrolling down what felt like a mile to see the News, TruLife and Sports main stories. We’ve implemented a dandy flash-screen up top on our new website. On it, you’ll see the main stories from each section, along with a multimedia project or a fourth story to go on the fourth screen. It’s much better than scrolling down to take each photo in.

Third, we wanted our website to be easily accesible. The former website’s tabs made things difficult to peruse. Now, our tabs will have options. Want to read about the women’s basketball team only? Click on our women’s basketball tab. Want to subscribe to the print edition of the Index? There’s a tab for that, too. Searching the archives of sections will be easier, too. Want to know what’s been going on in TruLife for the past few weeks? All of TruLife’s stories will appear under the ‘TruLife” tab.

We are pretty happy with the switch we’ve made. But, in the end, it doesn’t matter as much what we think about the new website as it does what YOU think about the new website. So please let us know. We want to know what you like, what you don’t like and everything in between. You can email us at indextips@gmail.com, comment on our website or you can email me personally at bmm5242@truman.edu.

We hope this redesign will make your Index online viewing easier. And we hope you’ll keep coming back to see it!

Brenna

Index athlete of the week designed to spotlight as many athletes as possible

By Blake Toppmeyer

Having worked for the Index sports section for three years and now continuing to do some reporting for the sports section, I know there is always some questioning by those in the athletics department about how the Index chooses its Athlete of the Week.

In short, the Index selects an athlete each week, profiles them and highlights their accomplishments from the previous weekend. The Index sports editor and assistant sports editor collaborate to make the decision.

No athlete can receive the honor more than once in each academic year. There are 28 Index issues each year, and thus, 28 athletes are profiled. The Index chooses to do this so we spotlight as many athletes as possible.

If the Index allowed an athlete to win multiple times, it would probably just end up being a circulation between volleyball’s Megan Sharpe, women’s soccer’s Olivia Hayes, women’s swimming’s Kate Aherne and women’s track’s Katrina Biermann. Those athletes dominate nearly every time out.

For instance, in the March 18 edition, the Index profiled junior swimmer Julia Jones with the athlete of the week story. Jones had a standout meet at swimming nationals, claiming four individual top-12 finishes. Still, Jones didn’t have the meet that Aherne had – she won her third straight national title in the 200-yard individual medley and finished in the top three of three other individual events.

But Aherne was getting her own story on the front page of sports. And Biermann, who won the pole vault national title the preceding weekend,  already had been selected as Index athlete of the week earlier in the season. So Jones got the nod. She was a worthy choice and it provided the Index a chance to spotlight three athletes — Aherne, Biermann and Jones — in the same edition, instead of just the two national champions.

Preparation key to writing on deadline

By Blake Toppmeyer

We don’t get many opportunities for deadline writing at the Index. The sports section always covers Wednesday night basketball games, which pushes reporters against deadline for our Thursday edition, and sometimes there will be a major news story that occurs Wednesday and we work it into the news section. But for the most part, as a weekly publication, our reporters have at least a day’s time to work on their stories.

The sentencing for former Kirksville attorney Thomas Oswald last Wednesday posed a deadline writing scenario. Oswald’s sentencing occurred at 4 p.m. This would require a quick turnaround under any circumstances, but making it more difficult was that Oswald was sentenced in the Lafayette County Courthouse, more than two hours away from Kirksville. So attending the sentencing in person was out of the question.

Still, this normally wouldn’t be a major problem because reporters can get sentencing results by calling the circuit clerk. But Oswald’s late afternoon sentencing butted right against the courthouse’s closing time of 4:30 p.m.

Thus, preparation — which is always important in deadline writing — was even more important for the Oswald story. I wrote the story, and on Tuesday I wrote a story shell — a general outline for the story that can be written even before the sentencing result was announced. In the shell, I included context of the case, including information on when Oswald entered his guilty plea and the details of his arrest. Every story is going to have context, and a reporter need not wait for sentencing results to write the context.

I also wrote the lead to the story in advance, leaving a space for the sentencing results. Basically, the sentencing results and any explanation or additional information on the sentencing was the only information that needed to be added. The story wasn’t long. It ran about eight inches, and I probably had six inches written in advance before the sentencing was announced.

Also on Tuesday, I called the Lafayette courthouse and the Attorney General’s Office, which was prosecuting the case, and told them I would be trying to attain sentencing results Wednesday. Nanci Gonder, press secretary for the Attorney General’s Office, told me she would get in touch with Assistant Attorney General Liz Bock, who was handling the case for the prosecution, and e-mail the results to me.

Luckily, she did, because when I called courthouse, the court clerks did not have the result before the court closed at 4:30 p.m.

In the end, the story turned out OK, and it was finished in plenty of time. But preparation and writing much of the story in advance was essential to meeting deadline.