Weekly Update

I was lucky because this past week was insanely busy for me, and coincidentally, right now I'm waiting on the DJs to fill out the Google doc we made on their information. So, this next week I'm planning on compiling that information and putting it into a good format on the website. I'm also waiting on information from my group that they'd like to put on the site like they proposed last week. Currently, only one person has, so I'll remind them in class tomorrow. I'm waiting on a few more responses from people so that I can decide how I want to organize the information and put it on the site. This week will be busy for me trying to make the site better and putting all of this information on it!

Weekly Reading (2)

Victoria’s Network, or VICNET, is a network that provides the state of Victoria in Australia with a sophisticated and unique information infrastructure. It was described to be like a “shopping mall” for information, products, and services in a user-friendly, non-threatening environment. It is usable for the entire family, so everyone can “shop” for information. I think it would be great to have a site with everything right there in front of us. It would be interesting to see people’s reactions to the site if the US were ever to do something like this – maybe they wouldn’t see a need for it since there are multiple search engines, like Google or Bing, that can answer your question quickly. In making a network/site, it is difficult to please everyone and give everyone what they want, but in this situation, it seems as though there is something for everyone, which doesn’t happen often!

Weekly Reading (1)

After learning about convergence in Filak and Miller’s article, “College Media and Convergence,” I believe that the different campus media outlets have their own separate entities, so much so that they wouldn’t be able to converge. This was somewhat supported in the results that showed the different students’ thinking. If a newspaper student thinks much differently on the subject of convergence than a television student, I don’t think they would mesh very well. It could be possible if they were all working towards a common goal, but otherwise, I don’t think it would be good to converge. I’m sure they could learn to bounce ideas off each other in a constructive manner if they really wanted to mix, but I don’t think it’s a big deal if they don’t want to. I think that a big part of being a part of an organization is wanting to be a member and being passionate about it, so why converge when you’re only passionate about one campus media outlet?

Weekly Updates

On Wednesday, John and I met with Nick G to figure out how to fuse the two WPRK sites together. In order to do so, we've created a Google doc that will be embedded into the site that shows playlists, which will eliminate wprkdj.org. The DJs already have to document what they play and when they play it, so putting it into a Google doc will make it easy for them. We also had the idea that maybe in the future it should be a requirement that at least 5 DJs should do 1 post per month (or week) on the blog about music or concerts to up activity and traffic. As part of my personal project and getting the info on the DJs on the site, since neither John nor I had heard back from anyone about that info, we decided to take the initiative and get the information ourselves. We created a template that the DJs can fill out, so hopefully I'll get that information on the site within the next week.

Weekly Updates

I tried to focus on getting the information on the DJs and WPRK staff since that's a huge part of my personal project. I had emailed KC twice this week, once on Tuesday, and once on Saturday, to try to get this information since she said she had it, but so far, no response yet. On Tuesday, she emailed me the DJ's schedules, which is now on the site for everyone to see. If she doesn't email me back within the next couple of days, I'm going to contact the DJs personally and ask for their information so I can put it on the site within the next two weeks. Also, John and I are hopefully meeting with Nick G this week to fuse the two WPRK sites together and see what else we need to do for the site so it can be successful. We are also hoping to start a custom template, so I've been perusing other college's campus media sites to get a feel for what it maybe should look like.

Weekly Reading

In "Community Outreach Strategies," there were 7 main points that focused on how to connect with the community: sponsor a community event, help a charity, start a community dialogue, hold a contest or competition, choose a guest editor from the community, form a partnership with a business, and appear at media sales events. Especially for WPRK, I think it would be great and fairly easy to start a community dialogue. Since members of the community make up a lot of the listeners, we could talk about community issues on the air, while still keeping some boundaries. It would be a great way to get the community more involved and not just be listeners, but also participate in the dialogue and spark some action.

I think we could also get some positive publicity by helping a charity. Since we are tight on money in the first place, we could do something as simple as community service. This will publicize our name and portray us in a positive light.

Weekly Updates

This week, I have been focused on finding information on the DJs and WPRK staff and also trying new layouts. I spoke with KC in person last Monday about giving me the information she has on the DJs, so hopefully that will be sent to me soon so I can put it on the site. I have also been talking to John about changing our layout, which we've been thinking about for the past few weeks. There needs to be something more special about the layout, so he's going to talk to someone about possibly making a customized layout this week so that we can get started with that. This weekend was the 60th anniversary, and we were able to put a live video stream for the concert on the site. At one point, there were about 2,000 viewers! We're going to be talking to the man who set up the camera about how to set up a live video stream in the station so viewers can watch what's happening inside the station.

Weekly Reading

One of the things that struck me most about this chapter was the complaint on the first page about how the station is "reluctant to air politically progressive programming in order to accommodate conservative listeners and local business interests." In the rest of the article, I learned that WFHB's 'motto' was how it is "community radio." Even though Bloomington was described as a more conservative town, it is important to reach the interests of the community members, especially with such a slogan as "community radio." How can it be considered "community radio" when it only rings home with specific target listeners? This was interesting to me since WPRK's slogan is "the best in basement radio" - should we choose a slogan that is more relating to our listeners? Or, is the goal of that slogan to get the listeners to connect with us? Or, is it trying to leave the theme open so that WPRK doesn't have to stick to one genre or one target audience? Whatever the answer may be, that might be something more to explore.

Throughout this chapter, it demonstrated how much effort it takes to make and keep up a radio station. It's amazing WPRK has made it to 60 years, and I think after this class and hopefully after the campus gets more involved, it will have many more years on the air. I would love to hear how WPRK came about and how long it actually took for it to become an actual radio station.

Weekly Updates

This week, I feel like I was very proactive with the site! On Monday, I emailed Lauren Silvestri about getting the info on WPRK staff and DJs so that they could be featured on the web page. She directed me to KC Korge and Jake Pontius who apparently already have all of the information. What I'm looking to have for each person is their name, year of graduation, home town, position, what drew them to WPRK, and a fun fact. I feel that that information will help us to get to know a bit about the staff/DJs. If they didn't have the information already, I offered to print out a simple survey so that the members of WPRK can write their info on the page. I would be more than happy to do that, but since I already hear that they have the information, I'm waiting on a response from them (John and I have both asked and emailed multiple times).

I have also looked at other school's radio sites to get an idea of what we can strive to be. One of the sites that a WPRK member said they liked was DePaul's site (radio.depaul.edu) because of the fact that anyone who visits the site can listen live. I fixed that by adding a Tune In link in the menu to a live feed of what WPRK is playing now! I also added a "Meet the Staff and DJs" page on the site and added info about sharing your opinion so that students can start sending in their favorite song, review of a concert, etc. I'm finding out if WPRK already has an email address or not so that students can send their opinions to that before it's posted on the site, or if I need to make one. I'm also in the process of looking for a new theme because I think we can do better than the one we currently have!

Weekly Readings

I always find it difficult to gain volunteers, especially with an organization like campus media. I think that people don’t want to volunteer or join these groups because of the time commitment or they feel that they wouldn’t be able to give an adequate amount of time to the organization. Being a leader in an on campus organization, one of the best practices I have found to help gain volunteers is to recognize those people through the process and make sure they know they are appreciated. Another best practice I have realized is to give someone a project that they can start from the ground up and it becomes like their “baby” in the sense that now they want to see this organization succeed even more since they have invested their time so much. These are definitely practices that I think we should use when trying to bring others in to help with campus media!

Weekly Update

This week John and I did a lot with the site. Our goal was to have it at least up and running by alumni weekend and we accomplished that! I helped with the lay out and also by fixing the front page so it doesn't say "Page Not Found." I put a 60th anniversary pdf on the front page and also fixed the Facebook widget so that it went to the correct Facebook page. I also fixed the Facebook page to be linked to the correct WPRK site. I have been trying to attend the WPRK team meetings but it is always during my internship, so I asked Lauren if I could be put on their email list. So, now I'm aware of what goes on in their meetings since I can't attend!

Weekly Updates

This week, John and I worked together to get the website on it's feet. We're still in the process of choosing the best theme for the background/template. He's going to talk to Clark and see if we can make our own custom layout/theme to make viewers more interested and make the overall appearance better. I had asked John when the WPRK weekly meeting is, and it turns out it's either Tuesdays or Thursdays during common hour, and I happen to have my internship starting at 12 both of those days. Hopefully he'll keep me informed about what goes on in those meetings so that I can help with new ideas and bettering the website.

Weekly Updates

Since it was spring break, I didn't do too much in regards to the site. However, what I did do was create my own WordPress account and become an admin to the WPRK site. I also looked around the actual WordPress site and went through the "set up" steps about how to make sure your WordPress account can be the best it can. This week, my group and I will be doing more toward our campus outreach goal and I will be working with John to do more to the site, especially since we have a big WPRK event coming up in April.

Weekly Readings

After reading Filak and Reinardy's article "College Newspaper Advisers, Controversial Topics, and Willingness to Self-Censor," I thought a lot about the Sandspur's article controversy over the past couple of years. The results of the study on sex was consistent with a Sandspur article several years ago that Dr. Tillmann made my CMC200 class aware of last year. I can see why sex would be a more uncomfortable topic since it is not at the point where it is freely discussed among students, professors, parents, administrators, etc. Maybe one day it could get to that point, but I don’t believe it is there yet.
I was also thinking that the study should have included “race” and “racial topics” since that was the main controversy surrounding an article last year as well. I personally don’t think such controversial topics should be discussed, even though it grabs readers’ attention. I think that there is a way to go about choosing article topics while still remaining “neutral” in the sense that no one’s feelings should be hurt by it.

Weekly Updates

This week, I focused on learning WordPress. Simple things like watching tutorials and just fooling around with the program truly helps. I also checked in with John Berggren, since we're basically a team, and he said that he's stopping by Nick G's office tomorrow to see when we can start editing and bettering the site. I'd really like to start on it!! We especially want to start editing the site since the big WPRK event is coming up. This past week, I promoted the survey my group created by sending it to the members of organizations I'm in and posting it on my Facebook page. I would really like to get more opinions from students about the site so we can give them what they want. Also, in compiling the presentation for campus outreach, my group and I will definitely need to promote everything on our sites.

Weekly Reading

Ronald P. Addington's article, "You're Fired!" discusses the different methods of evaluating staff members' performances at their jobs in media organizations. This was very new to me because I have never been fired, nor have I had to fire anyone before. It was good for me to learn these things because I was not familiar with the Code of Ethics manual, yet I can imagine the different reasons why people would be fired.

My organization, WPRK, seems to have a set staff of directors and DJs. I am unsure if they have a staff manual, but they definitely should. Even though we are a smaller school, I think that there should be some of this staff manual taken from ideas and structures that have worked at larger schools. In having these staff members agree to these set rules, they will hopefully follow them and not be confused about their specific role in the organization, which will lead to a stronger, more participatory organization. I think that if members do not follow those specific rules that are in place, there should be some sort of repercussions and set fair-play procedure guidelines to follow in order to approach the situation properly.

Weekly Updates

I used this week more for preparation than anything. I have been preparing for adjusting the website by looking at other schools' radio websites to see what we can do to better ours. I have also been working more with WordPress at my internship which will definitely help when John and I begin to edit the site. This week, I am going to watch tutorials about WordPress and hopefully analyze the survey data that we sent out last week. I would also like to do more with that by posting the survey on Facebook and by asking people in my organizations to take the survey. This will be really helpful when John and I start to edit the website!

Weekly Updates

This week, I met with John Berggren and he showed me an outline of what he thinks should be on the website, what we should include or exclude, and what not. I added a few things to it and edited it as well. Coincidentally, at my internship this week, I had to start working with WordPress, which I need to learn how to work for the WPRK website anyway. One of my goals for this week was to become more familiar with WordPress and I definitely did so I feel like I accomplished a big part of getting this website started. Olivia, Kjersti, and I just met to create a survey and discuss our presentation. Other than this stuff and planning it out and everything, that's all that I have done for this week.

Reading

In Mary Ann Pearson's article, "1 Newspaper. 3 Students. A simple plan for recruiting, training, and retaining," I believe she brought up some really great ideas as to how we can “recruit, train, and retain” members of campus media organizations. This article was especially relevant to the Rollins campus since campus media is not a very prominent part of the college. Being highly interested in television production and such, it was a disappointment coming to college my freshman year and seeing the lack of passion in campus media. However, learning about how we can keep campus media members excited and engaged is extremely crucial, and can be vital for retention.

One of the parts that I found most important about this article was the recruitment portion. She simplifies it to seven easy steps, and I believe that these steps are necessary to prove to potential campus media members that the current members are engaged, passionate, and excited. I think that it may be a good thing to have the newly trained members take on a project of their own – that way, the project is “their baby” and therefore, they may feel responsible to make it grow and become a success!

Campus Media Engagement Proposal - WPRK

In order to fully engage WPRK and its website with the campus and listeners, we are planning on writing a paragraph or so about it on the Rollins website and link it to the actual WPRK website. The paragraph would contain an overview of the station and facts about it. On the actual website, we will work with Word Press and CSS. We’re going to have different links/pages connecting to the main WPRK page with subjects like “meet the staff,” “meet the DJs,” “about us,” and “get involved.” In the hopes that people will actually become more involved with the website, we are hoping to have another subject of a form that they can fill out if they’d like to see something on the website, like a favorite song, favorite album, music videos, or upcoming concerts. That way it will be an interactive site that will require viewers and listeners to become more involved. We are also hoping to have a Twitter feed going down the side of the main page so viewers and listeners can see instantly what WPRK is up to and what is new with them. The WPRK website can have a section about DJs that are coming up and such, too, so that people will plan when to listen or have in mind who they’d like to go listen to if the DJs will be performing somewhere close. I would also like to have a section that asks what we can do to improve on the site or what they would like to see in the future so I can keep that in mind and hopefully fulfill their needs.