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.