cardinal communications

Cardinal Communications

A Guidebook to Student Media at Ball State University

By Lindsey Riley

This guidebook was created as a final project for English 489 with Professor Mark Neely. The information and stories inside really did happen, and the advice is shared in the hopes of inspiring fellow student journalists to reach their full potential. Nothing was said to hurt

anyone or to influence people down a wrong path.

All images used in this guidebook are property of Lindsey Riley, or Lindsey was given special permission by the image’s owner. If you are interested in using any of the images or

information in this publication, please contact Lindsey Riley at [email protected].

I would like to thank:

The journalism professors and instructors at Ball State University for helping my dreams of writing and reporting become realities.

Megan Capinegro for being the greatest editor to work for and for giving me my first story assignment at The Daily News. I learned so much from you!

My parents for signing their lives away to paying off out-of-state tuition bills and for their unconditional love and support.

My sister, Jessica, for always being a supportive pain in the butt! Haha! I love ya, brat!

My amazing friends, Rosa, Marissa and Carolyn, for always having my back, for always be-ing supportive, and for always being fun people to be around.

Table of contents

Finding Ball State’s Journalism Program

Multiple Organizations = Multiple Opportunities

The Importance of Web Writing

Interviewing Notable Names (aka: Famous People)

Being an Editor

Immersive Learning: Working on “Somewhere Called Home” by Carolyn Case

Doors, Windows and Opportunities: A Final Thought

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Finding Ball State’s Journalism Program

It was in the seventh grade that I learned I could make a career out of my favorite passion: writing. And I could use this as a way to do things with my other passions of music, professional wrestling and entertainment in general. It was my teacher Ms. Macko who shared this news with me and ever since, I knew that I was destined to write.

Junior year of high school came, and I began taking the idea of college much more seriously. With the help of my dad, I was able to make a list of five schools no more than six hours from home that could provide me with opportunities. On that list were the schools: Iowa State University, The University of Iowa, Indiana University-Bloomington, Eastern Illinois University, and Ball State Univer-sity.

After a series of visits to each campus and researching the communities they were in, I immediately eliminated Iowa State, Indiana University, and Eastern Illinois. These schools were good but just not for me.

Eventually, I made the choice to come to Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. I will be honest: While I’ve met a lot of nice locals, I hate the Muncie area...It’s too small for me, a native of the Chicagoland area. I don’t like the fact that I have to drive through a ton of cornfields to get to campus, and I don’t like that I can’t go home like most people do on the weekends.

Being trapped in these cornfields paid off, however. I have been lucky to be part of four student media organizations, earned two internship opportunities, made the dean’s list, and was name an editor for three different organizations. It’s easy to say that I have capitalized on every opportunity presented to me at Ball State, and I am not afraid of not finding a job when I graduate.

What I love about the school is its program for Journalism majors. Right away, you can take classes that are relevant to the major and no matter how much experience you have, you can get involved with the various student media programs. The way things are set up here makes it so easy to practice and improve your writing craft, and it has been so much fun watching my skills improve over the years.

The best part of my experience at Ball State has been my involvement with student media. If you want to leave campus with a variety of experience and feel known in the department, I recommend getting involved somehow. This is how we leave our mark on campus...By sharing the stories surrounding student life with over 20,000 pairs of eyes.

Now, I bet you might be wondering how I left my mark on campus and if I’m serious about all of this. Well, these next pages are filled with advice on how to better your chances at an amazing career with the resources provided by Ball State. There were a lot of long, sleepless nights and some hard decisions made, but I know myself and my student journalist friends have the ammunition we need to take on the real world after graduation.

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Multiple Organizations = Multiple Opportunities

It is hard to be involved with just one student media organization at Ball State. And the nice thing: you aren’t limited to just one. There are multiple student media programs available to students in the College of Communications, Information and Media (CCIM) and because of the relationship between all of the departments in this college, students are highly encouraged to get involved with groups outside of their major.

There are no limitations to what you can do in the various groups. Writers can take photos. Photographers can do page designing. Designers can operate social media accounts. And anyone can be an editor. It’s easy to get some real experience that doesn’t just get you involved but also builds up your resume.

Personally, I was a reporter for the newspaper, a social media producer for the television station, a multimedia reporter and online producer for the magazine, and an assistant managing editor for the literary magazine. It sounds like a lot, but editors know that people are involved with more than one group, and you take on however much work you want. You have the control over what you do and don’t do in student media.

If you want to be considered above the rest when you apply for internships and jobs, you have to expand your skill set. While you may be stronger as a writer, knowing other skills such as how to shoot video or edit audio will only help you with your future. Do you have to perfect these other skills? Not necessarily, but having them is crucial in terms of your future in the media world. And Ball State has the resources, both inside and outside of the classroom, to help you expand your abilities.

I bet at this point, you are wondering how to get involved with student media at Ball State...How to take that first step. Every semester, there is an event called the Super Party. This event is an opportunity for people to become familiar with the student media groups on campus and figure out how to get involved with each group. I encourage you to attend these parties each semester during your time at Ball State. New organizations are always coming together, and you can always find a new way to get involved and build your resume. Instructors will share information with you prior to the event, and fliers are always posted around campus with all the event details.

As you get into the 300 and 400-level classes, it easy to tell who has and hasn’t been involved in student media. The people who have are very disciplined and will have an easier time in their classes when it comes to understanding material. Those who haven’t will struggle and questions they ask will make it even more obvious that they haven’t applied what they have learned in a classroom to another setting. In no way am I trying to pressure anyone to join student media, but I must admit that the people who aren’t involved struggle a lot more than those who have been involved. They struggle because they haven’t experienced near as much as the others.

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In one of my classes, there were 18 students. Six of those students were never involved with student media in any way. The class was a project class, meaning we had the entire semester to complete and put together an app about Indiana dining. The ones who had experience had easier times writing their stories and interviewing people. The ones who didn’t have experience looked like deer in headlights when they had to interview people, and they didn’t ask the proper questions. Hav-ing an outlet that gets you involved and practicing what you want to do with your life is only going to benefit you. Sure, it’s not fun dealing with the politics and manipulation that can happen in student media, but you will more than likely run into that at a job. Why not practice how to deal with it now?

On that note, I strongly urge you to be part of student media. Give it a chance and see what you learn from it. It makes life a lot easier when you don’t have to regret not being part of something. If one doesn’t work out, there are multiple other organizations to be involved with. I hope that you take advantage of the resources, award-winning resources mind you, that are conveniently on cam-pus waiting for you to be part of them.

If you would like to research some of the student media programs on campus, here is a short list of some of the bigger ones that have multiple opportunities:

• The Daily News• Newslink Indiana• WCRD• Ball Bearings• Cardinal Communications• Sportslink• American Advertising Federation (AAF)• Cardinal Filmworks

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The Importance of Web Writing

For the longest time, I had what I have labeled as the “web writing complex.” Some people call it something else but essentially, this complex has your mind twisted that your story is only significant and going to be read if it is printed and in the reader’s hands. In some situations, this is true: some people may not take the time to go online to read your work. They will only read what is in front of them because they think that only the important stuff is in the printed edition.

I’ve done both print and web writing at Ball State. It’s a really good feeling to walk by someone on campus and see them reading your story in the newspaper. At the same time, it feels just as good to share that story with Facebook friends and Twitter followers across the world. The world is becoming more digital with each passing day, meaning that the world of news will always continue to increase their online presence. If you want to survive in the media world, your appreciation for web journalism needs to be just as strong as the one you have for print journalism.

As a former web editor, I promise you that people will see your work online. Sure, it does take some more effort to promote it through social media and all, but people will see it. When your story is on the web, it is available to more than just Ball State and Muncie folks. You aren’t limited to telling your story just in words. Telling stories for the web allows you to incorporate multimedia elements in your story. You can have videos, interactives, photo slideshows, and more attached to your story. These things give your story that extra pop!

I think the reason why people are afraid of web writing is because they believe their audience won’t go beyond their family and friends who see it on Facebook. They might think that your web work is only seen if you work for People Magazine or The New York Times. This isn’t true. Web work from Ball State is seen on a universal level. You are enrolled in CCIM classes at one of the top ten uni-versities in America for communication studies. People from all over the world are always looking at what we do because of how top notch things are on campus. So please, get the idea out of your head that no one will see what you do! It’s not true!

If you are interested in web work on campus, you can do it at any of the student media groups. The Daily News and Ball Bearings have award-winning websites that need to maintain a striking reputation. WCRD needs people to upload their newscasts to their website, and Newslink Indiana needs someone to manage their online presence, as well. In these groups, as well as others, an online presence is important, and they want people to be part of building that presence. Take advantage of the fact that you can do print and web work at Ball State, because employers really look for that diversity. For me, I was able to be an Interim Web Editor for my internship at Chicago Parent because of my online experience. You never know what opportunities will come, and you have to prepare yourself for as many of them as you can. Stop thinking that web work is irrelevant...It’s shaping up to be the future!

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Interviewing Notable Names (aka: Famous People)

When I first came to Ball State, I never imagined that I would have the opportunity to talk to anyone famous. I thought that the biggest names I would speak to were professors and various faculty members at the university. I was wrong...very wrong!

Now, so we are on the same page of famous people, my list of big names that I’ve interviewed include: Tyler Hubbard of Florida Georgia Line, professional wrestling legend Mick Foley, Broadway star Sutton Foster, Steve Landes of Rain, country singers Martina McBride, Lee Brice and Josh Thompson, and comedian Brian Regan just to name a few. For a college student, this is a pretty impressive list!

If you are interested in doing entertainment reporting, you will want to someway cover the events that come to John R. Emens Auditorium and Pruis Hall. The easiest way is probably through The Daily News, the campus’ student newspaper. The newspaper will publish a preview article before most events and follow up articles after events for the website and printed edition. The chances of talking to the famous are higher for the preview articles.

At this point, I would imagine you are wondering how you pursue arranging an interview like this. No matter what student media group you do this with, you have to go through the folks at Emens Auditorium to get the proper contact information. No, the people working in the box office will not have that information and give it to you. You have to get in touch with the marketing department at Emens. Look at their staff listing on the Ball State website to find the current marketing director and send them a polite email explaining who you are, what you need, and your story intentions. If you are polite, you will be helped quickly...hint, hint!

The information you will receive from Emens is the contact information for the act’s publicist. You now have to email or call them, explaining who you are and what you would like to interview that act for. They will more than likely send you a request form to fill out. These forms ask for more detailed information, such as the circulation of the publication or your availability. Just because you fill out this form DOES NOT mean you are guaranteed an interview with that person. The more available you are for an interview, the higher your chances are for getting that opportunity.

Now, let’s assume you have the interview. No matter who you are or what confidence you may have, I promise that you will be a little nervous during your first interview with a famous person. While most of these interviews will be over the phone, it’s a big deal to have these opportunities and being nervous is only natural. You never know what kind of mood that person will be in or if they’re going to be judgmental of the questions you ask them. The best way to calm your nerves is to prepare for your interview days (not hours or minutes) in advance and to read through other articles written with quotes from that person. Warning: You will do a lot of prep work for these interviews and more than likely only have ten minutes at most to speak with the person. That doesn’t mean you should prepare any less.9

One last tip for handling those with fame: avoid the stereotypical questions and don’t have a stereotypical interview. Unless they bring it up, don’t ask them about: how they became famous, what they think of the latest shenanigans happening in their area of interest, or who their inspirations are. These are the questions that everyone asks, which means you can find this information elsewhere and use your time to ask more unique questions. Before your interview, you should have no less than ten strong questions prepared. You should also have other questions that are good but not as high of a priority just in case you have more time to talk with them than you thought or if they don’t like to give many details.

Some possible questions to ask the person:

• Have you ever been to the Ball State campus or Muncie community before?• A lot of students on campus are excited about your show. Seeing as you are performing on

a college campus, how will you make this show different from other tour dates?• What should someone know about you before they go to the show?• How do you describe this production to friends? How do you see it?• What do you hope the audience learns or gets from your performance?• After your performance in Muncie, what’s next for you?• Is there anything else you would like to add that I didn’t ask you about?

The other thing some reporters may not realize is that your interview before the show doesn’t secure you the chance to meet that individual at the show. Yes, it would be nice to introduce yourself in person to the people you speak to, but that opportunity comes rarely. For me, I went to their events and sometimes paid to meet them. I would then tell them who I was and that I enjoyed our conversation. I have yet to meet someone who was rude about it, and they usually thank you again for helping them out.

Recently, I met country singer Josh Thompson for the first time, He was performing on tour with fellow singers Justin Moore and Randy Houser. I got my picture taken with him and as he signed my album, I told him about our interview. Much to my surprise, he remembered me and said that I was very pleasant to talk to. It’s people like Josh that make me love what I do more. On that note, I strongly encourage you to take the proper amount of time to prepare for these interviews and enjoy every minute of them. You’re only having a conversation with them, and it’s strange to imagine how many hardcore fans of these people would kill to have this opportunity you have. Make this a memorable experience for yourself and for the talent...You just never know when you may cross paths with them again.

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Being An Editor

Not everyone is meant to be an editor. Sure, it looks great on a resume and all, but not everyone was born a leader. It’s a stressful position to be in because you are the first person in the line of fire when things go wrong and one of the last to get acknowledged when things go right. You’re frequently looked at as a bad guy because you have to let people know when they messed up. Let’s face it: People don’t like being told anything negative.

My theory to being an editor of any type for a student media publication it this: In order to be in student media, you have to be a student, and no one is paying multiple thousands of dollars to work under you or to be part of the staff. People are choosing to work WITH you to build skills and to be part of something.

When I’ve held editor responsibilities, I have consistently followed this theory. I don’t expect respect if I am being an overbearing pain. I don’t want to drive people away from things that they enjoy. I’ve had these things and more done towards me over my years at Ball State, and I vowed to do the opposite if I ever was an editor. It works for me, and I still have people that thank me for helping them grow in such a positive environment.

If you want to be an editor, you have to be just as good at leading people as you are at following them. We all have our own codes to live by and shouldn’t jeopardize our morals, but we have to be a team and it’s only by working together that a publication can be successful. You can’t be trusted as an editor if you can’t be in the same shoes as the people following your lead. You have to know how to not only build yourself up but also your team, the publication, and the readers.

Being an editor is similar to being a coach. While you may call most of the shots, you still have a responsibility to be supportive, encouraging, respectful, and effective. Don’t ever take anything personal or else your leadership will fail. Make attempts to truly connect and bond with the people you work with, even if it’s for the purpose of peace in the office. The more genuine you are and the more you treat your staff like actual people, the more success all of you will have. When people know that you actually give a damn about them, not only will they be happier but you will too...and your energy will be so much more productive than you will ever imagine.

Conflict is the thing I hated dealing with the most as an editor, and I am sure that you would hate it, too. What I have learned is to do what’s best for business in that situation. Give people a chance...Give them a story and be there to help when they need it. If they don’t do the story or bail on it at the last minute, that’s when you have to reconsider some things. Tensions between the staff have to work out on their own, and you should only get involved when there are multiple complaints about one person. However, if someone is not doing the work that they said they would do or drops out at the last minute, that is not only a slap in your face but a sheer sign of rudeness towards the publication and the staff. This is the biggest problem you will face as an editor because people get distracted with class work and personal lives. Like I said before, every person will handle these situations differently but prepare yourself. Unfortunately, not everyone can be respectful of deadlines. 11

Immersive Learning

Ball State University prides itself on presenting immersive learning opportunities to its students. These projects gather groups of students, some from different departments and others all from one department, and places them in real world situations where the students have to come up with solutions, design products and technology for a purpose, or create new outlooks on things.

For journalism and telecommunications students, projects like these are built into the curriculum. They’re another great opportunity to show what you have learned and apply your skills to something meaningful. While working with a large group can be stressful, it feels good to stand alongside them at the showcases at the end of the year and show off what all of you did.

On the other hand, there are immersive learning opportunities in other areas of the campus that are not built into the curriculum. Unfortunately, I never had the time in my schedule to be part of one of these projects in this way. One of my greatest friends, Carolyn Case, was able to be involved

with a project, and she has graciously shared her story with us.

Working on “Somewhere Called Home” I arrived as a freshman at Ball State with a distinctly instinctive feeling that I was going to, in some capacity involving a camera, train to become a journalist and be a storyteller. If there was one thing I had discovered about myself, mainly through the video production courses I took in high school, it was that I had a passion for telling people’s stories. Giving a voice to the voiceless has become one of my life’s greatest purposes, and I cannot wait to see how that purpose is fulfilled in years to come.

I had worked on several projects, reports, short videos, and photographic slideshows in my early years at Ball State. I had even begun production on an independent documentary I was pursu-ing, which I would continue to work on until my last year at Ball State. Even so, nothing I had done felt extraordinary; nothing felt like it was doing much good or giving a voice to a person or an issue that was being neglected. That all changed when I was accepted into an immersive learning experi-ence at the Virginia Ball Center for the spring semester of my sophomore year. I was brought into the immersive learning project under the direction of professor Carla Earhart to work on a documentary team. I went on to become the director and primary producer for

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the film. The film was about how children in the United States perceive different kinds of housing and how housing stereotypes and misconceptions can affect people’s futures and the national economy. Our documentary crew spent most of our time working with children and talking with them on camera about what they think about different kinds of housing and why. We also had them draw pictures, use blocks, and build with legos to show us what different kinds of housing (apartments, houses, mobile homes, etc.) looked like in their minds. We also interviewed professionals in the housing industry in Washington D.C. and Indiana and explored how teachers could address housing with young children in the classroom.

This experience not only taught me so much about the nature of production and time management (we had 3 months to put together a 30 minute documentary film, NOT easy!), but it also proved to me that documentary filmmaking was my passion in life and what I was meant to do. It is a way to tell people’s stories and bring truths and new ideas to light, and I could not be more grateful to the Virginia Ball Center for such an incredible and enlightening experience.

Our documentary from the immersive learning experience, “Somewhere Called Home,” went on to be nominated for two regional Emmys in the professional group rather than through the student nomination process and we couldn’t be prouder of the work we produced in such a short period of time.

To get involved with these projects or to learn more, I suggest contacting the Virginia Ball Center. They will have the latest list of current projects and will know more about how to apply for them. If you want to make a difference while you’re at Ball State, being involved with a project. 13

Doors, Windows and Opportunities: A Final Thought

When I first came to Ball State, I never imagined of being so active in student media. I knew no one at the university, was over 250 miles away from my family in Chicagoland, and had no clue what I just got myself into. I remember arriving to campus on a Wednesday, watching the taillights of my parents’ car drive away on a Thursday, and working up the courage to walk into the office of The Daily News on the following Sunday to ask for guidance. Sarah Boswell, the newspaper’s managing editor at that time, helped me to realize which department of the publication I would fit in best: Features. My passion has always been in telling profile stories, so I agreed with her decision.

I went to the newspaper’s call out meeting, joined the features staff, and got assigned my first story: a profile on fellow out-of-state students who were much further away from home than I was. After ten interviews and a lot of editing, I finally had my first story in the Daily News. It wasn’t front page, but the idea of more than 20,000 students, university faculty, Muncie locals and the world wide web seeing your story is satisfying no matter what page you are on. By the end of my freshman year, I had over 20 stories published with the newspaper and a new position for the next school year as a Chief Features Reporter, meaning I would do the same reporting as last year but receive a paycheck.

My sophomore year was filled with student media opportunities. I worked for the newspaper with my chief reporting gig, and I also worked more with Ball Bearings, the student life magazine on campus. I really enjoyed what I was doing. One day, I would work on a preview article for the CMT on Tour event coming to campus and the next, I would have an audio slideshow published about a new business in town. I was covering a little bit of everything and really dedicating myself to my craft. Everything was ideal until I had some conflicts with an editor. These types of things happen regularly, but it’s up to each individual on how they handle it. My editor wasn’t pleased that I had to slow down on the amount of stories I covered because of issues with my classes. I handled it by stepping down to a staff reporting position and doing a little less. Because of the tension that followed, I committed more to Ball Bearings and was awarded the opportunity to be an Online Producer for my junior year. An Online Producer is responsible for generating content ideas and working with the staff to create this content and get it online.

Being a producer was a lot of fun. I was working with two incredibly great friends, and the three us had very similar ideas and work ethics. They graduated in December, and I was left with two new producers. We made it all work, and I am happy to say that we helped Ball Bearings Online grow. We published more content than ever and had one of the largest staffs in the history of the publication. I was hoping to take the next step on the magazine’s web editing ladder but unfortunately, it did not work out that way. I later found out that someone with less experience, little respect from the staff, and a manipulative reputation was awarded the opportunity that I hoped for. This same person also denied me the opportunity to keep my producer position the following year with awful lies about me for an excuse. What made this blow even harder to handle was that some other people on the staff that I really respected helped her to trash my reputation and give me a bad name. To say that I was hurt by the betrayal of friends and co-workers from a publication that I genuinely cared about is a great understatement.

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After receiving these blows, I made the decision to leave. I felt that there was very little for me to achieve at Ball Bearings that I hadn’t done so already, and I did not want to put myself in a position that made me feel uncomfortable. For awhile, I thought that my senior year was ruined in terms of student media. I assumed that these rumors were spread throughout the departments and that there would be no place for me to write. Well...we all know what happens when you assume things!

My senior year is here, and I could not be happier with what I am doing. I work for the Daily News again as a Chief Features Reporter, I am an Asst. Managing Editor for The Broken Plate, Ball State’s literary magazine, and I do social media work for the television newscast Newslink Indiana. I have a communications internship with the Ball State University Foundation, and I help create Newslink’s web shows for the latest campus news app, BSU Weekly. And on top of that, my roommate asked me to be the Synchronized Swimming team’s media manager. I returned to campus in August after having an amazing internship with Chicago Parent Magazine where I ended my time there as an Interim Web Editor.

I made myself seem like an ass because of being all sad and depressed that all of my student media opportunities were ruined by one publication and multiple manipulators. I regret shedding tears over that catastrophe, because I came back to campus one last time in August with more opportunities than I ever imagined. One door may have shut, but a bunch of windows and a fire escape all made themselves available. All of these chances made it clearly obvious to me that I am doing what I was born to do and that genuine kindness, respect and hard work are never overshadowed by manipulation. It takes guts to be a student journalist. You have to find stories and have the courage to share them with the world. It’s nerve-racking because you are opening yourself and the media organization up to criticism, and you never know just how bad or good it will be. Stand up for yourself and have the guts to defend your beliefs and ethics.

The most important thing I have learned at Ball State and as a student journalist is to take every opportunity you can because you never know what those opportunities can lead to in the future. Take chances, explore your opportunities, and leave college knowing that you did as much as you could during your short time here.

Continue following my journalism story by connecting with me:

Twitter - @_LindseyRiley_Facebook and LinkedIn - search “Lindsey Noel Riley”

[email protected]

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Four years ago, Lindsey Riley left her native Chicagoland home to attend journalism classes at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind.

She didn’t know anyone on campus, and this was the first time that she would be a long distance away from home. She didn’t know what she was getting herself into: a cornfield nowhere with good

people and great resources to build her career on.

During her time at Ball State, Lindsey has been incredibly active in student media. She has over 100 stories published with her name

attached to them. She has published print and web stories, countless photos and has taken on social media responsibilities for

a few organizations.

Lindsey has learned a lot from her experiences, and she has decided to put together a small guidebook for students in the

College of Communications, Information and Media in the hopes that they take advantage of the opportunities in front of them. Her commitment to university media has only grown stronger and as

she prepares for graduation, Lindsey wants to pass along what she has learned.

cardinal communications

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