Broadening horizons: putting theory into practice for a student newspaper
Wanja Njuguna, University of Botswana
the University of Botswana’s Media Studies Department (MSD) was started in 2002. The programs in the department are both practical and theoretical and therefore highly intensive. Students are expected to write, read, observe and discuss constantly the media as they see and use it. High standards of commitment to the programme and absolute professionalism with deadlines and well presented assignments are some of the goals expected of the students.
The aim of UB Horizon, an intentional learning tool, is to provide practical print journalism and thereby fill a training vacuum in the journalism industry in the country.
The newspaper was envisioned as the department’s most powerful journalism teaching tool, providing students with real, hands-on journalism experience on deadline that will qualify them for media jobs after graduation. It would also serve to strengthen the university as a whole by providing fair, balanced and accurate news to the UB community of students and staff.
The newspaper would help the print media students practice what they had learnt in theory in courses such as beat reporting, health, science and technical reporting, business, finance and tourism reporting, editing, feature and magazine writing, and investigative reporting. Other courses that benefitted from the paper were media management, desktop publishing and advertising. The media management course would provide market research and monitoring for the paper, the desktop publishing course would aid the newspaper with design work, while the advertising course would help get adverts for the newspaper. Whereas the students would not be paid for their work, those who got adverts for the paper would be paid a 10% commission.
MSD partnered with the McGee Foundation, a US private foundation dedicated to promoting sound journalistic practices in Southern Africa, in its efforts to build an excellent journalism education center. Until last year, when the recession affected the foundation, it sent at least one fellow – a media professional – every other semester to teach journalism skills and provide general assistance to the department. The paper was to be published three times a semester except the last month when students are busy with assignments and exams. It was to be run entirely by students of the Media Studies Department, but with supervision by departmental staff.
Before the newspaper began, a college-wide survey was conducted by students in the Media Management course, to find out whether it was a
viable project and if so, what the students wanted to see in the paper. Based on the results of this survey, the paper decided to give the following prominence to student politics; academic issues; social problems on campus; economic issues; administration and management issues; school gossip; sports news; local advertising; academic staff issues; editorial/opinion pieces; off campus effects affecting UB; cultural effects; UB support staff issues; off campus events not affecting UB; and others (religion).
UB Horizon would be a 16-page, full-color tabloid published monthly during the academic calendar and although it would publish under the supervision of the MSD, it would strive to be an independent voice for the students and staff. Students would generate the stories and photographs in the department’s journalism classes, participate in story editing, design and lay out the newspaper and web site,
sell advertising, distribute the paper and manage the business. It would carry news stories relevant to students and staff including sports, politics, feature stories related to student life and arts and entertainment. It would have a full editorial page including student-written editorials, cartoons, letters to the editor and guest opinions.
The newspaper was to serve a community of 15 000 students and 1000 staff. The first issue, hit the streets on 21 March, 2007. While the initial issue was free, the second was sold for P2 (ZAR 2) in the college and a number of newsstands. Out of 3 000 copies, however, only 900 were sold and many of the initial advertisers threatened to withdraw their ads; as a result, the editorial board decided to distribute it free but seek strong adverts to help run it.
The fact that those who wrote or designed for the newspaper did so on a voluntary basis without any incentive, except seeing their bylines on the newspaper, soon became problematic, especially since the advertising team was getting commissions whether the advertising money was paid or not.
Students would promise to deliver articles, work in the design team or get ads but if they had a lot of class work too, their class work took priority and delivery for UB Horizon took a back seat. We reached a point where I was literally begging to get the newspaper moving from writers, to designers to advertising. The advertising team was the worst. They had realized that the paper actually depended on them for survival and they started calling the shots. As I tried to bring professionalism into the newspaper, I started putting in a few rules here and there. For example, to ensure the advertisers were delivering their payments, I made it clear that the commissions would only be paid after a cheque was delivered. The
response of the advertising team was to refuse to solicit ads. That month the newspaper was printed with only one single ad – an ad that a computer company customer had signed a contract for a year to appear on page three. The only way we were able to publish that month was the fact that we had a relationship with the publisher, Mmegi Publishers, which printed without being paid upfront.
However, the rule on advertising was to prove a plus as I stuck to it and the money started coming in. But the advertising team, still didn’t cooperate fully. As a result, a partnership agreement was concluded with a company, Simply Marketing, in terms of which we were to produce the stories while the company was to get adverts, market, publish and distribute the newspaper. An advantage of this partnership was an increase in circulation from 3 500 to 10 000.
The partnership soon ran into censorship problems when Simply Marketing unilaterally removed some stories it believed would anger the government and college leadership. However, we insisted on sticking to the initial agreement where there would be no censorship and if the company was unhappy with a story or picture, they informed us in advance. without taking matters into their own hands.
While the partnership was a financial relief, allowing us to concentrate on reporting and design, the voluntary work in getting stories and design work started becoming a nightmare. Other academic work took precedence and UB Horizon work would take a backseat, as there was no great incentive to write or design for the newspaper. We therefore decided to fully incorporate the writing of stories into the Print Courses’ assessment from the academic year 2009/2010. The stories are marked by the lecturer as an assignment but the electronic copy of the same is given to the student editors to edit and then return to the lecturer for final editing before it is ready to be placed on a page by the design team.
A deadline for the stories/assignment is given and this has at least ensured the stories come on time and those that do not meet the deadline are not used. Students have to share up to four bylines and it is up to them to learn partnership skills so as to present the best stories. For every group, it is required that the students say who did which work towards the story.
My experience in a commercial newspaper in Nairobi never prepared me for what I encountered at UB running a newspaper. A number of important lessons were learnt. Firstly, When you start a student newspaper, you need to know where the money will come from. Secondly, if it is to be a student learning tool, there are two options: either you incorporate it into the curriculum, or you ensure the college finances the newspaper fully so that you minimize your problems of printing, distribution and news desk communications.
The many challenges that the UB Horizon faced have helped our students realize that the world of work is difficult and also that, apart from the obvious factors of skills and resources, there are many economic, political and social factors which impact upon the production of a newspaper. n
http://www.kas.de/wf/doc/kas_20767-1522-1-30.pdf?101008142131
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