By Donovan Thomas

School, work and balance, or rather the lack thereof, were discussed in an editorial leadership workshop held on Wednesday.  The session was a part of a series of “pre-con”, pre-convention, specialty workshops scheduled before the official start of the 2020 Spring National College Media Convention.

The discussion was held by College Media Association president Kenna Griffin. Students and advisers from schools such as Butler University, Georgia Southern University, California State University- Fullerton and the University of Hawaii-Hilo were present. 

Griffin started the session by asking those in attendance, “What makes a fabulous newsroom leader?”

Someone responded with a “self -starter”.

“Advisers love students who make student media their own. Are you going to screw it up? Sometimes. Sometimes when you screw up, we’ll get threatened with a lawsuit and sometimes you will misspell a word in 72-point type in a headline and both of those egregious, but we are going to learn from them and move on,” said Griffin.

Another person said passion.

“Who wants to work for someone who doesn’t love this. The worst thing to me is for someone to feel mediocre about you. I want people to love me or hate me, but don’t come at me lukewarm.  Isn’t that how you want to feel about your leadership? I want leadership that has passion,” said Griffin.

The importance of leaders knowing the purpose of their organization was also emphasized. Attendees were asked if they knew their organization’s mission statement and few raised their hands.

Griffin suggested creating a mission statement that can be used as a mantra in the newsroom to hold staffers to expectations.

“What do you want your legacy to be?” asked Griffin.  

Griffin next emphasized setting clear expectations for staffers. The implementation of job descriptions, deadlines (yes, hard deadlines), handouts and contracts were ways in which newsroom leaders can begin to do so.

“You can’t expect them [staffers] to perform the way you want them to without telling them your expectations,” said Griffin.

Student newsroom leaders were also urged to recruit great staffers. Open houses, organizational fairs and social media were methods Griffin said were highly successful for students and can be used at most schools.

The utilization of face-to-face recruiting was also pushed. Students were told that their staff is their “best recruiting tools” and to “go after people” that they know have skills that are lacking, but crucial to the makeup of their newsrooms.

Griffin pointed out, however, that if possible, student newsroom leaders also want to limit the number of positions available on your staff.

While those who are active in student media are well aware of the benefits, those who are not involved are often unaware.  Extrinsic and intrinsic motivation, tangible and intangible benefits, are what Griffin said keeps students engaged with student media.

Things such as physical spaces, equipment, office supplies, T-shirts and food were used as extrinsic motivation within her student newsroom.  Intrinsic motivation was linked to reputation, education, the feeling of being connected to something and praise, amongst other things.

Students said that found the session helpful overall.

“Human resources is not a struggle for student newsrooms, but the struggle in a sense. The way that she broke down hiring and firing was really good,” said Elijah Kahula, a copy editor at “Ke Kalahea”, the student newspaper at the University of Hawaii-Hilo.

Kahula also pointed out what stood out to him from the workshop.

“Creating a sense of scarcity, prestige and even exclusivity, sort of, is an important point to be reminded about. This is a place that people want to work. It’s kind of exciting to think about. It makes you more motivated because you’re like people want my position, so I can be proud of that and rise to the occasion.”