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Week 11 of New Media Literacy has the class learning about Public Relations and its relationship with Journalism. Our assignment is to analyze the most recent news stories from Western Kentucky University, and if the news stories end up in the local area newspaper.
Here is the list of the ten most recent news stories from WKU:
1. Storm chasers course wins award: This article is about the summer geography course on storm chasing getting a “Creative and Innovative Program” award.
2. Student wins outdoor recreation award: This article talks about a graduate student, Amanda Even, that received the Bill March Student Achievement Award, which is presented to an individual who makes outstanding contributions to an outdoor recreation and education program while pursuing a degree.
3. WKU, KCTCS partner on transfer day: This article is about an event that WKU and KCTCS is having to promote transfers between the schools.
4. WKU graduate Sam Ford co-author of “The Survival of Soap Opera”: This article is about a graduate from WKU that is a co-editor of a book that looks at the current state and possible future of soap operas.
5. World Council for Gifted and Talented Children moving office to WKU: This article is about the World Council for Gifted and Talented Children moving their headquarters from Canada to WKU.
6. Authors Nicholas Sparks, Judith Viorst headline 2001 SOKY Book Fest: This article is about the annual Book Festival on April 16th of next year.
7. Regional HOSA competition Nov 19: This article is about the annual Health Occupations Students of America practice competition that takes place on Friday at WKU.
8. WKU, community partners to host “Forced from Our Villages” Dec 1: This article is about refugees from Burma holding a presentation at WKU about their situation and how they ended up in Bowling Green.
9. WKU Sisterhood making a difference: This article is about a group of women, called the Sisterhood, that pool money and find interesting ways to contribute it to WKU.
10. View from the Hill WKU Sisterhood: This article is also about the WKU Sisterhood, this time about them awarding their first grant to a group called Women in Transition.
It appears to me that most of these articles would be considered “soft news.” Though I had heard the terms before, I actually didn’t know what the difference was between “hard news” and “soft news.” So I turned to one of my favorite websites, Google. I discovered that “hard news” is usually things like politics, war, economics and crime. “Soft news,” on the other hand, is usually about arts, entertainment and lifestyles. From these descriptions, it is clear to me that the articles above are all soft news. After examining other news sources in the area, none of the above articles were represented. Looking at only the above articles, it appears that new stories from WKU do not impact the local news.
Of course, the WKU newspaper has a much smaller staff and readership than the Bowling Green Daily News. In addition, the WKU news staff might be made up of students – I’m not positive about that, though. My point is the smaller staff has a much smaller pool of subjects to write about. They aren’t reporting on things going on in a city, they are only reporting on things related to the college, its faculty and its students. The staff handles press releases in the way it should—the releases are aimed towards those interested in the college.
Based on this case study, I say that the level of the newspaper’s reliance on WKU press releases is just where it needs to be. In my opinion, it isn’t huge news that a former student is publishing a book—definitely not news that the entire community needs to hear about. I’m sure that when there are huge WKU press releases, the newspapers and possibly the television news will pick them up, especially if it affects the greater Bowling Green area. However, until those press releases occur, there really is no need for the articles above to be featured in any news other than WKU’s own newspaper.
