The last three issues have seen some of our best work and pointed out some of our weaknesses. We continue to make silly mistakes both on print and online and we have yet to organize ourselves properly so that online and print don't run into each other. Finally, two weeks ago, online get its "stuff" together by having its own board. From that point on, Michael took charge as editor, which is really assignments editor like a metro editor for a daily newspaper. Paul re-designed the website and it's almost there and the Sabrinas and Claudia put in extra effort online. Well done. Our major "mess up" was the Legacy Ball with the name of our president's wife. I don't want you to feel too bad about this. Essentially, it boils down to the fact that Mr. Fisher and I didn't press you on the matter to make sure you had the correct name. I saw both Dr. Tallant and his wife Karen at the KEDT PBS Fund Raiser Saturday night and I could tell they both were hurt. Mrs. Tallant was very aloof and apart until I finally made he smile and she warmed up to us (The South Texan) again. We are a very visible part of the campus. People know what we do, who we are, where we are and how many mistakes we make. They count them and repeat them, including in our very own department. I know, I know, at least they check us out.
With two issues left, let's see if we can finish strong. Let's try to make as few mistakes as possible. Also, during this final two weeks, you will be in charge on your own. It's time that you realize that it's your newspaper and your website. Make the best of it. Okay?
April 13 - We dropped the ball on the most important news event of the week - Asian Pacific Heritage Month Banquet. As a result, we were sent scrambling to get details of what happened since none of us showed up for the final event. Then, we had no photo and the one we used reproduced badly. People noticed that. They called and some wondered what the flowing yellow gown was. On pi, there were two good stories by Edwin. Now that he is gone, who has the courage to cover those stories? Someone needs to step up. Who will? Page 2 had a nice photo of the barefoot walkers and a good story by Edwin. Claudia, Jaime and Allen did an excellent job of reporting for the Campus News page 3. Nice stories, nice layout. EdOps had some provocative columns and editorials. Mark's column is sure to get him in trouble. Mark, I would not eat at the cafeteria fo a while. The dorm editorial was very good after Angela and I fixed it. The sports page had a very good feature by Clifton Thomas. We had decent coverage but we can do better. On the rec center material, Mark did a good job. Photo spread was not thrilling.
So, who gets KUDOs? It goes to Edwin Vasquez and Mark Molina. Well done, gentleman. As for KUDOs for online, that would have to be Paul who continued to work hard on a redesign.
April 20 - This was a solid front page. Good job. The story on the AAF was solid but the headline was weak. We used the word Marketing because the group named itself that and that gave the impression that the Business Department had done this. It wasn't Business, it was Comm-TA. Oh, well. Page 2 had a good review by Claudia and was well-designed. Claudia, we still need work on your reviews but you're getting better. "Green Tip" surprised me...."gamers?" Page 3 was solid campus news page. Page 4 EdOps lacked focus. Sports had too many sports information stories and a good rewrite on Clifton hitting for cycle. We need to do better. Page 6 Legacy Ball coverage was a disappointment.
So, who gets KUDOs for this issue? Claudia Garcia for her three stories. All very well done, I might add. As for print, this goes to Sabrina Reyna for the coverage she gave to news events and the videos she produce. Thank you.
April 27 - Just when I thought we had turned the corner, we get to the April 27 front page. First, lead photo is horribly weak. I can't see who the person is. Second, who is that person behind the "It" hair? We must, I repeat "WE MUST" identify people with our cutlines. To make matters worse, who are those guys having fun in the sun? I don't know? Do you? Carlos Alvarado had a good story on Jacque Thomas. Thanks. Page 2 had some surprises. Michael Bolman may have written his best story on the "Poop coverage." Ha. Nice work, Micheal. On page 3, both Katherine and Claudia had good stories. EdOps disappointing. This is where I found out we had a SGA election. Are you kidding me? That should have been pi. Amanda, we have to do better with this. Isn't Tania our rep, or was it Edwin? We just need to do better with this. I'm disappointed. Mark, you did well on sports. Nice coverage and work on free agent signings. However, when something of this magnitude happens, you must use a mug shot so that people know who the young men are. I told you to do this but you must have forgotten. Layout was almost there. Still need to use "bigger" photos. Miss TAMUK coverage was just above average. We could have done better. Nuf said.
As for KUDOs for this issue, well it's hard. Now that Edwin is gone, Claudia has become or most prolific reporter/writer and again had a myriad of stories, photos, etc. She again had three stories in this issue. But Sabrina Salinas, Allen, Katherine, Mark,Carlos all had excellent stories. The problem with this issue, almost as always, are the photos and weak layouts. So,KUDOs goes to Sabrina Salinas for her front page story on Earth Day and also for her continuous effort on her weekly column. Nice job.
KUDOs for online goes to Michael and Paul for finally working together. Ha.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Monday, April 12, 2010
Critique of March 23, 30 and April 6 issues
With TIPA, spring break and the Easter holidays, production of the last three issues has been, well, an experience. Add to that the fact that we have changed from Quark to InDesign for desktop publishing program and that we were celebrating the 40th anniversary of our radio station and sports is going crazy, crazy, crazy . . . well, it's enough to drive an adviser or two, along with some staff members of the print and online editions of The South Texan, plum loco. No?
Nevertheless, we survived. Our results at TIPA in Kerrville were decent. That means we are still among the best in the state in our division, but we could have done better. Our online edition continues to improve, slowly. However, we have some leadership issues which and petty fights between staffers that takes away from our overall work here. We need to learn to work together and follow the chain of command, in both print and online edition issues. Let's see if we can do this to finish out the year strong. Now, let's look at each of the past three issues one at a time.
March 23: A good four-page issue with modular layout in the front page and a good teaser. Weak part about this is the lead photo on pi. We could have done better. We had a nice touch on the "Cast Members" info box and also a good "refer" on the healthcare bill. Stories were good. Lead story on trombone choir was disappointing. Why can't we write our own stories?
Page 2: This page also followed modular layout very well. Congratulations. Again, our lead photo was very weak. We need to fix these photos prior to deadline so that they reproduce better.
Page 3: Two solid campus news stories with the Battle of the Bands and program with Corpus Christi Calallen ISD make this a solid page. However, we did not use body text on both stories. We need to be consistent. And, when we have one good photo as Claudia's photo was on the lead singer for "Day of Reckoning," we need to run it big, Big, BIG!.
Page 4: This was one of our better sports pages. Nice balanced layout. The only thing wrong with this is that we ran only stories done by Shane Meling and everything is "old." We need to write analysis of the coming games so that students understand how we stand and what are chance of making the playoffs are. I don't think we will ever get there this year. Oh well.
KUDOS: Great effort from several reporters. Claudia Garcia and Edwin Vasquez were the best for print edition. Award goes to Claudia for print. Online KUDOs goes to Michael Bolman. Congratulations.
March 30: A solid front page with a good lead photo that could have been a tad better if fixed properly in photo shop. I think that now that we are using InDesign we should use more TIFFs. Sabrina, can you please take care of this? Overall, a good 6-page issue. We had plenty of good stories and some decent photos.
Page 2: Good lead story on "Caligraffiti" by Edwin. Well done. Excellent photo as well. Green Tip of the Week also well done, again.
Page 3: An outstanding story by Mark Molina on clean-up efforts and a good story on Gary Davis. Only problem here was the dog leg on the Davis story. Disappointed on the Asian Pacific Heritage coverage. This deserved a story.
Page 4: A good editorial page with a point-counterpoint type strategy on analysis stories by Mary Beth and Jaime. Both are excellent pieces and show how every story has more than one side. Well done. Nndy's column is again strong, but lacked depth and organization this time. Editorial cartoon still our weak point. I know it relates to Nndy's column but it just seems to lack punch. We can do better.
Page 5: A "wow" story on Christin Rycroft by David Brott. Very, very well done and we used the bold italic in the lyrics from the songs very well. We probably could have used some spacing, but hey this is fine. Nice contributed photo as well. We should have "referred" this story from pi to page 5. We need to be alert for this type of opportunities. Jaime and Angela are cute in the TIPA story.
Page 6: Weak sports page. Nuf said.
As for KUDOs, there were many good stories for the print edition by Edwin Vasquez's overall reporting gets KUDOs. Online KUDOs goes to Sabrina Reyna for fixing several videos and helping Michael update the website.
April 6: We had a chance to have a really good issue this week. We missed it by a slim margin because of style errors and some mistakes with photos. The lead photo for the Cesar Chavez Marcha was not fixed well. This could have been the focal point of the paper. It was not. Also, we have to get away from "label" headlines. We have them throughout. This is a newspaper. Our headlines must be bold and say something. We can do better here.
Page 1: We had a good story on KTAI and then we run only three pictures of the alumni honored, why? When we have a story on people being honored, we try to run all those honored. I'm embarrassed by this since this was our event. Jaime had a good story on TOMS and Claudia and Michael did a good job on their stories.
Page 2: This was a weak layout with a dog leg and no photos. We can do better.
Page 3: Nice story on bilingual education and also the "Be All You Can Be" and the "Japanese Ceramics." This was a strong campus news page. It's a little bit to horizontal modular for my taste and the biggest photo is below the cut, but we're learning. It will do. Nice job by Michael and Katherine on their stories.
Page 4: The editorial page lacked some cohesiveness but had excellent writing and a letter-to-the editor. Good lead photo that makes sense with the diversity editorial.
Page 5: Weak, too weak. Columns are too wide. Jav-A-Stats horrible. Photo by Artie very good. Nuf. said.
Page 6: Best part of the paper. This feature layout on bunnies had some solid and strong photos with excellent color. Still, it could have been better. The "football player bunny" photo could have been much stronger. We need close ups. These are kids. Get close. They will pose for you. Or, are you afraid. Ha. Bueno, nice job overall Claudia.
KUDOs: The reporting and writing of Michael Bolman, Jaime Gonzalez, Claudia Garacia and Edwin Vasquez continues to be very strong. All did wonderful for the print edition. Michael and Jaime get KUDOs for print. Paul Camarillo gets KUDOs for onlne.
Thanks for the hard work.
Nevertheless, we survived. Our results at TIPA in Kerrville were decent. That means we are still among the best in the state in our division, but we could have done better. Our online edition continues to improve, slowly. However, we have some leadership issues which and petty fights between staffers that takes away from our overall work here. We need to learn to work together and follow the chain of command, in both print and online edition issues. Let's see if we can do this to finish out the year strong. Now, let's look at each of the past three issues one at a time.
March 23: A good four-page issue with modular layout in the front page and a good teaser. Weak part about this is the lead photo on pi. We could have done better. We had a nice touch on the "Cast Members" info box and also a good "refer" on the healthcare bill. Stories were good. Lead story on trombone choir was disappointing. Why can't we write our own stories?
Page 2: This page also followed modular layout very well. Congratulations. Again, our lead photo was very weak. We need to fix these photos prior to deadline so that they reproduce better.
Page 3: Two solid campus news stories with the Battle of the Bands and program with Corpus Christi Calallen ISD make this a solid page. However, we did not use body text on both stories. We need to be consistent. And, when we have one good photo as Claudia's photo was on the lead singer for "Day of Reckoning," we need to run it big, Big, BIG!.
Page 4: This was one of our better sports pages. Nice balanced layout. The only thing wrong with this is that we ran only stories done by Shane Meling and everything is "old." We need to write analysis of the coming games so that students understand how we stand and what are chance of making the playoffs are. I don't think we will ever get there this year. Oh well.
KUDOS: Great effort from several reporters. Claudia Garcia and Edwin Vasquez were the best for print edition. Award goes to Claudia for print. Online KUDOs goes to Michael Bolman. Congratulations.
March 30: A solid front page with a good lead photo that could have been a tad better if fixed properly in photo shop. I think that now that we are using InDesign we should use more TIFFs. Sabrina, can you please take care of this? Overall, a good 6-page issue. We had plenty of good stories and some decent photos.
Page 2: Good lead story on "Caligraffiti" by Edwin. Well done. Excellent photo as well. Green Tip of the Week also well done, again.
Page 3: An outstanding story by Mark Molina on clean-up efforts and a good story on Gary Davis. Only problem here was the dog leg on the Davis story. Disappointed on the Asian Pacific Heritage coverage. This deserved a story.
Page 4: A good editorial page with a point-counterpoint type strategy on analysis stories by Mary Beth and Jaime. Both are excellent pieces and show how every story has more than one side. Well done. Nndy's column is again strong, but lacked depth and organization this time. Editorial cartoon still our weak point. I know it relates to Nndy's column but it just seems to lack punch. We can do better.
Page 5: A "wow" story on Christin Rycroft by David Brott. Very, very well done and we used the bold italic in the lyrics from the songs very well. We probably could have used some spacing, but hey this is fine. Nice contributed photo as well. We should have "referred" this story from pi to page 5. We need to be alert for this type of opportunities. Jaime and Angela are cute in the TIPA story.
Page 6: Weak sports page. Nuf said.
As for KUDOs, there were many good stories for the print edition by Edwin Vasquez's overall reporting gets KUDOs. Online KUDOs goes to Sabrina Reyna for fixing several videos and helping Michael update the website.
April 6: We had a chance to have a really good issue this week. We missed it by a slim margin because of style errors and some mistakes with photos. The lead photo for the Cesar Chavez Marcha was not fixed well. This could have been the focal point of the paper. It was not. Also, we have to get away from "label" headlines. We have them throughout. This is a newspaper. Our headlines must be bold and say something. We can do better here.
Page 1: We had a good story on KTAI and then we run only three pictures of the alumni honored, why? When we have a story on people being honored, we try to run all those honored. I'm embarrassed by this since this was our event. Jaime had a good story on TOMS and Claudia and Michael did a good job on their stories.
Page 2: This was a weak layout with a dog leg and no photos. We can do better.
Page 3: Nice story on bilingual education and also the "Be All You Can Be" and the "Japanese Ceramics." This was a strong campus news page. It's a little bit to horizontal modular for my taste and the biggest photo is below the cut, but we're learning. It will do. Nice job by Michael and Katherine on their stories.
Page 4: The editorial page lacked some cohesiveness but had excellent writing and a letter-to-the editor. Good lead photo that makes sense with the diversity editorial.
Page 5: Weak, too weak. Columns are too wide. Jav-A-Stats horrible. Photo by Artie very good. Nuf. said.
Page 6: Best part of the paper. This feature layout on bunnies had some solid and strong photos with excellent color. Still, it could have been better. The "football player bunny" photo could have been much stronger. We need close ups. These are kids. Get close. They will pose for you. Or, are you afraid. Ha. Bueno, nice job overall Claudia.
KUDOs: The reporting and writing of Michael Bolman, Jaime Gonzalez, Claudia Garacia and Edwin Vasquez continues to be very strong. All did wonderful for the print edition. Michael and Jaime get KUDOs for print. Paul Camarillo gets KUDOs for onlne.
Thanks for the hard work.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Review of March 9 issue
We had a major accomplishment last week as produced another edition of The South Texan. We changed from Quark to InDesign. Thanks to Angela Palacios and Mr. Fisher for helping us in this transition. The transition is good because PDFs in InDesign result in a better quality print job. The issue March 9 was crisp and vivid. We are going to stay with InDesign from now on. Angela and Amanda will help us continue to progress with this change. This is important because many of the nation's newspapers, magazines and advertising/public relations firms are now using this desktop publishing tool for a majority of their products. It helps all of our students to say they are familiar with InDesign. Good luck!
The transition was not without its problems, however. As we learned the new program, the time it consumed led to us missing deadlines both on stories and layouts. We barely made deadline and we also did not have a chance to properly proof read our edition. The result, many errors, too many. We will have to do better.
Now, for a page-by-page critique:
Page 1 - Well, first of all let's talk about what we didn't do on page 1. We did not have a story on Spring Fling. This was a major mistake. It's a big story for our students and we just proved to them that they don't have to read the paper to find out what's going on at TAMUK. I know, we did have shorts on it the prior week and even this week, but that's not enough. Now, the coverage on page 1 was very good with the story on the voting, fee increases, Black Heritage Month banquet, car show and Battle of the Bands. The layout and headlines, however, left something to be desired. I liked the "Community News" label but we had a "label head" (a headline that states the obvious) for a very important story. Why? Headlines should GRAB the reader's attention. This was more boring than my grandma hemming her dress in her front porch. And, one of my pet peeves, we did not have a BAP. Why? Oh, never mind, just fix it.
Page 2 - We had a nice ad for TAMUK Roundhouse Movie Club, but that's about it. This is very "so what" page. Too many jumps, not enough substance. Just disappointing.
Page 3 - I know Edwin is very proud of his work, but does he have to have his byline in 14 point? Ha. This is a nice page, layoutwise. Still, there is no BAP. Why? All pages must have at least a BAP! The story are well done. All four stories by Edwin. There is something wrong here. Where are out other reporters? That's embarrassing.
Page 4 - This was one of our better pages, with the exception of the white-on-black revers. The type has to be bigger and bolder. And, we had too many "staff reports." Why? Where are our reporters? And, we ran the wrong story for the ADDYs. Why? We had our own story and it was in the server. Also, why didn't we take pictures of our students with their awards? Why? Okay, the layout was good and the photo at the bottom of the page was sharp. The only thing wrong at the bottom was the dog leg. No dog legs in the layout, please!!!!
Page 5 - It would be difficult to mess up this page. It was a full-page ad. How could we have messed it up? Easy, misspell "Advertisement" on top. Are you kidding me? And, to make matters worse, we did not place the ad in the PDF and now we are not going to get paid. Are you kidding me? Oh, and the mistake at the top with the misspelling is reason enough for us not to get paid at all. Please....every page must be spell-checked. Please! And, I don't like to beg.
Page 6 - Nice. Good columns and strong editorial with an okay cartoon. It's okay overall.
Page 7 - Jaime did a good job of laying out this page. So, why am I not happy? Simple, we have the biggest sports staff in the state and, with the exception of Jaime's column, not a single story was written by our staff. Let's see we have Mark, Artie, Allen, Cody, Jaime, Dondi, Drew and assorted others on the staff. WHY THE HELL CAN'T WE WRITE A SPORTS STORY FROM OUR STAFF. WHY????? I read the Del Mar College paper. They have no sports, but they cover intramurals. They cover it well. They cover it better than we cover pinche baseball y softball. Why? Mark, por favor, make out assignments or just step down as sports editor. We need you to be a leader and we need you to cover stuff on your own or assign it to someone else. Please help us better. Please. And, I don't like to bet.
Page 8 - Perhaps our best page, but now we have a pinche cadet writing stuff for us, why? Why can't we report on stuff ourselves? Why? Claudia's story was good and we have another story by Edwin. Wow. Bueno, we move on.....I think we can do better. What do you think?
As for KUDOs, this is hard. We had some good things happen, and yet we had many mistakes. We had some good writing (oh, sorry, most of it wasn't ours). What I did find was five stories by Edwin and two stories by Claudia. Michael, Mary Beth and Katherine each had one story. Allen had a story and a column. Jaime had a column and a editorial. The rest was very, very weak. Amanda, you have to start writing at least two stories an issue for us to have quality coverage. We also need to spread out the news better.......
So, who gets KUDOs? It has to be Edwin and Claudia. Congrats guys for a job well done.
As for online, the award, it will go to our accounts manager, Jennifer Garcia. She has done an outstanding job of expanding our advertising to our online site. Way to go.
Bueno, we can do better. . . . . . .
The transition was not without its problems, however. As we learned the new program, the time it consumed led to us missing deadlines both on stories and layouts. We barely made deadline and we also did not have a chance to properly proof read our edition. The result, many errors, too many. We will have to do better.
Now, for a page-by-page critique:
Page 1 - Well, first of all let's talk about what we didn't do on page 1. We did not have a story on Spring Fling. This was a major mistake. It's a big story for our students and we just proved to them that they don't have to read the paper to find out what's going on at TAMUK. I know, we did have shorts on it the prior week and even this week, but that's not enough. Now, the coverage on page 1 was very good with the story on the voting, fee increases, Black Heritage Month banquet, car show and Battle of the Bands. The layout and headlines, however, left something to be desired. I liked the "Community News" label but we had a "label head" (a headline that states the obvious) for a very important story. Why? Headlines should GRAB the reader's attention. This was more boring than my grandma hemming her dress in her front porch. And, one of my pet peeves, we did not have a BAP. Why? Oh, never mind, just fix it.
Page 2 - We had a nice ad for TAMUK Roundhouse Movie Club, but that's about it. This is very "so what" page. Too many jumps, not enough substance. Just disappointing.
Page 3 - I know Edwin is very proud of his work, but does he have to have his byline in 14 point? Ha. This is a nice page, layoutwise. Still, there is no BAP. Why? All pages must have at least a BAP! The story are well done. All four stories by Edwin. There is something wrong here. Where are out other reporters? That's embarrassing.
Page 4 - This was one of our better pages, with the exception of the white-on-black revers. The type has to be bigger and bolder. And, we had too many "staff reports." Why? Where are our reporters? And, we ran the wrong story for the ADDYs. Why? We had our own story and it was in the server. Also, why didn't we take pictures of our students with their awards? Why? Okay, the layout was good and the photo at the bottom of the page was sharp. The only thing wrong at the bottom was the dog leg. No dog legs in the layout, please!!!!
Page 5 - It would be difficult to mess up this page. It was a full-page ad. How could we have messed it up? Easy, misspell "Advertisement" on top. Are you kidding me? And, to make matters worse, we did not place the ad in the PDF and now we are not going to get paid. Are you kidding me? Oh, and the mistake at the top with the misspelling is reason enough for us not to get paid at all. Please....every page must be spell-checked. Please! And, I don't like to beg.
Page 6 - Nice. Good columns and strong editorial with an okay cartoon. It's okay overall.
Page 7 - Jaime did a good job of laying out this page. So, why am I not happy? Simple, we have the biggest sports staff in the state and, with the exception of Jaime's column, not a single story was written by our staff. Let's see we have Mark, Artie, Allen, Cody, Jaime, Dondi, Drew and assorted others on the staff. WHY THE HELL CAN'T WE WRITE A SPORTS STORY FROM OUR STAFF. WHY????? I read the Del Mar College paper. They have no sports, but they cover intramurals. They cover it well. They cover it better than we cover pinche baseball y softball. Why? Mark, por favor, make out assignments or just step down as sports editor. We need you to be a leader and we need you to cover stuff on your own or assign it to someone else. Please help us better. Please. And, I don't like to bet.
Page 8 - Perhaps our best page, but now we have a pinche cadet writing stuff for us, why? Why can't we report on stuff ourselves? Why? Claudia's story was good and we have another story by Edwin. Wow. Bueno, we move on.....I think we can do better. What do you think?
As for KUDOs, this is hard. We had some good things happen, and yet we had many mistakes. We had some good writing (oh, sorry, most of it wasn't ours). What I did find was five stories by Edwin and two stories by Claudia. Michael, Mary Beth and Katherine each had one story. Allen had a story and a column. Jaime had a column and a editorial. The rest was very, very weak. Amanda, you have to start writing at least two stories an issue for us to have quality coverage. We also need to spread out the news better.......
So, who gets KUDOs? It has to be Edwin and Claudia. Congrats guys for a job well done.
As for online, the award, it will go to our accounts manager, Jennifer Garcia. She has done an outstanding job of expanding our advertising to our online site. Way to go.
Bueno, we can do better. . . . . . .
Friday, March 5, 2010
Review of March 2 edition
The March 2 issue had plenty of good things and some minor mistakes that remain areas of concern for our staff. First, we had breaking news with the "prayer vigil" or "protest" by the Baptist Student Ministry of the production of
Dante's Inferno by the Language and Literature Department. Allen Fisher did a good job of covering a difficult story and was able to get a photo of the event. We had controversy here, also. The BSM members insist their action was not a protest. It simply "prayer." So, how does a reporter make a judgment about this issue? If one organization (like the one doing the presentation) feels it is a protest, it is a protest and the reporters says so in the story. However, the reporter must ask the "leader" of the prayer movement if, indeed, it is a protest and present both sides of the story. From my point of view, when you hold a gathering at a place that is not approved as an "open forum" for the university, it automatically becomes a protest. Open forums are determined by the university. They are places where students and organizations can congregate to state their opinion or views about any subject and, within reason and not causing violence, state their views. TAMUK has one area where "free speech" is allowed - ha. According to TAMUK policy: The mall on the north side of the Memorial Student Union Building has been designated as the primary Free Speech Area at Texas A&M-Kingsville. This area may be used on a first-come, first-serve basis and must be reserved following University procedures established by Event Planning in the Memorial Student Union Building. Amplified sound requires prior approval by the Director of Memorial Student Union/Student Activities or his/her designee. The free expression of views and opinions, whether by individuals or by groups, must not violate the rights of others or disrupt the normal functions of the University.
In addition, TAMUK has a Student Right of Expression policy that reads: Texas A&M-Kingsville, as an education institution, believes that the right of expression and inquiry is essential to both the pursuit and dissemination of knowledge and truth. Students, both individually and collectively, are encouraged to take active roles in exercising the rights of expression, conscience, affiliation and peaceful assembly. At the same time, the University also recognizes its responsibility to protect the rights and freedom of those students who wish to pursue their educational interest without interference. The University is also obligated to protect its property and to prohibit disruption of scheduled activities of the students, faculty and staff and the campus community. So, was the BSM gathering legal? It was not held in the "free speech" area, right? But, the university encourages peaceful assembly of students, right? Essentially, BSM was within its rights to gather. The lesson here is for us as reporters to be aware of the options available for free expression.
On another note, our layout and design continues to be poor. And, we had several problems with "names." We did not give the full name of our Miss TAMUK. Also, we had the wrong name of the person we featured on the back page. Mistakes such as this make us seem as if we don't care about our readers. We will have to make corrections on both these stories.
Okay, now for a page-by-page review:
Page 1: This was a very newsy page. From the update on the status of the student who was involved in the car accident two weeks ago, to the enrollment increase story, the report on Dante's Inferno production and the SGA conference, these were solid news story. Well done. Storywise, we did not mention how many students were enrolled at TAMUK in Michael Bolman's story. We have to catch this. I suggest we fix this story and put it online with a graph showing growth. Layoutwise, the lead story on the 5% cut needed better design. Putting the graphic on the left side and starting the story there while the headline actually is more than 2 inches away from the story is not good. In addition, we have a "dog leg" on the first column. Dog legs are not attractive and make it hard for the reader to follow the story.
Page 2: This is our problem page. First, it keeps crashing and we have had to rebuild it. Second, since we lost Erika's column, the page just seem discombobulated. It's modular but it's not pretty. Can we work on this?
Page 3: This is a well designed page. Ironically, my main complaint here is that the ad for Javelina Station is too dark. When we have an ad, we must make sure it reproduces well. It's our main concern, 'cause we needs da money. Ha. Excellent stories by Edwin, Nndy and Michael.
Page 4: An interesting ed-ops page with good letters to the editor and a solid column and editorial. Our editorial cartoon is still weak, but Sabrina is developing her own style and getting better each week. Way to go Sabrina
Page 5: Sports page is so-so. Where are our action photos? Why don't we at least have an artist rendering of Rec Center? Come on guys, think. I still think we are just lazy or it could be we just lack news judgment and a sense of layout on this page. Also, too many sports staff stories, not enough features, etc. We can do much better.
Page 6: This page was disappointing. I know we did the layout at the last minute, but when in doubt go horizontal modular. And, we had a really big mistake. The last name of the person being featured is "Land" not "Lead." I said, "disappointing."
As for KUDOs for the print edition, we had plenty of competition this week. Edwin had three stories. Nndy stepped out of his shell and covered a news event and did a good job. Michael was again his usually prolific self as was Sabrina Reyna. So, Edwin, Nndy and Micheal get KUDOs. They are in the pot for the $100 award. Congrats.
As for the ONLINE award, much work was put in by Michael and Sabrina, so they both get the KUDOs nod. Congrats
Dante's Inferno by the Language and Literature Department. Allen Fisher did a good job of covering a difficult story and was able to get a photo of the event. We had controversy here, also. The BSM members insist their action was not a protest. It simply "prayer." So, how does a reporter make a judgment about this issue? If one organization (like the one doing the presentation) feels it is a protest, it is a protest and the reporters says so in the story. However, the reporter must ask the "leader" of the prayer movement if, indeed, it is a protest and present both sides of the story. From my point of view, when you hold a gathering at a place that is not approved as an "open forum" for the university, it automatically becomes a protest. Open forums are determined by the university. They are places where students and organizations can congregate to state their opinion or views about any subject and, within reason and not causing violence, state their views. TAMUK has one area where "free speech" is allowed - ha. According to TAMUK policy: The mall on the north side of the Memorial Student Union Building has been designated as the primary Free Speech Area at Texas A&M-Kingsville. This area may be used on a first-come, first-serve basis and must be reserved following University procedures established by Event Planning in the Memorial Student Union Building. Amplified sound requires prior approval by the Director of Memorial Student Union/Student Activities or his/her designee. The free expression of views and opinions, whether by individuals or by groups, must not violate the rights of others or disrupt the normal functions of the University.
In addition, TAMUK has a Student Right of Expression policy that reads: Texas A&M-Kingsville, as an education institution, believes that the right of expression and inquiry is essential to both the pursuit and dissemination of knowledge and truth. Students, both individually and collectively, are encouraged to take active roles in exercising the rights of expression, conscience, affiliation and peaceful assembly. At the same time, the University also recognizes its responsibility to protect the rights and freedom of those students who wish to pursue their educational interest without interference. The University is also obligated to protect its property and to prohibit disruption of scheduled activities of the students, faculty and staff and the campus community. So, was the BSM gathering legal? It was not held in the "free speech" area, right? But, the university encourages peaceful assembly of students, right? Essentially, BSM was within its rights to gather. The lesson here is for us as reporters to be aware of the options available for free expression.
On another note, our layout and design continues to be poor. And, we had several problems with "names." We did not give the full name of our Miss TAMUK. Also, we had the wrong name of the person we featured on the back page. Mistakes such as this make us seem as if we don't care about our readers. We will have to make corrections on both these stories.
Okay, now for a page-by-page review:
Page 1: This was a very newsy page. From the update on the status of the student who was involved in the car accident two weeks ago, to the enrollment increase story, the report on Dante's Inferno production and the SGA conference, these were solid news story. Well done. Storywise, we did not mention how many students were enrolled at TAMUK in Michael Bolman's story. We have to catch this. I suggest we fix this story and put it online with a graph showing growth. Layoutwise, the lead story on the 5% cut needed better design. Putting the graphic on the left side and starting the story there while the headline actually is more than 2 inches away from the story is not good. In addition, we have a "dog leg" on the first column. Dog legs are not attractive and make it hard for the reader to follow the story.
Page 2: This is our problem page. First, it keeps crashing and we have had to rebuild it. Second, since we lost Erika's column, the page just seem discombobulated. It's modular but it's not pretty. Can we work on this?
Page 3: This is a well designed page. Ironically, my main complaint here is that the ad for Javelina Station is too dark. When we have an ad, we must make sure it reproduces well. It's our main concern, 'cause we needs da money. Ha. Excellent stories by Edwin, Nndy and Michael.
Page 4: An interesting ed-ops page with good letters to the editor and a solid column and editorial. Our editorial cartoon is still weak, but Sabrina is developing her own style and getting better each week. Way to go Sabrina
Page 5: Sports page is so-so. Where are our action photos? Why don't we at least have an artist rendering of Rec Center? Come on guys, think. I still think we are just lazy or it could be we just lack news judgment and a sense of layout on this page. Also, too many sports staff stories, not enough features, etc. We can do much better.
Page 6: This page was disappointing. I know we did the layout at the last minute, but when in doubt go horizontal modular. And, we had a really big mistake. The last name of the person being featured is "Land" not "Lead." I said, "disappointing."
As for KUDOs for the print edition, we had plenty of competition this week. Edwin had three stories. Nndy stepped out of his shell and covered a news event and did a good job. Michael was again his usually prolific self as was Sabrina Reyna. So, Edwin, Nndy and Micheal get KUDOs. They are in the pot for the $100 award. Congrats.
As for the ONLINE award, much work was put in by Michael and Sabrina, so they both get the KUDOs nod. Congrats
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Critique for Feb. 23 issue
Much work went into this issue, but I was disappointed with several venues. First, we had a breaking news story with the death of our student in the car crash. Had I not insisted that someone get updates, this story would not have been done. There was reluctance all around to call the Kingsville Police Department and the hospital on the update of the student and there still is reluctance now as we have yet to update the story online. This is poor journalism in the digital age nd just sloppy reporting. I also had some problems with layout and design, in particular for pi and for the Spanish page. Still, it was a good effort. I saw many students,faculty and staff picking up our newspaper which was full of important and pertinent information Now, here is a page-by-page review:
Page 1: Nice use of art and solid front-page story, albeit without updates on status of survivor (they were much needed). Also, we're quoting the Caller-Times.YUK! We do our own reporting. Please, don't be lazy and please don't be scared to call these sources for updates. Amanda, Jaime, Angela you have to lead when these type of stories occur. The photo of the Bears is nice,but what happened to our "Top Story" designation? Amanda, as editor you have to "designate" the story which is the "Top Story." If this is not working and we're not comfortable with it, let's stop this now. Also, the "Early morning crash" and "KTAI celebrates" headlines are competing for attention. Make one bigger than the other. Finally,we are not modular. The "TAMUK makes top 50" headline must line-up with something. Overall, a good effort (not great) on this page. Solid stories. All were well done. All were pertinent. Thanks.
Page 2: This is a very busy and confusing page. What happened to "Blotter?" We need this every week. Please make sure we get this. The "By the Day" feature also needs some way to stand alone and our readers to find easily. Perhaps a screen here would work. Not pleased, sorry.
Page 3: Solid modular layout and one decent photo with some very good reporting make this page palatable from a "Campus News" standard. Still, every story must have a photo. We needed a photo of Dr. Vargas and his book, for example. And, we probably need a photo with the Gottschalk address. Still, nice. Thanks.
Page 4: A good e-ops page. Interesting columns and commentary (you go Michael). Enjoyed the KUDOS editorial. Is this catching on? Should we give certificates and put it on web? Help me think here. Of course, no one reads this so...I'll figure it out later.
Page 5: Best sports page of semester. Good layout. Nice "strong" photos. Still, what's missing is that we used a "staff reports" for the most important story of the week - Soza's 1000 point story. What should we have done? Mark, you should have interviewed the girl and had a solid feature with quotes and a past history. Are you scared to interview people? She's only a girl. Why can't we have "real" quotes from her in the most important accomplishment of her life and one of the all-time performances in Javelina women's basketball history? Mark, please do better on these type of stories.
Page 6: Spanish page layout is very, very poor. Two long vertical columns split the page in half and then the color makes it look even more awkward. A horizontal modular approach would have been much better here. Edwin, try to do this next time, please. This is very disappointing.
Overall? A good job. Many people stepped up to the front this week in spite of several misgivings. There was good work all around, but KUDOs for print should go to Michael Bolman who is "just there" smiling for everything and never complains. Michael had a pi story, covered the South Africa story and had an outstanding column. Good job Michael. Congratulations.
Page 1: Nice use of art and solid front-page story, albeit without updates on status of survivor (they were much needed). Also, we're quoting the Caller-Times.YUK! We do our own reporting. Please, don't be lazy and please don't be scared to call these sources for updates. Amanda, Jaime, Angela you have to lead when these type of stories occur. The photo of the Bears is nice,but what happened to our "Top Story" designation? Amanda, as editor you have to "designate" the story which is the "Top Story." If this is not working and we're not comfortable with it, let's stop this now. Also, the "Early morning crash" and "KTAI celebrates" headlines are competing for attention. Make one bigger than the other. Finally,we are not modular. The "TAMUK makes top 50" headline must line-up with something. Overall, a good effort (not great) on this page. Solid stories. All were well done. All were pertinent. Thanks.
Page 2: This is a very busy and confusing page. What happened to "Blotter?" We need this every week. Please make sure we get this. The "By the Day" feature also needs some way to stand alone and our readers to find easily. Perhaps a screen here would work. Not pleased, sorry.
Page 3: Solid modular layout and one decent photo with some very good reporting make this page palatable from a "Campus News" standard. Still, every story must have a photo. We needed a photo of Dr. Vargas and his book, for example. And, we probably need a photo with the Gottschalk address. Still, nice. Thanks.
Page 4: A good e-ops page. Interesting columns and commentary (you go Michael). Enjoyed the KUDOS editorial. Is this catching on? Should we give certificates and put it on web? Help me think here. Of course, no one reads this so...I'll figure it out later.
Page 5: Best sports page of semester. Good layout. Nice "strong" photos. Still, what's missing is that we used a "staff reports" for the most important story of the week - Soza's 1000 point story. What should we have done? Mark, you should have interviewed the girl and had a solid feature with quotes and a past history. Are you scared to interview people? She's only a girl. Why can't we have "real" quotes from her in the most important accomplishment of her life and one of the all-time performances in Javelina women's basketball history? Mark, please do better on these type of stories.
Page 6: Spanish page layout is very, very poor. Two long vertical columns split the page in half and then the color makes it look even more awkward. A horizontal modular approach would have been much better here. Edwin, try to do this next time, please. This is very disappointing.
Overall? A good job. Many people stepped up to the front this week in spite of several misgivings. There was good work all around, but KUDOs for print should go to Michael Bolman who is "just there" smiling for everything and never complains. Michael had a pi story, covered the South Africa story and had an outstanding column. Good job Michael. Congratulations.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Critique for Feb. 16 lissue
Hola Javelina Journalists. Nice job on the Feb. 16 issue. We still, however, have a lot of room for improvement. Let's do a page-by-page review.
Page 1: Nice modular layout. That's a plus. Teaser weak, too weak. Why not a photo of our cops handing out, oh, you know, tickets? I know, I'm being sarcastic. Sorry, but this is a critique. Let's see if we can get Paul or Sabrina to work on our teasers ahead of time. It's always good to have it early, oh, you know, to meet deadline and stuff. The other major thing I don't like on this page is the screen and the reproduction of the photo on t he KTAI story. We just have not gotten this right. I think I know how to fix the photos. From now, every photo has to be screened at 300 dpi and made lighter by someone who is in charge of that. Talking to Amanda and Angela, the suggestion was made that Sabrina Reyna be in charge of this. So, every Monday morning, Sabrina will review photos and try to make them as sharp as possible on PhotoShop. I would like for Allen Fisher to help with this, especially with the sports photos. Our photos have been too weak. As for rthe color screens, like just use blue and use white type. I don't know. I'm confused. Fisher (Don) help!!!!! Storywise, we had some very excellent stories which should have some high readability. The story on the MSUB changes by Edwin was very well done. Good reporting. Yes, we needed help editing but the detail was there. Edwin, nice job. Claudia's research into the KTAI story made this a strong "top story." Well done Claudia. Raymond's extra effort on the missing artwork was also well done and Katherine Robinette had a surprisingly good article on our new police chief. Page 1 looks clean, modular and solid. We just need to spruce up here and there and we will have a better looking page.
Page 2: Our "Focus on Us" should be clear and standout. This was nice, but we can do better. Then, the "KTAI jump story" and the "Pilot Project" story seem to jumble up. Next, we're not modular. The "From the Files of the UPD" feature and the "Green Tip" column should line up. The page is nice and has nice tweet but can be much better.
Page 3:A very interesting page with lots of Campus News. Sabrina Reyna certainly worked hard - 3 STORIES! Wow! She and Claudia Garcia and Michael Bolman all had interesting reports. Layout is okay but we do not have a BAP. And, the "bug" on the Black History Month is great except for the "Wolrd Peace" emblem. Paul, can you fix this please? Thanks. Claudia's story was very informative but missed the lead. Remember, no chrnonology. You have to tell the reader what the most important element is first. Okay?
Page 4: With the big "Name Change" forum by our president, we didn't have much room left for other things. But, we got that one column about Sarah Palin and the Fox News cartoon in....they will sure stir things up for the conservative element in our university. We should get some letters, I hope. Yea! I love letters to the editor. Jaime, nice work on the column. The KUDOs article was also solid. Perhaps we should develop its own logo. Don't know. Let's talk.
Page 5: Sports can be much better, layoutwise. The stories are okay and the the lead photo is fine, but we lost too much space with the silly Jav-A-Stats at the bottom. It's ugly, If we're going to use this much space, but some more stuff in there. Please, do a job that will make our readers thing we care. Also, the "Player of the Week" feature must be more attractive. Please, fix this. Oh, and don't use italic so much on a sports page. Okay> I don't know what else to say. The columns are too big. If you are taking or took editing by now you know no column should be more than 20 picas. Don't know what picas are? 6 picas to an inch. Figure it out! Also, why can't we use body text on the sports page? Everyone else does. USE BODY TEXT!!!!! Well, enough. I know you all work hard but we have to produce a product that will make the readers at least think we know what we are doing. They need to be proud of our school when they pick it up if even for a minute. You know what I mean.
Page 6: This is a better page. It's more colorful and we did a good sidebar with "Cassie Talks." Still, a solid photo of this young lady would have helped. Good work.
As for online, we finally got caught up with the Dean's search videos and we posted some of the stories that were left behind. We still don't have a good system in place for this but we're getting there. I expect we will have new site soon, right Michael?
Okay, KUDOs for print??????? Hard. At this venture I feel it should be Sabrina Reyna. She said she stayed up all night working n these stories. Good. But, next time do them early and make deadline. HA. I know, it's "inappropriate."
Online KUDOs to Paul Camarillo for helping us catch up and coming up with some ideas for our streaming video of the baseball games. Good job Paul.
Page 1: Nice modular layout. That's a plus. Teaser weak, too weak. Why not a photo of our cops handing out, oh, you know, tickets? I know, I'm being sarcastic. Sorry, but this is a critique. Let's see if we can get Paul or Sabrina to work on our teasers ahead of time. It's always good to have it early, oh, you know, to meet deadline and stuff. The other major thing I don't like on this page is the screen and the reproduction of the photo on t he KTAI story. We just have not gotten this right. I think I know how to fix the photos. From now, every photo has to be screened at 300 dpi and made lighter by someone who is in charge of that. Talking to Amanda and Angela, the suggestion was made that Sabrina Reyna be in charge of this. So, every Monday morning, Sabrina will review photos and try to make them as sharp as possible on PhotoShop. I would like for Allen Fisher to help with this, especially with the sports photos. Our photos have been too weak. As for rthe color screens, like just use blue and use white type. I don't know. I'm confused. Fisher (Don) help!!!!! Storywise, we had some very excellent stories which should have some high readability. The story on the MSUB changes by Edwin was very well done. Good reporting. Yes, we needed help editing but the detail was there. Edwin, nice job. Claudia's research into the KTAI story made this a strong "top story." Well done Claudia. Raymond's extra effort on the missing artwork was also well done and Katherine Robinette had a surprisingly good article on our new police chief. Page 1 looks clean, modular and solid. We just need to spruce up here and there and we will have a better looking page.
Page 2: Our "Focus on Us" should be clear and standout. This was nice, but we can do better. Then, the "KTAI jump story" and the "Pilot Project" story seem to jumble up. Next, we're not modular. The "From the Files of the UPD" feature and the "Green Tip" column should line up. The page is nice and has nice tweet but can be much better.
Page 3:A very interesting page with lots of Campus News. Sabrina Reyna certainly worked hard - 3 STORIES! Wow! She and Claudia Garcia and Michael Bolman all had interesting reports. Layout is okay but we do not have a BAP. And, the "bug" on the Black History Month is great except for the "Wolrd Peace" emblem. Paul, can you fix this please? Thanks. Claudia's story was very informative but missed the lead. Remember, no chrnonology. You have to tell the reader what the most important element is first. Okay?
Page 4: With the big "Name Change" forum by our president, we didn't have much room left for other things. But, we got that one column about Sarah Palin and the Fox News cartoon in....they will sure stir things up for the conservative element in our university. We should get some letters, I hope. Yea! I love letters to the editor. Jaime, nice work on the column. The KUDOs article was also solid. Perhaps we should develop its own logo. Don't know. Let's talk.
Page 5: Sports can be much better, layoutwise. The stories are okay and the the lead photo is fine, but we lost too much space with the silly Jav-A-Stats at the bottom. It's ugly, If we're going to use this much space, but some more stuff in there. Please, do a job that will make our readers thing we care. Also, the "Player of the Week" feature must be more attractive. Please, fix this. Oh, and don't use italic so much on a sports page. Okay> I don't know what else to say. The columns are too big. If you are taking or took editing by now you know no column should be more than 20 picas. Don't know what picas are? 6 picas to an inch. Figure it out! Also, why can't we use body text on the sports page? Everyone else does. USE BODY TEXT!!!!! Well, enough. I know you all work hard but we have to produce a product that will make the readers at least think we know what we are doing. They need to be proud of our school when they pick it up if even for a minute. You know what I mean.
Page 6: This is a better page. It's more colorful and we did a good sidebar with "Cassie Talks." Still, a solid photo of this young lady would have helped. Good work.
As for online, we finally got caught up with the Dean's search videos and we posted some of the stories that were left behind. We still don't have a good system in place for this but we're getting there. I expect we will have new site soon, right Michael?
Okay, KUDOs for print??????? Hard. At this venture I feel it should be Sabrina Reyna. She said she stayed up all night working n these stories. Good. But, next time do them early and make deadline. HA. I know, it's "inappropriate."
Online KUDOs to Paul Camarillo for helping us catch up and coming up with some ideas for our streaming video of the baseball games. Good job Paul.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
KUDOS - Eligible for $100 Scholarship
JAN. 26 ISSUE
Print: A solid first effort of the semester saw many good efforts from our staffers. In the end, KUDOs is going to Claudia Garcia. Claudia had two front-page stories and also helped layout and design a page. The first issue of any semester is always hard to get ready for. It's obvious that Claudia had her boots on and was ready to work. Congratulations Claudia. You're in the pot for the $100 end-of year scholarships.
As for online, the work of Paul Camarillo to get to get the site going is impressive. Paul, too, is in the pot. Congratulations.
Online:
Jan. 26 KUDOs
Print: Claudia Garcia
Online: Paul Camarillo
FEB. 2 ISSUE
Print:This was not one of our best efforts for the print edition. However, we still had individual performances that did need to be recognized. Claudia Garcia, Michael Bolman, Mark Molina, Allen Fisher, Jaime Gonzalez and Artie Leal (among others) did very well. In the end, Artie's effort wins out. Way to go Artie, your new column will attract readers and your analysis for Super Bowl was one of the most-read articles (thank God) in this very weak edition of our student newspaper. You're in the pot for the $100 end-of year scholarship.
Online:
The online team continue to work very hard. The video stream of the baseball game was very impressive as well as the video of the candidate for dean of Arts and Sciences. A very close decision, but we give KUDOs to Sabrina Reyna. Way to go girl, or is that "inappropriate."
Feb. 2KUDOs
Print: Artie Leal
Online: Sabrina Reyna
FEB. 9 ISSUE
A solid issue with much hard work and dedication from staffers to bounce back from the fiasco of the previous week. There were many good efforts here. Jaime Gonzalez' lead front page article on "Javelina Spirit" was excellent. Allen Fisher's review also very well done, albeit misplaced on pi. Allen also had a solid story on the TAMUK author and artist on page 3. Adolfo Castillo had two solid Campus News articles on page 3. Micahel Bolman had solid story on the Wind Symphony. Nndy had a fabulous column. Artie had a great action shot. mark had his usual and solid effort in sports. All-in-all, a good effort overall. KUDOs this week, however, go to our newcomer and rookie Allen Fisher - a.k.a. "Big Fish" - for his solid all around effort. Well done Allen and welcome to The South Texan. You're in the pot for the $100 end-of year scholarship.
Online:
Online wise, Michael Bolman has stepped up to the plate to try to help us catch up in a wee when some people were out of pocket.
Feb. 9 KUDOs
Print: Allen Fisher
Online:Michael Bolman
FEB. 16 ISSUE
The strong point of this issue was that we are understanding the modular concept of modern newspaper layout and design. But, also, there were some strong reporting efforts. We are very pleased with Claudia's leading article, Edwin's report on the MSUB, Katherine's strong story on the police chief and Raymond's artwork theft story on pi. Inside, including sports,we also had some reporters who shined, including Claudia, Sabrina Reyna, Michael Bolman, Jaime Gonzalez and Mark Molina. All wrote very well. Good job. However, Sabrina Reyna's effort was inspiring. She just recently became a journalism/communications major and has truly helped us with her versatility. She works for both the print and online edition, is one of our main photographers and shoots video. She is our most complete communicator on our staff right now. So, for that, Sabrina Reyna, you are appropriately in the pot. You're in the pot for the $100 end-of year scholarship.
Online:
Online wise, Paul Camarillo gets KUDOs for his ideas on how to help improve our live video streaming of the Javelina baseball games and for his reporting of sports events online. Well done Paul. Thanks.
Feb. 16 KUDOs
Print: Sabrina Reyna
Online:Paul Camarillo
FEB. 23 ISSUE
Print: This was one of our better issues, in spite of some layout and reporting blunders. The paper was laden with informative and poignant stories. The layouts were decent with exception of Spanish page. Many people did very good work. Micahel Bolman had a myriad of stories (three in all) and Claudia Garcia and Sabrina Reyna has very good reports and photos. Nndy Oheri had a solid news article and a good column. Allen Fisher had a good feature story and Artie Leal had a solid column. Edwin had a good story on the visiting chef and did the Spanish page. Lots of work, I know, thanks to all. KUDOs, this week goes to Michael Bolman. He keeps working very hard and is improving vastly as a journalist. It's wonderful to see him grow, gain confidence and spread his wing span. He is becoming multi-talented and nothing can hold him back, not even Sabrina R. saying he "inappropriate." Good job, hito, your in the pot for the $100f KUDOs prize.
As for online, Michael, too, has done a great job here updating material and making corrections So, congratulations, again.
Online:
Feb. 23 KUDOs
Print: Michael Bolman
Online: Michael Bolman
March 2 ISSUE
Print: This was a solid issue with a lot of good reporting. Certainly, Edwin, Michael, Nndy, Sabrina and Allen were in mix to get the award this week. Allen missed deadline and Sabrina was doing videos and could not concetrate on newspaper....so, its Nndy, Michel and Edwin. As for online, Michael, continues to a great job s, ocongratulations, again.
Online:
March 2 KUDOs
Print: Michael Bolman, Nndy Oheri, Edwin Vasquez
Online: Michael Bolman
March 9 ISSUE
Print: We had some strong elements in this issue but we have a long way to go. At least we shifted over to InDesign. Angela, good job. Online:
March 9 KUDOs
Print: Claudia Garcia, Edwin Vasquez
Online: Jennifer Garcia
Print: A solid first effort of the semester saw many good efforts from our staffers. In the end, KUDOs is going to Claudia Garcia. Claudia had two front-page stories and also helped layout and design a page. The first issue of any semester is always hard to get ready for. It's obvious that Claudia had her boots on and was ready to work. Congratulations Claudia. You're in the pot for the $100 end-of year scholarships.
As for online, the work of Paul Camarillo to get to get the site going is impressive. Paul, too, is in the pot. Congratulations.
Online:
Jan. 26 KUDOs
Print: Claudia Garcia
Online: Paul Camarillo
FEB. 2 ISSUE
Print:This was not one of our best efforts for the print edition. However, we still had individual performances that did need to be recognized. Claudia Garcia, Michael Bolman, Mark Molina, Allen Fisher, Jaime Gonzalez and Artie Leal (among others) did very well. In the end, Artie's effort wins out. Way to go Artie, your new column will attract readers and your analysis for Super Bowl was one of the most-read articles (thank God) in this very weak edition of our student newspaper. You're in the pot for the $100 end-of year scholarship.
Online:
The online team continue to work very hard. The video stream of the baseball game was very impressive as well as the video of the candidate for dean of Arts and Sciences. A very close decision, but we give KUDOs to Sabrina Reyna. Way to go girl, or is that "inappropriate."
Feb. 2KUDOs
Print: Artie Leal
Online: Sabrina Reyna
FEB. 9 ISSUE
A solid issue with much hard work and dedication from staffers to bounce back from the fiasco of the previous week. There were many good efforts here. Jaime Gonzalez' lead front page article on "Javelina Spirit" was excellent. Allen Fisher's review also very well done, albeit misplaced on pi. Allen also had a solid story on the TAMUK author and artist on page 3. Adolfo Castillo had two solid Campus News articles on page 3. Micahel Bolman had solid story on the Wind Symphony. Nndy had a fabulous column. Artie had a great action shot. mark had his usual and solid effort in sports. All-in-all, a good effort overall. KUDOs this week, however, go to our newcomer and rookie Allen Fisher - a.k.a. "Big Fish" - for his solid all around effort. Well done Allen and welcome to The South Texan. You're in the pot for the $100 end-of year scholarship.
Online:
Online wise, Michael Bolman has stepped up to the plate to try to help us catch up in a wee when some people were out of pocket.
Feb. 9 KUDOs
Print: Allen Fisher
Online:Michael Bolman
FEB. 16 ISSUE
The strong point of this issue was that we are understanding the modular concept of modern newspaper layout and design. But, also, there were some strong reporting efforts. We are very pleased with Claudia's leading article, Edwin's report on the MSUB, Katherine's strong story on the police chief and Raymond's artwork theft story on pi. Inside, including sports,we also had some reporters who shined, including Claudia, Sabrina Reyna, Michael Bolman, Jaime Gonzalez and Mark Molina. All wrote very well. Good job. However, Sabrina Reyna's effort was inspiring. She just recently became a journalism/communications major and has truly helped us with her versatility. She works for both the print and online edition, is one of our main photographers and shoots video. She is our most complete communicator on our staff right now. So, for that, Sabrina Reyna, you are appropriately in the pot. You're in the pot for the $100 end-of year scholarship.
Online:
Online wise, Paul Camarillo gets KUDOs for his ideas on how to help improve our live video streaming of the Javelina baseball games and for his reporting of sports events online. Well done Paul. Thanks.
Feb. 16 KUDOs
Print: Sabrina Reyna
Online:Paul Camarillo
FEB. 23 ISSUE
Print: This was one of our better issues, in spite of some layout and reporting blunders. The paper was laden with informative and poignant stories. The layouts were decent with exception of Spanish page. Many people did very good work. Micahel Bolman had a myriad of stories (three in all) and Claudia Garcia and Sabrina Reyna has very good reports and photos. Nndy Oheri had a solid news article and a good column. Allen Fisher had a good feature story and Artie Leal had a solid column. Edwin had a good story on the visiting chef and did the Spanish page. Lots of work, I know, thanks to all. KUDOs, this week goes to Michael Bolman. He keeps working very hard and is improving vastly as a journalist. It's wonderful to see him grow, gain confidence and spread his wing span. He is becoming multi-talented and nothing can hold him back, not even Sabrina R. saying he "inappropriate." Good job, hito, your in the pot for the $100f KUDOs prize.
As for online, Michael, too, has done a great job here updating material and making corrections So, congratulations, again.
Online:
Feb. 23 KUDOs
Print: Michael Bolman
Online: Michael Bolman
March 2 ISSUE
Print: This was a solid issue with a lot of good reporting. Certainly, Edwin, Michael, Nndy, Sabrina and Allen were in mix to get the award this week. Allen missed deadline and Sabrina was doing videos and could not concetrate on newspaper....so, its Nndy, Michel and Edwin. As for online, Michael, continues to a great job s, ocongratulations, again.
Online:
March 2 KUDOs
Print: Michael Bolman, Nndy Oheri, Edwin Vasquez
Online: Michael Bolman
March 9 ISSUE
Print: We had some strong elements in this issue but we have a long way to go. At least we shifted over to InDesign. Angela, good job. Online:
March 9 KUDOs
Print: Claudia Garcia, Edwin Vasquez
Online: Jennifer Garcia
Critique of first 3 issues
Our first three print issues showed much dedication and diligent work by our staffers. They also showed good leadership from our new editor Amanda Marcum and our new Publications Lab Director Angela Palacios. We had a lot of transition after the December edition, losing some key staff members (Katrina Alejandro and Adolfo) as well as Angela stepping down as editor and our experienced Pub Lab Director when Adriana Tapia Garza left us to accept a high-paying job with the university. But, we are a team and we can survive. Angela is the new Pub Lab Director and has hit the road running. Amanda is quickly learning the role of a leader and others like Jaime, Claudia, the two Sabrinas, Edwin, Mark, Artie, Michael, Paul have stepped up. New additions like Allen Fisher have been a joy to have on staff. We are still building our staff so we will get better. Okay...now, here are some critiques. KUDOs will be on a separate post and will stay together for the entire semester. It will be easier to see who gets print KUDOs. Mr. Fisher will do the online critique on another post.
Jan. 26 Issue
Page 1 - A decent modular layout with a good reader at top on the search for Honors College Dean. The headline was an attempt at what is called a TRIPOD headline. To make it work, one of the elements must be much bigger. Let's talk. I'll explain. Also, the H1N1 story at the top got good play and was good information, but it should not have been centered. It made for some strange "widows" or words that stand along like "p.m." by itself. Also, when we mention a room number it's always caps. For example, it's Room 219C. Okay? A disappointment on this page was the Black Heritage story. It's great that we ran a schedule but we needed a real story. Okay? The story on Viper's Day was strong, but we needed to run it on a clearer screen. The Haiti story was good and had a picture of students. Good job.
Page 2 - A solid page with a good "Focus on Us" feature and solid "Tweet of the Week." The photo of Angelah Johnson needed to be cropped tighter. Too much space on both sides. And, "Tweet of the Week" must line up with the book rental story to be true modular layout. Speaking of book rental story, that sure seemed like pi material. What do you think? News judgement is crucial to the appeal of the paper to students. Certainly many students feel this is important. Enjoyed the "By the Day" feature. It's a good addition and complements the "Green Tip of the Week."
Page 3 - The Ed-Ops page had some good material for a first edition. Amanda's column was informative and told about our goals for the year. The only problem is that we did not justify it at the bottom. This looks bad and makes it look as if we don't care about accuracy and layout. We had several stories like this. Let's fix this. Also, Nndy's logo on his column is butting against the photo on the Haiti relief effort. Please move it to the other side of the column and also to the top. Nndy's story solid. Our editorial on Haiti needed a little more work.
Page 4 - The sports page had some good stories but seemed to lack "zest." It's the first issue. We will get better.
Feb. 2 Issue
First, this was one of our poorest issues in recent memory. I'm sorry I was not there to read the pages before we PDFed them. It's obvious something went wrong and we had some very important stories that gained much attention on campus and from our alumni. Unfortunately, we had many, many (too many) errors. We will not mess up like this again. Please, read the PDFs before we submit them. Also, please make sure the right stories get posted. And, please remember that when we finish proofing pages on Quark,we must step back and wait at least 10 seconds before we touch anything. Okay? Personally, I was very disappointed with this effort. Now, let's look at the issue page by page.
Page 1 - On pi we had several stories that were not justified at the bottom. In particular, the theatre season opening story had too much white space the bottom. Again, we don't do this. Use a layout device like a "big cap" or Quoteout to take up some of this space. Okay? Also, I was disappointed on some of the stories, including this one. The photo on Kingsville cleanup story was also disappointing. We have butts and backs. We need faces. Also, when we are running a story on a Regents Professor, don't you think he/she deserves a picture? Of course, yes. Plan for this. And, another disappointment, this story should have been written by one of our staffers. We should have gotten quotes from his students and other professors. This is very, very weak and very, very disappointing. On the front page, at the very least, the stories must be written by our staffers.
Page 2 - This page has some good ideas to increase student readership. Our new feature column - "Greek Letters" - should be popular with our readers. Artie did a good job to start this out but the column needs to be developed into one with a lead section and then some briefs. For example, the lead article is good and then on other notes we use the actual Greek letters to announce what other groups are doing. Angela and Amanda, please help Artie develop this. Nevertheless, Artie we are proud of you. "By the Day" looks better. "UPD" stuff good addition. Also, good place for "Tweet of the Week." Overall, nice page.
Page 3 - This was a good Campus News page It was very newsy and covered several campus activities. Again, we had a story by a non-staffer. Not good. The stories we did cover were solid, in spite of several typos and errors. Again, we can't do this.
Page 4 - Originally, this was one of our weakest pages ever in the history of The South Texan. Mr. Fisher and I are glad the PDF was corrected, but the damage was done. Hundreds of administrators and alumni and we suspect faculty and student saw the myriad of mistakes we had on this and it reflected very poorly on your hard work, the work of myself and Mr. Fisher and on our university. People were actually laughing at us - Mr. Fisher and I included. One of our supervisors actually called and asked "What are we paying you for?" Of course, it's our fault. We should have "read" the final pages but didn't. What was wrong? First, the lead editorial on budget cuts had too many errors. How did this happen? We don't know and we ope it doesn't happen again. We have too much at stake, including our funding that pays for some of your salaries and for our trips. Needless to say, it was embarrassing. The good news is that Angela made the corrections and Michael posted the new pages online. Perhaps our readers will realize that we can make corrections. Also, please place Nndy's column bug on the other side of the page. Okay?
Page 5 - A good sports page with a good addition for Player of Week, but we can do better. Mark, can you and Paul workout a new graphic design for Player of the Week and let's also run it on the online edition. Please do this. Good job on the golf coach story. We can still do better. The sports page is flat. It needs more "zest".....Mark, get more zest into it...okay?
Page 6 - A very nice Super Bowl page. Writing could have been tighter on both stories. Next time, please let Mr. Fisher read items like this before we publish them.
Feb. 8 issue
First, a much better effort. Thank you. It seems as if we truly worked to cut down on mistakes. Unfortunately, this issue did not have a story of the caliber and interest of the 5% budget cut story, so it went unnoticed by many. At least, the students, faculty and administrators who read it and did not laugh at us. I saw many students pick this edition up and carry it throughout campus. Of course, some were using it to shield themselves from the rain, but many also read it...it's a good change of pace from the mistakes of the previous week. And, at the very least, we do serve a purpose. A wet South Texan is better than one which we dump in the trash. Ha. Now, let's look at this issue page-by-page.
Page 1 - A very sweet page with the candy teasers. Ha. It makes my mouth water (sugar fit) and is eye-catching. The layout is much better, but we are getting away from "big headlines." Why? The enrollment story should have had a bigger headline. This story, too, was updated late and did not truly match the headline. Michael and Amanda, whenever a story like this emerges (with late additions or statistics) please make an editor's note for readers to catch up online. Okay? Jaime's story on "Javelina Spirit" was solid and the photo good, but needed to be bigger and more commanding. Okay? Ask me how? The review by Allen Fisher was in the wrong place. A review is never pi material. It goes inside. Also, on this layout, the "cast" is to the bottom. Remember, all graphic elements to the top. The photo was also too weak? Can't see who they are. It's better to run a close-up of one actor than a photo of five cast members you can't recognize. The review itself was well done. Good job Allen. Amanda, good job on the dining hall story.
Page 2 - Okay, nice layout and the graphic material from the Roundhouse Movie Club makes this page stand out. Good job. But, again, we need a real story here. The "Go Green" column was very, very interesting and romantic. Ha.
Page 3 - Good and important tease at the top. Nice advance to "Brown Bag" story. Did we say where it was? Good job, Michael, on wind symphony. Good job overall Allen. Adolfo we're going to miss you.
Page 4 - Everything is solid on this Ed-Ops page with two exceptions. First, the cartoon is weak. We need to get much better on this. Jaime, can you help Ernest with this? Thanks. And, second, the letter-to-the-editor may need a editor's note. The subject covered in the letter has not been reported on by our paper so we need to inform the readers about the subject. Nndy's column and the editorial are solid. Nndy' column excellent. Wow.
Page 5 - Sports page getting better. Great action shot of Clifton Thomas stealing a base. Unique shot. Only ball was missing. Mark, you're lead is too weak and unimaginative. You can do better. Player of the Week feature still to weak. Make a nice design for this. It must stand out and it must run online. Layout good. Okay, getting better. And, in case you didn't realize it, you scooped all the papers on the Randle story. Unbelievable.
Page 6 - Cute. Nice job. It's nice to see Mary Beth writing again. Remember, she is auditing our Pub Lab course. Please let her know. She won't return my calls.
Jan. 26 Issue
Page 1 - A decent modular layout with a good reader at top on the search for Honors College Dean. The headline was an attempt at what is called a TRIPOD headline. To make it work, one of the elements must be much bigger. Let's talk. I'll explain. Also, the H1N1 story at the top got good play and was good information, but it should not have been centered. It made for some strange "widows" or words that stand along like "p.m." by itself. Also, when we mention a room number it's always caps. For example, it's Room 219C. Okay? A disappointment on this page was the Black Heritage story. It's great that we ran a schedule but we needed a real story. Okay? The story on Viper's Day was strong, but we needed to run it on a clearer screen. The Haiti story was good and had a picture of students. Good job.
Page 2 - A solid page with a good "Focus on Us" feature and solid "Tweet of the Week." The photo of Angelah Johnson needed to be cropped tighter. Too much space on both sides. And, "Tweet of the Week" must line up with the book rental story to be true modular layout. Speaking of book rental story, that sure seemed like pi material. What do you think? News judgement is crucial to the appeal of the paper to students. Certainly many students feel this is important. Enjoyed the "By the Day" feature. It's a good addition and complements the "Green Tip of the Week."
Page 3 - The Ed-Ops page had some good material for a first edition. Amanda's column was informative and told about our goals for the year. The only problem is that we did not justify it at the bottom. This looks bad and makes it look as if we don't care about accuracy and layout. We had several stories like this. Let's fix this. Also, Nndy's logo on his column is butting against the photo on the Haiti relief effort. Please move it to the other side of the column and also to the top. Nndy's story solid. Our editorial on Haiti needed a little more work.
Page 4 - The sports page had some good stories but seemed to lack "zest." It's the first issue. We will get better.
Feb. 2 Issue
First, this was one of our poorest issues in recent memory. I'm sorry I was not there to read the pages before we PDFed them. It's obvious something went wrong and we had some very important stories that gained much attention on campus and from our alumni. Unfortunately, we had many, many (too many) errors. We will not mess up like this again. Please, read the PDFs before we submit them. Also, please make sure the right stories get posted. And, please remember that when we finish proofing pages on Quark,we must step back and wait at least 10 seconds before we touch anything. Okay? Personally, I was very disappointed with this effort. Now, let's look at the issue page by page.
Page 1 - On pi we had several stories that were not justified at the bottom. In particular, the theatre season opening story had too much white space the bottom. Again, we don't do this. Use a layout device like a "big cap" or Quoteout to take up some of this space. Okay? Also, I was disappointed on some of the stories, including this one. The photo on Kingsville cleanup story was also disappointing. We have butts and backs. We need faces. Also, when we are running a story on a Regents Professor, don't you think he/she deserves a picture? Of course, yes. Plan for this. And, another disappointment, this story should have been written by one of our staffers. We should have gotten quotes from his students and other professors. This is very, very weak and very, very disappointing. On the front page, at the very least, the stories must be written by our staffers.
Page 2 - This page has some good ideas to increase student readership. Our new feature column - "Greek Letters" - should be popular with our readers. Artie did a good job to start this out but the column needs to be developed into one with a lead section and then some briefs. For example, the lead article is good and then on other notes we use the actual Greek letters to announce what other groups are doing. Angela and Amanda, please help Artie develop this. Nevertheless, Artie we are proud of you. "By the Day" looks better. "UPD" stuff good addition. Also, good place for "Tweet of the Week." Overall, nice page.
Page 3 - This was a good Campus News page It was very newsy and covered several campus activities. Again, we had a story by a non-staffer. Not good. The stories we did cover were solid, in spite of several typos and errors. Again, we can't do this.
Page 4 - Originally, this was one of our weakest pages ever in the history of The South Texan. Mr. Fisher and I are glad the PDF was corrected, but the damage was done. Hundreds of administrators and alumni and we suspect faculty and student saw the myriad of mistakes we had on this and it reflected very poorly on your hard work, the work of myself and Mr. Fisher and on our university. People were actually laughing at us - Mr. Fisher and I included. One of our supervisors actually called and asked "What are we paying you for?" Of course, it's our fault. We should have "read" the final pages but didn't. What was wrong? First, the lead editorial on budget cuts had too many errors. How did this happen? We don't know and we ope it doesn't happen again. We have too much at stake, including our funding that pays for some of your salaries and for our trips. Needless to say, it was embarrassing. The good news is that Angela made the corrections and Michael posted the new pages online. Perhaps our readers will realize that we can make corrections. Also, please place Nndy's column bug on the other side of the page. Okay?
Page 5 - A good sports page with a good addition for Player of Week, but we can do better. Mark, can you and Paul workout a new graphic design for Player of the Week and let's also run it on the online edition. Please do this. Good job on the golf coach story. We can still do better. The sports page is flat. It needs more "zest".....Mark, get more zest into it...okay?
Page 6 - A very nice Super Bowl page. Writing could have been tighter on both stories. Next time, please let Mr. Fisher read items like this before we publish them.
Feb. 8 issue
First, a much better effort. Thank you. It seems as if we truly worked to cut down on mistakes. Unfortunately, this issue did not have a story of the caliber and interest of the 5% budget cut story, so it went unnoticed by many. At least, the students, faculty and administrators who read it and did not laugh at us. I saw many students pick this edition up and carry it throughout campus. Of course, some were using it to shield themselves from the rain, but many also read it...it's a good change of pace from the mistakes of the previous week. And, at the very least, we do serve a purpose. A wet South Texan is better than one which we dump in the trash. Ha. Now, let's look at this issue page-by-page.
Page 1 - A very sweet page with the candy teasers. Ha. It makes my mouth water (sugar fit) and is eye-catching. The layout is much better, but we are getting away from "big headlines." Why? The enrollment story should have had a bigger headline. This story, too, was updated late and did not truly match the headline. Michael and Amanda, whenever a story like this emerges (with late additions or statistics) please make an editor's note for readers to catch up online. Okay? Jaime's story on "Javelina Spirit" was solid and the photo good, but needed to be bigger and more commanding. Okay? Ask me how? The review by Allen Fisher was in the wrong place. A review is never pi material. It goes inside. Also, on this layout, the "cast" is to the bottom. Remember, all graphic elements to the top. The photo was also too weak? Can't see who they are. It's better to run a close-up of one actor than a photo of five cast members you can't recognize. The review itself was well done. Good job Allen. Amanda, good job on the dining hall story.
Page 2 - Okay, nice layout and the graphic material from the Roundhouse Movie Club makes this page stand out. Good job. But, again, we need a real story here. The "Go Green" column was very, very interesting and romantic. Ha.
Page 3 - Good and important tease at the top. Nice advance to "Brown Bag" story. Did we say where it was? Good job, Michael, on wind symphony. Good job overall Allen. Adolfo we're going to miss you.
Page 4 - Everything is solid on this Ed-Ops page with two exceptions. First, the cartoon is weak. We need to get much better on this. Jaime, can you help Ernest with this? Thanks. And, second, the letter-to-the-editor may need a editor's note. The subject covered in the letter has not been reported on by our paper so we need to inform the readers about the subject. Nndy's column and the editorial are solid. Nndy' column excellent. Wow.
Page 5 - Sports page getting better. Great action shot of Clifton Thomas stealing a base. Unique shot. Only ball was missing. Mark, you're lead is too weak and unimaginative. You can do better. Player of the Week feature still to weak. Make a nice design for this. It must stand out and it must run online. Layout good. Okay, getting better. And, in case you didn't realize it, you scooped all the papers on the Randle story. Unbelievable.
Page 6 - Cute. Nice job. It's nice to see Mary Beth writing again. Remember, she is auditing our Pub Lab course. Please let her know. She won't return my calls.
New Rules for Critiques
First, sorry for the delay in posting the "critique" of our first three issues. The new semester and the duties of the search for the new dean of the university's College of Arts and Sciences has kept me very busy. I was also waiting to see how our Plan 21 effort would evolve as The South Texan Online got momentum and because a more integral, or perhaps most important, part of our efforts to communicate with our students. Of course, there are no excuses and I, essentially, missed a deadline. Well, no mas, we will try to be diligent with this and Mr. Fisher and I will keep a weekly update on critiques. I will be doing print media and he and I will both be doing online media on a weekly basis. We will have KUDOs (attaboys) in two areas, print and online. At times, the person will be the same one. Chances are that the online KUDOs will have many repetitions since there are only a few students who work on this, but we hope that others will soon join in the fray. As for photographers, they will be eligible for both and can win both awards. Of course, at the end of the semester, all are eligible for a $100 KUDOs scholarship and Mr. Fisher and I are thinking of making it two awards this year. We'll see. It depends on the quality Okay, ready for the new rules? The first critiques follow on all of our print editions to date. Mr. Fisher will critique the online edition starting next week with some observations and some praise.....buena suerte.
Off and Running in 2010
Hola Javelina Journalism students and fans. We're off and running in 2010 and there are some new and exciting things happening in the field of Communications in our university. First, the concept that print media rules the world of communications has now been erased. In our South Texan news room, it's online first, print 2nd. Our Plan 21 - to transform our news room from the old let's wait a week to print the news to let's put it on right now, right now - is being implemented. While we still have lots of gaps in accomplishing our goal, the effort of adviser Mr. Don Fisher and his online staff, as well as the cooperation of editor Amanda Marcum and publication lab director Angela Palacios, has made this transformation a bit easier. We're on the way to teaching our communications students that convergence has arrived at TAMUK and that knowing a little bit about every form of digital media and print media production is essential to success as a journalist, not to mention just finding a job out there in this very tight job market. So, good job thus far, but know that we have a long and treacherous road ahead.
Dr. Flores
Dr. Flores
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