Spring/Summer 2006
Read on
Newspaper no longer only
source of information.
Mass Comm students
learn to be ‘polished
gem’ at conference.
The News Argus
MEDIA NEWS
Mass Communication Department's conference
considered a success^ despite the low attendance
By Phamalae Cummings
and Patricia Commander
ARGUS REPORTERS
Less than half of the stu
dents enrolled in the Depart
ment of Mass Commun
ications attended this year's
fifth annual conference held
March 15-16, in the Ander
son Conference Center. The
theme of the conference was
"Polish: Becoming a Media
Gem." However, the low
turnout suggests that most
students believe they are
already
polished.
The conference featured
lectures on dining, business
and dressing for success eti
quette. It also showcased the
talents of various speakers,
including Anthony L. Law, a
graduate of the University
of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill, now vice president at
Wachovia Corporation. Law
conducted a lecture on busi
ness etiquette. His speech
began "1 was expecting a
bigger crowd," a conunon
sentiment among many in
the Mass Communications
Department.
"I was amazed at how
good the conference was but
I was appalled by the atten
dance," Lavender GiU, an
instructor and coordinator
for Ram Television, said.
Gill, who has taught at
three different universities,
said he has "never seen a
university where the faculty
and staff took time to put on
a conference." He added
that he believes the confer
ence did a good job of rein
forcing the need for profes
sionalism and the need for
attendance and punctuality.
"Half of being successful
is showing up and half of
our students did not," con
cluded Gill.
Out of the 213 mass com
munications students, 69
students attended the con
ference. BCrystal Knight, a
mass communications major
who attended the confer
ence, said "I don't feel like
people are taking mass com
munications seriously."
Although she was disap
pointed in her classmates,
she blamed lecturers for fail
ing to promote the event.
"1 wanted to attend,"
Kenyetta Richmond said. "I
was upset because this is the
mass commimications
department, but there was
an insufficient amount of
communication."
Richmond said that she
has five mass communica
tion classes, and none of her
instructors mentioned the
conference until the day
before the conference.
Latoya Porter offered a
counter view: "Students
would make the effort to
find out about a step show,
or a party. Why not make
the same effort when it
comes to events concerning
their future?"
Todd Davis, a mass com
munications instructor, said
that the attendance was
lower than that of past con
ferences. "Students involve
ment is a key indicator of
their educational achieve
ments. When students are
involved less, they leam
less," said Davis.
"There are 168 hours in a
week; students spend on
average 16 hours in class.
Most students prefer ways other
than newspapers to get the news
By Gabrielie Leonard
ARGUS REPORTER
Sophomore Danny
Harris sometimes reads
a newspaper when he's
sitting in a barber's
chair — but only if it's
free. He won't spend his
own money to buy a
newspaper. "When
newspapers first came
to be, there was nothing
else to compete with
them," he said, "because
the Internet was not
around, and people
seemed to like the fact
that there was some
thing tangible for them
to see, instead of hear,
about the news. But
now, there are too many
other things that notify
the public of what is
going on in our society
and overseas as well."
Newspaper reader
ship is dovm among col
lege students. Like
Harris, many prefer to
get their news from TV,
the Internet or New
Media. Between 1998
and 2005, weekday
newspaper readers
dropped from 58.6 per
cent to 51 percent of all
adults, according to
Newspaper Association
of America figures. For
18- to 24-year-olds, the
drop was from 43.5 per
cent to 38.4 percent; and
for 25- to 34-year-olds,
readership fell even fur
ther, from 45.9 percent
to 36.8 percent. Younger
nonreaders are undoubt
edly urmnarried, since
married people read
newspapers more often
than singles.
Anton Taft, a senior at
Winston-Salem State
University, said that he
reads articles that can
get his attention. "I was
sitting in the cafeteria
and picked up the New
York Times and started
reading it because it
looked interesting.The
New York Times and Wall
Street Journal are avail
able to students on cam
pus at no cost. Copies of
the New York Times can
be foimd in the
Thompson Center, and
there's a Wall Street
Journal stand with free
copies outside the
Reynolds Center
There's also the campus
monthly. The News
Argus. But few students
take advantage of these
resources.
Steve Friday, a sopho
more at Winston-Salem
State University, said
that newspapers really
do not keep his atten
tion. By the time he's
picked up a newspaper,
he said he's already
watched the news or
picked up current
events on the Internet.
Friday added that he
predicts newspapers
will probably become a
thing of the past, as they
do not hold as much
importance as they once
did.
Readership of national newspapers
Up from 45 percent last year, 47 percent of students
read at least one national newspaper in a typical week:
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
Print
Online
Ei New York
Times
■ USA Today
□ Wall Street
Journal
□ Los Angeles
Times
■ Washington
Post
□ Chicago
Tribune
■ Boston Globe
□ Other
■ Read None
Student Monitor publishes nationally syndicated market research studies of the college
student market. For this survey 1,200 full-time undergraduates at four-year colleges and
universities were interviewed.
What are they doing with
the other 90% of their time?"
Davis asked. "Most learning
takes place outside of the
class — it is up to the stu
dents to get involved in
activities outside of class."
On the discussion panel at
the conference were four
graduates of the department
— David Dawson, Kiva
Elliott, Nicole Ferguson and
James Hamlin. Each guest
shared advice with students.
Another guest speaker and
WSSU alumni, Glynis Bell,
gave students some do's and
don'ts for dressing for suc
cess, with a mini-fashion
show.
After greetings by WSSU's
new provost Dr. Pedro
Martinez, Nigel Alston, a
popular motivational speaker
and columnist, told students
that life is like a combination
lock, and you have to find
the right numbers to get
what you want. He shared
with students his belief that
one's thoughts, the images he
or she visualizes, and one's
actions are what hold the key
to a winning combination.
Photos by Patricia Commander
ABOVE: WSSU’s provost, Dr. Pedro Martinez, gave the
opening remarlis at the annual conference. BELOW:
Kiva Elliott was among graduates of the Mass
Communications Department on the discussion panel.
Rammies, a great way
Mass Comm students^
By Steven Gaither
ARGUS SPORTS EDITOR
For years, the Mass Communications
Department at Winston-Salem State
University has taken a unique approach to
honoring its outstanding students. Instead
of hosting an awards banquet, the depart
ment puts on "The Rammies," a knock-off
of the Grammys, to honor its top students
in print, television and radio. It is an event
that the students, as well as the faculty and
staff, look forward to every year. Students
come decked out in their finest attire, and
they get a chance to act like stars for the
night, as they present awards to their fel
low students.
There will be no Rammies in 2006. The
general consensus around the department
is that Rammies didn't happen this year
because of a lack of dedication to the proj
ect. This year, the task of putting together
the Rammies was given to two Mass
Media Management classes, both taught by
mass communications instructor Todd
Davis.
Davis, who has been in charge of the
Rammies since 2004, says that a lack of
leadership and dedication where the main
problems. "The students lost a sense of
what the Rammies is about," said Davis.
Marcus Small, a junior in the Mass
Media Management class, shared that sen
timent. "People weren't willing to put in
the work to get it done," said Small, who
was the leader of the audio group.
to honor outsanding
won't he held this year
Davis divided the duties of putting the
show together into eight categories, each
with its own group to focus on that partic
ular element of the event. For the show as
a whole, there were only two goals for the
project. The goals were to solicit 20 entries
and collect $200, neither of which hap
pened. Only 12 entries were received and
about $150 was collected, even after Davis
extended the deadline to February 21.
Davis said the final decision about the
Rammies was left to the students who
were responsible for putting the show
together.
"They voted that they did not want to do
it. They felt as though they did not have
the time, the resources or the management
to do it."
Jerome Hancock, who was the leader of
the direction team, said that even though
the prospects for the show were slim, he
still voted to go on with the project. "As a
leader, you want to see your goal come
true. It's sad and kind of disappointing
that it didn't happen," said Hancock.
Davis said that next year he will slim
down the number of people working on
the project to get a more concentrated
effort. "I think that a concentrated effort
will yield better results."
Davis also added that there is a lot to be
learned from the failure of this year's
Rammies. "Without participation and sup
port, we cannot have an excellent awards
program."
Ram TV19 is suffering from a
lack of participation by students
By Mile Scott
ARGUS REPORTER
Has RamTV 19 gone the
way of the dodo bird?
Given the programming on
the channel, or rather the
lack of programming, it
would seem that this stu-
dent-access channel is near
extinction.
And that's too bad.The
existence of this channel has
given students an opportu
nity to come together to cre
ate programing, polish
media skills learned in class
and entertain fellow stu
dents. A dedicated few stu
dents have put in a lot of
volunteer hours, hard work
and creativity to make the
channel a success.
But what about the major
ity? Are students just lack
adaisical or is there some
thing stopping students
from producing shows?
What has happened to the
creative luster of RamTV19?
Currently, you'll se'e only
news on the channel. All
other programming has
dropped tremendously.
What's more, there has been
only one new commercial
produced since last semes
ter. Why has the lure of pro
gramming for RamTV19 lost
its appeal with students? Or,
has it lost its appeal? Could
it be something else?
RamTV19 is a very pivotal
part of the Mass Commun
ication Department and is a
great resource for students.
As a mass communica
tions major, I am disap
pointed in myself and my
contemporaries in the
department. We have access
to all these resources right
here on campus, yet we
have not taken advantage of
them. We have faculty and
staff members who sacrifice
a lot for us and for the
department.
There is a saying that goes
something like this: You lose
what you don't use.
Hopefully, RamTV19 will
regain its appeal, and stu
dents will step forward to
produce quality program
ming. Otherwise, we might
one day find that we've lost
even before we've gained.