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Miscellaneous discussions. Things that don't have anything to do with Western, Leatherneck Athletics, college sports in general, etc.
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ST_Lawson
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to modify a common handyman phrase...

fact check twice...publish once

At this point I'm not sure they're even fact checking once.
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sealhall74
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You will be pleased to know we are not the only ones having some editing problems with their student newspaper. The following excerpt is from a FEBRUARY 18 post by the sports editor of the EIU Daily Eastern News:

"The Panthers beat Tennessee-Martin 64-57 Saturday to keep their season alive and secure a trip to Evansville, Ind. for the tournament Feb. 8."

https://www.dailyeasternnews.com/2018/0 ... ment-spot/

The only thing that comes to my mind at this moment is Tide pods.

Update: I will be getting in the ear of Dr. Thomas in Sioux Falls to inquire about this. Maybe what is going on is totally out of the control of the university. If it is not, we have a problem somewhere in the Dept of Journalism and Broadcasting and that, or at least the Broadcasting part of it, is a signature program.

If you have any other questions for Jack, post 'em here and I will see what I can do for you between orders of chislic at the Denny.
Embrace the pace of the race.
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ST_Lawson
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sealhall74 wrote: Tue Feb 20, 2018 9:59 am
Update: I will be getting in the ear of Dr. Thomas in Sioux Falls to inquire about this. Maybe what is going on is totally out of the control of the university. If it is not, we have a problem somewhere in the Dept of Journalism and Broadcasting and that, or at least the Broadcasting part of it, is a signature program.

If you have any other questions for Jack, post 'em here and I will see what I can do for you between orders of chislic at the Denny.
To be fair, the Western Courier is not a part of the Journalism and Broadcasting department (or any department actually). I think they qualify as a "student organization" with a faculty advisor (who also happens to be a journalism instructor), but I'm not for sure on that. I don't know that Dr. Thomas can have any input on their day to day practices, but he might know who you'd need to talk to.

If I had to guess:
http://www.wiu.edu/news/newsrelease.php ... e_id=13221
and
http://www.wiu.edu/faculty_senate/commi ... ourier.php
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sealhall74
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ST_Lawson wrote: Tue Feb 20, 2018 11:43 am
sealhall74 wrote: Tue Feb 20, 2018 9:59 am
Update: I will be getting in the ear of Dr. Thomas in Sioux Falls to inquire about this. Maybe what is going on is totally out of the control of the university. If it is not, we have a problem somewhere in the Dept of Journalism and Broadcasting and that, or at least the Broadcasting part of it, is a signature program.

If you have any other questions for Jack, post 'em here and I will see what I can do for you between orders of chislic at the Denny.
To be fair, the Western Courier is not a part of the Journalism and Broadcasting department (or any department actually). I think they qualify as a "student organization" with a faculty advisor (who also happens to be a journalism instructor), but I'm not for sure on that. I don't know that Dr. Thomas can have any input on their day to day practices, but he might know who you'd need to talk to.

If I had to guess:
http://www.wiu.edu/news/newsrelease.php ... e_id=13221
and
http://www.wiu.edu/faculty_senate/commi ... ourier.php
ST, do band members get academic credit for participating in marching and pep bands? Do athletes get academic credit for participating in ncaa athletics? I hope staff members of the Courier also get some form of academic credit but I will be asking about it.
Embrace the pace of the race.
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ST_Lawson
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sealhall74 wrote: Tue Feb 20, 2018 3:01 pm ST, do band members get academic credit for participating in marching and pep bands? Do athletes get academic credit for participating in ncaa athletics? I hope staff members of the Courier also get some form of academic credit but I will be asking about it.
Marching Band - 1 credit hour
Pep Band - 1 credit hour
Athletes - 0, as far as I know, but depending on the sport and level of involvement will have some or all of their tuition paid for from scholarships
Courier - 0 academic credits as near as I can tell. There is no mention of the Courier in the Broadcasting & Journalism course catalog.
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sealhall74
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ST_Lawson wrote: Tue Feb 20, 2018 6:17 pm
sealhall74 wrote: Tue Feb 20, 2018 3:01 pm ST, do band members get academic credit for participating in marching and pep bands? Do athletes get academic credit for participating in ncaa athletics? I hope staff members of the Courier also get some form of academic credit but I will be asking about it.
Marching Band - 1 credit hour
Pep Band - 1 credit hour
Athletes - 0, as far as I know, but depending on the sport and level of involvement will have some or all of their tuition paid for from scholarships
Courier - 0 academic credits as near as I can tell. There is no mention of the Courier in the Broadcasting & Journalism course catalog.
From what I can tell, there is a lot of variability out there regarding if and how athletes get academic credits for sports participation. Some biggies like Nebraska and Ohio State look like they do. I think you need to strive for a level playing field. If band members get credit, then so too should those from the student newspaper who show up to take pictures or report on the event. Students pay $0.97/credit hour to have a student newspaper. They deserve better than what they have, although I have not seen the printed edition so maybe it is better. Go to the "Staff" section of the online edition and you see zero, zip, zilch, nada. With all of the online news sources out there on the internet today, that is one of the filter mechanisms I use to determine credibility. Is there a little bio there about the author? Picture to match a name with a face? What is/was their major in college? ...
Embrace the pace of the race.
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Tere North
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ST_Lawson wrote: Sat Feb 17, 2018 2:30 pm to modify a common handyman phrase...

fact check twice...publish once

At this point I'm not sure they're even fact checking once.
Ah, but a new world. Fact check (and include "alternative facts") one, publish twice :lol:
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ST_Lawson
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sealhall74 wrote: Wed Feb 21, 2018 10:10 am
ST_Lawson wrote: Tue Feb 20, 2018 6:17 pm
sealhall74 wrote: Tue Feb 20, 2018 3:01 pm ST, do band members get academic credit for participating in marching and pep bands? Do athletes get academic credit for participating in ncaa athletics? I hope staff members of the Courier also get some form of academic credit but I will be asking about it.
Marching Band - 1 credit hour
Pep Band - 1 credit hour
Athletes - 0, as far as I know, but depending on the sport and level of involvement will have some or all of their tuition paid for from scholarships
Courier - 0 academic credits as near as I can tell. There is no mention of the Courier in the Broadcasting & Journalism course catalog.
From what I can tell, there is a lot of variability out there regarding if and how athletes get academic credits for sports participation. Some biggies like Nebraska and Ohio State look like they do. I think you need to strive for a level playing field. If band members get credit, then so too should those from the student newspaper who show up to take pictures or report on the event. Students pay $0.97/credit hour to have a student newspaper. They deserve better than what they have, although I have not seen the printed edition so maybe it is better. Go to the "Staff" section of the online edition and you see zero, zip, zilch, nada. With all of the online news sources out there on the internet today, that is one of the filter mechanisms I use to determine credibility. Is there a little bio there about the author? Picture to match a name with a face? What is/was their major in college? ...
And just to be clear, I was reporting the info as far as I know, not necessarily what I think it should be.

Personally, I think that working on the Courier should be a repeatable independent study "course" that is available to sophomores and older and anyone with 2+ years (4+ semesters) experience working on the paper/taking the course is eligible to be an editor/proofreader/fact checker. It counts as credit towards a journalism degree and is graded every semester based on writing, layout, accuracy, etc. If done right, it could be essentially like a mini-internship.
I think that having more of a structure in place, having students get credit (and get graded), and having students pay tuition money to participate would go a long way towards improving the quality of the paper.

Apparently, the reason that the Courier is not very closely tied to the university goes back to the '60s and '70s and the Vietnam War. There's an article that was in last summer's alumni magazine talking about the situation back then.
You can read it starting at page 22 here: http://wiu.edu/alumni/pdfs/WesternMagaz ... er2017.pdf
But the "meat" of the reasoning is stated a couple of paragraphs in:
"That “liberal approach” eventually led the Courier to be kicked off campus, and to the creation of a more conservative newspaper, the Western Catalyst. The Catalyst, run by former Courier editor Rick Alm, and later by John Maguire ‘73, reported the “straightforward” news the journalism faculty and administration agreed represented Western."
So, the Courier was too liberal at the time, got kicked off campus, and never really got fully absorbed back into the journalism department.
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OldHare
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Here is an example that comes from the Summit office again. Check the day(s).
http://gojacks.com/news/2018/2/27/mens- ... esday.aspx
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Tere North
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OldHare wrote: Tue Feb 27, 2018 2:23 pm Here is an example that comes from the Summit office again. Check the day(s).
http://gojacks.com/news/2018/2/27/mens- ... esday.aspx
They just want you to tune in a day early so you can resolve all of the connection issues in time for the Wednesday broadcast. Jeez, they were thinking of you and now you're complaining :lol:
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