We have been really busy at the Spartan Daily, and especially at theSpartanDaily.com. Last week we had another press conference with President Kassing. We wanted to do a live video like last time and also do a live blog. However, at the last minute I had to borrow a camera from the university to do the video because our camera for the paper was being used by a reporter working on another project for me. For some reason, I could not get ustream to recognize the camera on my computer. I am still not sure what happened. Next time I will make sure to test the camera first and hopefully will just use our camera. Luckily, the live blog worked perfectly, so we still had coverage online.
But the really big project last week was our election guide. The Associated Students election is this week, so we wanted to have it done before then. SJSU has a serious problem with apathy when it comes to student government. This year there are only two positions that are contested and six positions that no one is running for at all. Voter turnout is always extremely low. But we realize that it is still important for us to tell students what are going on and make sure everyone know who represents them.
I had two of our reporters, Jesse Kimbrel and Tommy Wright, in charge of getting in touch of all of the candidates, getting information from them and then getting a brief video statement from each. They then edited all of the videos and did a highlight video with each of the candidates from the contested positions. Our A.S. beat writer, John Hornberg, wrote a short summary about the election and then wrote the profiles for each candidate. A few candidates were not willing or able to come in and talk to us, but we made sure we had all of the contested positions covered and got as many of the other people as possible.
One other reporter, Chris Bausinger, helped me in setting up all of the custom pages for each candidate within out College Publisher site. Chris had very little html knowledge, but caught on really fast and was a big help to me.
We also included the guide in our print edition. The same logo at the top of each page on the site was in the skybox on the front page to tell people to look inside and online:
And then the banner was across the page inside as well:
I think the simple banner was an effective way of helping to tie the site and paper version together. The logo is also across the home page and a smaller version is on every page on the site. The only thing I am not really happy about is the double logo on the pages of the guide. I wanted the large banner at the top of every page that is part of the guide to help tie it together. But to make the small logo appear on every page of the rest of the site meant that I also had to include it on the election pages. Oh well. We are also running the small logo at the bottom of the front page for the paper this week until the election is over.
Because the election results are going to be announced on Thursday at noon and we do not print a paper on Friday, we are going to make sure and cover it really well online.
I am really happy with the way it turned out and I hope that it helps to inspire more students to get out and vote.
So I have officially graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Journalism. I am the first person in my extended family (on my Dad's side anyway) to get a bachelors degree, but my family has done a lot for me and prepared the way. I am really grateful for them.
