You want to make a difference in your newsroom and at your university. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t bother with student media. We all know you’re not doing it for the pay, fame or glory. Your secret is out. You’re a difference maker.
But it’s not enough just to say you want to make a difference. You have to identify more tangible goals, determining what exactly you want to impact and how specifically you can make it happen.
One you’ve identified your goals, every action you take in relation to your newsroom role should be based on them.
Is your goal to build a bigger, better staff? If so, you need to focus on recruiting, training and retention.
Is your goal to improve the quality of your publication? You need to do your best reporting, writing and editing.
Is your goal to increase readership? You’d better spend time talking with other students about what they like and dislike about your publications, and listen to their suggestions for improvement.
While all of your actions should be based on your goals, not every action will be huge or time consuming. Instead, ask yourself this question every day:
“What are five actions I can take today that will make a difference in my newsroom?”
If your goal is to build a bigger, better staff, five tasks you might do in a day are:
- Speak to a class about staff opportunities.
- Help a new staffer edit his/her story.
- Post a writing tip in the staff’s Facebook or Slack group.
- Drop off applications to a professor who will distribute them for you.
- Give a staffer advice about the best sources for a story he/she is working on.
These five things together probably will take you less than an hour. But small actions like this, repeated daily, will make a notable difference. Also, you will feel accomplished at the end of each day accomplishing just five tasks that take you closer to making a difference.
