/Student Affairs
Student Media

CAS Standards

Student Media Programs (SMPs) exist in some form at most institutions of higher education today. Because there may be a variety of programs on campus within which students contribute to media products, it is important to define SMPs. In SMPs, students creating the media products are granted the greatest content authority possible consonant with the institutional mission and existing laws and regulations. 

Media created by students began appearing at U.S. institutions of higher education in the nineteenth century. They took the forms of literary magazines, student newspapers, and yearbooks (then called annuals) and were produced  by students, often without supervision or funding from the university. Today the scope has expanded to include radio and television programming and digital products that are distributed across all platforms, including print, web, air, cable, tablet, and mobile. New formats are likely to come. Digital transmission makes it easier for audiences to extend beyond the institutional community.

College media fill many different functions for their institutions and communities. The journalistic media provide timely information that helps current members of the community understand and participate in the life of the institution. In doing so, these media also tell the story of their institutions for the given year, providing a history valued by archivists, alumni, historians, and journalists. Student media can provide a public forum for news, discussion, and intellectual exploration; they can be curators of student work, as in literary magazines; and some, such as radio stations, serve largely as entertainment outlets. All of those media functions make up one component of the mission of college media programs, creating good products.

The other component is to foster the development of the student staff. SMPs provide intensive hands-on training and experience in the numerous responsibilities that are involved in all aspects of the media enterprise, providing valuable career experience. Students innovate, exercise critical thinking; assume citizenship and leadership  responsibilities; manage people, budgets, and sales; develop personal discipline; and practice teamwork. SMPs also provide involvement opportunities that increase the sense of community and aid in the institution’s retention and satisfaction (Astin, 1997).

A broad range of management approaches, administrative structures, budgets, funding sources, and the roles of students exist in SMPs. Many SMPs today are small operations, producing only one or two media and supported by  advisers who also have other responsibilities at the institution. At the other end of the range, a number of larger  programs have become full-fledged not-for-profit companies that produce a wide range of media. They are administered by multiple full-time staff, operate with multimillion-dollar budgets, and incorporate an intensive training program for students on the media staffs. Most SMPs operate with a model somewhere in between.

The administrative structure also varies, with some SMPs based in student services/student affairs and some in academic departments. Some are student clubs. Some programs pay the students on staff; some give academic credit; and some use volunteers. In the past few years the number of student media organizations operating as independent, quasi-independent, or auxiliary operations appears to be on the increase.

Funding models differ as well. Sources of revenue for SMPs include their institutions; sales of advertising,  underwriting, and services; and fundraising and endowments.

The one distinguishing thread that runs through all these types of SMPs is that they allow student decision-making and participation to the greatest extent possible for both decisions affecting day-to-day operations and content and decisions affecting longer-term operations, including any changes in that operation. 

Learning experiences often come from having to manage the rights and responsibilities associated with an SMP. Programs have both ethical and legal underpinnings deriving from journalistic codes, higher education principles, Constitutional and state laws, case law, and bureaucratic and policy requirements.  

  • Where provided by law and/or precedent, such as at all government-owned schools in the U.S., students are  guaranteed broad freedom of expression, a protection recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court as far back as 1943 and reaffirmed by the Court on multiple occasions. At a private institution, laws and policies on censorship vary. If necessary, college media professional staff members should work with the institution to foster a free and open atmosphere, based on higher-education principles (Boyer, 1990) and because students learn best when given responsibility (Kuh et al, 2010).  

  • College Media Association’s Code of Ethical Behavior (1992) sets standards for SMP advisers, admonishing them to ‘‘teach without censoring, editing, directing, or producing.’’ In a firm insistence on student learning, the code says, ‘‘There should never be an instance where an adviser maximizes quality by minimizing learning.’’ SMP professional staff should follow, and teach students to follow, the ethical codes for their particular area of responsibility (i.e., reporting, photography, graphic design, advertising, and marketing) (AAUP, 2015; ACP, 2015; CMA, 1992). Legal restrictions for media in the U.S. include FCC regulations for licensed broadcast media that restrict speech and mandate equal time coverage in certain cases. Online streaming is regulated by the Copyright Royalty Board. 

  • Copyright law is particularly pertinent for student media, and advisers must actively teach students about its provisions. Student editors or managers may choose to use content created by others; graphic artists may download art from the Internet, and radio deejays mostly play music created by non-students. Content from all these sources is subject to copyright laws.

Two distinct groups of leaders work within college media programs: students, and professionals (faculty members or members of the institution’s professional staff). Some leadership positions -- the ones that control content -- are reserved for students. These leaders are chosen in a variety of ways including selection by the adviser, selection by the student staffs, or preferably, selection by a board composed of students, faculty, media professionals, and community members. Faculty members and staff must be allowed to exercise authority over non-content-related matters with legal implications for the institution but must always work in conjunction with the student leaders. 

Conflicts between SMPs and their institutions can occur over disagreements about student actions, particularly concerning students’ content decisions. An issue perhaps unique to student media is that the very qualities and precepts that make a media program excellent may sometimes raise the ire of administrators, faculty, alumni, or community members. Student journalists, for example, who are following the Society of Professional Journalists’ guidelines for good journalism will ‘‘Seek truth and report it’’ (SPJ Code of Ethics, 2014) even if that truth is  something administrators or others object to publicizing because they think it may adversely affect the reputation or ‘‘brand’’ of the institution. Another example of a potentially controversial aspect of media is programming. Mission statements likely call for the student managers to choose content and programming that suits the needs and interests of their college-student audiences. Therefore, student managers may choose content and programming that pleases their audience but offends the sensibilities of faculty, staff, or alumni. SMPs doing outstanding jobs, therefore, may at times be unpopular with administrators or others.  

 

Conflict between SMPs and their institutions may escalate if institutional administrators take actions that directly or indirectly infringe upon students’ assigned responsibilities. At institutions where students are legally guaranteed free speech rights, administrators may use indirect avenues to restrict that speech, such as mandating prior review of media content, cutting budgets, restricting distribution, or removing the adviser. Historically, attention from media in the surrounding area has sometimes sufficed to persuade administrators to rescind a prior review order or restore what was cut. On occasion, the students and/or advisers involved (not the SMP itself) sue their institution for redress. 

 

All of this brings forth challenges for those who work with SMPs. In particular, SMP professionals are balancing their role as faculty or staff members with their roles advising campus media. Advisers challenging institutional censorship should not be at risk of discontinued employment at their institution. Conversely, advisers should not be expected to force the publication of the institution’s news releases or other public relations articles. 

Another current problem for SMPs is also a longstanding one, a need for adaptability as media and institutional environments change. For example, a demographic shift in an institution’s student body will likely necessitate  changes in SMP staffing and training. Emphasis on timely graduation and full-time enrollment can result in fewer students available for time-consuming student media staff positions. But few changes have affected SMPs to the extent of the sweeping changes in technology and information consumption habits now affecting the media industry. These changes are presenting tremendous challenges for many SMPs.

Advisers are faced with a steep, continual learning curve. Advisers, equipment, and facilities must stay current in technology and practices in order for SMPs to stay current with the evolving information-consumption habits of the audiences. Media produced in  SMPs no longer have one national professional model to guide them, as national media also race to adapt and survive. Developing media products that reflect readership and consumption patterns of an institution’s current population necessitates more SMP attention, and resources devoted to research and marketing. SMPs need to be nimble and open to change. However, to the extent that SMPs connected to academic programs are dependent upon the curriculum, they find it hard to be nimble because curriculum change generally occurs slowly. 

The business model based on advertising that has supported the media industry for decades is also unraveling, affecting SMPs just as it has other media. SMPs that must generate their own revenue are challenged to discover new ways to generate revenue and/or reduce operations. 

Additional issues that influence SMPs include adapting to shifting delivery platforms and accessing information. For example, many SMPs today are attempting to converge their print, broadcast, and online operations, with mixed  success. Also, access to institutional police information, security, meeting records, and other official documents is a continuing challenge on some campuses. SMPs should work with institutions to establish policies allowing access to information.

The National Council of College Publications Advisers, later College Media Advisers and now College Media  Association, has represented advisers and other college media professionals since 1955. CMA’s journal, published quarterly, is College Media Review. 

Other organizations in the area of college media include Associated Collegiate Press, an organization made up of the media themselves; Society of Collegiate Journalists; College Newspapers Business and Advertising Managers; Student Press Law Center; and regional groups. On the broadcast side, the National Association of College Broadcasters (NACB), founded in 1988, was replaced in 1998 by College Broadcasters Inc.  

This standard has a Self-Assessment Guide (SAG) available for purchase from www.cas.edu for use in program evaluation.

Additionally, student clubs can visit the Student Media Services office to review a printed copy. For any additional questions or accessibility needs, please contact the Assistant Director for Student Media Services at isobel.breheny-schafer@stonybrook.edu.