Media Criticism

My regular complaints about politics, media and society will be replaced today by one of my biggest pet peeves. I hate commercial radio stations whether it is the Morning Zoo with Fart Man and Zonkers (I hope I made that up) or two old people talking about their colonoscopy. The terrible playlists, crappy promotions and annoying DJs on these stations are so unbearable that I haven’t listened to commercial radio for more than five minutes in the last five years.

The realm of satellite radio is just an extension of commercial radio since Sirius and XM are plastered all over racecars, TV commercials and other moving billboards. I came across New Jersey’s free-form station WFMU a while ago in my search for alternative sources of entertainment. I was surprised that a station without commercial support and underwriting could survive in a world where listeners are constantly assailed by crass commercials.

WFMU is a free-form station in Jersey City, New Jersey that has been operating for 50 years as of April 24, 2008. This station does not have ABC News at the top of the hour, commercials for the local Kia dealership and awkward interviews with terrible comedians performing at Funny Bonez. I have looked to WFMU as a refuge from cable television as well as commercial radio when I am not interested in listening to the voices on public radio.

I would suggest several programs on WFMU as a sampler of the station’s eclectic approach to radio. The Best Show on WFMU is a comedy show hosted by Tom Scharpling that features enough music, interviews and calls to entertain comedy fans for three hours a week. Seven Second Delay is a one-hour comedy show hosted by Monk creator Andy Breckman and WFMU station manager Ken Freedman. Dave Emory’s interesting show For the Record is offered on several independent stations throughout the United States including WFMU. Emory’s program deals with fascism, world politics and current events that are left untouched by other media outlets.

My final entry in this week’s showcase of student newspapers is The Daily Mississippian. This publication is the student organ of the University of Mississippi (commonly referred to as Ole Miss) and distributes five days per week. The paper’s website states that the print run is 15,000 with thousands of other readers coming to The Daily Mississippian on their website. This newspaper is one of the few in the nation that competes with daily newspapers and professional publications within the state for the attention of readers.

The Daily Mississippian sets the tone for a professional and well-run publication by keeping all operations in-house. There are 15 editorial staff members, 5 photographers and 20 writers that supply fresh news, sports updates and opinions for each edition. This publication maintains quality control by running its own printing and advertising departments. Students interested in the school’s Rebel Radio and Ole Miss Annual yearbook can find links and information through The Daily Mississippian.

I was interested to find out that The Daily Mississippian is connected intimately to the state’s professional press. The newspaper is a member of the state’s press association and competes with daily newspapers in annual contests to determine the best media in Mississippi. It is admirable that a student-run newspaper with high amounts of turnover on an annual basis can stay competitive for media readers in the region.

I would be remiss if I didn’t speak about the journalistic endeavors of writers and editors at The Daily Mississippian. The Newsblog available on the paper’s website features school news, investigative reporting and points of interest for Rebel students and alumni. There were several news stories as well as multimedia presentations that vividly capture life in Oxford, Mississippi.

The second part of my series on student newspapers and alternative media is The Rocky Mountain Collegian. This newspaper is a daily publication on the main campus of Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado. I was astounded by the illustrious history of The Rocky Mountain Collegian which was established in 1891. The students of Colorado State University changed The Collegian to a daily newspaper in the 1930s due to the challenging nature of the Great Depression. The Fort Collins community was at odds with The Collegian in the 1940s and 1950s due to the paper’s stance on racism and women’s rights.

The Collegian has impressed media observers, journalists and editors alike over the last two decades. The paper has been one of the best student papers since the 1990s with an avid readership beyond the 26,000 students at Colorado State. I enjoyed checking out The Collegian website and finding unique features that are comparable to the best dailies throughout the United States.

The student editors of this newspaper have initiated a podcast called “Tomorrow’s Top Stories” to add an immediacy to their paper’s stories. This podcast allows MP3 users to listen to tomorrow’s headlines before picking up the paper in the morning. The “Our View” section of The Collegian shows the collective wisdom of the editorial board on issues like CSUnity and other campus programs. I enjoyed reading the newspaper’s political blog that was last updated during the Iowa caucuses in January. The video coverage and posts featured on The Collegian blog is innovative in the context of student newspapers. The Easterner as presented yesterday may feature better stories but The Collegian shows the importance of using new technology to appeal to busy students.

I will spend this week focusing on the great reporting and editorial writing that is taking place on campuses throughout the United States. I have chosen a few student newspapers from Washington to the Northeast that span the gamut of collegiate writing on today’s issues. The first paper in this series on alternative media among America’s college campuses is The Easterner.

This weekly newspaper is the main student organ for Eastern Washington University in Cheney, Washington. This public university has a little over 9,200 undergraduate and graduate students as of 2007 with dozens of programs available for students in the Pacific Northwest. I found out that Eastern Washington is the only campus in the country with a state crime lab and forensics facility for use by state investigators.

A first glance at The Easterner revealed the usual fare of Bush and Cheney bashing, letters to the editor about recreation centers and articles on sexual issues. These articles are familiar parts of alternative newspapers and magazines so I cannot blame The Easterner for meeting the needs of its college readers. There are several aspects of The Easterner that set it apart from small-college newspapers throughout the United States.

Readers on the Eastern Washington University campus can bypass stale letters to the editor by responding on the “Cyber Soapbox.” Recent responses via this online tool include an impassioned response from a current student and former Marine for better understanding of the situation in Iraq. The “Eagle Life” section of the paper features interviews by student writers with writers, activists and other luminaries that surpass expectations for student newspapers. I think that The Easterner is an outstanding student newspaper and it will be difficult for other papers in this series to surpass their levels of organization and journalistic prowess.

The realm of alternative media is not limited to the United States; in fact, the United States is a historical newcomer to alternative sources of information. Canada is similarly young in its historical development but it has thriving alternative publications in places like Montreal. Hour Magazine is an English-language weekly that is headquartered in Montreal and provides an alternative to the CBC and other media outlets. Regular readers will remember my discussions of alternative publications in Canada, Australia and Ireland several weeks ago. Hour is an impressive weekly because it is relatable to people outside of Montreal.

This publication reaches 53,419 Montreal residents through its print edition along with thousands of readers online. The demographic profile of the average Hour Magazine reader could be applied to many alternative publications. The median income for the average reader is $44,000 USD with 88% of all Hour readers attending college at some point. Another statistic that is important to understanding the tone of Hour Magazine is that 58% of readers fit in that juicy advertising demographic of 18 to 34 years old.

There are several regular features in Hour Magazine that would not be found in mainstream Canadian or American publications. “Three Dollar Bill” is a weekly column devoted to LGBT issues in Montreal, Canada and the United States that is frank and informative. An interesting article in this week’s “Explainer” highlights what Montreal officials and business people claim is the first “smart” hotel on the continent. The usual complement of movie, music, theater and dining reviews round out the clean pages of Hour Magazine. I am looking forward to reading more editions of Hour if only because I have studied politics in Quebec since I was an undergraduate history student.

I have showed my bias toward the continental United States in my profiles on alternative newspapers and magazines over the last two weeks. The Hawaiian Islands have some great local publications that seek to eschew the mainstream media. The Maui Time Weekly shows the fierce competition among different islands in Hawaii for the attention of travelers and residents.

This weekly publication has a circulation of 18,000 that is distributed throughout Maui. This number is one of the lowest among members of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies due to the island’s small size. The publication’s demographic profile includes 55% of readers who are female, 31% who are aged between 35-44 and 35% who have attended college. Maui Time Weekly works with Alternative Weekly Network for some of its published material and advertising.

There are several aspects of Maui Time Weekly that show the uneven nature of the publication. I love the idea that writers of the Time Weekly participate in a regular podcast to help put voices to the publication’s written materials. The trite articles on denim jeans and other banalities published under the “Restless Native” banner could be left behind in favor of something more substantive. The true draws of the Maui Time Weekly are the publication’s excellent cover stories.

These cover stories span different layers of gravity and region importance to attract different types of readers. The March 20th cover story is a profile of author Jill Engledow who has written a book helping mainlanders and foreign travelers to life in Maui. This week’s cover story highlights the gross destruction of forests in Southeast Asia due to subsidies given by the state legislature for palm oil projects. I can look beyond weaker entries in the Maui Time Weekly as long as they supply compelling cover stories via their website.

The common misconception of California is that it is a “blue” state from border to border. The significant size and economy of the Golden State means that there are different pockets of political, social and cultural beliefs. I spoke about the thought-provoking articles emerging from the East Bay Express last week in an effort to dispel the idea that Berkeley is one tree hugger away from becoming a Marxist city. North Coast Journal may be published out of a conservative area in northern California but it shows that alternative media works outside of the mainstream media’s limited political dichotomy.

The North Coast Journal is published out of Arcata, California, a city best known as the home to Humboldt State University. The city has a population of 17,294 but the Journal has a circulation of 22,000 according to 2007 statistics. The Journal runs a blog called the “NC Journal Blogthing” and separates itself from local media outlets by covering issues that are important to Arcata residents.

The editors of the Journal publish local, state and national news of importance in sections called “Town Dandy” and “Short Stories.” These sections feature a small amount of classic graphics and a large amount of information concentrated into a few pages. I know that my blog is focused on finding serious news sources but the North Coast Journal is filled with some great lifestyle columns written by local authors.

“Stage Matters” is a column devoted to northern California’s theater scene with weekly reviews of local stage performances. “Dirt” provides gardening tips and “Table Talk” concentrates on meals and spirits within California’s wine country. My favorite column in the Journal is “Garlick’s Notebook” which is a science column written by geology professor Don Garlick. I have found few articles like “Garlick’s Notebook” in other alternative newsweeklies and the lessons learned in each column apply outside of northern California. North Coast Journal exceeded my expectations considering the community’s size and I have the paper bookmarked for future reading if only to learn what “Table Talk” has to say about the booming wine industry.

One of the most successful alternative newspapers in the United States is The Stranger. I have heard about this Seattle institution since I first learned about alternative media in college and have read it off and on for years. It shouldn’t be surprising for anyone familiar with the presence of countercultures, alternative ideas and social consciousness in Seattle that The Stranger is a success.

The Association of Alternative Newsweeklies places the weekly’s circulation at 89,580 though this number expands drastically due to the paper’s fantastic website. The Stranger was established in 1991 by The Onion co-founder Tim Keck and shares a portion of the latter paper’s satirical lens. Alternative newspaper readers would be interested to know that “Savage Love” writer Dan Savage is the paper’s editorial director. It seems that all roads into the alternative news community run through The Stranger’s offices.

It would be easy to speak about the influences of people like Keck and Savage in a profile of The Stranger. I find the paper’s feature stories far more interesting than the music and film reviews because I can get similar reviews from other outlets. The mainstream media in Seattle does not cover issues like the city’s police shortage and interesting developments in condominium development. These two stories are the features for March 26th and April 1st and highlight the in depth analysis provided by The Stranger. The police shortage story is particularly fascinating because it overwhelms the reader with anecdotes ranging from auto theft to murder that highlight the writer’s case.

The publication’s website is a wealth of knowledge on the Pacific Northwest for readers outside of Seattle. Slog is the paper’s blog and provides several posts daily on political and community news that may not find room in the week’s print edition. I would suggest that anyone who wants to start a zine, blog or alternative newspaper should use The Stranger as a case study of brilliant editorial decisions.

The next stop on our tour of the alternative media world lands us in Birmingham, Alabama. This city is best known for its role in the civil rights movement during the 1950s and 1960s though it has quieted in recent years to become a typical Southern city. Birmingham is home to a decidedly atypical newspaper called Black and White that takes the colorful graphics of a literary magazine and adds the depth of quality investigative reporting needed in alternative newspapers.

Black and White has a circulation of 30,000 to venues throughout metro Birmingham. This paper has been articles every other week since its founding in 1992. The highlight of Black and White is its award-winning covers that use multiple colors to leap out from newspaper stands and boxes throughout Birmingham. The picture above is from the latest edition of Black and White and shows the initial draw to the newspaper by skeptical media consumers.

The main attraction for readers of Black and White is “Publisher’s Notebook,” a regular feature written by publisher Charles Geiss. Geiss has covered a wide range of topics in his column from the city’s financial boon from hosting NCAA Tournament games to the proper way for city government to spend resident tax dollars. The Features section of Black and White has covered a diverse range of topics like the unusual musical inspiration of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra’s conductor and a look at Birmingham’s statistical comparison to other major cities.

Black and White is filled with some comic relief from the heavy topics covered in earlier pages. “Department of Mirth” is a place for interesting essays and stories while “Strange Tales” covers unusual news pieces throughout the country. This alternative publication is one of the best in the country because it shows a concern with the holistic nature of media. Black and White shows that quality reporting can be put into a beautiful and artistic package. The people at USA Today should read this publication before they print another ridiculous pie chart.

The Bay Area in northern California has a reputation as a liberal haven. This area has communities like San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley that are synonymous with the 1960s counterculture as well as contemporary lefty intellectuals. This stereotype does not take into account the moderating influence of political power, the conservative drift of old hippies throughout the decades as well as the pervasiveness of national cable news. The East Bay Express mixes the progressivism of past generations in northern California with the worldly nature of alternative media.

This weekly newspaper has a circulation of 76,099 each week. East Bay Express has national advertising through the Ruxton Media Group in addition to a well-designed website. The paper is delivered to outlets in Berkeley and Oakland with a large crossover vote into markets like San Francisco with media-savvy residents.

Several regular features in East Bay Express highlight the various demographics in the Bay Area. Chris Thompson’s “Seven Days” is a collection of stories highlighting the good, bad and charismatic leaders that create the Bay Area political mosaic. Robert Gammon has a regular article called “Full Disclosure” that discusses state politics from a Bay Area perspective. Thompson and Gammon are excellent at inserting levity, gravity and other emotions with an “-ity” suffix into issues important to their readers.

The feature story for this week is a look at UC-Berkeley’s rising community of student evangelicals. I loved reading this story because it shows that the term “evangelical” does not need to conjure images of stupid, bigoted white Southerners preaching against gays, welfare and atheism. The bright students at Berkeley eschew the dogmatic liberalism on campus to study the Bible in welcoming environments. This cover story shows that modern churches often reflect the personality of its congregation rather than applying tradition equally upon every individual. This aspect of East Bay Express should be enough to get print and online readers to check their preconceived notions at the door.