Hostile Takeover: The Indiana University Media School’s plan to converge student media and why the students hate it (Part III)

This clip is both an accurate assessment of the IU situation with the exact level of specificity the university seems to be offering as to how this will all work.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the third part of a multi-part series on the decision of the IU Media School to unilaterally converge its student media outlets, the Indiana Daily Student, WIUX and Indiana University Student Television. Part of the plan calls for the elimination of the final print edition of the IDS, something upsetting to the students.

If you want to help the students keep their print paper, they have listed this link as a way to do this: https://forms.gle/cisJyhvAxuQbC4co7.

If you want to tell Dean David Tolchinsky what you think about this situation, you can email him here: mschdean@iu.edu

In case you missed them, here are Part I and Part II.)

THE CULTURAL CONCERNS

In looking into the convergence model decades ago, it became readily apparent to me that this wasn’t a situation where technology or news values would be the sticking point. It would be the culture of the newsrooms and the social identity those newsrooms created.

The general gist of all of this comes down to the idea that you can’t just pour a bunch of people together into a media operation and assume this is going to work. In fact, the opposite is true, as we reaffirmed more than a decade after that first look. A few things have to happen if this kind of convergence is to work:

• It has to be a self-directed, organic movement. The few operations on the student level that have worked out tend to be those in which the staffs themselves decide this is a good idea and want to participate. Outside influence and demand tends to dramatically undermine convergent operations.
• There must be a heavy investment in new resources. One of the easiest ways to get kids to play together is to give everybody new, cool toys. That works for my 3-year-old nieces and it works for most corporate organizations. If you come to the party feeling like you have “your toys” and that people want to take them from you, things are going to get ugly. Even more, in a situation in which resources are limited, groups tend to hoard things for themselves, even when a more equitable distribution might benefit the greater whole. Although university officials insist there will be investment in additional professional help, most of this is aimed at adding master’s students with professional backgrounds to the mix. As both a former grad student and someone working through a project that involves the use of grad-student labor, I can assure you it isn’t the same thing as dedicated, trained professional staff.
• The groups must have the appropriate shared goals and vision. One of the primary reasons early convergence operations hit some significant rough patches was that the newsrooms tended to have mutually exclusive goals. In the world of journalism, being first (a.k.a. getting the scoop on the competition) is a primary goal.
  At the time, television had the advantage of going live first, so when newspaper people found out something of value, they tended to keep it quiet so they could publish it in print the next day. Instead of seeing the goal of getting information out to the audience in a timely fashion, regardless of platform, it became, “I want to be first.” This was a microcosm of what tended to go wrong due to a lack of shared goals and vision.
• People must value and appreciate the importance each group brings to the collective.  The best way I have found to describe how this works is like this: I, as a writer, don’t have to do what you, a videojournalist, does to make this operation work. I do have to understand what you do, appreciate what it brings to the table and find ways to augment what you do in a meaningful way.

This last one might be one of the biggest sticking points for this IU effort, based on how the students explained their own operations and those of their potential convergence-mates.

WIUX President Trevor Emery said that the media operations tend to remain siloed and that they don’t have any sense of what each of them could do for the other.

“Us and the newspaper, don’t talk about it. Us and the TV station don’t really talk about it,” Emery said. “These guys are kind of on their own game, creatively, for sure, like we are. I’m gonna be completely honest. We’re primarily music station and that is our main focus. And the newspaper mainly does news. Their arts column is kind of piddly, and the TV station is, I don’t know, they do like everything. I’m not super familiar with them… sometimes (The IDS will) interview an artist that we booked or something, but other than like news and sports, there’s not a whole lot of crossover that’s possible because we mainly do music and entertainment.”

IDS co-Editor-in-Chief Marissa Meador said she had brief contact with members of the radio station and the TV station after the announcement broke. Although she hasn’t had a lot of interaction with the broadcasters, she said what she does know doesn’t fit the model established at the IDS.

“From what I’ve heard, I feel like WIUX, the radio station, is kind of fundamentally different,” she said. “They put on a music festival, and a lot of their people are just interested in music. They aren’t journalism majors at all, and so the idea that they’re now supposed to be generating a profit or generating revenue and selling advertisements? From what I’ve heard from the few representatives I’ve spoken to, they aren’t super excited about that idea.”

In terms of convergence efforts, Emery said the specifics have been horribly lacking.

“They really want us to combine all the podcasts,” he said. “They want us to be on an app together. It’s very, very confusing, and they’re kind of like, “You guys are going to be steering the ship for this thing you don’t want to do, but we’re also not going to fully support anything you’re doing, either. It’s very confusing.”

The student leader of IU Student Television did not respond to interview requests for this piece, so it’s unclear how engaged or enthusiastic the staff there feels about this situation. As part of an hour-long talk show on IPM’s Noon Edition, IUSTV news director Ashton Hackman spoke in favor of the plan, in large part because of the resources the TV station would be getting.

Hackman said the station has often operated in an inequitable position, only in recent years getting studio space in the Media School and having no professional staff to help them. Although Hackman praised the plan, he rarely mentioned the editorial convergence opportunities the school has been pitching and mostly focused on the benefits the TV station would obtain in this model.

Meador said earlier that she could understand why some aspects of this plan look great for IUSTV.

“I think that they’re, at least publicly, their organization is taking a positive position,” she said. “They seem to be publicly very supportive and celebrating this decision, which, to an extent, I think makes a lot of sense. They started with no professional staff members, and now we’re going to share the professional staff members’ work and time among all three organizations… I do see how this would be a step in the right direction for them.”

Speaking of people who see this as a step in the right direction…

THE UNIVERSITY SPEAKS (SORT OF)

IU Media School Dean David Tolchinsky seemed extremely happy and excited to announce this master plan to converge the student media outlets when he put out this press release.

“Successful media organizations are not afraid to reinvent themselves, and we have big dreams for student media at IU,” said Media School Dean David Tolchinsky. “We are proud of our tradition of excellence in student media. Through innovation, we will amplify the storytelling our students already do so well by reaching audiences where they consume content and generating revenue to support the organizations, enabling them to become the best learning labs they can be.”

In spite of student disagreement, Tolchinsky doubled down in a letter to the editor of the IDS, as he gave the “rah-rah” speech to end all such speeches:

The letter says, “‘Friday Night Lights’ with Coach Taylor telling us, ‘Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose.'” The photo says, “Joe Pantoliano’s character, Cypher, in ‘The Matrix.'” Y’know, the guy who sold out the whole crew.