2008 Woodie Awards
A word from next year's editor
by Derek Wehrwein
Issue date: 5/1/08
Section: Voices
I remember back in fall 2006, when I first talked to one of the mass communications faculty at Minnesota State about working at the MSU Reporter. The person I talked to gave me good advice - he encouraged me to apply, but warned me about letting the Reporter take over my life. Too many students spent too much of their time up at the office while letting their class attendance and grades suffer, he indicated.
It was good advice, but I didn't follow much of it.
I intended to follow it. I was determined not to become a slave to the Reporter. Even after being named variety editor, I was intent on getting my work done as fast as possible and spending as little time here as possible. But by this semester, I had turned into what I swore I wouldn't.
Time to kill between classes? I'm at the office. Time to kill after classes? I'm at the office. Studying to do? I'm at the office - despite the fact that it's probably one of the worst environments to study in. ("A place of procrastination" is what one co-worker has dubbed this place.)
Surfing the Internet? Doing research? Making phone calls? Eating lunch? I'm probably doing it at the office. Where am I writing this? At the office.
I hear I'm going to be editor-in-chief next year, so I expect it to get even worse starting this fall. My only consolation is my grades haven't dropped - yet, anyway.
The office itself isn't what holds such appeal, though. It's the people who work in it. And on that note, I'd like to thank everyone who has made this such an enjoyable year, including my boss Bronson Pettitt, news editor Rachel Heiderscheidt, the secretaries (or "deskies" as we lovingly call them), all my staff writers - the ones who got their stories in on time, anyway - and our main photographer, Ray Starin, who doesn't get the recognition he deserves.
Ray's been our longest and most dependable photographer, and he happens to be very good at what he does. Why he's going to school for biology and not photojournalism I don't know, but I'm glad I've had the pleasure to get to know him as well. I look forward to the inevitable conversations we'll have next year about Democrats and Republicans alike failing to follow the Constitution.
I also look forward to working with those returning as editors this fall: managing editor Tyler Buckentine, sports editor Josh Berhow, news editor Nia Jonesz and variety editor Ali Ramsey. I've gotten to know them fairly well these past few months, and while it disturbs me that Nia lacks appreciation for the greatness of Brett Favre; she and Berhow still don't know how to spell my last name correctly; and Ali thinks I'm a "Star Wars" and "Lord of the Rings" nerd, we'll find a way to work together.
Serving as editor of the MSU Reporter will be both a huge responsibility and an honor. Students at a college newspaper such as this one have more freedom than they'll ever have working at a daily newspaper, where they have to answer to both the publisher and the company that owns the paper.
With that greater freedom comes great responsibility, though: the responsibility not to abuse that freedom. We're here to have fun, but we're also here to get better at the field of journalism and act as responsible journalists, not shoddy ones. As Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Rick Rickman, who visited MSU last week, notes: students - and journalism students in particular - should always be thinking, reasoning and questioning.
And that's advice worth following.
Derek Wehrwein is the Reporter variety editor
It was good advice, but I didn't follow much of it.
I intended to follow it. I was determined not to become a slave to the Reporter. Even after being named variety editor, I was intent on getting my work done as fast as possible and spending as little time here as possible. But by this semester, I had turned into what I swore I wouldn't.
Time to kill between classes? I'm at the office. Time to kill after classes? I'm at the office. Studying to do? I'm at the office - despite the fact that it's probably one of the worst environments to study in. ("A place of procrastination" is what one co-worker has dubbed this place.)
Surfing the Internet? Doing research? Making phone calls? Eating lunch? I'm probably doing it at the office. Where am I writing this? At the office.
I hear I'm going to be editor-in-chief next year, so I expect it to get even worse starting this fall. My only consolation is my grades haven't dropped - yet, anyway.
The office itself isn't what holds such appeal, though. It's the people who work in it. And on that note, I'd like to thank everyone who has made this such an enjoyable year, including my boss Bronson Pettitt, news editor Rachel Heiderscheidt, the secretaries (or "deskies" as we lovingly call them), all my staff writers - the ones who got their stories in on time, anyway - and our main photographer, Ray Starin, who doesn't get the recognition he deserves.
Ray's been our longest and most dependable photographer, and he happens to be very good at what he does. Why he's going to school for biology and not photojournalism I don't know, but I'm glad I've had the pleasure to get to know him as well. I look forward to the inevitable conversations we'll have next year about Democrats and Republicans alike failing to follow the Constitution.
I also look forward to working with those returning as editors this fall: managing editor Tyler Buckentine, sports editor Josh Berhow, news editor Nia Jonesz and variety editor Ali Ramsey. I've gotten to know them fairly well these past few months, and while it disturbs me that Nia lacks appreciation for the greatness of Brett Favre; she and Berhow still don't know how to spell my last name correctly; and Ali thinks I'm a "Star Wars" and "Lord of the Rings" nerd, we'll find a way to work together.
Serving as editor of the MSU Reporter will be both a huge responsibility and an honor. Students at a college newspaper such as this one have more freedom than they'll ever have working at a daily newspaper, where they have to answer to both the publisher and the company that owns the paper.
With that greater freedom comes great responsibility, though: the responsibility not to abuse that freedom. We're here to have fun, but we're also here to get better at the field of journalism and act as responsible journalists, not shoddy ones. As Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Rick Rickman, who visited MSU last week, notes: students - and journalism students in particular - should always be thinking, reasoning and questioning.
And that's advice worth following.
Derek Wehrwein is the Reporter variety editor
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