The Missouri School of Journalism Does Not Administer Its Own Facebook Page
We just received quite the tip here at J-School Buzz.
As it turns out, the Missouri School of Journalism’s Facebook page is not actually run by the J-School itself, as you might expect.
It is instead run by a freshman journalism student at the University of Missouri who tried (and failed) to turn the Facebook page over to officials at the Missouri School of Journalism.
Here is the first email she sent to J-School Buzz earlier today, and it just gets weirder and sadder from there:
Hello,
I saw your article about the Social Media issues the J-School has, mentioning the FB page, and I guess now would be a good time to inform you that the J-School doesn’t own that page… I do.
I offered to give it to them, and they said they were focusing on their Twitter and new website, so they didn’t want more to deal with.I made the page a long ways back when FB was the new hype, and never thought anything of it. Anyone could make a page. Now it has 1,800 “likes” and I’m going to work on improving it, etc, as I mentioned in a recent post. Very few people know that this page isn’t run by the J-School. Most, as you are aware, assume that it is.
I recently emailed about an application to be involved at the J-School Buzz, and I’m wondering if we can pair whatever comes of that to the J-School page. I never had a plan for it before, but now I want it to put some focus on it, because so many people do follow it.
I look forward to the response to this message.
Gabrielle Krongard
We were extremely surprised by this, but it makes a lot of sense.
Social media has not been the J-School’s forte, but we thought it was becoming much better. As it turns out, the J-School is completely ignoring the Facebook platform, and claims it is focusing on Twitter and its improvement of the new website.
Really, J-School, you’re focusing on Twitter? Because your following on Twitter says otherwise.
Here is the original message Krongard sent to the J-School’s Director of Planning and Communications, Suzette Heiman:
Hello,
I am a second semester freshman here at Mizzou, actually a direct admittance Journalism student in the Honors program. When I first looked into coming to school here, and when Facebook had been the new hype, me and a few of my friends wanted to be able to “Like” the J-School on Facebook, but there wasn’t a Page for it at the time.
So the solution was to make one. I never thought anything would happen with it, other than it would be listed on my “likes” on my profile, but now it has 1,800 “Likes”, regular interactions, and a bit of a following. I don’t do much to maintain it, but I would like to. I realize now that this may conflict with if the J-School would like to have a Facebook page (as it does have a Twitter).
I would be completely willing to hand it over, so to speak, but I also would like to be considered for the position as a social media coordinator, even if only on the Facebook page. I am a media director for a major league gaming company (Righteous Dawn Gaming), and I enjoy doing work like that, maintaining social networks and such. Thank you so much for your time!
Gabrielle Krongard
The J-School’s response?
Hi, Gabrielle.
Thanks for your note. We just launched the school’s new website and need to devote our resources to that for the time being. We’re not planning any social media efforts other than Twitter for now. It sounds like you are enjoying your studies here. Thanks again.
Best regards,
Suzette Heiman
We find this e-mail a little upsetting. Why is the University of Missouri’s journalism school so determined to not utilize the single largest social media site on the internet?
Thankfully, we have people like Krongard who want to facilitate the conversation on Facebook and get the word out about what’s going on at one of the nation’s top journalism institutions.
Krongard, we appreciate you, and we sincerely hope Mizzou’s J-School quickly realizes the importance of social media.
We will update this post if Heiman ever gets around to responding to our email inquiry. She did respond to Jim Romenesko‘s request for comment though, telling his readers this:
The school is establishing a new Web presence. Once we get this behind us, we’ll discuss other ways to use social media. In the meantime, some of our more entrepreneurial journalism students may create Facebook pages on our behalf. These are owned and maintained by the students, not the school.
Follow J-School Buzz on Twitter and Like us on Facebook
For one of the most technologically advanced J-Schools in the nation, it upsets me their lack of effort in social. I was in a discussion with Lindenwood and Webster students regarding their use of social media, and could not think of I time I was “required” to use social media in college. Now it’s my job. Most students realize it’s importance, but it’s something that should be covered ax frequently as resume and interview etiquette. I’m almost ashamed at my alma mater.
So, I’m wondering – if this is such a big deal, why hasn’t additional reporting been done? All I see here is emails sent back and forth. Did J School Buzz reach out for comments before posting this? Sure, emails are a great use of proof that something’s occurring … but where’s the rest of this story? There’s no mention in this blog post that any J School Buzz editors/writers reached out for a comment to try to get a full picture of the situation.
I’m more embarrassed that an organization that’s “reporting” on our journalism school doesn’t seem to be doing any reporting.
Nicole, if you would look at the post after this one, you will see that we have reached out to Suzette Heiman for comments, but she has not yet responded to us. We did in fact follow up this story, but beyond that, we have to wait for responses. It seems you didn’t do enough digging yourself if you missed that detail.
Ali, I understand how to dig for info and read. Unfortunately, you’re missing the point – you published a story that didn’t have anything other than one source. Perhaps, check out what happened with Onward State as they published info about Joe Paterno’s death based off emails and the word of one person to get an idea of what I’m talking about.
The way the web works is that it doesn’t matter that you posted follow-ups. How many people actually see follow-up stories? Do you think CNN would post up this same story, or wait until they could have a comment to provide a more focused and factual story? You guys had a scoop on this – only you! What if you had waited, perhaps, 24 hours and given us a story that was really hard hitting? I feel that would have re-solidified JSB in a lot of people’s minds as being a reliable and prominent source.
Ali, feel free to ignore any commenter who actually spouts nonsense along the lines of, “I was just about to start respecting JSB again, but then you published THIS HORRIBLE POST AND I WILL NEVER RESPECT YOU GUYS AGAIN, SINCERELY TROLL.”
Commenters like Nicole are the Lucy to our Charlie Brown, always pulling the football out from underneath us as we are about to kick it. You can’t believe people like Nicole, because if it’s not one problem they have with JSB then it’s another. We can’t please them all.
You’re right, when news outlets found out about Osama Bin Laden’s death, they should have waited 24 hours to report it to make the story more “hard-hitting!” News can wait, right?
We have e-mails from both sides of this story, and we posted accordingly. I don’t need to sit here and beg for affection from someone who is trying to discredit a story that is legitimate. We got the information, we published about it. That’s all.
Oh, where to begin.
First, I can give a little context to where I am coming from with this post. At least a couple times in the past, I have defended this site from attacks by legitimate trolls who bring nothing to the public forum or debate. Specifically, I remember writing a mini-novel defending the site’s choice to publish a first-person account of the attack on Karen Mitchell. No, seriously. I had way too much time on my hands. I even used a Theodore Roosevelt quote about the man in the arena.
But this is too far.
I’ll start by talking about the story. If you evaluate the story by looking at what this site aims to do, I can’t be that mad. It’s a freshman attempting to expose the fact that the J School doesn’t administer its own Facebook page. I get it. Whatever.
But calling someone a troll because they point out the blatant errors in reporting? THAT I have a problem with. Nicole attempted to create an informed discussion with the writer and the other commenters that could eventually lead to gained knowledge and a gained understanding of how best to administer this form of journalism and how JSB can better serve its readers. She essentially pointed out that the story was biased and that more well-rounded reporting would have led to a more beneficial story for readers.
Instead of continuing the discussion in a rationale and respectful manner, which would have been beneficial for all, Mr. Teeghman attempted to silence his critics. Furthermore, he instructed those on the site to “ignore” Nicole, though she made some excellent points I would’ve like to have seen better hashed out.
I smell hypocrisy.
Mr. Teeghman, your web site claims to expose the many shortcomings of the University of Missouri School of Journalism. Yet, when informed commenters attempt to expose your web site’s OWN shortcomings, the debate is immediately cut off. Does this sound counterintuitive, or is it just me?
Furthermore, I will be blunt with my thoughts on the analogy between your reporting and the reporting of major news organizations breaking the death of Osama bin Laden.
Are you serious? No, really, that’s the argument you’re making?
If so, try this analogy on for size. Mr. Teeghman’s attempt to silence critics is eerily similar to the methods used by the Soviets in silencing dissenters to further the message. And we all know how that worked out.
See how neither hold any weight?
Your website claims to practice a form of journalism. Therefore, I would suggest you start living up to your reputation, and allowing for public comment and forum before hastily shutting off the debate. But if you truly feel Nicole is a troll on this site, then I would encourage you to dig deep into your vocabulary to find a word for me.
Sincerely,
Fax
If we wanted to “silence” annoying commenters, we could just delete them. Alas, we only delete comments that violate our terms of service. http://www.jschoolbuzz.com/j-school-buzz-terms-of-use/
That said, we don’t have to respect trolls. I called her a “troll” because she has repeatedly left comments on this site that are not particularly informed or useful. And we have often dealt with commenters who said something similar to what Nicole said, that she would have been able to respect JSB, but THIS POST HAS RUINED ANY POSITIVE FEELINGS SHE MIGHT HAVE FOR JSB EVER. I’m exaggerating a bit for humor’s sake, but you get the point. We hear all the time that one post or another has offended some commenter’s delicate sensibilities, when they were just about to start liking us again.
We encourage informed public debate and disagreement. This post is a perfect example: http://www.jschoolbuzz.com/shake-up-on-the-j-school-buzz-editorial-board-again/ Plenty of people had negative things to say about JSB or the post in the comments section, but they did so in a way that made the post and our reporting better.
Nicole’s comment wasn’t helpful, because she was criticizing us for not doing something we had already done. She criticized us for not talking to Suzette…except we did try to talk to Suzette, and did update the post once her comment to Romenesko was published. It’s fine if people want to criticize JSB. We have our haters, and we always will. But we will defend our work when it deserves to be defended, and we will be particularly aggressive in our defense against know-nothing criticism. That being said, we admit all the time when we fuck up. We just didn’t fuck up this time. But if you want to comment about how I am a dick in the comments and don’t respect people like Nicole who post criticism without much knowledge or many “facts,” you would be absolutely right and not trollish at all.
Sorry Teeghman, but I really think you’re wrong here. What are we as journalists if we can’t critique and analyze others’ work? It’s not like Nicole just went off like a psycho about how bad it was, she simply noticed a lack of reporting (And there was). And a troll, really? This isn’t Reddit or Gawker and she wasn’t unfounded in her opinion.
If you haven’t heard back about this non-story, then maybe hold off or add some other viewpoints to the ‘story’ to make it even worth publishing in the first place. I love Anna though so, don’t hate me
This is how our reporting process worked. We got a tip from a reader, we interviewed her, got emails that proved her claims, and tried to interview the J-School’s PR office about this issue. That’s our reporting, and it wasn’t lacking.
We don’t need everyone’s viewpoint, or even both sides’ thoughts to hit publish, so long as we give both sides a chance to respond. The J-School’s PR Office, for some idiotic reason, chose not to respond to our request for comment, and still hasn’t.
We didn’t wait to hear back from Heiman’s office because throughout JSB’s history, she has been downright bad at her job. She doesn’t respond to interview or comment requests after multiple attempts, and when she does, it has to be in person and usually several days later. If the J-School’s PR office refuses to cooperate with a story we plan to publish, that doesn’t kill the story, it just means the J-School looks petty and worse than it has to.
Would that information be relevant to publish in the actual post? Perhaps, but it’s more gossip than anything. Or maybe it’s news that the director of the J-School’s PR is obviously incompetent. I’d be interested to hear what you think.
Anna is a delightful person. Fuck if I know what she is doing by stooping down to my level for a boyfriend.
Personally, I don’t give three shits about the fact that the J school doesn’t oversee its own facebook. It has no impact on my life or education whatsoever. I have no experience with the j-school’s PR office but it seems to be a bit of a witch hunt. I really don’t think this particular issue is representative of anyone’s ability at their job, because…do you really keep up with the face book page? Who REALLY looks at it? But whatever, maybe I’m just being dense.
Anyway, the point that got Austin to post at all was your complete overreaction to Nicole. Let’s call a spade a spade, Teeghman. You have a reputation of lashing out (I think amusingly) and sometimes saying offensive things. Let’s call it a lack of a filter. It’s kinda your “thing” in the j-school. Maybe the author was offended when she read Nicole’s original post but she was a little snarky (and of course you were too). If everyone were truly so confident in this story, they probably would have responded once and left it at that. But this need to respond and then ultimately call someone a troll for pointing something else reflects almost an insecurity in someone’s ability as a writer or editor.
Also, the experience I DO have with PR people tells me they are not inclined to help someone who publicly calls them bad at their job. Plus, everyone knows the J School Buzz has the reputation of looking for the next ‘gotcha, J school’ moment- which is fine, but why would she be eager to talk to you guys? Sounds like a smart PR person to me; or at best, the average reaction.
But if J School Buzz wants to ever get comments from Heiman (at least in a timely matter), I think that ship sailed long before you publicly accused her of incompetency.
You might not give three shits about the story, but the traffic, incoming links and feedback show our audience does care. A lot.
We respond to criticism because we want to have a dialogue and because we will defend our work from faulty criticism. We listen to our critics, and when they are right, we say so, and then they are wrong, we say that, too.
It has never helped JSB to get a quote or information from the J-School’s PR Office. Not once. The J-School’s PR office isn’t doing us any favors by talking to us. JSB is like Gawker: it’s great if the PR office will talk to us, but if not, we still have the story and we are still going to run it and tell our audience their office chose not to respond. Maybe they don’t know how to work in such a media environment, in which case they are even more incompetent than I thought.
PR people have to deal all the time with critical news organizations. That is quite literally their job. JSB criticizes the J-School sometimes, and does so in a factual and interesting way. It’s dumb PR to not respond to a publication that ONLY covers your institution just because it says negative stuff about you or your institution. It’s even dumber PR to not respond to a news org that keeps getting links from Poynter, Romenesko and College Media Matters over this matter.