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By Julie Poe
CHAPEL HILL — In a seminar on Tuesday, North Carolina professor Trevy McDonald urged students to explore new means of self-publishing.
The seminar was held on the same day that HarperCollins, a major publishing company, unveiled a new publishing website, ushering in a fresh conversation about the future role of e-books.
“What is a book?” McDonald asked the 12 students in her seminar. “That’s not as easily defined anymore. And that’s a good thing, because it opens up the industry to so much talent that was untapped before.”
A recent study by the International Digital Publishing Forum found that e-book sales have grown tenfold since 2002. McDonald attributed this increased popularity to the low costs of online publishing, which causes e-books to be priced less than print books.
She said that companies such as Kindle publish e-books for free, while the typical cost for print self-publication ranges from $400 to $99,000. The costless production of an e-book means that authors can price their works at less than $10, which can become a more accessible price for a wider range of readers.
Another factor is the autonomy online publishing offers for new authors. Authors who self-publish are free from contractual obligations to a publishing company. This allows writers to make their own decisions on the content, cover and marketing of their books. The opportunity of greater autonomy inspired McDonald in 1999 to self-publish her first book, Time Will Tell, and found the publishing company Reyomi Global Media Group.
Since then, McDonald has found that online publishing offers a more dependable outlet for beginning authors to market their work. This dependability is also the main reason that HarperCollins cited for beginning a new website that provides a forum for authors to market their e-books to readers.
“We are excited to be able to offer an e-commerce solution to our authors, ensuring their books are always available to their fans,” chief digital officer Chantal Restivo-Alessi said in a statement on Tuesday. “As a publisher, we want to offer as many paths to the consumer as possible.”
Mainly, it is the accessibility of e-books that McDonald believes will keep them relevant in the future. She feels that the strength of e-books lies in the reader’s ability to use an e-reader to transport and access an unlimited library.
“Authors have to lead the charge into the digital age,” McDonald said. “Readers want instant access and they want to have everything at their fingertips, and e-books are simply the easiest way to do that.”
By Rachel Davis
The staff of The Daily Tar Heel is not only producing a print newspaper, but also online content.
The 10 students who contribute to The Daily Tar Heel publish daily articles on its website, print a 5-day-a-week newspaper during the school year and release a weekly newspaper over the summer. The merging of online news and print newspaper has been smooth, due to the advantages of both types of media for staff and audience.
Erica Perel, the students’ adviser and former staff member, joins the staff weekly to give them guidance. She credits the high quality content that the DTH produces as a reason for their continued success.
“We want to produce a print publication at the highest level while developing our online content.”
Perel referred to the staff as “digital natives,” emphasizing their talents in online design and computer skills.
The students enter with these proficiencies and in the process are taught journalism techniques.
“We pride ourselves on being able to teach you what you need to know,” Perel said.
Paige Ladisic, the managing editor, is also the online editor, transferring her skills in print publication onto the Web.
“We’ve done well with adapting to the [online] culture,” Ladisic said. The DTH’s site, along with the newspaper’s Twitter and Facebook feeds, is updated daily with breaking news stories from around UNC-Chapel Hill.
The DTH’s website is not only accessible to students, but to anyone with an interest in the UNC-Chapel Hill community.
“It’s expanded who can read us,” Perel said. Students studying abroad, parents of students and UNC-Chapel Hill alumni can remain informed long-distance.
A larger audience leads to more responsibility for the newspaper staff. They now have the ability to immediately inform their audience about any developing stories. There is no need to wait for next week’s print issue when the latest news will be uploaded online in a matter of hours.
Online media is both convenient and economical for the DTH, which is financially independent. Students rely entirely on donations and advertising to fund the paper, making the cost of printing a concern. The website costs nothing in comparison to the price of printing 17,000 newspapers.
The DTH, now in its 121st year of publication, has been operating online for the last 20 years, making it one of the frontrunners in online-based news. The staff and their adviser remain confident in its expansion.
“We’re making online connections,” Perel said. “People want to read it.”
By Karringtan Harris
While many people have become addicted to tweeting and retweeting, others believe it is a silly social networking site that causes more harm than good. Meredith Clark believes Twitter is the contemporary way to protest.
Clark, native to St. Louis, Missouri, has a B.A in Political Science, a M.S in Journalism, and is presently working on her Ph.D in Mass Communicaton. She became involved with the twittersphere when she noticed the growing focus on social media in the journalism world.
“New technology has come along and if I want to continue my mission I need to know what’s going on,” she said. “The same problems that are going on in print are going on with the digital work.”
While turning her focus to the digital aspect of Journalism, Clark discovered a group on Twitter named Black Twitter. Black Twitter is a group of people who use Twitter to talk about their beliefs and opinions about relevant events in society that concern the black community.
“I became interested in Black Twitter when I saw that other journalists had no clue what they were talking about, when they reported on ‘what black people do on Twitter’,” she said. “That realization spoke to my calling as a journalist –to give a wider more descriptive picture of personal experiences and perspectives of black people.”
Devoting her attention to the Black Twitter group she searched for a way to promote the organization and communicate what the organization stands for. She came up with the idea to apply the values of the holiday Kwanza to the Black Twitter organization.
“I wrote my dissertation on Black Twitter,” she said. “When I was looking for ways to explain what they were doing, I found that the values were the best way to explain that.” The values that Clark refers to are unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, creativity, purpose, and faith.
She chose to apply the holiday of Kwanza to Black Twitter because she believed the values helped unify the community. In Clark’s journalistic works she strives to accurately report on her community.
“Through my work I try to present pictures of African-Americans experiences that will help a wider audience better understand what it’s like to live as a black person in America,” she said. Clark believes that the black community cannot be simply confined in a tiny box.
“There’s no single definition, because there’s no single ‘black experience,’ ” she said. “Thus my work touches on a lot of different aspects of black life.”
By Bryant Chappell
“I just want to throw you in a room together and let the differences bring you together, not push you away.”
These are the words of Jan Yopp, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who has also been there for 35 years. Yopp emphasizes the importance of diversity. “We have to accept that no two people are alike. In order to have a functional, peaceful, successful society, we have to drop our stereotypes and biases,” she said.
Yopp sees her own diversity reflected in her Swedish background, her political views and her Episcopalian religious views. Yopp, 65, clearly appreciates the differences of those around her, such as the way she grew up compared to the way many others today grow up.
“I grew up in Florida with my mom, dad, two brothers, and my sister. It’s not like today where you have many blended families, which I think makes it more interesting,” she said.
Yopp had the privilege of being good friends with someone who also appreciated diversity: Chuck Stone.
Stone was a prominent journalist throughout the Civil Rights movement and knew leaders such as Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. He was the editor of several African-American newspapers and was the first president of the National Association of Black Journalists. Yopp recalls that Stone showed his interest in diversity by wearing a pin in the shape of the United States that was a rainbow of various skin tones.
“Chuck had a wonderful sense of humor. He could poke fun at our various stereotypes and get away with it,” Yopp said. “He considered himself to be diverse because his mother was Creole and his father was African-American.” Because of this, Stone thought of himself as “orange.”
Yopp and Stone worked together from 1992 to 1995 in the Rainbow Institute. During this 3-week summer program, 15 diverse students from around the country explored the field of journalism.
When Chuck Stone retired, Yopp wanted to honor Stone for his legacy. To do this, she helped create the Chuck Stone Program for Diversity in Education and Media with the help of Monica Hill, the director of the Scholastic Media Association, and professors Napoleon and Queenie Byars. This program honors Stone by promoting journalism and celebrating diversity.
“The Rainbow Institute was created to promote racial and ethnic diversity in the newsroom, while the Chuck Stone Program promotes diversity through these but also through religious views, political views, and even socio-economic statuses,” Yopp added.
2014 marked the eighth year of the Chuck Stone Program, which is still going strong. Yopp continues to assist with the program and hopes that this is a learning experience for the twelve students attending.
“You all may not become journalists, but it will have an effect on your lives. Having you all changes our lives. It’s a lot of fun,” she said.
By Diego Pineda
Many immigrants who come to the United States are in search of a better life, better jobs and better opportunities. Or they might be people who struggle all of their lives and never find an improvement in their situation. They might be known for their profession or their physical characteristics, but does society know what life is like for them from their point of view?
Media and government have created stereotypes of what Latino immigrants look like and what they do for a living. Although these descriptions might be true, there is more to who the immigrants are than working construction or having brown skin and black hair.
Paul Cuadros, a UNC professor, works to change the way the public views Latino immigrants in his book, Home on the Field, he describes how he coached a soccer team of teenage Latino immigrants in Siler City, a rural North Carolina town. The teenagers attend Jordan Matthews High School and call their team, “Los Jets.”
Cuadros never knew the impact that Los Jets were going to have on society until NuvoTV contacted him and asked if they could film the team and their personal stories. The documentary series about the consisted of 33 days worth of shooting and it will air on July 16, 2014.
“‘Los Jets’ shows a split between both worlds. This series captures what the boys go through as they integrate into the American society. It portrays how they have one foot in one world and one foot in another,” Cuadros said. The series provides a voice for Latino immigrants to speak freely about their immigration stories and their lives inside and outside the field.
“The series will penetrate American consciousness. It will reach a broad audience and you will get to see the point of view from the boys’ life experiences, their hopes, dreams and fears,” Cuadros said. Although Latino immigration is a widely discussed topic within the government and media, this documentary gives viewers an opportunity to hear stories from whose who actually know what being an undocumented student truly means.
Dennis Leiva, one of the team’s players said that the series allowed him to create a family with the other players.
“They are the bros that I will never forget. Los Jets means a big deal, it means an opportunity to let everyone out there know that we do have passion, that we are all equal,” Leiva said.
Growing up, Cuadros never had a Latino role model, and he believes that people like Leiva and the rest of the team can be voices for those undocumented adolescents that are struggling to fit into the American society.
“Latinos like Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony and Sofia Vergara are already role models to Latinos today because they have persevered and led by example. I feel that Los Jets can do this as well and they will set the trail for someone else. It is up to Latineals to decide what is going to happen next for Latinos. Their stories are yet to be written.”
By Kasey Snyder
On July 8 Jonathon Jones the Director of North Carolina Open Government Coalition and Sunshine talked to the twelve Chuck Stone Scholars about the importance of media law.
Jones is a media professor at Elon University. He currently is teaching a media law class.
During his lecture, Jones talked to the students about the importance of free speech and press. He also talked to the students about media laws that journalist might encounter every day.
During his lecture, Jones gave some statistics which some of the students thought were surprising.
47% of American’s think free speech is the most important amendment we have. 1% of Americans think freedom of the press is the most important freedom we have. 34% of Americans think that the first amendment goes too far. 47% of Americans between the ages of 18-30 think the first amendment goes too far.
“I thought that the percentages were very surprising.” Ashley Stallman said, “It seems that most Americans would care about freedom of the press and speech.”
Jones also talked about why young adults might think and believe this way.
“I think it is the result of several factors.
This is the first generation to grow up after Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier, which gave school authorities a great deal of control in censoring students in high school and middle school. I believe the authority that many schools exert over students has created a generation that is uncomfortable questioning authority”, Jones said. “Second, many of these young people have come of age after Sept. 11, when there has been massive societal shift away from independence and toward collective safety. Third, these young people have also had to deal with the new phenomenon of cyber bullying, which is very different from the types of bullying that previous generations experienced. I suspect that the combination of those factors make young people less willing to tolerate speech that makes them uncomfortable.”
He said he is hoping that his lectures will give students the basic knowledge of the first amendment. He also hopes that his lectures will teach students useful skills that will help them in the future.
By Courtney Edwards
Professor Jan Yopp is a strong advocate for diversity. From being a former director of the Freedom Forum Rainbow Institute, to being a part of the Chuck Stone Program for Diversity in Education Media, to being the faculty advisor to the Carolina Association of Black Journalists, she welcomes diversity in all she does.
Yopp, however, doesn’t consider herself particularly diverse. She is Caucasian, of Swedish decent, a democrat, over the age of 60, was raised by two parents and had a few siblings. Being interesting and abnormal is considered diverse these days, but diversity comes in all shapes and sizes. Accepting diversity is all about welcoming the traits of others that make them unique.
“Let differences bring you together, not push you apart,” she said.
Yopp was well acquainted with the late Chuck Stone — an influential journalist, supporter of civil rights and Tuskegee airman who died in April. She said that Stone had a wonderful sense of humor and was a great teacher who believed in the power of diversity.
“He was a walking history book,” Yopp said, citing his familiarity with civil rights leaders Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Chuck Stone Program, created in 2007 to honor his legacy and celebrate diversity, allows 12 high school journalists to learn about each other’s different traits and improve their writing skills.
Yopp said she believes that in order to embrace diversity we all have to abandon our stereotypes and overcome biases.
“Accept that two people aren’t alike; accept people for who they are,” she said. She said she believes we all have a long way to go with acceptance, but that we are on the right path for now.
By Brittany Everett
Jonathan Jones, Director of the North Carolina Open Government Coalition and Sunshine Center, talked to Chuck Stone Scholars about media law on July 8, 2014.
Jones teaches at Elon University and has experience working as a District Attorney. During his presentation, Jones focused on cases and scenarios involving the first amendment. The first amendment contains five freedoms: speech, press, religion, petition and assembly.
During the presentation, Jones mentioned a 2013 Newseum Institute survey that said 47% of 18-30 year olds think that the First Amendment goes too far.
“It’s disappointing and a bit scary,” Jones said.
He cited the 1998 Supreme Court Case, Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier, as a potential factor in the attitude of the younger generation toward the first amendment. The case dealt with school officials censoring high school journalist’s work. “I believe the authority may schools exert over students has created a generation that is uncomfortable questioning authority,” Jones said.
Jones cites Sept.11 as a massive societal shift away from independence and toward collective safety. Jones also introduces cyber bullying as a factor.
“These young people have also had to deal with the new phenomenon of cyber bullying, which is very different from the types of bullying that previous generations experienced,” Jones said.
He said all of these factors contribute to making young people less willing to tolerate speech that makes them feel uncomfortable.
“We look at the government like we want it to protect us,” Jones said.
Chuck Stone participant and rising senior Courtney Edwards said she really enjoyed Jones’ presentation.
“The statistics were surprising because I thought more people would be more accepting of the first amendment,” Edwards said
Diego Pineda, Chuck Stone 2014 scholar and rising senior, said he thinks the amendment does go too far because there needs to be some restrictions.
“I feel it’s because we feel that too much freedom leads to disaster and chaos,” Pineda said.
He also said he feels that if citizens were able to decrease the freedom and put more restrictions on the law, then the next generation might be safer.
“We’re just afraid to be free,” Pineda said.