The document provides advice for student publications on getting their content online and using digital tools. It recommends setting up a website or blog to publish articles, photos, and videos. It also suggests using social media like Facebook and Twitter to engage readers, promote the publication, and get story ideas. The document discusses challenges like lack of funding or university support and provides tips on legal issues, hosting options, and networking with other student editors.

1. NEWS09: Get your student
publication online
by Sarah Stokely

2. From print to www:
How online are you?
• What university are you from? What publication
• Is it print only or do you publish online too?
• Who hosts your website? Uni/student union
• How much control do you have over your paper's web
page?

3. What does you publication do online?
• Many Australian student newspapers have a bare
webpage without helpful information
• What questions would a reader have who came to your
site? Does your site answer these questions?
o How can I contribute a story or news tip?
o How can I find you on campus?
o How can I contact you online (ie email, contact form,
comment on website)?

4. What does your website say?
• Do you encourage readers to get involved?
• Do you let people contact you online (via email, web
contact form, etc)
• Do you give people a reason to come back to your site?
o ie news updates
o does it look like the site content changes regularly?

5. What should your website do?
• Do you let people know how to find:
o Your print edition
o Your editorial office on campus
o Who's on the editorial team
o Where to send in a comment or news tip?
o Where else your paper has an online presence (link to
Facebook group, Twitter account, etc)
• Look at different student newspaper websites and see if
they encourage readers to contact you or get involved.

12. Your challenges - VSU
• Impact of VSU (Voluntary Student Unionism)
o most student editors & contributors now unpaid
o no handover time from one year to another- incoming
editors need to learn from scratch
o Consider starting a wiki or internal web page where
you can keep useful information to help you and future
editors.
• Funding for your student publication may be for a print
version only

13. • Lack of control of your publication website (often
University or Student Union)
• Poor/difficult to use Uni website
• Lack of support for going online - funding/training/tools
• Uni concern about publishing online
o opening up website to comments, user generated
content, etc - legal concerns, defamation etc
o concern that website needs to uphold University's
image (website as corporate marketing tool)
• What other challenges?
Other challenges

14. Yes, that's a lot of challenges

15. Here, have a puppy.

16. Don't worry, you do have options
• You may want to start a discussion with your University
and Student Union about migrating your publication to an
online publication - this may take longer than you'll
actually be the editor, but it's worth starting the
conversation.
• If you don't want to become a web publication (or your uni
doesn't want you to!), you have options:
o make your print publication more online friendly
o make your current website more online friendly
o explore online options beyond your uni website

17. Make your print publication more
online friendly
• publish & promote contact details including email
addresses in the print version
• Ensure that the relevent people have access to that email
to read and respond
• Maybe one generic email for news tips - which will be
seen by or circulated to the whole news team.
• Have a visible presence on online communities where
your readers are (ie Facebook, MySpace, Twitter). A
place to share your news stories (here's a taste of what's
in the mag this month) and for readers to send you
feedback and news leads.
•

18. What's a short term solution
to get us online?
• University websites move as slowly as glaciers.
• Establish online communities outside the university to be
able to do things quickly and to keep control yourself
• Ning is a very easy way to set up an online community - it
can be private (for your editorial team) or public (for all
students of your uni)
http://www.ning.com
• A Facebook group or page is another option - and lots of
students are already on there.

19. External hosting warning...
• Beware: Terms of service, copyright and censorship. Do
you want to control your own media and copyright?
• Some companies claim copyright on media (photos!
vidoes!) uploaded to their site (ie Facebook) - read the
terms of service!
• Some companies make it difficult to get your data *back*
from their site if you want to leave (proprietary file
formats, difficult migration process). Can you back up
your data and take it with you?

20. • Companies like YouTube (owned by Google) who host
the data can decide to censor it ie if someone claims it is
offensive. Try googling "YouTube censorship" or
"LiveJournal breastfeeding"
• These companies doesn't need to announce when they
remove material or why
• If you publish politically sensitive material, you may want
to consider hosting it yourself where you can control it.

21. Legal risks
• I AM NOT A LAWYER!
• Educate yourself on the laws around copyright,
defamation & privacy - since you may be storing &
publishing reader's personal information (a la Facebook)
• You need to be aware of the legal considerations the uni
faces if moving to online student publishing
• If you are able to demonstrate knowledge about these
issues, you have a better chance of the Uni supporting
your move online.

22. What can you do now?
• Talk to your University and Student Union about
expanding your current website & allowing interactive
publishing (ie allowing comments, etc)
• Continue in print and web or migrate to web only? A long
term decision which won't happen overnight, and involves
you, the Student Union and the University. Not to mention
your readers, the students.
• What else do you want to do online? What do students
want?

23. Extend your involvement on campus
• Contact and work with your student radio station
(TV/internet broadcasting?)
• Work with teachers and students in the Journalism
department of your uni
• Think about other departments that may have skilled
people wanting to get involved - IT, visual arts, graphic
design, TV & film production courses
• Clubs and societies who may have skills to offer or a
large potential reader base or source of stories (ie
overseas students association)

24. Unofficial "offcampus" websites
• PROS:
o Bypass the University and Union and publish
something independent.
o You control the website and can update it as often as
you want
• CONS:
o You can expect problems if you use the uni name or
the name of your publication.
o An unofficial website might be hard for students to find,
and you probably can't link to it from your "official"
website

25. Suggest a compromise
• Prepare a request for your Uni/Union saying what you'd
like to appear on your current website (ie - you want to
publish a contact email addresses, or a contact form for
people to submit story ideas, or publish a blog.
• It's highly likely the current website can't support blogs
(regularly updating pages) so you may be able to
convince them to let you start a separate blog (hosted
elsewhere or by the Uni) for publishing an official blog of
your student publication.
o eg - blogs.crikey.com.au is a WordPress blog, hosted
separately from www.crikey.com.au

26. If you start a separate blog...
• GA separate blog or website loses the "Google juice" of
your main website. How can students find you?
• Link to the blog in the main navigation bar of your
publication website if possible
• Put a teaser for the blog (including links to recent posts)
on your publication's main web page - you can do this
automatically with a widget
• Mention relevant blog posts in your print publication
o ie at the end of a story, mention that the author blogs
also and give the URL of the blog

27. What is Web 2.0?
• Web 2.0 is about how we use the internet to
communicate. It's about users, creators and participation.
• Watch this video. Seriously, watch it:
The Machine is Us/ing Us
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=NLlGopyXT_g
o by Prof Michael Wesch, Kansas State
Uni http://mediatedcultures.net/ksudigg/

28. Web 2.0 = conversation
• print = one way conversation
• web 1.0 = online but still one way conversation
• web 2.0 = millions of conversations
• Jay Rosen from NYU talks about participatory media and
"the people formerly known as the audience"
• don't talk to "the audience" - get involved in lots of
different conversations with individuals.

29. Be good at Web 2.0
• Don't just blast out your content and ideas. That's as
annoying as advertising. Converse & respond.
• Don't just use your website - comment on Facebook,
other blogs & websites.
• Link to interesting stuff created by other people, that your
readers might like.
• The web is multimedia - use photos, video, audio.
• Use a tool to manage updates across multiple sites at
once (ie Twitter, Facebook etc) - eg Ping http://ping.fm/

30. New tools available "off campus"
• Video - YouTube
o has limits on how long your video can be
o for pre-recorded video
• For live video streaming, check out Ustream
• http://www.ustream.tv/
o You just need a video camera
o You can show your Ustream on your website
o Or people can watch your Ustream site on your own
"channel" or page on the Ustream website

31. Blog software is powerful
• Blogging software is publishing software - so it can be
used to do a whole website if you want, not just a
standalone blog
• For example, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ publishes a
very busy news website using WordPress
• Crikey publishes a whole network of blogs using
WordPress: http://blogs.crikey.com.au/
• Or you can publish one individual
blog: http://www.foxforcefive.com/
• Open Source blog software like WordPress or Drupal is
free and supported by a community of developers

32. Blogs
• Blogs - a free hosted blog means it's on someone else's
website (ie if you start a blog on WordPress.com,
Blogger, etc)
• If you host it yourself:
o it's on your own website
o you need to register a domain name and an account
with a web host, then upload blogging software.
o One easy hosting option is Dreamhost, because they
can set up your blogging software for you - check out
Dreamhost Apps to see how it works
o http://dreamhostapps.com/
•

33. • One cool tool is Cover It Live - http://www.coveritlive.com/
o Great for covering live events "as they happen"
o Check out the Demo on their website - it shows how
you can get it up and running in two minutes
o You embed it on your website just like you'd embed a
YouTube video
o Readers can ask questions and you can answer
instantly
o Crikey used it to do their US Election night coverage
Live Blogging

34. Free Image &Video resources
• Sourcing free pictures, video and music is possible
through Creative Commons
• Creative Commons helps writers, musicians and
multimedia producers share and build on each other's
work, legally. It's an alternative to traditional copyright.
• Barack Obama just made the White House website
Creative Commons! http://www.whitehouse.gov/
• Watch this video: Creative Commons - A Shared
Culture http://creativecommons.org/videos/a-shared-
culture

35. Find and share free, legal content
• Find out how to access content - and share it - using
Creative Commons instead of traditional copyright
• Here are two sources of loads of sharable media:
• WikiMedia
Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
• Flickr Commons: http://www.flickr.com/commons

36. Get on Facebook!
• students are already there
• a way to promote your magazine and get reader feedback
and news tips
• Make sure videoes and blog posts autopost to your
Facebook Page
• Have someone in charge of updating/responding to the
page - roster it if needed to spread the load
• Keep it alive! Change the status update message a few
times a week, or send out a message to your group/fans

37. Be useful on Facebook!
• Don't just use it as a way to advertise.
• Be useful and interesting
• Use it as a way to communicate with your readers and
make them interested in you and your publication.
• How?
• Break news & give teasers from your print edition
• Publish video & photos
• It's not all about you. Link to other interesting content!
• Give readers fun and easy ways to get involved
o competitions
o submit photos/videos

38. Facebook - Group or Page?
• Facebook Groups and Facebook pages can do different
things.
• Check out which one suits what you want to do with your
Facebook.
• For a blog post about the pros and cons of Facebook
Groups versus Pages for student publications, see:
The Student Leader Think Tank:
http://www.theslblog.org/2008/12/facebook-page-o.html

39. Twitter? Ya rly.
• Twitter.com - it's a short message, microblogging platform
• 140 character limit
• You can post messages (tweets) and "follow" other
people to read their tweets.
• You can update by web, SMS or Twitter tools like Twhirl
or Tweet Deck
• If you are selective about your Twitter community, it's a
powerful resource and you'll have experts at your
fingertips.

40. Journalists use Twitter
• It's already being used by professional journalists, editors
and publications
• News broken there included the Mumbai terrorist attacks
• You can break news and get news tips
• Promote new content you've put online
• Get feedback & let readers contribute to stories.

41. How can you use Twitter?
• Jay Rosen - teaches Journalism at NYU
• "It's a handbuilt tipster network. The people I follow bring
essential things to my attention and keep me current."
• "Twitter keeps me in touch with people who are friends of my
ideas. I know about their projects and current obsessions; they
know about mine."
• check out his Twitter stream: @jayrosen_nyu

42. Join networks of student editors
• Contact other student publications & editors - share
ideas, potentially share resources
• Join or set up online communities for student editors eg
CoPress.org
• Start a local community for Australian editors using Ning,
Facebook, Google Groups,Yahoo Groups, etc
• The NUS conference (week of 6-11 July 2009) will
include 1 day devoted to student media. Contact them to
find out more & get involved.

43. Brainstorm time!
• What can you do to use the internet more as a way to
publish and publicise your paper, but also to get news
leads and talk to your readers?
• What are you already doing at your uni - and what other
unis are doing?
• Where do students from your uni hang out online? How
can you connect with them?
• Are there any online communities for student editors -
start one!
• Exchange contact details - start building that network!

44. Useful resources for online publishers
• Tools for Citizen Journalism - a wiki
http://sourcewatch.org/index.php?
title=Tools_for_citizen_journalism
• Handbook for Bloggers and Cyberdissidents by Reporters
without Borders
http://www.rsf.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=542
o includes advice on how to start a blog, get it picked up
by search engines, ethical guidelines and
recommendations for the best tool to use
o information on how to blog anonymously and technical
ways to get around censorship

45. Australian Resources
• The Writers Guide to making a digital living
http://www.australiacouncil.gov.au/writersguide
• Arts Law Centre of Australia Online - Legal issues for
bloggers:
http://www.artslaw.com.au/legalinformation/LegalIssuesF
orBloggers.asp

46. Useful people to contact
• CoPress.org - contact Daniel
Bachhuber daniel@copress.org
• NUS - http://unistudent.com.au/home/
Email: pres@nus.asn.au
• Creative Commons Australia
http://www.creativecommons.org.au

47. Contact me!
Sarah Stokely
• Email: sarah@foxforcefive.com
• Blog: www.foxforcefive.com
• Twitter: @stokely