Making Your Content Irreplaceable

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Pizza, wine and Dateline—my Friday nights aren’t nearly as exciting as they were back when I was in college, but I love our habitual weekend kickoff.

I was at the beginning of that routine—wearing comfy clothes, cuddling in the chair with my dog, texting with a coworker, and scanning my Twitter feed while waiting for my husband to arrive home with cheese and pepperoni goodness in a box—when I got sucked into a news event.

I stumbled upon a tweet from The Oklahoma Daily, the student newspaper at The University of Oklahoma in Norman, where I am a Ph.D. candidate. The tweet referenced a man who was threatening to jump off a local water tower.

I read a few tweets for context, then texted my coworker who happens to live in Norman. I hoped to save him from the traffic jam and road closures that were sure to greet him as he made his way through the city. No such luck. He already was stuck in traffic and wondering what was happening. I relayed the information I’d learned from The Daily’s tweets, including that police were there and trying to talk him down.

I then visited sites for several local television stations and a newspaper to see if I could find out more about the man. There was no coverage on their websites or social media pages.

I went back to follow The Daily’s feed for awhile before getting a text from my 14-year-old daughter. It hadn’t occurred to me that she and a group of friends were attending a high school football game in Norman and were already there. They saw the man on top of the tower and were disturbed by the situation. I calmed her by relaying what I knew from following The Daily, including that an officer was on the tower speaking to the man. I explained that this was a good sign and she and her friends should remain calm, not something that’s always easy for teenage girls to do.

I continued following The Daily’s tweets, and texted my daughter when police talked the man down safely. She felt relieved. Honestly, I did too.

I also was impressed. Andrew Clark, The Daily’s managing editor, was live tweeting the entire happening, while most other media outlets seemed unaware of it. It became clear during the incident that the man likely was not a student. The tower is not on campus. The staff easily could have decided the news wasn’t worthy of their resources, since it didn’t directly affect their students. Instead, they decided to serve the broader community by reporting live from the scene. As a result, they became an irreplaceable source of information.

When is the last time your student media outlet was the source of information about news in your community, beyond your campus? My guess is it’s been too long for many of you. It’s time to change that.

How do you plan to make your content irreplaceable?

profKRGKenna Griffin is an assistant professor of mass communications and director of student publications at Oklahoma City University. She is the author of the Prof KRG blog, which serves as a practical resource for student journalists. She is a journalist, reader, shoe lover, Ph.D. candidate, wife, mother of two, and the spoiler of a couple of adorable dogs.