Mission Statement
Student Media informs, persuades, guides, educates and entertains while serving the OSU community and the greater Corvallis area. In the process students receive a comprehensive understanding of the media and the skills needed to create it.
The Department
There has been a Student Media presence on the OSU campus for more than 100 years. The five student media: The Daily Barometer (9,000 circulation weekday newspaper, free), Beaver Yearbook (272 page all-color book, $40), Prism Magazine (literary and arts magazine published three times annually, free), KBVR FM, 88.7 (FCC licensed, 350 watt non-commercial radio station), and KBVR TV (educational access channel 26, serving Corvallis-Philomath). The push is on for convergence and a strong combined web presence.
The faculty and staff of the department advise, teach and provide administrative and technical support for the seven student editors and managers who run the five media. The student managers hire and direct the staffs that produce the content for all the media and manage a crew of 300-400 volunteer and paid student staff.
Students practice skills in writing, reporting, editing, photography, promotion, media law, graphic design, video and audio production, as well as time management, budget preparation, personnel leadership, accountability, ethics, diversity and dealing with controversy. The media outlets are considered a co-curricular support to courses in a number of majors across the University, including but not limited to Art, New Media Communications, English, Business, Computer Science, Music, Political Science, Speech Communication and Liberal Studies.
Outreach
Student Media houses Northwest Scholastic Press (NWSP), the support organization for middle and high school media teachers in Oregon. The Director of Student Media serves as the executive director for the organization.
NWSP organizes an annual Press Day for about 1,200 high school students and teachers on the OSU campus, coordinates a newspaper publication competition with about 1,400 entries each year and coordinates a summer workshop for high school newspaper students in conjunction with two other media-related high school workshops. NWSP partners with the Oregon Journalism Education Association to provide a summer workshop for high school yearbook and newspaper advisers also on campus.
Student Media acts as the administrative home for the Student Affairs Division initiative--PeaceJam, an international education program built around leading Nobel Peace Laureates who work personally with youth to pass on the spirit, skills and wisdom they embody. Student Media took leadership of the PeaceJam Northwest initiative in May 2004. While Student Media currently takes on a major coordination role in PeaceJam, it is a collaborative activity working with many other key contributors on and off-campus.
