Exactly 24 hours after the first finalist for assistant student media director bombed, the second shined. Annie Hammock flew down from Atlanta (where she works as a producer for CNN) and skillfully navigated the turbulence in FAU's Student Affairs department.
"You're aware there has been some tension here," said journalism professor Bob Bailyn, who's been the most vocal member of the search committee. "How do you feel you might approach that?"
Hammock chose her words carefully...
I think there's an element of the independence of the press coming up against a management that does not always have journalistic methods in mind. This is something that happens with professional media on a fairly regular basis. The goals of a student media outlet are not always the same as the management's. What you can learn, and what I would hope to advise, is how to navigate this very difficult relationship.
As Hammock spoke, she often turned to face Student Affairs dean Corey King, the chairman of the search committee. I noticed King rarely made eye contact with her – even though he had looked yesterday's finalist Don Mariutto straight in the eye as Mariutto answered this same question (which he did rather illegally). King was slouched in his chair, jotting down notes nearly the entire time, as Hammock continued talking...
That doesn't mean that the students shouldn't at least try to venture into a positive relationship with their managers in order to have a less adversarial relationship. Having a difference of opinion is healthy. I think you learn to be a better journalist when you have to stand up for values that management may not have as their first priority. However, management also needs to recognize, in the end, that student media needs to have the ability to be independent.
When the conversation turned to the other student media outlets, Hammock also had some strong but measured words. This is what she said when the manager of the radio station asked, "As far as radio and television, what can you bring to the outlets?"
What I see with the radio and TV stations here is they need a stronger web presence. I tuned into Owl Radio last night on the web, and I didn't know what I was listening to. The schedule didn't reflect what I was hearing. But I was interested. It was a talk show of some sort. I just didn't know what it was. The television station is the same way: They need to put some text with their video. It'll get much more watched if there's text that explains what it is – because no one is going to click on the video if they don't know what it's about first. You got to give them a reason to watch.
In a perfect world, Annie Hammock would be the student media director and Marti Harvey would be her assistant.
TOMORROW: Two down, one to go.
