Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist launches campus-wide media study

CASSI TONEY

NORMAN – A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist spoke about the changes in media in the digital age to commence OU Student Media’s semester-long research Monday night.

Rob Curley, metro editor for The Orange County Register, presented “Imagine the Future: Campus Media in a Digital Age” to approximately 100 people in Meacham Auditorium in the Oklahoma Memorial Union 7 p.m. Monday.

“How do you build a product that people will consume?” asked Curley.  “This is the hard thing for newspapers.  There’s a big difference between knowing what matters and thinking you know what matters”

Judy Gibbs Robinson, editor adviser at The Oklahoma Daily, said she invited Curley to speak at OU because she wanted a big event to launch the study of campus media in the digital age.

“I hope he gets people inspired and interested in these tremendously exciting times in media,” Robinson said. “Then we can go in the right direction.”

Curley said when he worked at The Las Vegas Sun, every news story either had to serve the audience, or it had to save them. 

Curley listed five concepts that make a newspaper great, including passion, practicality, playfulness, personal communication and porn.

“Newspaper porn is not what you think,” Curley said.  “There’s no significance to it except mindless pleasure for people who live hard lives. …It could be food porn, casino porn or house porn.”

Curley said there must be some playfulness in newspapers because readers love playful content.

“No one cares if you leave out the narratives, but leave out the crossword puzzles and watch the old women get [mad],” Curley said.  “Delighting the readers is something newspapers are really bad about.”

Curley said The Las Vegas Sun found new ways to surprise readers, including converting traditional news articles into comic strips. 

“What do you have to do so that everyone every day has to read your newspaper?” Curley asked the audience mostly filled with current campus journalists and journalism students.

Robinson said Curley’s speech and the campus media study are relevant to all people on campus, not just journalism students, because The Oklahoma Daily is for the entire community. 

She said the semester-long study will include student and advertising focus groups, presentations to staff members, meetings with alumni and a campus-wide survey.

The Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication organized and funded the event through a grant from the Hearst Foundation.