Taking Digital Media to the Next Level

Jess Lipowski

Most students interested in Journalism enroll at Michigan State University expecting to become print journalists in the near future.  The creators of spartysecrets.com, however, are engaging in new media--in cyberspace-- right now.

Master’s students Jonathan Oosting, Wes Holing, and Patrick Murray got an idea to limit the role of the gatekeeper online by establishing the Web site spartysecrets.com.

The Web site launched on September 24, after staffers finished two sample stories and correcting some technical glitches.

“It’s been something we’ve been talking about for a long time,” co-creator Murray said, focusing on the multi-media aspect.  

Prior to the launch, Oosting, co-creator focusing on the print side of the Web site, said they marketed on campus with flyers and chalk and networked through former professors. 

The idea of spartysecrets.com came partly from Holing’s undergraduate experience at the University of Washington.  While standing in line waiting for the library’s copy machine, he read Q&A sheets posted on the wall.  Holing said all questions received a descriptive, philosophical answer, no matter how sarcastic in nature.

“Jonathan had great input on how to make [this idea] new media friendly. It has to be Web-centered to work,” said Holing, co-creator focusing on the Web layout.

Bonnie Bucqueroux, coordinator for the Victims and the Media Program, remembered the guys talking in her class about how the web allowed them to delve into new things through reader interactivity and feedback.

“They are the kind of MSU students that will take the world of digital media to the next level,” said Bucqueroux.

According to Holing, in addition to including stream video, google maps and pictures, they have contemplated enhancing the site by adding narrated slideshows. 

“I came into the program thinking I’d be focusing on print journalism,” said Oosting. “But after the fervor [of new media], I’ve fallen in love with it…I love being able to tell stories and figure out the best way to tell them.”              

Oosting said the site primarily depends on traffic coming to the Web site.  The readers suggest questions by voting on those they want answered. Spartysecrets.com then selects five of the question submitted that they can actually report on. In just the first week alone, Holing said they had 150 votes. Although it was a healthy start, Oosting hopes the numbers will grow.

“Eventually what we’ll leave behind or in the hands of someone else is a rich repository of information that people can come back to kind of like an encyclopedia of knowledge,” said Oosting.

Another thing they hope to accomplish is increased community interaction. Oosting even hopes students will eventually give spartysecrets.com feedback.

“We’re really at the mercy of the student population,” said Oosting. “If people don’t read it or participate, it will flounder.”

Every Sunday, the team gets together and makes the site ready to go live.  According to Holing, last week they decided what stories would go into the poll and what angle they would take on stories. He said they usually hammer the details out as the week progresses. 

When reporting during the week, Oosting explains that he’s a student journalist to his sources, because many are on the defense and say they have nothing to hide. The main goal of the site is to answer the questions, said Oosting, and if the Web site happens to uncover something unusual, the story will become more investigative.

“Usually we each do our individual part.  Jonathan and I do the reporting. Pat does video. We all play to our strengths,” said Holing. “We then make it into an enticing package.”
The guys are graduating in the spring. Oosting is from Grand Rapids, Mich., Holing is from Seattle, Wash., and Murray is from Chicago, Ill.

The continuation of the site, then, is up in the air, Oosting said.
           
“If people start to rely on it as a news source, then we will have someone inherit it. Keep the dream alive,” said Oosting.

New media allows the reporter to get ideas across that normally wouldn’t be in a newspaper, commented Murray.    

“The paper is dead,” said Oosting. “The e-paper is in.  It’s the next hot thing.”