Aggressive advisers, apathetic students, and sentence writing 101

The board strikes again:
North Michigan University recently fired their newspaper adviser for being too “aggressive” when it came to reporting campus news; of course, a lot of the news the student-led board took issue with didn’t necessarily reflect too well on the university. The paper had investigated topics such as the number of sexual assaults on campus, the amount of money the university spent on travel for the school’s board of trustees, and textbook prices.

You go, North Dakota:
Great news for North Dakota this week; the state’s governor signed a law that prevents administrative censorship of student publications in all public high schools and colleges, further protecting students’ right to freedom of speech. It is the eighth state to pass legislation with this motive; hopefully, the other 42 states take notice.

Sentences are hard:
In a recent episode of “Rough Draft,” a popular writing-focused podcast, we get aten-minute lesson on how to write opening sentences that are as captivating and effective as David Sedaris’; and let’s be honest here, who doesn’t want to be a bit more like David Sedaris?

Count your Twitter:
Have you always wanted to see your Twitter analytics, but didn’t think that was physically possible? With Twittercounter, a tool you are able to access for free, you can look at charts that give you a comprehensive look at your followers, volume of tweets, and the number of people you are following. This way, you can determine what area of your tweeting has had the most impact on your audience; extremely useful information for your paper’s Twitter account.

Journalism, who needs it?:
Ironically enough, in the age of social media and digital journalism, high schools around the country are facing both a lack of interest and funding when it comes to journalism programs. Schools aren’t just unable to fund the cost of printing or publishing a newspaper, they’re also starting not to see the point, as the enrollment and participation in school papers has declined significantly. There are solutions, of course; taking your paper online is a cost-efficient solution to the budget problem. But how do we fix the lack-of-interest problem? Engaging students by incorporating elements they already use into a digital journalism production, such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and even Snapchat, can make the paper more seem more accessible and modern to students.

These things also happened this week:
The first four episodes of HBO’s hugely successful show Game of Thrones wereleaked online before the fifth season premiere on Sunday night– fans of the show with flexible moral codes are now three episodes ahead of everyone else.

Not only do we get a sequel next month, but Pitch Perfect co-star Rebel Wilson hasconfirmed there will be a third installment to the hit film series. Clearly, there’s no such thing as too much accapella.

Apple sold nearly one million watches in the first 24 hours of their official Apple Watch product release. That number would be shocking, but this is Apple we’re talking about; people have camped out for days just to buy a phone. This is almost underwhelming in comparison.