Learning to stand on our own two feet

When buying a computer, I chose a laptop over a desktop and paid an extra 50 bucks to install wireless internet in my house. All I wanted was to be able to sit on my couch with the tv on and spend at least an hour a day on the internet. I don't think I'm alone.

Students today love to be engaged with the internet. Take the amazing popularity of facebook. Is the site in any way spectacular? It's just a photo with listed interests, but people love having an excuse to be on the web every day.

This is where tv.ku.edu comes in. Today, when the editor of the Red Eye spoke to our class, she took an impromptu survey. More students admitted to reading their news off the internet than picking up a daily paper. A lot of people think we need the Kansan to become popular, but I think we can offer our audience things that the hard copy of the Kansan can't.

tv.ku.edu is off to a good start. We have a hard-working staff that supplies users with the news in a visual and print way. This is a solid foundation. I think for the site to take off, however, we need more than that. Posting stories to the web is a full time job in itself. I think if tv.ku.edu wants to really expand, it has to have a staff of people whose only job is to dream up and impliment web extras for the site. Although our class occasionally has the chance to do these things, we're generally too concerned with learning the basics and getting the bare minimum up.

Possbily, the next step would be to create a class after 694. These students would already know the basics of web journalism and would be able to focus on expanding stories. They could look over the budget at the beginning of each day and then spend their shift creating graphics, maps, shooting extra footage or creating extra links. They wouldn't be distracted and consumed with getting the stories up. That would be taken care of. These students would be able to focus on giving our audience something different.

If our website has so much more to offer, then all that's left is a little advertising, chalk on the sidewalks or purchasing ads. Then our website can speak for itself, which I think is the most important aspect of attracting a larger audience.