The Office of Student Media at Alabama State University strives to encourage its students to produce excellent products, with maximum student control over content in order to maximize learning.  As an essential part of fulfilling this philosophy, the Office of Student Media staff ensures sound fiscal policies and cares for resources for the long term.

Each medium - newspaper, magazines and yearbook - has its own adviser who exerts no control over content but trains, critiques, advocates for the staff as necessary, and helps make sure the staff has the resources it needs to get the job done.   The training and coaching come first, then the advisers step back and let the students work without editing or censoring.  Generally, the advisers do not see content before publication, but rather do critiques afterwards.  It is the student editors, chosen by a Student Media Board, who hire their staffs and decide on all editorial content, advertising, policy and programming.  Each unit's policies are reviewed each semester by the Student Media Board composed of faculty, staff and students.  This model separates the students from administrative control, allowing them to be a true and independent voice of the students, and places them in a real-world context where they make decisions for which they must then take responsibility.

For ASU students, the divisions within the Office of Student Media serve as a laboratory, classroom and an avenue for professional experience.  Many undergraduate and graduate students are involved in student media each year as regular staff members or contributors.  One could argue that no other student activity on this or any other campus has the capability to regularly reach, positively impact and serve a greater percentage of the university's population than the divisions within the Office of Student Media.

As the divisions continuously increase in the number of staff members, they strive to reflect the diversity of the campus population and devote attention to developing future student leaders. Both undergraduate and graduate students are included as staff members and contributors to each division. Extra effort is pledged to encourage graduate and professional student involvement and to serve these students’ needs through content and distribution.

Many ASU graduates who participated within the divisions in the Office of Student Media have found that the skills and experiences have led to careers in commercial communications. As of date, a large number of student media alumni are working in newspapers, magazines, and other publishing related jobs.

A continuing goal for the Office of Student Media is to increase each divisions’ level of participation in national journalism associations and build a larger network of resources. Significant progress made in this area has helped students of each division gain new skills, keep up with national trends and technology, and gain more favorable attention to ASU, potentially increasing the number of graduates who find success in media careers.

The information included on this web site is offered as an overview of Student Media at Alabama State University.  It is hoped that this information will reflect the contributions and accomplishments of students within the Office of Student Media and warrant a genuine sense of pride for ASU.