UNK TODAY
8 | Saturday, August 24, 2024
KEEPING YOU INFORMED The Antelope Newspaper brings news, features, opinions to students “We publish every week on Wednesday, minus a few weeks, throughout the
decisions about the stories they cover — and the ones they are not covering. They often come in and talk to me about those stories as they make their decisions. My job title is very descriptive; I give them my advice and they make their calls on what stories to run.” Breeding empathizes that The Antelope is under the control of the students. “When a staff member comes into my office and asks, ‘What should I do with this story?,’ I al- ways say, ‘I’m not going to tell you what to do. Tell me your problem and we’ll talk about it.’” The opportunity to contribute to The Antelope gives students a larger purpose to their academic experience. “That just intensifies and en- riches their education they re- ceive here at UNK,” Breeding said. “They’re often involved in fun things, but sometimes they’re in- volved in controversial stuff. Those kinds of experiences prepare them for the world, whether they are go- ing into some kind of media envi- ronment or whether they end up in some other career.” Breeding considers working on the staff of The Antelope as a valuable learning experience for students. “As we learn, we deal with controversial stuff,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what business you’re in. You have to make hard decisions. Students get practice in doing that in this environment. It’s a great experience for them. They learn a lot about the insti- tution they are involved with and I think that’s an important thing, whatever you’re doing in life. It’s good prep for life.” semester. It’s about 10 issues each semester.” Jenna Heinz, editor in chief
RICK BROWN rick@yardlightmedia.com
KEARNEY — With a goal of bringing news to students, Jenna Heinz understands the value of a student newspaper. “With social media, it’s a little easier to keep ‘in the know’ about what is happening,” said the edi- tor in chief. “But not everything is always covered on social media. So it’s our goal at The Antelope to bring the news to students.” For more than 110 years, The Antelope has published a weekly newspaper. Heinz expects about 30 students will contribute to the newspaper during the school year. “We publish every week on Wednesday, minus a few weeks, throughout the semester,” she said. “It’s about 10 issues each se- mester.” Staff members cover important news, highlight events on campus, create opinion pieces, review mov- ies and keep readers up to date on sports. “Construction seems to be an important topic because there’s always some kind of building hap- pening on campus,” Heinz said. “We also like to look for things that aren’t being covered anywhere else. We always publish an edito- rial, which is our staff’s opinion on a topic.” With a circulation of 1,200, The Antelope can be found in many locations on campus and at about 10 other places in the community. Home delivery, via U.S.P.S. mail, is available for $30 per year. Josie McCormick handles the web duties. “My job is to take all of the ar- ticles that were published in the week’s paper and post them onto the website with their respective categories, whether it is news, sports or entertainment,” she said.
RICK BROWN , YARD LIGHT MEDIA Jenna Heinz, editor in chief (left), and webmaster Josie McCormick take a break from their duties as staff members on The Antelope to reflect on the purpose of the student newspaper at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. “I really enjoy being part of The Antelope,” Heinz said. “Everyone on the team makes it such a fun process and they have really made my experience at UNK so great.” The newspaper publishes 10 issues each semester with a circulation of about 1,200.
The Antelope website describes part of the process for creating each issue: “Students in the De- partment of Communication and College of Fine Arts and Humani- ties produce the print edition on Mondays from ads, stories, graphic art, photography, audio and video submitted over the weekend under supervision of the Editor in Chief of The Antelope, then published online.” A weekly staff meeting gives the writers and editors a chance to look at possible story ideas. “We just throw them in a pile and go from there,” Heinz said. On Tuesday evenings, The Grand Island Independent prints the student newspaper from com- puter files prepared by the student staff members. Readers can find content from The Antelope on X, Instagram, Facebook and a channel on You- Tube.
“I also like to publish our ‘Loper Speaks’ videos that appear on the YouTube channel we have, and all the other YouTube videos that ap- pear on there so they can get more views.” McCormick also posts other ar- ticles that might not have made it into the weekly printed version. “Every now and then we will have an article that will have an update,” she said. “I’ll post some- thing like, ‘Stay tuned for the con- tinuation of this article,’ and then later on in the week, when we have the rest of the article, we will post it.” Readers can comment on the stories posted on The Antelope website, UNKAntelope.com. “There are a few steps needed to verify your email address which makes it easier for me to publish your comment on the website for everybody to see,” McCormick said.
“Reaching more young people is definitely an advantage,” Mc- Cormick said. “Facebook helps for reaching some older audiences because they like Facebook while younger readers like Instagram.” For Heinz, working on a team makes her experience at newspa- per so valuable. “I really enjoy being part of The Antelope,” she said. “Everyone on the team makes it such a fun process and they have really made my experience at UNK so great. I really care a lot about them and I see how their experiences at The Antelope is going to help them in their future endeavors, no matter what they do.” Rob Breeding, senior lecturer in the Department of Communi- cation, advises the students staff members. “I help them do their job,” he said. “They set the editorial agenda for the newspaper. They make the
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