'Why can't I sleep? I blame journalism'

The Huffington Post shared this short essay from Oakland University journalism student Kay Nguyen, who makes a topic that could've seemed a bit conceited or too "inside baseball" very accessible -- and fun.

It's safe to say that I'm yet another sleep-deprived college student.

My family's fairly routine schedule has always given me optimal sleeping conditions since I was born and still does.

That's right. I live at home and commute to school. That means that I'm sleeping less, but can't really blame it on anyone else.

I never really had to learn how to sleep in a dorm.

When I did have to share an apartment, though, I learned that a stubborn routine does not work to my advantage. I wake up no later than 8 a.m. every day no matter what the circumstances.

Why did my sleeping habits change when nothing else changed, though? Like everything else: I blame it on journalism.

I started staying up later and later soon after I received a laptop. It was given to me -- with careful instructions -- to use for scholarly purposes when I began college.

After never having any electronic entertainment -- that's right: no PlayStations or TVs -- in my room for my whole life, I all of a sudden had access to everything. By everything I mean YouTube and -- at the time -- MySpace.

I then began working for the campus newspaper. Guess when I began harboring the compulsive need to always stay connected and on top of current events?

In addition to staying up late studying, I now had to read every single legitimate news website in order to sound chic and worldly. Also, let's face it: I also read Perez Hilton and admittedly still click on blurbs about Heidi Montag.

After my brief phase of drinking Celebrity Juice, I became a section editor at the campus newspaper. Cue days of no sleep spent producing the newspaper while stressing out over what e-mails came -- and didn't come -- in.

Fast forward to the present day. I'm a caffeine junkie ridden with the nerves of being a student of journalism a.k.a. what others may call a dying industry.

I do unpaid internships, freak out about the prospect of not getting a job, work on my portfolio, worry about the job market, try to get my website up and running, worry about not having a web present to employers, try to get good grades in case I have to go to grad school and bug out a little more while scouring the internet for more unpaid internships that will hopefully land me a job in the future.

That may be why I have trouble sleeping even though I live in a house that is quiet from 9 p.m. to 8 a.m.

Did I mention I'm also the editor-in-chief now? I now refresh that inbox even more and (hopefully) have two more years of it left.

Social networking? I'm not even anywhere close to being a pro, but I am active in Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Even when I truly have nothing to do, I'll listen to Pandora to fall asleep.

I am the American teenager with distracting digital devices at my bedside. I've been leaving my house at 9 a.m. every weekday for two internships, but have been falling asleep later and later.

I don't think Dr. Michael J. Breus would think that 4-5 hours of sleep is enough. It will probably only get worse, though.

I got my first smartphone this week. I am now going to be even more oversaturated with information, as my hands have not let go of that Crackberry since it came out of its box.

Classes begin next week and newspaper production schedules will begin ruling my life again along with an internship.

Looks like I can keep listening to Rooney's "Sleep Song" and blogging about my sleeping habits while I'm laying in bed, though.

Follow Kay Nguyen on Twitter: www.twitter.com/kaynguyen

Cook County prosecutor targeting J students

Groups ranging from the Student Press Law Center to the American Society of News Editors are objecting to a Cook County State's Attorney’s probe into Northwestern University Journalism students and professor David Protess for their part in investigating suspicious cases –- and 11 times freeing people wrongfully convicted.

New State's Attorney Anita Alvarez is looking in to the Medill Innocence Project, founded in 1999 by Protess, because the latest inmate the group thinks is innocent, Anthony McKinney, is having his case re-examined by the prosecutor's office -- including the process that the Journalism students were convinced of McKinney's innocence.

"The State's Attorney's office is trying to save itself from the embarrassment of students finding another innocent man in prison," former Protess J student Evan Benn.

Joe Barrett in the Wall Street Journal wrote a nice roundup/update of the controversial situation. Check it out at -- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125928295998865795.html

Courier a winner at ICPA

Western's independent student-run newspaper earned the most first-place awards in four years at last weekend's Illinois College Press Association conference in Chicago.

Congratulations to the Western Courier.

"The list of ICPA awards includes: 1. First Place, headline writing (daily) 2. First Place, feature story (daily) 3. First Place, news photo (daily) 4. 3rd Place, General Excellence (daily) 5. 3rd Place, headline writing (daily) 6. Honorable Mention, sports page design (all papers) 7. Honorable Mention, entertainment supplement (all papers) 8. Honorable Mention, critical review other than film (all papers)," said Courier adviser Rich Moreno.

"Additionally, the Courier won Third Place among daily papers (despite not being daily) for General Excellence," he added.

Despite publishing three times a week, the Courier competes against daily newspapers such as the Daily Illini at UIUC.

For the Courier's own article on the honors, go to --
http://media.www.westerncourier.com/media/storage/paper650/news/2008/02/25/Opinion/Look-Ma.We.Got.Awards-3230616.shtml

Butzow earns award for paper on campus press

WIU assistant professor Mark Butzow has been notified he will receive a research award for contributing the best research paper on campus media issues to the College Media Advisers’ national convention, which takes place next week. He’ll be traveling to Washington, D.C., to present the paper, “The Hosty ruling’s reign of terror only a sprinkle so far,” which reports survey results from college newspaper advisers about the effects of a 2005 court ruling.

The study looked for evidence that college administrators were using the “Hosty v. Carter” ruling to wrest control of content decisions from student editors or otherwise interfere in the free expression of students through campus media operations. As the title suggests, those fears appear to be unfounded, at least so far.

As many of you know, Illinois legislators passed the College Campus Press Act this spring (and the governor signed it Aug. 28), which will provide a good measure of protection to all campus media in the state by designating them as “limited public forums.” That new law was a direct response to the Hosty ruling, which is based on actions in 2000 at Governors State University near Chicago.

Butzow will be presented with the Don Nordin Award for CMA Research at the end of the session where he and two others will present research that applies to teaching and/or advising. One of the other papers studied whether counting sources was a reliable means of evaluating objectivity in stories, and the other paper is a case study on how to build a broadcast journalism operation on a small budget. The research papers in that session also were “blind reviewed” by representatives of the journal "College Media Review," and the winner’s paper will be published in the journal.