On the front page of the University website, there is a source of news called the Newsroom. While Student Media, which includes Technician, WKNC , Agromeck and Wolf TV, is written and created mainly for students by students, the Newsroom is the University’s way of reaching a wider audience.
The Newsroom, as it is today, went live in August 2007. However, there has been news on the website’s front page in various forms since the 1990s . It is run by News Services and considered part of the University’s public relations.
“Any university will have a public relations and media relations unit to it to show how good or how transformative what happens at the place is to a large audience, and so its separate from whatever student media does,” Mick Kulikowski , interim director and national media coordinator, said.
“My job is to help the university reach audiences both inside and outside of NC State, so that we can more effectively share our story,” Tracey Peake , public communication specialist, said.
Even the title, the Newsroom, suggests that it exists to be a starting point for other audiences and media outlets to get information on the University.
“The newsroom covers a wide variety of subjects, for a wide variety of audiences. A lot of what we cover pertains to research done by our faculty and students,” Matt Shipman , public communication specialist, said.
“[I write] stories about the ways in which the work we do here can impact, and improve, the lives of people across the state and beyond,” Peake said.
Writers and others hired for the Newsroom are professionals and not students attending the University. Their other responsibility is to distribute news releases specifically for reporters so that other news outlets can decide if they want to cover University related stories or not.
“The releases are well-written, and are often read by students, faculty, staff, parents of students, alumni, University partners,” Shipman said.
Even student media is able to use the Newsroom as a starting point for information.
“Although we are separate from student media, we’re certainly happy for Technician, Agromeck , WKNC , Wolf TV, and any other student media to use what we produce, or to use what we produce as the basis for other stories that capture the fabric or day-to-day life of the university,” Kulikowski said.
Additionally, the Newsroom blogs about on-campus research on their official blog: The Abstract. Since the blog allows for comments, Shipman said this adds a conversational and interactive aspect to the work that they do.
While much of their coverage focuses on research, they will also report on big campus-wide events such as graduation. This all-encompassing coverage gets word out about University achievements to various audiences, and being on the main page by default it has the potential to reach these audiences easily.
“It lets funding agencies know that we are doing good work, and it reminds the N.C . State community that we have a lot to be proud of,” Shipman said.
Overall, the Newsroom aims to provide a broad range of information about research and major events happening at the University from all colleges and departments.