Andrew Daley

Student Media Coordinator Presentation

The aim is to deliver a presentation to University Freshers. The

subject is to encourage new students to become members of the
student media team

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Why join the CUSU student media team?

Why join Source Media?
- You can become part of one of the largest student groups on Campus, with over 100
contributing members.
- Get involved with 4 separate areas: Radio/ TV/ News/ Photography, where you can
take part in events across campus throughout the year such as Varsity, the Summer
Ball, CUSU Elections, Freshers Week and much more by being involved directly in the
action!
- Become part of a nationally recognized student media platform, creating media
content and digital output that not only displays the best of student activity and
engagement upon campus, but the best that Coventry University has to offer.
- Members can have their own radio show, become an online journalist or a TV
presenter; all this and more is available through the professional student media outlets
of Coventry University Students Union.

What are the benefits?

- National media accreditation and training, helping to build upon skills learnt on your
University Course and also giving you new skills which can be useful in future careers
and progression in the media industry. They could be useful for your own recreation
and can be used as part of your CV, to further your own education and employability.
- Professional training throughout the year in Journalism, TV, Radio and Photography
practices; from people who work in the Industry such as local celebrity DJs, award
winning freelance photographers or BBC department managers.
- Yearly awards ceremonies across the student media platform, and national
competitive award ceremonies from the governing bodies.
- Qualified online module training for every aspect of the platforms, ranging from using
the radio mixing desk to writing copy and features ready for print, or video editing and
presenting for videos. Deliverable through Youtube or linking with the University and an
online Moodle course, or a separate website with a private login function for members.
- Running your own online weekly radio shows, becoming an online column writer or a
printed featurist, getting knowledge and experience as a professional camera operator
or television presenter.
- Getting front-row access to the best CUSU & Coventry University events throughout
the year, and being part of the team that delivers the best quality content coverage and
news as the voice of the students.
- Termly academic trips to national events, such as the National Student TV
Conferences in London, The Gadget Show at the Birmingham NEC, the National
Photography & Radio shows, or the Broadcast and Production Technology Show; all of
these trips aimed at broadening the experiences of and learning opportunities for the
membership. Helping to grow your own individual education, helping network with
people in the industry to gain contacts for professional experience and building a

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portfolio/professional network for work opportunities after your degree, keeping up to

date with the latest tech and software in each area of the student media (and getting
hands-on with the equipment at the shows), going to seminars and demonstrations
from professionals in the industry.
- Access to industry standard equipment to create your own digital content; be that your
own radio or audio productions, editing software and camera equipment to create your
own tv shows/music videos/digital media content, or writing your own articles/stories
and getting your own voice and personal opinion heard by a diverse audience.
- The opportunity for new learning and development in each month and year as a
member, with more opportunities constantly developing (and new content coverage)
and the scope for learning constantly broadening. This can be from learning how to use
camera equipment in your first year, to directing a multi-camera live music broadcast in
your second year, and then producing a show in your final year with a full broadcast
team whilst simultaneously learning how to digitally market your project (through social
media, combining SEO statistics, Google analytics, facebook InSight stats) with online
advertising and media promotion.
- Cross promotion with other student media platforms around the country. Get Involved
with the team from X-Media based at Exeter, with over 1000 members in their student
media team, through training programs or shared learning experiences. Hook up for
dual broadcasting with WTV over at the University of Warwick or travel over for a joint
media development day on campus at Birmingham City University with Guild News.
Make Contacts around the country with professional skills and knowledge, to help
further your own marketability in the media industry after University and making
yourself marketable for employers
- Learning valuable skills necessary to get a job in the Media industry; such as social
media publicity (through multiple feeds and mass scheduling/future publicity) and
marketing, paperwork/etiquette and Health & Safety (delivered by BBC accredited
employees), branding and personal/content identity, online digital marketability of your
own content profile and raising your voice, live broadcasting, professional journalism
and copy writing, audio mixing/ editing and colour correction, content scheduling and
audience marketability, politics/self-promotion and savvy networking.
- Training in Industry standard software such as (but not exclusive to) the Final Cut
suite, Adobe Premiere Packages (video editing/photo editing/motion graphics
software), MAirList, Mixlr/Soundcloud and audio archiving tools, live streaming
software and video mixing tools, photo editing software (such as Photoshop, Lightroom
and InDesign), web editing software and content writing software (inclusive of Celtx
and other handy pieces such as combining Google Docs with live-typing Microsoft
Word and Academic Notes).

How do you get involved?

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- Sign-up today at the Freshers Fair by leaving your name and contact details
(phone/email)
- Email one of the heads of Source Media, such as the Radio Manager, TV Manager or
Newspaper Editor
- Get in touch with the Communications and Commercial Sabbatical Officer, through
email or in person
- Pay a yearly 10-15 membership fee, sign the membership registration forms, and
you are now a member of Source Media (with all the benefits listed above available)
The Explanation The How?
- National Media Accreditation and Training
Affiliating with the national student media governing bodies, such as NaSTA
(National Student TV Association), SRA (Student Radio Association) and the
SPA (Student Publishing Association), which has benefits of offering training to
members, the ability to attend national conferences, yearly awards (which
members can submit content to and win), and much more (Potential cost for
affiliation to all 3 for a year would be around 200).
I have contacts in the BBC, Sky, ITV, Professional Photographers, Freelance
cameramen & Steadicam operators, global journalists (such as Stefan Choi
based in Hong Kong and works for the South China Morning Post) and
newspaper feature writers, Radio DJs and training advisors; who could
potentially deliver termly training sessions for the membership in their areas,
help to expand their own knowledge and networks, or help to devise and assist
myself in creating a professional and industry-recognized training program for
the members, with useful knowledge direct from the sources like BSkyB, Capital
Radio or Red Bee Media.
- Hosting the Source Awards in a local venue, expanding their
attendance/voting/categories/awareness. Developing student skills and awareness of
Coventry University/Source Media by helping student platforms to submit their content
to national awards ceremonies hosted by the Guardian Student Media Awards, NaSTA,
the SPA and SRA.
- Module Training. This would involve the creation of a brand new training programme
devised entirely for the new University year and the incoming membership intake,
which would focus around training in ALL areas of Source Media for all members,
similar to a University module, and give them all the basic skills necessary to operate
as a media professional and progress/join as a member.
The training would be delivered through a series of reading documents, videos
and e-learning materials through an online website or a separate section of
Moodle only available for Source members. This training would need to be
undertaken before interaction can occur, the traditional 15 minute brief on how
to use the radio desk would no longer cut it for new members, where they would
need to watch and undertake training on on-air etiquette, broadcasting music for
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an audience, how to use backing beds and links/adverts, delivering radio

content, featured playlists and cartlogs for premium content, creating digital
packages for broadcast when out in the field, the operation of equipment (and
much more). The training would not be aimed at discouraging members, but
ensuring they are fully educated in professional practices and standards, helping
to elevate them from a student level to that of a professional broadcast radio
employee, giving them more experience and knowledge for post-University life.
This would also aim to elevate the standards and credibility of both Source
Media and CUSU around campus, helping to raise their student profile.
The training could be delivered through a separate Wordpress site using WPLMS
e-learning layouts, with key training for each platform and separate
notes/learning/accounts and progress trackers available for each member. The
training would be redeveloped, improved and updated yearly with input from
staff, the Source Committee, membership feedback and help from the University
marketing department and Art & Design.
- Becoming an Online Journalist
This would be done through the creation of a Source News website, separate
from the CUSU website. Almost every student media output in the UK has their
own online area (out of my online contacts, Ive discovered Coventry is one of
only 5 Student Media outlets that doesnt have its own website, of over 70
University Student Media teams), and Coventry is one of the few Universities
that is lacking in this. We could host a wordpress domain for under 50 a year
with a professional news layout, and have weekly or daily content generated
(yes, 365 articles per year) through Source News and Source Media members
for publication on the website. The University of Warwick have a writing team of
over 100 members, if every member writes 1 article of 200-300 words per month
(only one article, and 300 words takes under 10 minutes) then there is the
scope to publish at least 3 articles per day, with up to 5 in peak season (such as
Varsity and Freshers) and trimming it down to 1 or 2 per day during off season in
the holidays to ensure longevity of content throughout the downtime.
There would also be a focus upon critical Print editions, similar to the current
schedule with releases in print only around Freshers, Elections/Varsity and
Degree Shows/End of the Year to increase Campus awareness of Source and
get them to engage online with the website, which would be the main news Hub.
Regarding the website; I have already been approached by local businesses,
freelancers and contacts who are willing to pay for advertisement upon the
website, and one has stated he would willingly commit 50 for a year of
sponsorship. This money is potentially already in place and could lead to a rapid
setup of a Source News website with no overhead costs by paying for itself from
pre-found advertisement.
As pictured below, the University of Warwick The Boar uses local and
University departmental advertising to fund the website, with a simple

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wordpress.org layout and online hosting. The vast majority of their content being
entertainment and local news pieces, whilst still retaining a focus on campus
promotion. It wouldnt be too hard to not only set this up, but to also train the
Source News Editors how to operate the website and upload any articles
submitted to them, to spread the workload and ease website usage.

This content creation would be done by giving free scope to the members, the
ability to write whatever they please, be it film reviews or their own personal
ramblings or a column on any topic, the attraction being that it will be instantly
published online (or a day or two after writing) compared to waiting over a month
or two currently for a print publication, which is detracting a lot of members and
only serving to lose interest by publishing old news.
Other mediums, such as Course Reps, would be utilized to help generate
content. With over 130 undergrad courses, 1 course rep on each course could
write 200 words about the activities of their course that month (such as any trips
they have been on, what they have been learning, guest lectures/etc.), to help
not only bad online content by getting over 130 spare articles per month to
publish online (call it the Course Update), but to also help strengthen the ties
with the University and each department by regularly publicizing about each
course.
This could also be utilized by having each member of the CUSU councils, from
Student Council to Sports Committee, writing up a small report once per month
or fortnight about their activities, to be published upon the site. This would be
directly chased up by the Sabbatical Officer or the Student Media Coordinator, to
ensure content creation is at the forefront of production, and that publicity of the
Students Union and the activities of the students is always priority, with
accountability being key.

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www.AndrewDaley.com
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The previous 3 images are screenshots from the 21st of January 2015 of the SEO
statistics and Google Analytics information for two websites I currently help voluntarily
manage, both their online content and social media feeds. The first image is from the
recently launched film website OneRoomWithAView, whilst the two images following
that are from the UKs highest rated Asian Film website Easternkicks.
The first image displays the number of page views, unique visitors (individual visitors),
highest rated content and the average browsing time on site per individual, since
starting up in August. With the introduction of social media campaigns promoting the
London Film Festival (and acquiring festival press passes from this, which could be an
idea incorporated with Source News), the site content was boosted by over 30,000 hits
in over two months. Similarly, with our end of year film round-up posts we were
consistently hitting over 1000 page views every day. This is something I feel that I can
transpose from ORWAV and develop on the Source Media channels, helping to
publicize the reach of CUSUs brand and the Student Media identity further through the
UK and to a global audience. There is the potential to be reaching 2000-5000 page
views per month in the first year of setting the Source News website up, with focused
expansion to 10,000+ views by the 3rd year.
Similarly, the two images below the previous one show the online statistics for
EasternKicks.com since I became their website manager, and compares from the site
in two periods of May to January 2013 2014, and again 2014 2015 (the second
time period being the one displayed and in which I took over). With an increased focus
on content, and setting a standard for website writers to produce at least 1 piece of
content per month to stay involved as the EK team, we not only increased the page
views by a 36% increase on the previous year, but also managed to get press
accreditation at the New York Asian Film Festival and the San Diego Film Festival
where we provided the UKs only media coverage of the event. This content increase
can be seen on the above image with the graph increase between October &
December, where I directly worked with both Festival teams on pre & post-Festival
articles, social media posts and content generation; the average post reaching at least
500 views in a week, and 700 interactions on Facebook.
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- Members socials and get togethers

Take the idea of monthly socials (as a casual get-together and interaction,
friend-making time for all members across all Student Media platforms) and combine
these socials with physical trips and outings that not only actively promote the actions
of Source Media, but also help to build on members current knowledge and aim to be
beneficial towards their own media practices. These trips could include a variety of
things such as attending a Q&A with the Royal Television Society in London, or the
Edinburgh Media Festival, with cheap (or free) tickets available because of education
rates. The networking and learning opportunities at these events are immense,
networking is what gets you a job in the media industry and getting contacts through
attending these events, along with more knowledge about potential jobs and increasing
their own personal experience, could help be detrimental to the student and their
educational practice. These could potentially be partly subsided by the membership
fee, such as train fare or a CUSU minibus.
- Access to industry standard equipment
There is equipment already in-house at the Students Union owned by the
various platforms, however this would also focus upon getting access to some old
computers from the University and turning them into an editing/journalism suite in the
Source Radio Studios; and working alongside my contacts in the Art & Design
Department (such as Claire Simmonds, Assistant Head of Media) to get access to
training from their departmental lecturers, equipment from their department/loan shop
and use of their radio/broadcast facilities (such as the brand new tv studio being built in
the Lancaster Gallery), this would perhaps be in exchange for further publicity of
department activities, such as helping Performing Arts film their Degree shows (which
would only benefit the Student Media platforms through increased awareness, free
access to more equipment, and more digital content to use on the online channels, not
to mention strengthening the relationship with the University and developing a content
feed we can work on again and grow in future years).
- Opportunity for New Development
Alongside more events sporadically cropping up throughout the year for
each platform to get involved with, it would be a stable of the training modules on the
membership training portal that as members progress through modules and years at
University, more modules and training could become available to them, helping
members to progress in their own personal learning and development.
The training process would follow the natural flow of promotion and progression in a
business environment, with basic training and work undertaken in the first year;
followed by more advanced training and higher roles (such as progressing from a
camera operator on Varsity in 1st year, to a live director for the team in 2nd and project
organizer in 3rd year). Training would undertake a variety of uses such as helping
students learn about online Google statistics, how to set up live broadcasts, running
their own radio station and online newspaper, how to work live photography shoots and
run a studio/on-site shoot.

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- Cross Promotion
This would be undertaken by getting in contact with other student media
outlets around the UK (I already have a variety of contacts in student media around the
UK who would be willing to get involved; including Kings College London, Glasgow,
Dublin, Southampton, Bristol, Sheffield Hallam, Warwick and Birmingham). This would
then be undertaken through linking up with their student media team and working
together on a national project, something on a smaller scale, or a cross-platform
training day/weekend.
This cross promotion could be done through a variety of events, such as collating
together a national media team when attending the UK NUS conference (where we
should naturally be sending a Source Media member according to Students Union
policy, to feedback to membership and provide event coverage), or London protests/
Student Marches, or other events around the UK such as the photography show or
SPA/SRA conferences in Scotland. It would not only focus on raising the brand of
Coventry University and the Students Union, but also Source Media as a platform, and
also the knowledge/networking and experience of the individual membership.
- Learning Skills & Training
This has already been covered in previous points, however Id like to
reiterate that certain parts such as teaching students how to use final cut pro 7 for
video editing, or Adobe Audition for audio editing, can be done by working in tandem
with the University and borrowing their resources in a membership training/exchange
program. This training would also be beneficial for members who are not doing a
Media or Art & Design degree, and would help assist in training any and all students
up equally to become media professional and allow them the ability to enter the
Industry after University. The focus being on not segregating students just because
they dont do a media degree, but to use the knowledge of those who do and help train
everyone to a similar professional work standard, similar to sports teams.
This could also be done by utilizing the experiences and knowledge of Source
members, such as Source Graduates Ryan Beasley and Ross McGroarty, who could
be invited to come back and take part in a Source/Student Media Conference where
they could help deliver a training program in a day to the entirety of Source Media, or
using the knowledge of current members such as Zain Ali and Tom Bloomfield who
work (and have worked) for Sky, Microsoft and Coventry City respectively.
The training could also be done by utilizing national contacts such as BBC Production
Talent Manager Don Kong, who could help in providing e-learning and training
documents for members, or would come to Coventry and deliver a few hours of online
BBC accredited training for members as a guest speaker (which could be used on their
CV and for employment); or freelance award winning photographer Dave Bird and Edd
Fury, who could deliver a photography/cinematography studio session using the
resources of the Art & Design department whilst helping to deliver a day of professional
experience and training for members. All this would be included as part of their yearly
membership subscription, and help to fund training.

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How would I achieve all of this?

- A Yearly content calendar
- A 5 Year Media Plan
- Set KPIs for each platform: with clear goals, performance objectives and outlines for
every detailed to ease development and progression.
- Professional, Structured Training
- Increasing the membership numbers
Funding
- Funding can be gained for the Student Media to access, apply and use from a variety
of Sources. There are local and national Charity & Arts grants, such as the West
Midlands Arts Fund, the National Lottery Media Trust and the Arts Council England
grants.
- A Yearly membership fee could be levied on members, in a similar vein to Sports &
Societies (of around 10), with membership benefits being funded by the joining fee.
Benefits for joining include everything currently offered, and everything Ive outlined
above, the aim being to elevate the Student Media from a content production platform
to a professional broadcast standard, ensuring that students can join from any
background or skill level or course and leave as a media professional able to join the
Industry and apply for jobs. For 10 a year, the training on offer, the access to
equipment and CUSU/Campus events, the ability to interact with national guest
speakers and attend conferences, gain a network of contacts and learn to become a
media professional is a fee worthwhile.
- Sponsorship and Advertising from exterior companies; through social media channels
such as the current Source Media facebook page and the recently created Twitter
account, or the CUSU social media channels. This could be pushed further with
Instagram, Pinterest and Google+ promotion. Sponsorship could also be done on
tiered levels (such as print sponsorship in the latest Source News edition, or Print +
Online, or only Online, or Social Media, or Radio).
- Funding could be added to the current Student Media budget, to help further
equipment purchases, pay for yearly insurance (such as equipment, broadcast liability,
etc.), membership amenities (such as t-shirts or freshers giveaways), software
licensing (to tie in with creating an editing and journalism suite near the Source Radio
studios, with the latest software on), printing of the Source Newspaper, and
Promotional materials such as updated tarpaulin banners to use at events or large
canvas Sail banners to hang outdoors or use for campus and off-campus promotion.
- Website funding has been previously mentioned above, and there are potential
sponsors already in place. One is from a local driving school who is willing to offer a
special CUSU Student Only package, in exchange for sponsorship and advertising on
the Source News website. This could also be tied in by using Source Radio contacts
(the music promoter who offers free gig tickets for Birmingham) to promote their bands
on the website, in exchange for money or exclusive interviews/free tickets to shows.

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Cross Promotion
- One of the biggest aims in the 5 year plan would be to not only introduce a paid
Source membership to start getting the platform to pay for itself and expand/profit of its
own content, but to also cross promote with the University marketing team and other
outside agencies. The next step would be to develop from purely a lone student
platform, to one that interacts with other platforms and companies in a businessfashion (In a similar fashion to collaborating with the Students Union for Varsity
coverage).
- The Student Media could forge the way to building a stronger relationship between
the Students Union and the University, by working alongside their staff and offering
services and assistance to strengthen the ties and communication channels between
both platforms.
- Source has the potential to cross-promote with the University on their current online
campaigns. The University has a massive focus currently on Internationalization, and
this could be built on by using the Student Media to create ground level content that
helps support this, such as articles/videos/radio packages focused around international
societies, trips abroad or marketing CUSU to a larger market. What does it offer to
international students? In a similar vein, this could be utilized on any number of their
marketing campaigns, such as transposing the CU Graduate Success Stories
campaign to a CUSU Graduate Success Stories campaign. This could be done by
working together between teams, leading into cross promotion of university campaigns,
but geared towards a students union output (planning and getting assistance and
training from the University Marketing team, but using Source Media resources to
create).
EXAMPLE: CU Graduate Success Stories, but focusing on CUSU graduates such as
recent sabb officers, well known students from sports/society presidents, course reps
and CUSU Awards winners that have recently left: with a direct focus on what they are
currently doing after university and how CUSU played a part in that and their personal
development and career progression. This act of cross promotion and brand synergy
could also lead into working together on further projects, such as getting Source TV
involved in assisting with helping live stream the Graduation ceremonies (or at least
helping out and getting a taste of live streaming in a professional environment), and
could all be used to help build a professional media profile for the CUSU body.
- Cross Promotion also takes into account working with other Student Media outlets
around the UK, as listed previously in the document, on events such as NUS
conference, London Marches & events (providing on-the-ground news reporting from
Student Marches), joint training days and workshops.
- There was previously an idea when I was involved in Student Media to create a
Student Recruitment DVD that would be sent out as part of every Freshers Welcome
Pack that CUSU/CU supplied. This DVD never passed planning stages, however
approval was given by the ex-Vice Chancellor Madeline, and funding was put aside for
it. The primary reason it failed was a lack of assistance from staff and membership
uptake, however I envision this would be a create project for a select group of students
to entirely focus on for a whole year, to prepare for distribution before Freshers 2016.

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The DVD would be filmed throughout the year, with relevant information and short
videos showing the best of campus and that Coventry University and the Students
Union has to offer. This could tie into cross promotion by having meetings with both the
marketing team and the current Vice Chancellor to plan the DVD content, where the
Source Committee could work alongside them with students in order to create content
that serves the best interests of CU and CUSU, but also direct student involvement
means there is a key voice in planning content that would directly appeal to them.
There is also the potential of working alongside Art & Design to engage some final year
Media Production students to help assist on the project, as part of their work, to get
access to equipment and resources in order to further the filming. All of these
campaigns can be promoted widely across Source platforms, on Youtube, on the
potential website, on live Source Radio broadcasts.
- This could also be used as a launching platform for cross-promotion with all the
University departments, their facilities, and those of the Students Union, for both teams
to work in tandem and help create further content over several years for promotional
uses (plasma screens around the university with departmental and course videos,
website pages, youtube playlists, freshers dvd welcome pack), and to help utilize the
University marketing team to train up the student media, such as shadowing the
marketing team during a day working, or assisting them on an open day (such as
getting Source Radio to help and get involved with Free Radios JD whilst at open
days, industry training and further publicity).
There is a massive potential to train up the Source Media team by having them
shadowing the marketing team during several events (Open Days, Degree Shows,
Freshers, Graduation, etc.) and getting trained/shown by paid professionals how they
operate and do their job, and then have CUSU members tweeting throughout the day
using the Coventry University channels, helping to actively and publically display the
cross promotion between brands. This could be pushed by getting Source Radio to
help with Free Radio whilst at the Open Days, to gain professional experience in how
to operate an outside broadcast and work broadcast mixing software, whilst assisting
as an on-air presenter.
All of this potential training could then be utilized at CUSU events in the future; such as
the synergy from student teams working together at Varsity could be slicker when
students have further knowledge of Social Media use across platforms. This also has
the potential to springboard Source Radio outside broadcasts (OBs) on campus, by
having Source Radio setup their mixing decks (similar to Freshers Week) somewhere
up around Campus once a fortnight and broadcast for 2-3 hours at lunchtime, showing
their presence around Coventry University and directly engaging with the Student
audience. This could lead to other ideas, such as live radio-broadcasted acoustic
music sets during lunchtime at The Hub, or playing out a live lunchtime broadcast
around campus with competitions and giveaways to push interaction, student
promotion and engagement.

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Content Calendar
- This would involve creating a calendar of events for the upcoming educational year
over the summer before Freshers, collating together a planned schedule of all
upcoming events and marketing campaigns. This would be done by collaborating with
the University and incorporating their aims into the Student Media output so they are
constantly working together.
This would also involve engaging the Source Committee to look back at the previous
year of content, the events hosted, the coverage provided and discussing what could
potentially be included this upcoming year and the opportunities that Students could
undertake. This may include directly deciding to cover every single CUSU campaign in
the year, and ensuring that Black History Month or Disabilities Month (and other
campaigns across departments) get some form of publicity; through website articles,
through social media campaigns, through youtube videos or through radio packages.
- This would also ensure that every member knew what was going on throughout the
year and what was planned, and to assist platform managers and the Source
Committee in deciding how to create digital content to promote and advertise all
planned event coverage. This would also tie in with the 5 Year Media Plan, by ensuring
all of the content comes in line with the yearly goals, and incorporating and planned
objectives or CUSU-related coverage/departmental or managerial recommended
content. The content calendar would then, in effect, grow alongside the 5 Year Plan by
expanding alongside the Student Media platform, being refreshed and added to each
year, and becoming a central point of Source Media where direct planning and outlining
for content is devised from.
5 Year Media Plan
- This would involve creating a Media Business Plan, which goes hand in hand with the
content calendar, clearly outlining the yearly goals for and the progression of CUSU
Media and CUSU Student Media. This would directly involve Students Union
management, sabbatical officers and the Source Committee to plan and create, with
constant scope for redevelopment and refining as the year progresses and content
creation/membership engagement ebbs and flows. The biggest flaw may be trying to
ensure that the platform doesnt become too staff-led, as the Student Media is there
as a Student-Led platform, however hopefully the introduction of the media plan and
content calendar will ensure that there is overall a more rigid yearly structure that cant
be changed on a whim by the incoming sabbatical officer every year; and that there is
more defined support, coordination and organization in place to directly assist the
smooth running of the Student Media from a staff level.
- The plan, as previously stated above, would incorporate the Training Development
and Modular program for all members, to ensure that training across all platforms is
constantly developed each year on membership feedback and is redefined and
progressed to keep constantly engaging with the students no matter their year or
experience.

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- It would also incorporate the set platform KPIs and adjust to specifically fit these,
such as working a recruitment drive into the years events, ensuring that the KPI to
expand membership (and retain them) is met before the end of the educational year.
This would help ensure that all planning is retained as part of one structure, with
offshoots to their own areas.
- Other ideas could be added into the planning, depending upon membership
expansion, such as the scope for weekly/monthly live events (as mentioned above)
and promotion or stalls around the Students Union and campus to advertise the
Student Media, current events and the Students Union itself. This could be achieved
through the utilization of marketing materials previously mentioned to help further
appealability; such as new banners, flyers, live music and direct student interaction
(filming interviews whilst Out and About, to get the Student Voice and opinions on the
street.)
- The 5 year plan would also directly involve the expansion of the CUSU Student
Media, as a platform, into Coventry University College and other aspects of the local
community. The addition of members, equipment and new training/skills/abilities,
means that teams could be set to report upon news around Coventry and the West
Midlands itself, or to go and help promote the Student Media in CUC and gain new
members from there, who could progress into the University and develop
technologically alongside the Media platform.
The 5 year plan would be the main body of expansion and scope for development for
the Media output of the Students Union, both at a staff and a student level. Every
element would be incorporate into this, such as the content calendar, training, KPIs,
events, etc.
Set Platform KPIs
- These key performance indicators would directly tie into both the Content Calendar
and the 5 Year Plan, affecting their progression and growth to ensure there is a
constant turnover of content and that platform progression is always constant. This
could involve setting yearly or monthly goals for each of the Student Media platforms,
and the platform on a whole, such as stating Radio must do a certain amount of Live
OBs per year or that TV must promote a certain number of events. These events could
be coordinated with the direction of the content calendar and incorporated into set
dates, to ensure they are planned in advance and goals are met. This could also have
the potential to set KPIs to ensure the Media output of the CUSU brand.
- This would be achieved by working alongside staff, volunteers, students and
members to set realistic weekly, monthly and yearly targets; such as a number of
Articles published online, videos created, campaigns promoted, % of membership
increased, number of social media posts per day or week, online content statistics
(news & TV) and Radio listeners. This could also be incorporated into the training
program to ensure every member has a personal target or goal for the year, to help
their development as a member and to ensure their progression and learning alongside
the platform.

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- This could also be brought in line with the development goals of the Students Union
and the University; to strengthen company and brand relationships ensuring that
everyone is working together. It could also help further cross promotion between
platforms and that the yearly KPI directly convenes with the University marketing
campaigns or promotional plans, to help further the CUSU and CU brand relationship,
and that all of this is directly planned into the Content Calendar. This would then be
reviewed at the end of the year and worked into or out of the 5 year plan to ensure its
succession or removal depending on how it worked.

Where is the future for Student Media at CUSU?

Platform Expansion
- There would be a direct focus on growth across all Student Media platforms in the
future, not only ensuring there are enough and more members, but that all are
engaging and are trained, professionally accredited, and want to be a part of the
Student Media. This could be incorporated directly into the 5 Year Plan, by setting
KPIs of a certain amount of members to grow by per year, or a direct number to retain,
then working it into the content calendar to ensure sufficient events and promotional
opportunities to expand the platform and all 4 media outlets have enough contributing
paid members. With enough focus on expansion, there could be a projected 200+
signed up/paid members by Freshers Week in 2017. This really isnt a hard goal when
looking at other Student Media platforms, with Warwicks 100+ writers alone, or XMedias 1000+ members. It takes time and patience, but the platform has the
opportunity to grow and flourish to lots of members, elevating Source Media and the
brand of CUSU.
- As mentioned previously, there is the scope for setting up a completely new/separate
Source News (and Source Media) website, alongside expanding the number of writers.
There will be a direct focus on publishing daily news content and yearlong social media
campaigns to get students and the public engaging and interacting with the Student
Media. Students are more likely to remain as writers if their article is put online within 3
days, as opposed to waiting 2 months for it to be printed, they would then return and
write more as they are satisfied. There is the scope for hundreds of articles and
content, as listed previously, and expanding the news focus out of the campus to also
feature the local community, the region, and national news is a sure-fire way of drawing
in a wider reading audience and maintaining a daily turnover of news, developing
Source News into a fully fledged broadcasting and publicity platform.
- There is the scope to immediately expand the Social Media output of the Student
Media, and the amount of direct audience interaction (such as replying, commenting
and posting instead of just casual posts that dont engage on a personal level but are
purely there for the mass reader). There is the scope to setup a Social Media team for
Source, as either part of Source News/Online or a separate entity. They would have
access to hootsuite and other channels, with the potential to post online every day,
share articles, tweet at students and post pictures from around the campus, with the
aim to setup a full student social media team that can eventually rival the University
one. This could be done through the current social media channels available, but also

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by setting up other ones not currently in CUSU use such as an Instagram account
(which can be pre-scheduled online now similar to Hootsuite), Pinterest and live
campaigns which ties in with the content calendar and yearly KPIs. This team could
also be instrumental in helping out at events such as Freshers or Varsity, by
purchasing a Student Media Ipad with 3G/Wi-Fi that they can use to create content,
upload online straight away and work from, giving the student social media team the
potential of walking around the Freshers Fair and directly uploading photos online or
tweeting live from an event.
CUSU Media Development
One large idea I would like to broach is the idea for, and potential scope of,
development of a professional media brand and content streams for the CUSU
organization itself. The Student Media could fill this aspect, in a way, however this
couldnt be enacted properly with the Student Media until the above steps are
undertaken to increase their expansion and development.
This would be a large-scale project to create a Media brand identity for the CUSU
platform, utilizing Student Media resources to create content that promotes the brand
of CUSU globally. It would involve training staff properly and professional in media
practices, so they are tweeting efficiently and correctly from all the different content
channels, and teaching them about content development and ownership, so that
departments such as Sports & Societies could be writing their own news articles and
give them to Source for publication upon the website, or working alongside the Student
Media team in creating digital content to promote their own campaigns.
The main aim would be the creation of a professional CUSU youtube page, alongside
other content platforms (such as a Flickr archive of previous events) to professional
promote the image and brand of the Students Union. The Youtube channel would stand
separate from the Student Media one in that the videos would be entirely commercially
focused, professionally created and with the aim of improving and promoting the image
of the Students Union. It could involve the Student Media shooting the videos, but with
a commercial perspective to advertise all the departments of the SU, to promote their
individual services, to put up online video press releases or announcements on an SU
channel. Every finished product should have the finished polish of content that could
be shown on TV. It would be developed in a similar commercial/business angle to the
University youtube channel, which is focused at promoting itself as an entity, as
opposed to the Students Media, which is focused at promoting the actions of the
Students themselves.

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Future Ideas
As stated throughout this document, there is the scope for a plethora of future ideas
that both CUSU and the Student Media can enact upon, develop and use to engage
students around campus. I would like to use this last point to expand and add to some
of those ideas mentioned briefly in the document.
- National Student Media Body Affiliation
- HD Event live streaming/outside broadcasting weekly and monthly around campus.
This was mentioned briefly with assisting at graduation, but also has the scope for live
streaming Student Council meetings and other conferences around the University,
radio live OBs as mentioned above and operating as a professional TV channel with
other products such as monthly news reports.
- Attending and hosting training conferences and hands-on workshops.
- KPI Promotion of EVERY campaign throughout the year, to ensure every aspect of
student life and the Students Union has equal and fair media promotion.
- Freshers Welcome Pack DVD
- Wider content generation, mentioned briefly before, by getting Students to explore
and promote news articles or issues from around Campus, around Coventry and the
West Midlands, with the aim to become a focused news outlet. This could be done in a
manner of ways, through students creating radio packages or interviews around the
city center, writing online articles or interacting more and publishing opinions of national
news. Media publicity from CUSU of national events visited could lead to being asked
back in the future or further opportunities, similarly engaging Source Radio with local
bands (and even venues, as Kasbah have requested on several occasions to interview
their acts) could lead to future publicity and potential for bigger or more named work
that would help promote the brand.
- The potential for expanded exec roles and committee roles in the 5 year plan, with a
Student Media Treasurer with the monetization of platform resources, a content
planner to help organize what Source will be doing and working with the staff and the 5
year plan, an Archiver for content both on and offline (such as youtube, soundcloud,
Flickr, issu, scanning old source newspapers, etc.), and the further potential to make
these membership roles with increased responsibility worthwhile, through some form of
bursary or grant compensation.

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