WA 1:

Defining the Problem

The Problem

The Sonoma State Star is a great resource for students to learn

about school events, read opinion pieces written by their peers, and

stay up to date with what is going on in the campus community. The fact

that the paper is written and edited entirely by SSU students makes it

that much more of a useful resource for students on campus. Being

student written puts articles into a more relatable perspective for

students because they have a connection with the person writing. It is

much easier for college students to understand and relate to article that

are written by other college students as opposed to a distant person

who has no connection to them and for this The Star is exceptionally

effective.

Another reason why The Star is a superior news source for SSU

students is because it offers information and insight on topics they care

about. Most students want to stay apart of the campus community, and

The Star offers information to help students do just that. The paper is

released weekly, which keeps students extremely up to date with what

is going on in the community. They can read about upcoming athletic

games or plays on campus which are fun events to cheer on their fellow

classmates. There is also a variety of special guests that come to speak

on campus, and The Star advertises for these speakers as well as

sometimes offers feedback on the talks after. The newspaper also offers
insight on various projects faculty members are involved in. Many

faculty members are working on outside projects that students may not

know about but may want to. The Star offers students information and

insight on these outside ventures. This allows students to get to know

teachers in a new way outside the classroom. The variety of articles and

the viewpoint in which it is written makes The Star a useful resource for

students.

Situational Analysis

The student newspaper, The Star has many strengths as well as

some weaknesses. Some of its strengths include the valuable

information it offers and the relatable point of view in which it is written.

There are also some weaknesses of the paper that should be addressed

in order to get more students to read the paper and use the student

staffs time effectively. The first issue that should be addressed is

lowering the number of copies printed weekly. Many students nowadays

get their information and news from the Internet as opposed to reading

a physical paper. A multitude of printed copies that are not picked up by

students are just thrown away or recycled at the end of each week,

which can be extremely wasteful. If The Star reduced the number of

weekly copies printed they could save the money for something more

useful as well as reduce the amount of waste they produce. Another

possible weakness of The Star is the amounts of articles student writers

write that do not end up in the paper. While it is always beneficial for
communications students to be improving their writing, it can feel a bit

anticlimactic for their articles to not end up in the paper. Students spend

a lot of time and energy writing 100-500 word articles each week with

the end goal being to have their article in the paper, but that does not

always happen. The Student writers of The Star may not be using their

time effectively to help the newspaper gain circulation.

With these weaknesses, there is a plethora of opportunities to

make improvements. Because most students seem to want to find their

news with the click of a button on their phones it would be a good idea

to utilize the SSU app that was just created and increase frequency of

social media posting. It would be beneficial for The Star to get on the

app because it would cater to students need for instant gratification. If

they want to find out when the upcoming athletic games are or just

want to read an opinion piece by their peers while browsing on their

phone they can easily access The Star on their phones. Social media is

another way to reach students when they are searching for information

on their phones. Because The Star only comes out once a week, it is

important to get students news more frequently during the week, and

utilizing social media and the SSU app is a perfect way to do that. As

well as utilizing the SSU app and social media to get students to read

the articles in the paper, The Star can also place paper copies in places

that are easily accessible to students and faculty. This will help reduce

the waste of the paper copies. Copies of the paper should be placed in
classrooms for students to pick up while leaving class as well as in the

student cafeteria or Charlie Browns Cafe for students to read while

eating or enjoying a snack between classes. These are all great places

where students will see and want to pick up copies of The Star. Another

opportunity The Star can utilize is tabling. Instead of writing an article

once a week student writers can table one day during the week to hand

out copies of the paper and spread awareness of The Star. With some of

the money The Star saves from printing less paper copies, they can put

some of that money into tabling. Tabling is a resource that can

significantly help spread circulation of the paper as well as well as help

strengthen the community of The Star. Instead of being discouraged

every time their article doesnt appear in the paper, student writers will

feel useful and more apart of the student newspaper when they table.

When not enough SSU students read The Star, the student

newspaper is wasting money, time, and resources. The people who are

mainly affected are the student staff writers as well as the staff who

helps out with the paper. The rest of the student body is also somewhat

affected by not getting the useful information that they may want to

know. The students who work on writing and editing for The Star spend

a lot of time every week preparing the newspaper, but if no one is

reading or picking up a copy all of their efforts and time are for nothing.

It is important that our campus community appreciates these peoples

hard work and creativity. Money also becomes a threat when people are
not reading the school newspaper. A great deal of money goes into

printing the newspaper as well as providing students with the tools to

write the paper. The Star needs to be cost effective and spend money

where it is really needed. The production of paper waste is also another

real threat to The Star. The SSU community tries to be as eco-friendly as

possible, so it is important that The Star is not wasteful with paper

resources. When not enough people in the SSU community read The

Star all these factors become a threat to the members of The Star as

well as the rest of the campus community.

Problem Statement

While it is vastly beneficial for SSU students to read The Star, not

enough students do. It is important that students become more aware of

the newspaper and have easy access to it. Students need to learn more

about the useful information The Star offers and also where they can

find it.

WA 2:
Planning and Programing
Program Goal Statement

The desired goal for The Star is to get students at Sonoma State

to read the paper. In order to get students to read The Star, it should be

easily accessible and awareness needs to be spread about the valuable

information that is put in the paper for students to know. In a 4-month

long plan, we will achieve this goal in several ways. This plan should be
presented to their staff by August, to ensure that the entire semester

they are working to better their relationship with Sonoma State

students. By making sure that The Star increases its outreach to the

student body at Sonoma State, we will have tabling events, put out a

survey, update social media platforms; distribute newspapers directly to

classes, and partner with the Sonoma State Mobile to have The Stars

own section within the app. This plan needs to be implemented at the

beginning of the semester, August, and should be completed by

December at the end of the semester.

Target Publics

Being aware of The Stars publics, internally and externally, is key

to implementing this plan. The internal public for The Star is its staff.

The Star is student run by those who take the course during the

semester. Each week, staff members come back with a story that they

have written. Not every story is published, but students are still

encouraged to keep writing each week and get published. The Star

wants to ensure that their staff enjoys writing for the paper and being

apart of the community. The external public for The Star is the students

at Sonoma State. Of course, there are students who do read the paper.

The Stars primary function is to make students aware of the current

events happening on campus and to report other newsworthy topics.

Since the papers main reach is students, it is directly affected if

students are choosing not to read each weeks new edition of the paper.
The relationship between the internal and external publics needs to be

unified in order for this plan to have a successful outcome.

Objectives

With this project, we plan to increase the amount of students who

read the paper. In order for this to happen, each step must be taken

within this plan. The first step is to create two separate tasks within the

staff at The Star. These two separate tasks would help The Star produce

stories weekly while productively reaching the student body. The second

step would be to create a survey. This survey would help collect

research and further help staff evaluate their main public. The third step

would be tabling. Once students start seeing the amount of outreach

that is being done by staff, the relationship will become more familiar

between The Star and the student body. The final step would be to

release the app. With all of these steps followed, The Star will be on its

way to having an increased amount of students reading its paper by

December.

Action and Strategy Tactics

Tasks: Internally, the plan should begin by dividing staff and giving

them two separate tasks per week. For one task, staff would work on

stories that would go into the publication of the paper that week. This

way, students will get published every other week and they will feel

even more determined and motivated to write great and intriguing

stories. For the part of the staff that is not working on stories that week,

their task would be developing the app, updating their social media

platforms, creating a survey and an ad for LoboVision, and tabling. This

would keep the plan on track with its timely schedule while the paper is

still being published weekly. The different tasks would rotate weekly, to

ensure that staff members stories get published, while ensuring that the

app, the survey and promotion of The Star is happening at the same

time.

Survey: The survey (via surveymokey.com) should be sent out to

every student within the first week of the semester (late August or early

September) and a incentive should be given to encourage students to

answer the questions. In this survey, students will have the answer

questions that would help staff members with their research.

The survey should have the following questions:

1. Do you read The Star paper?

a. Yes.

b. No.

2. Would you read The Star if we released an app where you would have

access to each weeks editions of the paper?

a. Yes.

b. No.

3. How can we ensure that more students read the paper?

 a. Promote more!

b. Pass out papers weekly to classrooms

c. Other suggestions? [Fill in the box]

4. What stories would you like to read about in The Star?

a. Sports on campus

b. Spotlight pieces (i.e. Clubs, professors, students)

c. On campus events

d. Local job offers

e. Other [Fill in the box]

Heres a link on how to create a survey on surveymonkey:

https://help.surveymonkey.com/articles/en_US/kb/How-to-create-a-

survey

Tabling: Tabling will help familiarize students with The Star. Tabling

should occur at least twice a week, by the Student Center during prime

hours. Prime hours would be between the hours of 12 P.M. and 2 P.M.

Staff members who are tabling would hand out newspapers, promote

the app once its complete, and allow students to answer a short survey.

In this survey, it should have one question, leaving blanks for the

students to fill out what they want to read about. The question should

ask, What would you like to read about in the paper? This will

encourage students and allow them to understand that The Star is

written for them and their entertainment.

 LoboVision: Ever since LoboVision came to life on Sonoma States

campus in 2016, it has changed the way to get the word out about the

events occurring on campus. Since LoboVision is right in the center of

the Rec and Student Center, people are constantly seeing the ads on it.

The Star needs to develop an ad encouraging students to read the

paper. The ad should be a catchy graphic that attracts the eye of people

walking by. The ad should also advertise The Stars contact information

and all of their social media platforms. Heres the link to submit your

graphic for LoboVision: http://sonoma.edu/ea/lobovision/index.html

App: The app for The Star will be included on the Sonoma State

Mobile app. Creating this app will appeal to the technological generation

and provide that option for students to read The Star on the go. Within

app, The Star will put their current publications on it. Whenever a new

edition is released onto the app, it will send out a notification to those

with the app. That way more students are reading the paper online, as

opposed to reading a physical copy; decreasing the amount of printed

copies distributed. If the app is successful, The Stars budget should

increase, due to the less amounts of physical papers being published.

Communication Strategy and Tactics

The best way to communicate with The Stars public would be

through social media. By constantly updating social media platforms

and interacting with other students, it will create more awareness about

what will be in the new edition of the paper. One platform that should be
thoroughly used is Twitter. Twitter is an incredible network for news to be

announced. Also, it is one of the easiest way to report breaking news.

There should be frequent tweets each week day ranging from events

going on campus, a link to a certain article in The Star that week, or

anything else that would promote and encourage students to read the

paper.

Snapchat is used daily and one of its most impressive features

are their filters. Using the drip technique, every month a Snapchat filter

should be available for use on campus. Developing a Snapchat filter will

leave the idea of The Star subconsciously and constantly running

through their thoughts. This will also give The Star more promotion

since students will send the Snapchat filter out to their friends and

create, inevitably, word of mouth. Developing a following online is a

very important way to reach The Stars publics.

WA: 3
Taking Action and Communicating
Coordinating Action and Communication

The Star Student run newspaper has tried in various ways to

target students to read the newspaper. They have a website, twitter,

and instagram. The organization itself can improve on these to widen

the range of getting students and faculty to read the newspaper. The

Sonoma State Star should make this approach by tabling every week

giving students a way to access the newspaper, ask questions, and see

advertisement on the new Lobo Vision. This strategy will help overall
with the app being created and posted to My SSU. The SSU Star should

also take distribution to a whole new level by delivering the newest

edition of the paper to classrooms and newsstands.

Program Implementation Plans

Changing it Up: Every student in the Star has to write an article

each week, but not all get published. If the class itself created writing

rotations, those who are not writing will have the opportunity to take on

many different tasks that will overall be beneficial to the school

newspaper.

Update of Social Media Outlets: For this plan, all social media

outlets such as Facebook, instagram, twitter, and Star website should be

updated every week with the latest editions and quick links to lead to

the articles online.

Tabling: This is where staff members will physically hand out the

newspaper, direct students to the app, and also allow students to take

the survey so the staff can get input on how to get more attention

brought to the paper. Having students out tabling will overall draw

students into reading the newspaper on the app, online, or still with the

physical newspaper.

Distribution: Distribution goes hand in hand with tabling, since this

is where some of the newspapers will be handed out. The rest of the

newspapers will be left on newsstands, and in classrooms being an easy

grab on the go.

 Survey: The Sonoma State the Sonoma State Star has always

done their best to get interesting and intriguing stories about what is

happening around and on campus. The editors and writers should create

a survey to target students and how they would be more intrigued to

read. This would ultimately get the feedback that the SSU Star needs to

better the organization as a whole.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/WHSDJTV

App: Now that students are in the quad getting the word out, the

next step would be to create the star app for the SSU app. Each edition

would be posted every week on the app sending everyone a notification

that it is posted. This will allow fewer newspapers to be printed, still

keeping them active, but allowing students to have electronic access

also.

Timetable schedule:
 December:
August: September:
Less
Update all Tabling
newspapers
social begins, November:
printed
media, distribution App comes
creating
work on every out
more
creating week, and
money
app survey
overall
WA 4:
Evaluating the Program
Evaluation Plans

The outcomes specified in the program goal and objectives will be

measured by a poll that we will be taking on our app. This poll will be

taken consistently to keep pushing forward on what our readers want.

This poll will measure knowledge gain, a change in opinion, attitude

change, behavior change, behavior repeated, the goal achieved, and a

social and cultural change. First, the knowledge gain will be measured

by the amount of students and staff who read the content of the paper.

Next, it will measure the change in opinion of readers. An example of

this is if they have found the paper beneficial, interesting, and

informative. We will do the same with attitude change by measuring if

the individuals attitudes change after reading the STAR or certain clips

of the STAR. Then, we will measure the behavior change of readers by

determining if more individuals are reading the STAR and if this leads

them to be more involved with Sonoma State activities. We will measure

repeated behavior of readers by seeing if they keep coming back weekly

to read the paper and if they stay interested. Lastly, we will be making

our STAR section of the SSU app interactive by allowing students to

comment, make suggestions on what they want to see, and give general

feedback of each STAR issue. Our goal was achieved by allowing

students to become more aware and educated of the Sonoma State

STAR. We did this by tabling, creating the section on the SSU app, and

distributing the paper more around campus so that students were more

alert of it. Public relations made a positive contribution because it

allowed us to bring attention to the STAR where most people had not

seen it before, such as tabling in the quad, in classrooms, and on the

popular SSU app. Due to public relations strategies, the STAR has

become more common and accessible to Sonoma State students and

staff.

Feedback and Program Adjustment

The results of the evaluation will be reported to program

managers by the results and opinions from the SSU app. Here, we will

have factual evidence and prerogatives of how individuals believe the

STAR is doing. The results will be used to make program changes by

accommodating to what readers want to see in the upcoming papers.

This way the community will be more involved so we can give readers

what they want to keep the STAR more popular and up to date.