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What college journalists can learn from the Jack White/Oklahoma Daily controversy

jack-white-governors-ball-2014-billboard-650.jpg

(Via billboard.com)

 

The indie music press pounced on Jack White again this week, after The Oklahoma Daily published a series of articles detailing White’s tour rider (explicitly announcing the tour as a “NO BANANAS TOUR”) and other eccentricities in advance of White’s show at the Daily’s campus, the University of Oklahoma in Norman.

 

The Oklahoma Daily’s Life and Arts assistant editor Emily Sharp broke the White story, in which she details, among other things, the guitarist’s now-famous homemade guacamole recipe.

 

Here are a few things we took from the story:

 

1. It’s awesome to be a college arts journalist

That writer, Emily Sharp? She’s a freshman journalism major, and because of this story, she’s got a rad amount of publications that know who she is, and have now featured her work on their site. For an aspiring professional journalist, these links to include in her portfolio are worth their weight in job-earning gold. Rock on, Oklahoma.

 

2.  The music press is in a love/hate relationship with Jack White

White’s ‘guac-gate’ and other vicious press reportings prove that being one of the  highest-acclaimed guitarists of all-time won’t earn you the respect of your average 25-year-old music blogger. Even after White tapped Run the Jewels and Q-Tip to play with him at his Madison Square Garden show, The Daily Beast was more than happy to photoshop this lovely image of White’s face as a bowl of guacamole. Just like his riffs, Jack likes it chunky.

 

3. Pretty much anything can trend, at least for a little while

While us folks in the A&E department have been consistently pumping out high-quality music news coverage for the past couple of years, none of our stories have taken the national leap like Sharp’s for The Oklahoma Daily. But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible: last fall, the University of Minnesota’s Radio K posted a video of indie rocker Christopher Owens covering the Jackson 5, to national recognition from Pitchfork, Spin and even the Russian Rolling Stone.   

 

 

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