New Alestle director sees the humor in noble profession Spring 2009 - By Breann Muich
Those who know her best describe Southern Illinois University Edwardsville mass communications professor Tammy Merrett-Murry as a good journalist, hilarious, dedicated and hard working.
From a very young age, Merrett-Murry was interested in the news and wanted to be a journalist.
“When I was a kid there were a lot of television shows about reporters on the air, and I always found them interesting,” she recalled. “I found myself watching ‘NewsHour with Jim Lehrer’ on PBS when I was 7 or 8.”
Merrett-Murry has been working in the journalism industry since she was 16 years old when she began working at her local newspaper, the Haysville Pioneer in Haysville, Kan. When it came time for college, Merrett-Murry decided to attend Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kan.
“I went to a smaller state school because I wanted to be involved in journalism immediately,” she said. “At some bigger institutions, like KU or Mizzou, it takes a while before you’re actually doing journalism.”
During college, Merrett-Murry worked for her student newspaper, The Collegio, and freelanced at regional entertainment magazines. After earning her bachelor’s degree Merrett-Murry worked at small-town newspapers for 10 years. She was a reporter for The Morning Sun in Pittsburg, Kan. and was the People Page Editor for Rolla Daily News in Rolla, Mo.
“There’s a lot you can learn working at community newspapers, but after 10 years it all starts to be about the same,” she explained.
While Merrett-Murry is serious about her career, she can easily see the humor in it, as she does with most things. She said some people think working in small towns is a real drag, but that there are a lot of strange and funny things that can happen.
“One of my favorite stories I wrote was about a couple who worked, met and got married at the McDonald’s in Cuba, Mo. They had a McDonald’s cake and Grimace and the Hamburglar were in the wedding party. It was great.”
“And there was the time I wore a skirt with a pretty daisy print and new black suede shoes out to cover a story about some kids who were caving,” she recalled. “There was mud everywhere. My shoes were ruined. Everyone there thought I was crazy and certainly not prepared. And they were right. There weren’t any outdoor toilets either. It was a real eye opener.”
After seeing an ad for a graduate assistant in journalism at Webster University, Merrett-Murry applied and got the job. She became the first general manager of The Journal, Webster’s student newspaper, while getting her master’s degree.
Holly Rauch was a student reporter at The Journal and said she learned a lot about reporting from working with Merrett-Murry.
“She’s one of the people who taught me how to write,” Rauch recalled. “She was an incredible editor, and she had a way of making a point, but being funny about it.”
Ed Bishop, a professor at Webster University, was the adviser of The Journal when the regular adviser, Don Corrigan, was on sabbatical, and he was on the search committee that hired Merrett-Murry as the general manager. The Journal won an Associated Collegiate Press Pacemaker Award for the period of time Merrett-Murry and Bishop worked together. The Associated Collegiate Press bestows the national awards each year that are the collegiate equivalent to the Pulitzer Prize. Bishop said Merrett-Murry was a hard worker and always really good at her job.
“She was a good journalist,” Bishop said. “She knew reporting, copy editing and layout.”
Then, Bishop hired Merrett-Murry to be the assistant general manager at the St. Louis Journalism Review, a monthly publication that critiques and analyzes St. Louis and national media. While at SJR, Merrett-Murry got a job as the faculty adviser of The Montage, the student newspaper at St. Louis Community College-Meramec.
While she worked at The Montage, Merrett-Murry’s students won several awards, including the designation of being the best overall two-year school newspaper in the state by the Missouri College Media Association. The Montage won that award seven out of eight years that Merrett-Murry was The Montage’s adviser.
Merrett-Murry won the title of MCMA’s Adviser of the Year twice, of which she said she is particularly proud because her students nominated her for the award. Merrett-Murry’s students were also two-time finalists for Pacemaker Awards, but she explained that they did not dwell on winning awards.
“The focus is always learning how to do good journalism, not winning awards,” she pointed out.
Merrett-Murry said being a faculty adviser was not originally part of her plan, but she felt she was not fully prepared for what life as a journalist would be like when she left college, and she wanted to share her experiences with students to help better prepare them.
“When I got out in the real world, I felt unprepared for what my profession was all about,” she recalled. “I thought I could do a better job as a faculty adviser than my adviser did.”
Now, Merrett-Murry is sharing her experiences with students at SIUE, including her sense of fun. Along with being a professor, she is the program director of the Office of Student Publications, which includes serving as the faculty adviser of the Alestle, SIUE’s award-winning student newspaper. When you step into her office, you immediately notice her Magic 8 Ball collection, a roller derby poster for the Arch Rival Roller Girls and a vintage gas station candy machine with peanut M&Ms in it.
“I have those things to make my own surroundings not so dreadfully serious. I’m not one of those journalists with an over-inflated sense of importance. You have to have a sense of humor in journalism or it will literally kill you,” Merrett-Murry explained. “But it is somewhat calculated, in a sense, also. Those things help me connect to my students on their level so they know we are in this together and I’m here to help them, not just to pass judgment.”
Alestle Editor-In-Chief Catherine Klene said although Merrett-Murry does not have editorial control over the newspaper, she does give the students her opinion and suggestions on how to make the paper better.
“She critiques the paper after the fact, and we talk about what we need to work on,” Klene said. “She tells us what she thinks, but never forces her opinion on us.”
Klene also said Merrett-Murry has taught her a lot about the industry.
“I’ve learned how to better work with my staff and manage the newsroom,” Klene added.
Merrett-Murry enjoys working with student reporters and showing them how exciting the industry can be.
“I like giving them the information to get them started and then watching them run with it,” she said. “On paper and in classes, journalism seems to have so many strikes against it as a vocation. The one thing we can’t fully get across in the classroom is the excitement of it, until they do it themselves.”