Below are the top five for the week ending in Sept. 6, 2009:

1. Unsealed protective order shows Mosley accused of rape
Megan Mccann / The Daily O’Collegian
“The student reported being “very intoxicated” and passing out with few recollections of the night. She woke up in her own apartment the next morning and suspected she had been raped.”

2. OU assigned new Diplomat in Residence
Troy Weatherford / The Oklahoma Daily
“[State Department Official Ed Wehrli] said he has three goals as the Diplomat in Residence: Identify students interested in foreign service, inform them of opportunities in the State Department and encourage them to apply for those positions.”

3. Sam Bradford out for rest of game
Eric Dama / The Oklahoma Daily
Jermaine Gresham’s injury confirmed
Jono Greco / The Oklahoma Daily

4. Former Israeli Ambassador Visits UCO
Chris Albers / The Vista

5. ‘Cowboys 4Ever’ didn’t seem to ask a Cowboy
Editorial Board / The Daily O’Collegian
“‘Cowboys4Ever’ touches a nerve with OSU students, namely because no one bothered to ask them what they might want to hear or what might fire them up before a big game.”

Enjoy student-generated content and would like to see it here? Submit the article link to hunter@currentlyok.com and we’ll take a look.

Newspapers across America are feeling the pain from a slouching economy, and The Oklahoman is no exception. Having no state-wide competitor, The Oklahoman dominates the print news cycle. Recently, however, KOKH FOX 25 in Oklahoma City ran a story regarding the recent 33% hike in price for the Sunday edition, and The Oklahoman doesn’t seem to like it.

The initial story can be seen here.

The Oklahoman apparently wasn’t happy, as it ran this blistering full-page ad in response:

In response, KOKH had this to say:

We believe that both KOKH and The Oklahoman are struggling to flex their media muscle. Despite a major design overhaul in both print and on the web, citizens still frequently cite “The Daily Disappointment” and the 1999 Columbia Journalism Review in calling it “The Worst Newspaper in America.” That aside, their complete domination of the media market in Oklahoma goes without saying – so why so afraid of KOKH?

Our friends at the The Lost Ogle, a blog among trendy young people, put it eloquently:

“I’m still a bit confused here. How did a fledgling Fox affiliate known more for hiring attractive people than reporting news just totally dominate our state’s “most trusted” news leader in this battle of wits? Seriously, at the end of the report I expected the Dark Tower to fall to the ground and for Nick Winkler to tell everyone that he has spent the last few years building up an immunity to iocane powder.”

Where ever this feud may go, major media outlets will continue to see a steady decline in sales and viewership unless they effectively utilize alternative forms of communication – i.e. facebook, twitter, etc. It is no surprise that citizen journalism such as The Lost Ogle, Oklahoma Political News Service, CurrentlyOK and others are seeing an alarming increase in viewership.

Over 400,000 students from a supported 19,000 high schools have already created a profile in the short nine months the site has been active. It’s users find familiarity in filling out a profile about themselves just as they would on Facebook, yet not all the questions are in the norm. While asking questions regarding ACT, SAT and AP test scores along with other questions an admissions counselor would ask, colleges gain the opportunity to recruit students from across the country on a more personal level.

Why? It’s focus is not on test scores. In fact, the mission of the site is to show that each individual is “more than a test score.” Naturally, the site has ample room for civic and leadership to play a major role in how it characterizes a person.

Perhaps Zinch’s creators said it best:
“High school students want to be discovered by a college that is the right fit for them. They want to know if applying to that college will be worth the time, effort, and cost. Colleges want to find, and students want to be found. ”

With over 605 colleges and growing, students are able to see all of the statistics they need just by typing the college of their choice into the search. Delving through the mazes known as admissions websites was previously known as the norm, but no more.

The facebook-style approach is meant to captivate the next generation student, where mailers and phone calls have become less effective. Students will find with this multitude of information at their fingertips making the college search has become significantly more simple.

Colleges and Universities from across Oklahoma met Nov. 5-9 for a conference at the state capitol, where they explored the role of state officials and got a better understanding of how the legislative process works. Oklahoma Intercollegiate Legislature, or OIL, is one of the oldest mock-legislatures for college students in the United States.

“I am convinced that this is the best organization in Oklahoma,” OIL Governor Joe Hartman, UCO ‘08, said. “We’re in a position to do what no other group can, and that is to deliver legislation passed by students to actual lawmakers on issues that we find important.”

During the second session of the fortieth legislature, eighteen pieces of legislation were heard on the House floor as well as twenty-one in the Senate. Serious issues were discussed, such as the proposition of banning Gardisil to women.

“I felt the Gardasil bill was important just because we don’t know the long term effects of the vaccination,” Sen. Calen Cabler, OCU ‘12, said. “Young women need to know that this is not a vaccination for cervical cancer, but rather for HPV.”

Legislation wasn’t the only focus during the duration of the session, however. As many of the leadership stated over the five day span, it is also about the relationships that are built.

“I want this to be an orginization that members can wrap their lives around,” OIL Secretary of State Casey Miller, UCO ‘07, said during her ‘retirment’ speech. “It is my hope that the people you meet here can be some of your best friends. Sure, you learn how to write and pass bills when you’re here, but it’s the friendships that you will take away with you once you leave.”