Pennsylvania State University in State College gets a double dose of national media exposure this week. For a change, neither prime-time program has anything to do with the school's football program or a star athlete's arrest.

There is no more perfect incubator for real-world professional journalism than a college newspaper newsroom. That's how I felt 14 years ago when I penned my last piece for Syracuse University's The Daily Orange, and it's how I feel today watching the staffers at Penn State's The Daily Collegian in "The Paper" (10 p.m. Tuesday, WQED), an insightful 90-minute look at life inside one of the country's best campus papers.

The issues these student journalists face are often identical to the struggles at every major metropolitan newspaper in the country: Declining circulation; lack of newsroom diversity; relevance in an Internet-driven, niche-oriented consumer society; questionable decisions by editors who aren't on the front lines of a coverage area, etc.

Aaron Matthews' film follows the 210-person Daily Collegian staff during the 2004-05 school year as editor in chief James Young worries about a drop in circulation.

The staff struggles with ways to regain the attention of their readers, adding a sex/dating column, part of the age-old struggle to balance giving readers what they want vs. what they need.

"It's what a lot of newspapers think young people want to read ... instead of what actually matters," frets one staffer.

For those who hold journalists in low esteem these days, "The Paper" shows the realities of the job that are often unseen by the public. Reporters and editors make mistakes, not because they set out to screw up, but because they are human. The film also shows the walls writers come up against.

Sports reporter Jenny Vrentas spends a month trying to get an interview with a Penn State football player only to be stonewalled by the school's sports information office. So she sets up the interview on her own, gets her story and then the sports information folks are ticked off. It's a tale as old as newsgathering.

"The Paper" also takes pains to remind viewers that these young journalists are still kids, coming of age, dealing with first loves and learning how to make their way in the world. And, don't forget, they're also studying for exams and writing papers for classes.

Matthews smartly concentrates on a few key staffers. This keeps the film focused but still highlights the challenges these reporters face at the Daily Collegian and that they'll continue to come up against in the real world.

The real world is of less concern to the investigators from Penn State's Paranormal Research Society, but the spirit realm is another matter in "Paranormal State" (10 and 10:30 p.m. Monday, A&E).

In this 30-minute, ghostbusting, gives-you-the-creeps "reality" show, PRS director/founder Ryan Buell and his team investigate hauntings while Buell chronicles their activities in his "director's log" recorder, sort of like "Star Trek's" Captain Kirk or "Twin Peaks" ' Agent Cooper.

Buell explains he had an experience with the supernatural that terrified him. Now he and his team are "students, we are seekers and sometimes we are warriors," which promises more drama than the show can deliver.

In the premiere, the PRS investigates the haunting of a home occupied by a single mom and her semi-creepy 8-year-old son. The "Paranormal State" team doesn't always solve the mystery, which gives the show more credibility than if they had a Eureka! moment every week.

The biggest drawback to the series is that it's over-produced, with too many eerie sounds and visual effects. Is the heavy breathing something picked up by PRS microphones, or is it a sound effect added after the fact by the show's producers?