What happens when a journalist at a student newspaper says something people don't like:
1. David McSwane in Colorado almost lost his job for running an editorial that said, "F*** Bush"
2. a student newspaper in Arizona is apologizing for a cartoon many called anti-semitic
3. you read earlier about shenanigans in Connecticut and Florida
What responsibility do student journalists have? What is offensive? What should a public university do to rein in student news organizations? Should things be different at a private university? How well are you served by the Badger Herald and Daily Cardinal? Do they ever offend you? What avenues do you have to respond?
Friday, October 12, 2007
Student Journalists Drawing Fire
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5 comments:
Student journalists have the same responsibilities as professional journalists. They should also have the same rights. Sometimes administrators need reminding of that. At some schools, their charters are set up to give the university the final word. At others, it all rests on the student editor’s head. Things should be the same at public and private universities, but that’s often not the case.
Some students seem to think that it’s OK to print offensive or defamatory pieces because “Come on – it’s a college newspaper!” I think that’s a total cop-out. You still have to consider who you’re affecting when you print something. If you want to rant, try graffiti. Go to MySpace. Get a blog. There are plenty of avenues to shoot from the hip.
The editor in Colorado didn’t print anything defamatory. He certainly used poor judgment and failed to follow guidelines for publication at his paper. He made a mistake. It won’t be his last. I don’t have a problem with that.
The comic in Arizona was also a case of poor judgment. I think the comic would have been, and was, easily misinterpreted and should not have been printed because of it.
I think student papers should be provocative enough to cause intelligent debate (because, you know, that's what's college is about), but cartoons and articles that attempt to do so in poor taste do more than offend a specific race or religious group: they make young people look bad. When a student journalist behaves unprofessionally, it reflects on the student journalism community as a whole. It seem like students have lower ethical standards.
In the case about the Arizona cartoon (and this goes for the other student newspaper article we read about earlier in the year about the rape article), "satire" or whatever the author was going for isn't very clear or obvious to me. The joke isn't a good one, and in that other piece about rape, the point of the satire wasn't visible to its readers either. Beyond being tasteless, it's bad writing and bad editing. Come on, students can do better than that.
Often the point of being involved in a student newspaper is because someday, that person wants to be a professional journalist. Because of this, student newspapers should be held to the same standard as professional newspapers as far as responsibility and credibility go.
People make bad judgments. Because we are in college and still learning, it is more likely to happen but college journalists still need to be held accountable for their mistakes. If they aren't, it will likely lead to poor professional journalism in the future because they never had to learn from their mistakes.
I think it's really important for student papers to be provocative and at the same time to not offend anyone in the student body. Whether it be a religious group, ethnic group or a gender, groups of people should feel ostracized at their own university.
At this school, I have been offended by many comic strips in the Badger Herald. Even though they never offended me because of a group I identify with, it offended be because it was so disgusting. It went way beyond funny.
I think editors have a responsibility to print though provoking, edgy material, not disgusting, offensive material.
I think as students, we aim to be mature, professional and well informed, but what we deem appropriate or funny can still be very different than older adults. This kind of misjudgment makes it more likely for college papers to get into trouble and therefore face criticism.
Student journalists may also face pressure to use sarcasm and satire to meet audience's expectations to be "edgy" and youthful. However, most of us would probably want to be able to look back 20 years from now on one of our published stories without regret or shame.
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