Some of the stuff that gets printed, some people will react negatively about. Other stuff people will actually appreciate as coverage. It all depends on how we handle the story, if we cover it at all.
We are always trying to do our job as a newspaper, which is educating, informing and, in the case of the later sections (especially entertainment), entertaining. Journalism is a difficult gig because if you can’t hold the audience’s attention, they might miss out on some important information. If we are unable to inform, we really have no purpose.
In some cases, people find a way to grip the attention of readers. There are two ways to do this. Either you work the right way to present the story in as unbiased a light as possible, or you get things like the “SGA’s deep pockets” printed in the last issue. Being that it was a column working on news analysis, Mike Arch was entitled to his opinion. This is because there is little, if any, way to analyze news in an unbiased way since analysis can be based off of personal views of information. Yes, he still made mistakes, i.e. only getting one senator’s quote. Many people have even said they had seen better stories from Arch, our staff included. Still, we take our hits when we need to because we are only human. We take our hits because we are students and we are literally learning as we go.
That being said, readers tend to have a relationship with the paper. They act not only as our audience, but they also as our sources, informants and educators since NEIU is a community in itself. We cannot be everywhere or notice every detail. This means that if clubs, departments or the school itself has an event they want covered, they need to let us know about it more than 20 minutes to an hour beforehand. Some groups are good at letting us know ahead of time. Others seem to have a problem finding us.
As for details missed or complaints about the way we’ve covered stories, we need to know about them. Most of the editors have their e-mail addresses listed in the newspaper for their columns. The only one who doesn’t is our current Opinions Editor, whose e-mail address is posted in our front office. Our door unless we’re closed for business, in a meeting or everyone is in class is always open as well. Don’t be afraid to bring up your concerns.
Remember, our ears are always open. You, dear readers, need to speak.