Celebrity! Sex! Violence! Money!
Got your attention, didn’t I?
Conventional wisdom, as well as lots of time spent watching MTV, tells me sensationalism is what Americans, especially college students, want to read.
If the ideal college newspaper article is about Ben and J.Lo having a fight after a tryst on P. Diddy’s yacht, then The Reflector is probably going to make some of you angry. We have nothing against Ben and J.Lo. It’s just that they are not connected to Mississippi State.
The Reflector’s job is to report on MSU. If you want to read a lot of articles about national or international news, use the Internet. We publish only twice a week, so news about MSU and Starkville will always get priority.
My aim of not emulating the National Enquirer does not mean we will never write about sex, violence and other things that compel some people to call my office and leave ugly messages on my voice mail. We will report the truth, even if it is unpleasant.
The Reflector is not a family newspaper. We will write about issues relevant to college students.
The fact is that some college students have sex. Some college students get arrested. Some college students party. Some college students do many things that most people would not want the average 6-year-old to read about.
Our job is to write about college students for college students. If that sort of subject matter is not what you want to read, do not pick up a copy.
Students write, edit and sell the ads for this newspaper. MSU President Charles Lee does not see a copy before we publish. Neither does any other administrator.
We have a faculty adviser, communication instructor Frances McDavid, but she has no say in any content decisions.
Students are responsible for the final product. Therefore, if you want to complain or complement, send an email to me or a letter to the Student Media Center.
We are not a part the university’s public relations apparatus. When administrators, teachers, students and athletes screw up, we are going to tell you about it. We are also going to tell you when people connected to MSU do something positive. We want to bring you the best, worst and everything in between. As long as a story is connected to MSU, we want it to be in the newspaper.
We will not always succeed. Since we will publish about 600 pages of news this year, errors are a given. Stories will be overplayed or underplayed. Some stories will be ignored entirely. Our intent is not malicious. Sometimes we do not get the full story (or any story) until after we go to press.
Our staff is made up of about forty people who sacrifice grades and social lives to bring you a newspaper twice a week. We like what we do, even if we have to go class and listen to people knock the stories we spent all night writing.
Heck, sometimes we deserve the criticism. I have written stories that I wish I could take back.
A newspaperman I hold in high regard told me that a community cannot be good with a bad newspaper. We will do our best to keep our end of the bargain and put out a newspaper of which the university community can be proud.
MSU has a problem that is typical of most large, public universities. The campus is far too impersonal.
People get lost in the large classes and university bureaucracy. Some students never feel like they are a part of anything and, as a result, theydo nothing. They quit studying, turning in assignments and, eventually, stop attending class altogether.
Combat this trend. Get involved with some-any-organization on this campus. There are always groups in need of members at MSU. Unhook yourself from the Internet, quit going home every weekend and take an active role in the university community.
Then tell The Reflector about what you are doing. We want to put it in the paper.
And if your campus activity involves celebrity, sex, violence or money, well, you might make it on the front page.
Wilson Boyd is a senior economics major. He can be reached at [email protected].
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