Andrew Crighton
Life Editor
The Bengal is changing, and as with all change it will be accompanied by growing pains. In the search to begin writing and publishing articles that are more relevant to the student body, we are certain to find some avenues that work and others that don’t.
The first issue with our new direction caused some waves, and this is a reflection on what caused those waves and what they mean. They were caused by two main things: the new direction itself, and also the ASISU Senate article with a headline that read, “Piss Poor Communication across the Board.”
Because I was the original author of that article, I believe that this piece is best written by myself.
I’d like to start by making some concessions. As the writer, it is my responsibility to make sure that news articles are written in as much of a neutral voice as possible, and part of that is interviewing as many people as possible. There were two named sources in that article: current Senator Tristen Worley and former ASISU President Kyle Son. Son was by far the most referenced source, and it was easy to tell that he has formed strong opinions and ideas about ASISU.
The responsible thing to do as a reporter would have been to speak with current President Mackenzie Smith as well, which I neglected to do. So this week I sat down with Smith to discuss both her concerns and the concerns that others had brought to her, because most of the feedback was directed towards Smith and her office.
“I felt like it was a very negative piece,” said Smith.
Smith explains that some senators and herself felt that having mainly Son’s opinions in the article bent it away from the neutrality that is the goal of news writing.
Without speaking to more of the current ASISU office it could be easy to paint the current Senate with the same brush as the Senate that Son was in. “The front page was angry”, and the headlines used were concerning because using strictly negative headlines to get readers’ attention can be worrying.
“I understand that it was to get people’s interest, and to grab the reader, and I get that… If that’s what is going to get readership, then I agree with it,” Smith said.
There were 313 out of 1,200 papers returned for the 10/21/15 issue of The Bengal; the lowest return this year.
Morgan Pitcock was a senator for the College of Arts and Letters for the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 academic years and was someone who came to Smith to voice concern about the 10/21 issue.
When I spoke with Pitcock he discussed with me that the headlines were his main concern; with a negative headline like “Piss Poor Communication…” or “Chances are, You’re Cheating,” it gives the reader a negative mind set before they read the entire article, even if the article is “good”.
“I was able to look into the [ASISU] article, and it was good, it’s just how it was presented up front,” Pitcock said.
The verbiage of the article and quotes was the main issue that Pitcock had. He added, “I will agree that communication is an issue across the board, but as it was characterized by the person who said it, I don’t think that was the best way to categorize that.”
There were also concerns voiced about the front page as a whole, mainly focusing on headlines.
Smith had a lot of people come speak with her, “I had students, past senators, current senators, past administrators on the executive level, people in our office.”
“Specifically, it was the ‘Why This Paper Sucks’ that a lot of people came and talked to me about. I made it very clear to them that they needed to talk to the Editor-in-Chief if they had an issue,” said Smith.
That is a sentiment The Bengal wants to echo strongly. If you as a reader would like to express concern about this paper, then please, write a letter to the editor. As we continue to explore what the potential of The Bengal is, we want to know how it’s being received by our readers. We expect push back and some difficulties, which are all important.
When there are voices raised in either agreement or disagreement, it means that we have found material that is important enough to have an opinion about, and to voice that opinion. When it comes to reporting on material that is important, there will be strong opinions associated with it, and ignoring them because of disagreement is not, at the very least in my opinion, ethical journalism.
“It’s important to see the critical thinking skills that the liberal arts tries to teach to its students used in student journalism,” ,” said Kandi Turley-Ames, Dean of the College of Arts and Letters. “I think The Bengal has been ignored for a long time. If those headlines help get it attention, then that’s great; and it will be interesting to see what direction it goes from there.”
