Where does one draw a border between what is local and what isn’t? Should we expect our daily reports of various data disclosures to stay separate, or should their stories, opinions and forms mix together conveniently? News outlets like The Cavalier Daily — serving a particular locale, yet operating in a vast ocean of information — confront this problem with each issue churned out. There does not seem to be a perfect answer to this dilemma.
Our sources of news, be they paper- or pixel-based, have conglomerated heavily in recent years. We trudge through our pages, ride the various tides of Google and swipe in all sorts of directions to the next article, video and picture. Our newsfeeds seem limitless, and our understandings of the world become customizable. There’s more control now over how we become informed citizens of our personal weltanschauung.
So, if you’re a part of the University, in the geographic sense, then the University becomes part of you — a community that siphons its data and information to your newsfeed. The Cavalier Daily has a large role to play in this information pipe, providing myriad topics and perspectives otherwise unfound at the University. But with the paper’s job comes the overarching question: what can be deemed relevant enough to write, photograph and market about?
When I peruse articles covering Oscar award nominations or preparations for winter storms, I wonder if these are the stories that grant The Cavalier Daily its authority on Grounds. Does the average student, professor or administrator browse, as my predecessor eloquently put it, the “publication [serving]” as the “campus’ paper of record” for these sorts of topics? I would hazard not, especially if these subjects surpass what seems relevant or worthwhile to our community at large. The Cavalier Daily has the task of vying for the common reader’s attention, competing with larger news sources that are much more capable of covering these sorts of stories and others more impactful to larger groups of people.
You might think I sound idealistic or arrogant about a student-run and managed paper. Indeed, those who write about larger issues like the Oscars or snow day readiness may have gotten their very starts and inspirations at college newspapers elsewhere. And what better place for a student to cover and develop one’s own interests and opinions democratically than a “paper of record”?
However, setting high standards for journals like The Cavalier Daily is necessary to devote deeper coverage to other issues unheard in the mainstream. Our community paper is blessed with a position of objectivity between the greater University structure and the vast ocean of students and professors. Why not challenge the paper’s carriers to carefully develop their voices with new insights and viewpoints? Let’s leave larger stories for larger outlets.
There’s much unseen and unheard around this community of ours, and far too much of the opposite extraneous of it. It’s up to The Cavalier Daily — and other papers around our Grounds — to democratically and cautiously mediate these hidden perspectives and voices.
Sasan Mousavi is the Public Editor for The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at publiceditor@cavalierdaily.com or on Twitter at @CDPublicEditor.
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