Northwestern University’s independent and student-run newspaper, The Daily Northwestern, is facing immense backlash following its coverage of university-wide protests surrounding Jeff Sessions’ visit to campus. Students at the school accused the newspaper of “invading privacy,” and the editorial board responded with an apology, leaving many to question what “free press” actually means, particularly for student journalists.
As the editor-in-chief of Hofstra’s own newspaper and as a journalism student, I believe The Daily Northwestern didn’t do anything wrong. Their reporting was responsible and ethical and held the standards of good journalism. While their statement was hard to read, as it apologizes for the basic principles of journalism, we are also very removed from the situation. We aren’t experiencing what these student journalists are experiencing in their classrooms, we aren’t hearing what they hear around campus or reading what they see online.
It’s a different world for student journalists. At the end of the day, we are students too. We live and attend classes on the same campus that we are reporting on. We interact with students that we write about. It’s an incredibly hard, often thankless and exhausting job. It puts us in a unique position. We must constantly be cognizant of our community and of the impact we have on students, editors and the university as a whole. Writing on a college campus should be taken on a case-by-case basis, since the reporters can’t always separate themselves from the situations they are writing about. Student journalists are learning in the moment. We are going to make mistakes.
Some of the criticism that the editorial board is facing is ridiculous. Professionals in the field are taking to Twitter to call the apology, “deeply embarrassing,” “satir[ical]” and “pathetic.” Students make mistakes. That’s what college is for. We are here to learn and to absorb as much as possible from our experience.
What could have been a great teaching moment between professionals and students turned into a cyber-attack. What appalls me is that those professionals who were so quick to tweet about the situation were once student journalists too. Covering protests, marginalized communities, controversy and traumatic events are things that journalists struggle with every single day. Covering those things on a college campus, when you’re writing about the community you are a part of, is incredibly hard.
There is no specific set of rules or guidelines that student journalists must follow. Often, they are left to make decisions quickly and independently. The students on staff at The Daily Northwestern did not need to apologize, nor did they owe anyone an apology. We could blame it on a lack of guidance, a quick loss of judgement, or we could try to put ourselves in those students’ shoes and realize that they just want all members of the community at Northwestern to feel welcome and safe.
We need student journalists like those on staff at The Daily. We need them now more than ever. To attack them, criticize them or analyze their decision seems outlandish because I can’t guarantee that as editor-in-chief of this paper, I wouldn’t do the same thing if this happened at Hofstra.
I see it day in and day out of our own newsroom as members of the editorial board here at The Chronicle juggle internships, a heavy course load, a social life and their membership in other student organizations. They still bring their all each week, manage a large staff, edit numerous articles and lay out the paper. They do so because they care. They care about the community, about fighting for what’s right and about being a strong voice for the student population, and I am humbled and proud to work with them each week.
Student journalism is important. Give us a break.
