Campus Times Reporting Incomplete

In the past month or so, I have read several CT articles lacking information and thereby distorting facts. Several weeks ago, the CT ran an article about an environmental activist who spoke to the Environmental Science 103 class. The article focused entirely on the speaker’s talk, and lacked any information about the class itself, including the fact that the talk was part of a series of outside guest lectures for the class. Thus, the CT reported an activist’s perspective on an issue as if it was news, essentially giving free PR to the activist group. The story was also disrespectful to the professor, who was not aware that the event would be reported on and was given no opportunity to comment. Next, the article about Harry Wu completely left out the fact that he spoke as the keynote speaker for Human Rights Week, organized by Amnesty International. Thus the SA group who should have been recognized for their hard work bringing the speaker here was given no attention, and again, an advocate’s perspective was presented as news.Just this past week, the article about Senate renewing funding for Harnett failed to mention that at the hearing, at least 15 students representing different organizations turned out to advocate for the art gallery. On a campus commonly called “apathetic,” I think such a turnout is certainly newsworthy, and it likely helped influence the Senate’s decision. Part of the “news” was that students DO actually want this gallery. The Senate was not just making a random decision, but acting on behalf of the students who took the time to voice their opinions.From the little journalism experience I’ve had, I am aware that the main purpose of any article is to point out who, what, when, where, WHY and HOW. Reporters from the Campus Times should put more effort into understanding the complete story before printing something that may end up disrespecting a member of the campus community, or failing to highlight the “why” and “how” of an event. Next year I hope to see more responsible reporting.