Let me first say that this is a difficult column to write. I run the risk of being misinterpreted by the staff of this newspaper, many of whom I’ve gotten to know and respect over the past year. Let me assure them that my best intentions are at heart.
On Friday, The Lantern’s editorial board, a group of five journalism students that includes my editor, wrote an editorial titled “A Right to Know.” In the article, the board raised a “red flag” about not being informed of a recent press conference by the OSU Department of Athletics.
My first reaction to the editorial was outrage at the Department of Athletics’ oversight. It’s another misstep by a powerful arm of the university that has made far too many public missteps lately. I’ve stopped being surprised by the department’s decisions.
However, something else struck me about the editorial that might reflect a more fundamental problem. It’s my impression that The Lantern is not very well regarded by students, faculty and the university community. It’s hard to quantify respect, but I do feel that there is a severe limitation due to The Lantern’s administrative structure that most of you aren’t aware of.
The Lantern is administratively located within the school of communication and billed as a “student laboratory newspaper,” meaning that much of the paper’s content is the product of classroom assignments. Each quarter, The Lantern’s staff is overhauled with a fresh set of reporters, copy editors and photographers who earn their place on the staff simply by registering for the right classes.
While the “laboratory” approach isn’t unique to OSU, it’s highly unusual among big universities. In fact, The Lantern is the only such paper among the 10 largest American schools. Large student papers more commonly operate independently from the university, often under the guidance of an impartial board of directors composed of faculty and professionals.
I had experience with the independent approach while I was a student at Michigan State, a member of the “10 Largest Schools” club. To join the staff of MSU’s student daily, I had to turn in three writing samples, survive interviews with two editors and provide a list of ideas for articles. Then I had to wait for an opening.
At OSU, I only need to enroll in a course, and the prestige of earning a spot on the paper’s staff doesn’t exist. It is possible for outside students to write for The Lantern, but those students usually aren’t being recruited (with the exception of op-ed columnists), and the few that show up must compete with students working for grades.
Tom Schwartz, The Lantern’s adviser and a faculty member, assured me a few months ago that the laboratory approach can work quite effectively. But compared to other large university newspapers, it’s my feeling that the lab experiment is turning out an inferior paper.
Comparing quality among newspapers is difficult; you can judge for yourself by surfing the Web. But the number of original student articles is one measure of a paper’s vitality. For the first full week in April (when both semester- and quarter-based schools are in term), I compared the number of original articles for the papers of the five largest American colleges. News briefs, op-ed columns and letters to the editor were excluded.
The numbers are telling. The University of Florida’s fiercely independent Alligator led the pack, with an average of 23 student articles per day. Arizona State and Texas both averaged 18 articles, and Minnesota averaged 16. In contrast, OSU averaged 11 articles; the rest of its content was taken from the AP wire. The following week’s average was lower.
Another telling statistic is that many Lantern articles are written by editors. Editor Adam Jardy doubled as the hockey beat reporter, among other things. Sports editor Jeff Svoboda wrote an amazing 19 articles in April, covering OSU football, woman’s tennis, crew, hockey and the athletic department in that span. Where are the reporters?
Most glaring to me is that OSU has the only student paper among the “10 largest schools” without a daily opinion page, reflecting unkindly on the level of rhetoric. This in turn might reflect how the opinion page is regarded (which of course also reflects poorly on me).
For a more emotional comparison for Buckeye fans, look no further than University of Michigan’s Michigan Daily, the student paper for a university that doesn’t even have a journalism program. The Michigan Daily states in the second sentence of its bylaws, “We believe a voice independent of the University will help us best attain our goals.” I agree.
I don’t blame the current students for any of this. The Lantern folks, particularly the editors, are a talented bunch with a strong passion for turning out the best paper they can. I’ve seen firsthand how seriously they take the task.
But I feel the school of communication, which symbolically dropped “journalism” from its name last year, limits The Lantern’s effectiveness with the classroom-based approach.
The solution is clear: It’s time to get The Lantern out of the laboratory.
It’s time for The Lantern to break away from the university and become independent. Isn’t one of the first lessons for a journalist to distance oneself from the subject? For as much as OSU is The Lantern’s subject, I fear this lesson isn’t being taught. It’s time to define a new path, using the best independent student newspapers around the country as role models.
The first step toward revamping the paper is to recruit the best writers and copy editors from all corners of campus. There are surely talented students with the skills and desire to research and write great articles that don’t have room for journalism courses. Competition will improve quality: The editors will have the flexibility to pick the best writers and articles, as well as demand that deadlines are met.
Assign those writers to desks (campus, arts, politics, etc.), where they can build strong, long-term relationships with specific topics and their contacts. This process takes far longer than a 10-week quarter, and developing an instinct for key questions takes loads of real-world experience.
Use the unique resources available to students to go after even tougher subjects on campus that newspapers and magazines can’t pull off. Multi-part investigative reports that delve deeply into an issue require serious commitments, but they pay large dividends in a writer’s portfolio.
The talent of the current editors demonstrates that this newspaper has the capability to be at the top of its field. The Lantern staff, faculty and area journalism professionals should sit down with a blank piece of paper and forge a fresh and functional vision for a competitive, independent newspaper that will provide a far better training ground than a classroom ever could.
Perhaps then The Lantern will take its rightful place as a well-respected news source on campus and in Columbus. Down the road, maybe The Lantern will have the scoop on a breaking news story in the maligned athletics department, and The Columbus Dispatch will be racing to catch up. Given that Dispatch reporters have further to drive, it’s not too much to expect.
Dan Magestro is a postdoctoral research associate in the OSU physics department. He can be reached at [email protected].
