Reader beware: I’m going to go on a philosophical rant.
Ok, with that said, I really think that we, as journalists, sometimes undervalue our audience and what they think should be in the news.
Today in the newsroom, we had a discussion about a story that we were considering running as the main feature, in color, in the center spread. I simply suggested this story because I knew it would have good photos and it would have more than one, a necessity for a center spread.
The story is about a woman with cerebral palsy who’s service dog needs surgery to repair a torn ACL. She’s wheeling 15 miles to raise money to get the surgery because she doesn’t have enough money and can’t work(an entirely different story).
She doesn’t go to KU and has no direct tie to the University. That said, I still think it’s a good human interest story, because it speaks on multiple levels that EVERYONE can relate to: compassion, dedication, loyalty, love, etc.
I was basically told that no one here on campus would give a shit. No one would read it. It’s a waste of ink, time and, most importantly, money.
First of all, not all college students are bumbling idiots who only want to get drunk, high and have sex. Some of us actually do care and we like to hear stories that reflect the good, not just the bad, in our communities.
But the key word here is community. KU is part of the Lawrence community, and neither would be what they are without each other. I don’t think it hurts or shows bad news judgement to run a story like this woman’s. It’s feature-y, will have good photos and is a nice break from all of the other accidents, deaths, crimes, etc.
But apparently, college students don’t give a shit about these kinds of things. Well, I think they do and I don’t think we give them enough credit for it sometimes. We [journalists] are supposed to know the newsworthy from the not-so, but not every death, accident, murder, fatality, person who gets screwed needs to be plastered all over 1A. And sometimes stories like this need coverage. It’s shows that we still give a shit.
The media always gets a bad rap. And maybe it’s because people think we don’t care about them. We care about sales, ratings and readership, but not the reader per se. Don’t believe me? Listen to Jack Johnson’s “The News”, and tell me that people think we care about them.