NC State’s student-run newspaper, Technician, recently announced its decision to change the print schedule for the upcoming semester to once per week instead of twice per week like previous years. This is not only a poor decision, but a dangerous one for the future of journalism here at NC State and elsewhere across the country.
An article published on Monday announced the news, claiming that the decision was motivated by a number of reasons, but primarily by “understanding how readers want to access and read their news.” Patrick Neal, director of Student Media advising, claims that students who read a physical newspaper have been “replaced by students getting their news online.” As a reader of Technician in print weekly, I can only begin to say that this is a stretch of the truth.
While the overall trend in media recently has shifted toward online consumption, that doesn’t necessarily imply that students prefer to read Technician online. Noticeably, Student Media did not conduct any surveys to the student body or their readership in regards to this change, highlighting a potential for disconnect between readers and editorial staff.
Some of the benefits listed in Monday’s article are very valid reasons: cost cutting, reducing paper waste and prioritization of coverage are all potentially impactful reasons to consider refocusing on digital news; but unfortunately it appears there was less of a focus on students’ opinions compared to other justifications.
The more serious risk to consider in this change is the shift toward publishing through platforms such as social media. Technician Editor-in-Chief Jonathan Carter indicated that this shift toward digital publishing would prioritize “social media platforms, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.” He also stated they would consider “moving toward content that is going to be social media only.” This is a very dangerous line of thinking.
Ignoring the recent privacy news associated with Facebook and other social media, there’s a legitimate problem with publishing more and more on social media platforms, and that is in relation to ownership of content and journalistic integrity. Technician is one of the older student press organizations in North Carolina, and undoubtedly prides itself on its independent reporting and quality content. As more and more news organizations move toward publishing on platforms like Facebook, news organizations are unwittingly surrendering control of the distribution of their content.
Publishing on Facebook gives Facebook the right to control where and how content is distributed. Facebook can decide who sees content and when, which is extremely dangerous for independent journalism. Unwittingly giving control of our content to large organizations who are focused on producing profits from ad revenue verses sharing quality reporting with readers just means that Technician is following in the footsteps of large news organizations and going further to please large profit-hungry organizations that have repeatedly demonstrated they do not put their own users first.
I speak firmly because while this is not a shift to fully online publishing, it is a step in that direction, which runs the risk of de-democratizing journalism and handing control of what would normally be quality content to those who care more about profits than reliable reporting. I think that would represent a step backwards for our newspaper, and I’m confident that, if this pace continues, the high-quality reporting that Technician represents might not be worth as much in the future.
Technician, I urge you to consider bringing back your focus on print publishing and independent online publishing, without relying on social media platforms. If budget is a concern for printing two papers a week, the solution is not to scale back, but to demand better budgets. I’m sure students would be willing to speak to the appropriate organizations to advocate for the expansion of your funding if the alternative is the future we’re moving toward right now. Please, take some time to consider a different approach.
Sam Weaver is a first-year studying computer science.
