Editorial: No excuse justifies silencing student journalism
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Here at TribLive, we value the news. We have to value it. It’s our job.
We value the news we cover. We value the news other professional outlets cover. We value local news and state news and national news.
But we also value student news. In particular, we value student newspapers and student journalists. We offer student journalists scholarships and internships. We help them explore the world of journalism during their education. We believe writing news and being a part of the process is among the best ways to learn how to do the job.
And that is why seeing the people who educate young journalists disregard the importance of student newspapers is so difficult.
On Monday, we published a story about Seton Hill University in Greensburg placing its student newspaper, The Setonian, on an indefinite hiatus. In an email obtained by the Trib, the reasons for the decision were spelled out.
Among the points was a lack of capacity among faculty to advise the publication. This is, perhaps, the only point that could be conceded. The others are cowardly or cop-outs.
• The shift of journalism to digital formats is a reason to shift focus to those formats, not to abandon the journalism.
• A lack of support in our culture for journalism is a reason to encourage more journalism. If our world was on fire, we wouldn’t say we needed fewer fire trucks. We would need more of them. In our current landscape, journalism is the fire hose that pours information on the blaze of ignorance. Universities should demand more of it.
• The lack of institutional clarity and the role of the university in content moderation sounds perilously like censorship — something the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression has seen in more college papers. The organization said its surveys showed 60% of editors at college publications in the 2016-17 and 2020-21 academic years reported administrative censorship.
• Then there are the low numbers of students in the journalism major. Let’s be clear: Seton Hill doesn’t have a dedicated journalism major. It is one component of its broader English major. But Seton Hill also offers a communication major, and many journalists come to the field that way, as well as through fields such as political science, global studies and data science, all of which the university offers.
If all of these reasons to place The Setonian on a hiatus are true, is Seton Hill considering eliminating any journalism education? Will it give back the tuition it has charged students for a program it believes has no support in our world? How can the university charge $42,294 a year to educate students in an unsupported career?
In a statement Monday, director of media relations Jennifer Reeger said the university is exploring how to move forward and hopes to have the paper back “in some form” by the fall.
That gives Seton Hill several months to figure out whether it values journalism enough to support it — or just enough to charge to teach it.