As Jerry Maguire once said, “Help me help you.”
In light of recent events involving a professor who was under investigation, the Dixie Sun News staff faced a lack of support from the student body when trying to report on a student-organized event closely related to the matter.
Students protested in the professor’s defense outside President Biff Williams’ office. The event was a silent protest, but the students told strangers who asked whom they were protesting for and why.
It wasn’t until the big, bad wolf came knocking when people truly grew silent.
Unable to find a single student who was willing to speak on record about the event, we found ourselves unable to report on a newsworthy campus circumstance that we felt students had the right to know about.
Much to our frustration, nearly the moment we realized we had something truly hard-hitting to report on, it was snatched from our grasp because people didn’t and don’t believe we will do our due diligence and adhere to the journalist’s code of ethics.
This is especially frustrating because the Sun often gets criticized that it doesn’t report enough about “important” topics. How are we supposed to report on something if no one wants to come forward about it? How else will your cause be heard?
While the topic surrounding the protest was sensitive in nature, the Dixie Sun News staff has been trained on how to handle touchy incidents. We realize we aren’t professionals, but we also aren’t reckless people who are out to get you.
We simply aim to report on the facts because every student deserves to know them.
As students, we’re all in the same boat. If you are involved with something you’re passionate about, we hope you will come forward and let us be the medium through which you speak up.
We’re here to help promote your ideas and events. We want to help you gain awareness for your cause, but we can’t report on what we don’t know. If you refuse to talk to us simply because you think we’re just nosy reporters with no inhibitions, you have silenced the publication that works only to be your voice.