To all of the colleges and universities trying to take away what we’re paying for- this is for you,
Journalism students have heard this phrase one million times at least, “Journalism is a dying profession—don’t major in it.” We have heard it from our parents, friends, grandparents, relatives and everyone else who knows our business. Print media may be becoming more obsolete with the inventions of new technology and the ways people consume news, but there will always be a need for good journalism. We always try and defend ourselves, or not let those comments bother us but right now, it does not feel like our institutions are fighting for us.
When I first officially toured Southern Miss, I was shown all around College Hall. I was shown a space just for the Southern Miss’ newspaper on the third floor of College Hall. I was promised a space just for me. And now—it’s at risk of being taken from me and my fellow Printz staff members.
The newsroom for The Student Printz is currently being used by both The Student Printz and WUSM. The room contains four other rooms within it as well, one for the executive editor, one for the faculty advisor, one for computers for laying out the paper and one shared between the webmaster and WUSM’s executive producer. Southern Miss may take away the rooms within the newsroom, and give them away to faculty members, leaving the Student Printz and WUSM with a very small space that just one staff cannot fit in as is.
Now, this would not be a big deal if Southern Miss would find a better solution to this debacle. If they would clean up the basement level in College Hall, we could go there. If they would renovate some of the older buildings not being used very much, we could go there. If they care, we would have somewhere that made sense, but they don’t, so they’re just shoving us into a space that is much too small.
It is not just Southern Miss that is getting the short end of the stick here. It’s SMU, it’s UTK, it’s LSU, it’s college newspapers that are student-run.
“In light of this, student-run media organizations need to start calling attention to the challenges we face, as many of us fight to maintain financial independence and an increasing number of us now face concerns of editorial independence under university administrations,” savestudentnewsrooms.com wrote.
In a world of dying print media, you would think that colleges and universities would be the ones fighting for its students’ futures, but sadly, you would be wrong.
“Journalism isn’t dying because it is in its nature. Journalism is dying because it is being murdered,” Huffington Post Canada writer Dave Yin said, and he could not be more right. The sad thing for me, though, is that my career has not even started, and my own college is aiding to the murder of it. I was promised an excellent education, people that cared about me and so much more, but now I wonder—should I have come to Southern Miss at all?
