The Cavalier Daily
Serving the University Community Since 1890

BROOM: Loving life

The Life section of the Cavalier Daily contributes important voices and perspectives

I was impressed with the front-page art in both print issues of The Cavalier Daily this past week. The edition published Monday, November 10 had a focus on employment after graduation. The graphics were eye-catching and informative. It also struck me as the right use of graphics rather than an article. The information about salaries and most common industries is dry and repetitive; an article would have been boring. Using the graphics made it quicker and more interesting to read. The front-page of the print issue on Thursday, November 13 was in one sense nothing special. Most of it was a photo graphic to go with articles previewing the women’s and men’s basketball team seasons. It was, though, really well executed. Readers know exactly what’s coming when they see the page, the orange and blue looks vibrant and the whole paper is inviting if you want to read about basketball. These are the kinds of graphics that make effective use of both print and online media, which are precisely what I’d like to see used more often. While I’m writing about sports and images, be sure to keep an eye on the multimedia section of The Cavalier Daily website for some really good photography of basketball games.

Digging into the issues themselves over the last many weeks, I have learned of the value one can find in the middle of the paper. My personal gravitation is to news and news-related opinion columns. I put myself in something of a silo in terms of where I spent my time reading the paper and especially what I wrote about. I still looked through all parts of the paper but I definitely skimmed more in sections other than news and opinion. If you’re someone who does that, stop.

The Life section has some really great content. I have been enjoying the writing in the columns published under the Life heading on a couple of levels. First, it is interesting reading young and (I presume) new writers. Even if one has kept a journal or a blog, it is a different level to work within a newspaper editorial structure and try to craft a column. The writers are finding and honing their voices. That process is fascinating and compelling and also offers more variety and creativity than I see in publications elsewhere. Second, the topics the writers choose to tackle are quite varied. There is struggle, insight, humor and pain in their writing. It’s a wonderful window to the challenges, growth and fun of life at the University. Not every column or piece is great but there seems to be at least one each issue that I return to or keep thinking about. That’s fairly remarkable, really. For example, Julia Horowitz made me laugh and Victoria Moran made me pause and think.

The Life section is also where the paper places a lot of their focus-issue pieces. The recent issue devoted to employment after graduation, for instance, had helpful articles on resume and cover letter writing. In the following days, online, there were columns in which the writers mused on writing those same letters. Go to the middle of the paper if you don’t already, there is interesting writing and good information.

One last, forward-looking note: toward the end of last week Emanuel Brown died. He was, according to a short news piece, 61 years old and a contracted University employee. I hope that in the coming days and weeks we may learn more about Mr. Brown. We rightly focus much of our attention when a student dies in part because of the tragedy of the loss of someone so young. We should, I hope, have similar empathy and sympathy for those affected most closely by Mr. Brown’s death and good reporting from The Cavalier Daily can be an important piece of that.

Christopher Broom is the public editor for The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at publiceditor@cavalierdaily.com, or on Twitter at @cdpubliceditor.

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