It would be easy for The Cavalier Daily to be consumed entirely by the aftermath of the Rolling Stone article. Certainly that’s the only thing anyone from outside the University has asked me about in the last couple of weeks. It’s a multifaceted story that could expand to take up the entire paper if the staff let it. It is not, though, the only thing going on. Fortunately, the paper has continued to cover a good breadth of subjects.
Internationally, the Charlie Hebdo story resonates especially here where free speech and religious freedom have been so important to our history. Alison Phanthavong wrote a news piece with interesting comments from members of the French Department here at the University. I’d have liked to see more varied perspectives, including from someone who might be able to speak more to the effect of the attack on Muslims in France and elsewhere.
The Cavalier Daily also offered good coverage of some important things happening around the state, including bills introduced in the Virginia General Assembly, and has followed the astonishing story of Delegate Joe Morrissey winning re-election after resigning his seat amid controversy. Beyond these stories readers were also offered good information about the current raging flu season, the activities of various faculty members and, of course, the incredible performance of the men’s basketball team.
Despite maintaining good breadth of news coverage, some of the digital maintenance of The Cavalier Daily seems to have fallen off a bit. Trying to navigate my way around the site to catch up on everything from between semesters has been a challenge. The only way to see the print edition online now seems to be through a link stuck all the way on the bottom of each page disguised as a PDF download. New dropdown links under the “News” heading offer results of varied usefulness. “Grounds” and “Local” appear up to date but “State & National” and “Higher Education” are blank and two years out of date, respectively. The links for “Student Council” and “Honor Committee” are also well out of date.
I think it’s really important the website issues get smoothed out. Not being able to navigate or read back on a topic cripples the ability of The Cavalier Daily to be an ongoing good source of information. It becomes very much like a static print issue. While that is something that can be useful, it falls far short of the promise of the full Cavalier Daily digital platform. I think The Cavalier Daily can be more dynamic than it is. We’ve seen from the enormous number of comments on the Rolling Stone-related pieces that people will find the paper for a story that is big or consequential or popular enough. There is good work happening at The Cavalier Daily on a regular basis and the platform should be up to the challenge of presenting the work in its best light. I urge the staff to redouble their efforts to clean up the website and get all of it up to date so that the good coverage I wrote about above is accessible to everyone who is looking for it.
Christopher Broom is The Cavalier Daily’s public editor. He can be reached at publiceditor@cavalierdaily.com or on Twitter at @cdpubliceditor.
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