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(11/03/14 5:57am)
I’ve been thinking more about The Cavalier Daily against the larger backdrop of collegiate journalism. The Cavalier Daily is a fairly unique newspaper. While the University has a Department of Media Studies, there is no formal school of journalism. The University is also a decidedly medium-sized school, especially among public universities. Such schools have, it turns out, low likelihood of having a student-led (much less entirely student-run) newspaper that turns out new content daily online. That is, the students running The Cavalier Daily are pushing forward doing something that few publications can manage.
(10/27/14 4:47am)
There have been a few things published in The Cavalier Daily over the last month or so that I keep thinking about. Most recently, an unsigned letter to the editor, “Concerning our response to tragedy” printed under the name “University of Virginia ’15.” The note at the bottom tells us that a member of the University’s class of 2015 wrote the letter. The letter itself raises important issues about tragedies and our responses to them and the author attempts to address those and call for action. I don’t understand why this letter should be published anonymously. I further don’t understand choosing the name “University of Virginia, ‘15” as it took me a while to decide that it wasn’t purporting to speak on behalf of the entire class. I’ve written previously about being unsure about anonymous comments on the Cavalier Daily website and this goes further than that, allowing anonymity for published pieces.
(10/20/14 3:55am)
Photographs and graphics can tell stories. For some stories a photograph is essential, and in some instances a photograph is all you need. In most every case, for example, a photograph of people on the Lawn on a nice, autumn day will tell the story of the weather and how people at the University responded to it better than a print story will. With a digital platform, The Cavalier Daily staff has the ability to have as many photographs or graphics as it likes without worrying about the confines of newsprint. But those photographs and graphics should be helpful and do more than fill space, and the digital versions of them shouldn’t be limited by the print version.
(10/06/14 5:08am)
Jacqueline Akunda, on behalf of the African Studies Initiative at the University, wrote one piece that caught my eye in the past week about an email sent to the University community from the Medical Center via the Office of the President in regard to a patient at the Medical Center who had tested negative for Ebola. Akunda raises several topics that I would like to see explored more in the pages of The Cavalier Daily: homogenization of different parts of the world, othering of those different from us and the domination of the Western viewpoint in discussions. Commentary on recent news items would be a great thing for the editors of The Cavalier Daily to seek out. In this particular case, Akunda’s concerns are that the email was carelessly worded and demonstrated that the University administration is disengaged and unaware. Akunda may well be correct that the University administration is all of those things about issues having to do with Africa. This email, though, had at least one other significant consideration involved that trumped the rest: patient privacy and confidentiality. When releasing information to the public about an individual patient there must be a balance between informing the public and protecting the patient’s right to privacy and to have their medical information kept confidential. The email gave the least amount of information necessary to inform the public in response to public queries. More specific information would have increased the likelihood that the person in question could be identified. The irony that this construction of privacy is a Western one is not lost on me.
(09/29/14 4:49am)
I would very much like to see more links on The Cavalier Daily’s website. I was disappointed when I read Nazar Aljassar’s column online on September 5 and found no links. His entire piece centered on a New York Times piece from August 24 written by John Eligon about Michael Brown, the young man killed in Ferguson, Missouri. There was, though, not a link to be found. One could argue that by the time it was published ten days after the original Times article, anyone interested had already read or heard enough to follow Aljassar’s piece. The online version of the paper, though, isn’t a one-time snapshot like the print version. Readers may access it at any time and from anywhere. Links are easy to include and should be included where possible. When an entire article or column is based on responding or reacting to something else, a link should be provided to the reader.
(09/22/14 4:11am)
I came on board as the public editor of The Cavalier Daily at the same time that the then-daily print paper shifted to a digital first format. The staff changed from daily to twice a week print in a tabloid format, developed new mobile apps and redesigned the web page. The move was necessary, in part, because the financial realities facing The Cavalier Daily were stark, and the change saved a lot of money. Borne of that necessity was an opportunity to stake a claim in the future of journalism, especially collegiate journalism. The ability to publish information not just the next morning but constantly, on a range of devices and on multiple platforms including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram also requires different, or perhaps more, foci.
(09/15/14 4:17am)
Online comments are frustrating. One of the better rules of the internet is “don’t read the comments.” Most often, it seems, comments are either useless or tangential to the topic of the main piece. Sometimes, comments are outright hostile, purposefully racist and/or sexist or simply mean with no redeeming information or opinion offered. In those cases, having a comment section at all seems like an awful idea. The promise of comments, though, is why they continue to exist. At their best, comments sections in news publications offer a forum for interaction and conversation informed by a shared knowledge of the topic of the article or op-ed being commented upon. Losing the opportunity for good interaction would be unfortunate. And so, ultimately, comments sections will continue to exist. What we should do away with are anonymous comments.
(09/08/14 3:01am)
Last semester I focused a lot on what was going on in The Cavalier Daily week to week. At first I was getting my bearings in reading every part of the paper and website every day. Then, because there was some interesting back and forth with readers and because I had been focusing a lot on what needed to be changed or improved, I felt like I should point out the really good work being done. Then the academic year was over and that was that.
(09/01/14 3:31am)
Hello and welcome to the fall semester of 2014 at the University of Virginia. I am Chris Broom, Public Editor for the Cavalier Daily, the oldest collegiate daily in the Commonwealth. I act as the voice of the reader of the paper as well as the website along with the mobile apps. I also hope to engage with other readers to learn what you think about the coverage in The Cavalier Daily, what you’d like to see done differently and what you think is missing.
(04/28/14 3:55am)
Bias is a topic I’ve written about a few times in my tenure as Public Editor for The Cavalier Daily. Previously, each time I’ve written about it after readers posed questions, comments or complaints about bias in the paper. Sometimes the complaints or comments were about Opinion columns and so were easily dismissed. Other times I took seriously issues raised about possible bias in news writing and offered my opinion: that what some took as evidence of bias I understood to be less-than-ideal reporting.
(04/21/14 5:26am)
The Cavalier Daily played to its strengths in the last couple of weeks. With Pride Week on Grounds the week before last, Take Back the Night week this past week and questions about the future of graduation ongoing, there were major stories that required coverage from multiple angles. For the most part, I thought the staff did a good job with all of them.
(04/14/14 4:34am)
This past week in The Cavalier Daily I was reminded that this is, primarily, a newspaper, and that the first and most important thing it does is inform students. I was also reminded that The Cavalier Daily is something other than — and perhaps more than — a student newspaper, and I’ll come back to that in a bit.
(04/07/14 4:34am)
Another chapter in the ongoing story of the University’s process for completing a new contract for dining services played out this past week. The reporting from The Cavalier Daily has been fairly thin as this process has taken place. And we’ve now learned that efforts by the Living Wage Campaign at the University to prevent Sodexo from obtaining the contract were misplaced, as Sodexo never submitted a bid. A couple of weeks ago there was a news story about the Living Wage Campaign efforts and a guest op-ed about their concerns with Sodexo’s business practices as it related to low-wage employees.
(03/31/14 4:33am)
A few weeks ago, Jared Fogel wrote an interesting piece calling on The Cavalier Daily to stop endorsing candidates in student elections at the University. His concerns largely had to do with whether the endorsements were fair and impartial given the ultimately small and close population of the University; he also argued the staff of The Cavalier Daily should be more focused on increasing voter turnout than endorsing candidates. I’ve been thinking about this since I read it, and I’m going to take a moment to disagree.
(03/24/14 4:17am)
The Cavalier Daily Sports staff has been absolutely killing it on Twitter for the men’s basketball team post-season games. If you’re not following @CavDailySports, that’s something you should fix, at least while the game is happening. The live tweeting is a great mix of play-by-play with just enough commentary that one can really get a feel for the game. Whoever is writing the tweets also does a good job of showing some respect for our opponent — even if it’s Duke — which I appreciate because there’s no need to be snarky all the time, and ultimately, it’s a bunch of college-aged people doing their best. The bottom line on the live tweeting of the games from The Cavalier Daily crew is that it’s worth reading, even if you’re watching, and if you’re not able to watch but want to follow the game, I don’t think you can do better than keeping up with the feed. I’d love to see more events live tweeted where it’s possible.
(03/17/14 4:15am)
I cannot, obviously, be certain about how other readers of The Cavalier Daily feel when they read the paper. However, I do try, as a part of my role, to consider more than just how I feel and what I think. To that end, reading the comments online and occasional discussion and emails with other readers is helpful. I have written in the past hoping that online commenters would engage more substantially with the content of The Cavalier Daily, and I continue to think the ability to comment is a strong element of the digital presence of the paper. No, not all of the comments are helpful or useful, but one can move right past online comments if that’s the case. Sometimes, though, I am fairly confident that others must share my basic reaction to some pieces in the paper. In reading one recent Opinion piece, I simply felt lectured.
(03/03/14 4:20am)
I’m starting this week with a handful of small changes I’ve noticed in The Cavalier Daily platforms that I think will help make the overall paper stronger. Online, in many news articles there are pull quotes at the top of the web pages. This is especially useful on a mobile web platform. I find it easier, in combination with the headline and sub headline, to determine whether I am interested in reading the article. Where the quotations are provocative, it seems like it will help generate more interest on the part of readers. Similarly, I’ve seen increasing numbers of quick polls or questions for readers to answer online. This is also a good way to increase interaction and engagement on the parts of readers. I think the newly constituted staff is making some really good choices about tweaks and improvements early in their run.
(02/24/14 3:50am)
The big goings-on at The Cavalier Daily website this past week had to do with climate change, speakers invited to the University and website commenting policy. Literally hundreds of comments across a few columns provided for some interesting reading if one could slog through all of it.
(02/17/14 5:23am)
Last week saw a lot of engagement from commenters on Cavalier Daily articles and columns. Although most pieces published online in The Cavalier Daily get few comments, several recent posts received dozens, and many more had comment counts in the double digits. I’m not sure whether this is because of the topics of those pieces or because the Managing Board has done a better job of pushing that content out on multiple platforms like Twitter. I tend to think the latter because, in general, though the specifics are unique, the topics are not wildly different from most of the topics that The Cavalier Daily covers on a regular basis. This encourages me, as I believe that more engagement from readers will allow the paper to better serve this community. The bottom line for me is this: The Cavalier Daily should continue tweeting more, as they have recently.
(02/10/14 4:44am)
I read the comments all the time on The Cavalier Daily. It’s just about the only website on which I read the comments, and that’s only because it’s literally my job to do so. The comments vary widely in their intent and content. Some are insightful and engaging. Sadly, these are rather few and far between. Largely, the commenters are either hammering their own personal agendas or aiming for snark. On the occasion where the commenter’s personal agenda topic actually cuts across the topic of the article or column, the comment may actually end up being engaging. Too often, though, commenters are just lashing out without offering anything substantive, all of which is to say that we readers have a responsibility to try to make The Cavalier Daily a valuable resource, too. When commenting, especially on the opinion pieces, engage with the material. Often the writers will respond, and the dialogue is illuminating. On news stories, writers won’t and shouldn’t respond themselves.