By: Stephanie Blair Editor-in-Chief
As someone who has not only read this publication every week for the last two years, and worked on it for just as long, I can hardly explain the excitement I feel about taking the role of editor-in-chief this year.
As I read over the opening statements of the last three editor-in-chiefs before me, I found myself feeling inadequately prepared to write my own.
Even more daunting is the fact that my mostly new staff and I are coming in at the height of election season, but I trust in our ability to handle the issues facing each student with grace and care.
Our staff will strive to produce a paper that balances entertainment and information. The Western Journal aims to provide the truest form of journalism: a clear delivery of the facts without personal or political agenda. Our duty is first and foremost to our readers.
This will be in the forefront of our minds leading up to November, with accusations against ‘The Media’ as a heartless, faceless conglomerate tied to corporations backing specific candidates. The Western Journal is, and will remain, an independent publication. This ensures that we are not obligated to withhold facts in accordance with the desires of a benefactor or, similarly, to produce propaganda.
In the upcoming weeks, there will be opportunities for members of each party to make arguments in our editorial section, but elsewhere we will be delivering the news so that our readers may form their own opinions as well.
When writing about news on campus, our section editors and I will strive to not only to highlight more clubs and organizations in spotlight articles, but also to involve them in our conversations. This, along with the decision to continue “Campus Voices”, is in an effort to publish the voices and opinions of as many students as we can each week.
In the same vein, because this publication is by students for students, it makes sense that the best improvements will be made by our readers. And so, just as I ask our readers to trust us with the responsibility of reporting unbiased information, I ask our readers to write to us, to give us feedback both positive and negative.
For guidelines regarding submissions of letters to the editor, see the masthead on page two.
Contact the author at journaleditor@wou.edu
