By Kai Vieira da Rosa
On the final issue of winter quarter, the Horizon pulled their last paper from school circulation. The articles pulled were not meant to be malicious or misleading in any way, but sometimes mistakes are made.
Here at the horizon, every mistake is a new learning opportunity for the staff. This mishap brings to light the importance of student journalist being executed the correct way. Newspaper productions classes, like The Horizon, are an extremely important part of learning to become a journalist.
When errors are made, the people affected often look on the negative side of the situation and question the purpose or benefit of the production. This has been seen many times with the conflict between our president and the media. The criticism received often diminishes the credibility of a production, making journalism appear less important in the eyes of the public.
As a result, funding cuts in community college newspaper productions are occurring nationally and locally. President Donald Trump’s budget plan remove funding for public media is something journalist should be wary of. National Public Radio Brian Naylor reported “President Trump’s proposed budget calls for big cuts in a wide array of domestic programs — among them, agencies that fund the arts, humanities and public media.”
This is a major step backwards on the road to recovering the distrust between the government and the media. The government decides to cut the budget on one of the best ways of training there is at the worst possible time. The distrust our government has with the media is higher than ever, yet teaching trusting reporters is not a priority.
On a local level, Whatcom has been steadily cutting The Horizon Newspaper budget. In fact, in the last year the budget dropped from $19,950 to $18,500 according to The Associated Students of Whatcom Community College 17-18 S&A Fee Budget table.
The importance of college run newspapers is clear for many reasons. Student run papers in community college gives budding journalists a place to put their writing into something they can be proud of.
Student newspapers teach the essential skills needed in the work force by giving the students real life situations. One on one interviews and conference interviews give a look as to what a career in journalism could be. Learning how to write in AP style can be a refreshing change from the fundamental APA or MLA classes. Valuable lessons are learned in theses production classes.
Some people say that print media is dying. Although this does seem true, it is still important for students of journalism to learn its ways. Newspaper production classes are closest thing a student can get to a real, professional paper. It is important to remember that these papers are typically run solely by students who are all still learning, so mistakes happen. Even though some of them aren’t perfect every time, college productions can still be a credible source of information about your school.
