Letter from the Editor: The Maneater aims for equal coverage, welcomes feedback
Published May 7, 2010
In its 55-year history, The Maneater has been a tireless advocate for diversity and social justice issues, and our editorials have reflected that stance. The Maneater has also always encouraged feedback regarding ways to improve our coverage and better uphold our status as the student voice of MU.
In the pages of our Forum section, in the last three weeks alone, we’ve called for the UM system to include gender identity and expression in its non-discrimination policy, we’ve asked the Board of Curators to adopt same-sex domestic partner benefits for employees and we have spoken out against public institutions funding groups that discriminate against members of the LGBTQ community.
Sean Nahlik’s letter to the editor in Tuesday’s issue of the paper regarding The Maneater’s coverage of social justice issues and minority groups brought up important issues but also contained factual inaccuracies. It’s true The Maneater does not and cannot cover all events for which students feel passionate. There will always be room for improvement in our coverage of minority student groups, but one cannot say The Maneater hasn’t designated a significant portion of its coverage to issues and events regarding social justice, especially in the last few months.
Nahlik’s claim that the number of articles in The Maneater regarding student government vastly outnumbers those that have focused on minority groups is disproven by a glance back at our news section in the last few months. Of the 95 stories reported in The Maneater’s news section in the last month, not including today’s issue, 12 have focused on issues or events pertaining to social justice or minority groups, 12 looked at Greek Life, eight covered the Missouri Students Association and three covered the Residence Halls Association. In March, 16 stories focused on issues or events regarding social justice and diversity, eight on Greek Life, seven on MSA and three on RHA.
We realize that numbers alone can’t speak to the effectiveness of coverage, but there are several aspects Maneater editors consider when determining newsworthiness. The amount of students affected by an issue or event is one of the main factors, which often leads to prominent coverage of student government, which represent all students, and Greek Life, which consists of 22 percent of the MU student body. The further-reaching effects of an issue also figure into its newsworthiness, which is why coverage of social justice and minorities is so important. The results of progress toward non-discrimination and social justice go beyond the students directly affected by them.
The Maneater has reached out to minority groups to recruit in the past, for example, sending editors to speak specifically to the National Association of Black Journalists during our recruitment efforts. We will not rest in our efforts to better represent minority students. Recent feedback on our coverage of minority and social justice issues and events has already prompted our editorial staff to compose a subject-by-subject breakdown of our news section’s coverage in the past year, but there’s always more that can be done.
In the future, we hope to receive more feedback on where The Maneater can improve its coverage. And in that time, we’ll continue to uphold our tradition of representing students.
Comments (7)
3:07 p.m., May 7, 2010
Davy said:
This whole "we've done a lot... recently" shtick has a lot of these minorities feeling like it's too little, too late. It's like, oh now you're doing well but we had to call you out on it first. It's worrisome to think that once all laurels are rested on again, that it might lapse back into the same old thing. Keep up your recent, more active coverage of these groups and trust will be restored in your collective abilities to accurately represent the story of these people.
3:28 p.m., May 7, 2010
Brandon said:
How exactly, Ashley? How do they "not give 2 shits"? B/c they don't kowtow to your every race-baiting whim? Give me an example where they "don't give 2 shits." A legit example. Do you have proof that they've been openly racist towards you? Because they actually believe in colorblind approach, rather than this racist "diversity" crap I hear all the time? The Left's sacred cow? Constantly focusing on diversity for diversity's sake and just stirring up more shit? Rather than promoting a colorblind approach to admissions and so many other things and letting nature take its course? come on, ashley... Because they don't give you 100% attention all the time, you're gonna castigate them?
3:33 p.m., May 7, 2010
Sudie said:
"The amount of students affected by an issue or event is one of the main factors, which often leads to prominent coverage of student government, which represent all students, and Greek Life..." It's interesting that you say that this is an important consideration. The fact that you think people are less "affected" by social justice issues than Greek Life and government seems problematic to me, especially considering that one of your own articles cites that the marginalization of multicultural Greeks was seen as a weakness for Greek Life, which is a social justice issue. Furthermore, I would think that it would be more important to acknowledge the concern expressed by one of your readers who feels that he is being marginalized by your paper than to count the number of articles pertaining to "social justice or minority groups".
4:27 p.m., May 7, 2010
Yantezia said:
I agree with Sudie. A hand is only as strong as each of each fingers. Remember that. If we're a university and we're here together, than an issue is an issue for everyone whether or not they perceive it to be. A hand is only as strong as each of its fingers.
5:15 p.m., May 9, 2010
What do you want??? said:
I want to know what minorities actually want... all i hear is complain, complain, complain, that you do not listen to us! Well now that everyone is listening, what do you want??? Lets see if you can actually give ANYONE on this page an answer...
3:24 p.m., May 10, 2010
Sudie said:
For Brandon and "What do you want???" You both have chosen an interesting approach in responding to the comments of your peers. You're both obviously very open-minded individuals who want to deal directly with the racial tensions and prejudices directed at the minority students on campus... Riiiiight. To Brandon: Does it have to be open racism? Does it have to be overt? Because in my experience, I've heard my white peers make prejudiced comments about minorities and I've heard my minority peers make prejudiced comments about my white peers. I've called them both out on it, because I think that's part of the problem with racism and prejudice. We think it's okay to make that sort of comment with people who are like-minded but would never be "openly racist" to some minority student. At the same time, I've seen people confront a group of black students for being too loud one night, but ignore a group of white students who have been too loud all semester. Is that considered open racism, or is it just that black/brown/minority students are born louder? To "What do you want???": I'm impressed by your gutsy choice in remaining anonymous when you post a comment like this... Wait. That was sarcasm. What do minorities want? Well, they'd like to be able to talk about race without being told they're "pulling the race card" or being met with a hostile silence. Yeah, talking about race is awkward and uncomfortable and for people who have never had to think about race, it may not seem like an issue that even needs to be discussed. Unfortunately, that's not the case for everyone.
11:41 a.m., May 7, 2010
Ashley said:
Really your answer to why you don't cover minority events as well is because there are more people in greek life and in MSA. Does ignorance run rampant at the Maneater. Let me make this crystal clear. Greek Life and MSA do not represent me as a black queer student in the least bit. Each has shown they give two shits about me or people like me. So don't use there being more of these people as an excuse for you not working on covering diversity issues on our campus, because at that rate we will go no where. There are always going to be more white people and more greek people(white greek people) at this campus so one would guess we would never see anyone address minority issues. Not to mention in my experience with Maneater coverage as you still have not addressed,you send reports who know nothing about diversity and their coverage reflects it. Stop bullshitting us.