DTH student election forum

The Daily Tar Heel will be continuing a tradition for the third straight year of holding a student election forum before the campus’ big voting day Tuesday. This year it will be held on Monday at 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. in Murphey 116.

 The format is pretty simple. Candidates will have the chance to talk with an opening statement, and then DTH writers/editors will get to ask the candidates questions. This will be followed by a chance for the at-large student body to ask questions.

So far, all of the candidates have confirmed that they will be attending, minus Cindy Spurlock for the GPSF presidency position.

The DTH’s opinion page also has begun its endorsement process. The first endorsements were issued in Monday’s paper and will be followed by endorsements for senior class officers and student body president in Tuesday’s paper. To make the decision, we read each candidate’s platform and met with the candidates for between a half hour and an hour, depending on the position, to ask them further questions.

The endorsements all come after a lot of hard work and intense debate by the editorial board over who can serve the student body best.

We hope to see you at our candidate’s forum and hope you pick up the paper Tuesday for a two-page election guide as well.

Halfway home

I’ve been getting a lot of reminders lately that the semester is almost over, and it isn’t just because of final exams. The semester’s conclusion also means that my term as editor is halfway complete. As a member of the DTH’s editorial board, I recently got to sit in on our evaluations of student government leaders’ performances halfway through the year. It’s interesting to see how people reflect on what they’ve done. I think people tend to exaggerate; after all, we’re going to give them a grade that all of their peers will see.

Sometimes I’m thankful that no one will be putting down a big letter grade next to my name in the newspaper. But then again the job I have at the DTH is very public in nature. You can see the results of what we do five days a week on newstands. What you can’t see as well are the processes used to get that end result. We have to scrutinize how we do things very closely ourselves because no one else is going to do it for us.

On that note, there are several things that I hope the DTH can do better as we round out this semester and start the next. Those include making how we do things more accessible by improving the role of the public editor; asking you, our reader, more about what you think of our content and what we can do to improve it; and continuing to improve our online content to serve you readers as we try to keep up with industry standards.

Biased coverage?

I’ve been getting a blitz of e-mails lately about the DTH’s decision a couple of weeks ago to cover a sex-toy party hosted by VOX, so I thought I would take the time to address some of the concerns that I’ve heard and explain more about how the DTH decides what is worthy of coverage.

The main basis of the complaint is that we chose to cover the sex toy party (putting it on an inside page of the newspaper) and did not cover the appearance about a week later of a pro-life doctor who previously performed abortions before coming out against the practice. The speech was hosted by groups traditionally associated with pro-life viewpoints. Clearly abortion is one of the most debated topics we face in society. My first concern with this coverage comparison is that a sex toy party is not promoting people having abortions, while the speech was almost certainly advocating an anti-abortion view. It’s kind of like comparing apples and oranges.

So why did we make the decision to cover one and not the other? Why was one even included in the newspaper? Probably there were a lot of factors that came into play on this one. The desk in charge of covering both of these events would have been our University desk. The desk editors typically decide the night before which events to cover (they plan out on a more long-term basis what type of issue- or meeting-based stories to tackle). Which events and how many typically is determined by how many writers the desk has working the next day. On some days, there’s a surfeit of writers, on others desk editors are scrambling just to get the basics covered. How many stories fit in the newspaper also depends on how many ads our advertising staff sells.

The sex toy party story ran on a day when the paper was relatively open in terms of space. On a day when the newspaper had less space, like at the end of the week, this story probably would have run online. The abortionist story probably didn’t draw coverage because there weren’t enough reporting resources available. Perhaps that is unfortunate, but it was definitely not part of any concerted effort to limit the viewpoints on campus. The DTH welcomes any and all informed discussion.

Chancellor Moeser’s big announcement

By now I’m sure you’ve heard that UNC’s Chancellor James Moeser will be stepping down, effective June 30. The announcement was made Wednesday during his annual State of the University address. It was the second State of the University address that I’ve attended, and it easily counts as one of the most chilling news moments that I’ve experienced at this University. It also marks the start of some extended coverage that we’ll be putting together to mark the end of Moeser’s tenure and the beginning of the search for his successor.

Here’s a preview of what you can expect in the months to come:

-Assessments of Moser’s progress in office and what he still has to accomplish this year. These will be broken down into different categories, such as abroad initiatives, fundraising, etc.
-Analytical stories examining what the University will look for in its next chancellor.
-Daily stories that are published based on the meetings and progress of the chancellor search committee.

The resources we will throw in to this project reflect how seriously we take this news. The chancellor of this University has an unparalleled opportunity to impact the direction of UNC and to influence policy from tuition to construction to choosing other top administrative officials. We hope you continue to turn to us as a resource as this process unfolds.

National coverage and Jena Six

I’ve fielded several e-mails (not to mention the comments posted on the newspaper’s Web site) about the DTH’s coverage of the Jena Six incident in Louisiana. Our Public Editor Andrew Jones commented on our coverage in his Wednesday column on the opinion page, but I wanted to weigh in with some additional insights.

The controversy was covered in the newspaper Thursday and Friday. Thursday’s story focused more on previewing Friday’s planned protest by campus groups and addressed issues such as media coverage. Friday’s story focused on what tranpired at the actual on-campus protest.

So why didn’t the DTH cover the Jena Six before this as so many readers have inquired? There are two basic reasons behind our decision making. One is that the story did not present a local angle. Students/faculty/staff were not mobilizing in protest, and neither were Chapel Hill/Carrboro residents. Second, while the incident is certainly one of interest, it was not one of national scope that affected the day-to-day lives of most Americans (or our readers). When we choose to run national news that isn’t specifically related to something going on locally, it usually does relate to residents in a more tangible way. For example, General David Patraeus’ Iraq report will undoubtedly impact many of our readers, as would a Supreme Court nominee.

Our lack of coverage before Thursday doesn’t mean that we didn’t look at the Jena incident as one of interest. In fact, it’s a pretty fascinating story about continued prejudice in our country. But that fact doesn’t mean it was immediately relevant to our community, which typically picks up other news sources that have a more national scope and are better able to cover this incident.

We’ll continue to evaluate our national coverage, and I welcome your comments on what we do and don’t cover as we continue to do so.

New writers

If you’re an avid byline reader of The Daily Tar Heel, you might have noticed some new names on the pages of the newspaper the past week. That’s because we’ve now hired our new staff for the fall semester — a whopping 180 aspiring journalists. In fact, our largest incoming class in some time. New staff always presents an interesting challenge to the DTH. One of our main missions is to serve as a teaching paper for our new staffers, while balancing our role of serving the community with the best possible news. Unfortunately the two don’t always mesh.

Inevitably, people quit. After several days or weeks on the job, some discover that journalism just isn’t their thing. On the flip side, one of the most rewarding parts of being an editor at the DTH is watching people grow throughout the year. I personally credit my freshman year editors with shaping the way I view journalism and for giving me the tools to be a solid, knowledgable reporter.

For those of you who might come into contact with a new staffer in the coming weeks or months, here are some things to keep in mind:

–People come in with a range of experiences. Some have held professional internships at paper like The Roanoke Times or the Charlotte Observer. Others have joined the DTH on a whim and need more coaching through the process. To combat this, we hold an orientation where we review policies and go over tips for improving writing. All new reporters write a mock story, and we assess their abilities to begin reporting. We have two writing coaches who help those who might need a little hand holding at the beginning of their time here. Our visual editor
–If you come into contact with a reporter who doesn’t know their stuff, let us know. Hopefully we’ve done a decent job preparing these writers and photographers for their jobs, but we always want to know how we can help them more. That’s why we have our writing coaches.

I can remember vividly sitting in as a new staffer at the DTH three years ago. While these first weeks are definitely a learning experience, they’re also some of the most formative times for our new staffers.

Breaking news

We had two instances of breaking news on our Web site over the past week. The first came last Friday when building problems at the School of Law caused some classes to be evacuated and then canceled. The second occurred last Monday night when a man known as “Young Buck” allegedly stabbed a Carrboro man and then took off in a car chase and was pursued by police.

In both cases we posted information to our Web site as soon as it was available. The case of the law school was much simpler. As the incident occurred mid-morning on a Friday, we had a newsroom full of photographers and reporters ready to rush to the scene. This is the ideal situation, similar to how we had a bevy of reporters available spring 2006 for the Pit incident (though obviously the law school is of a far lesser magnitude). In this situation, making news available to our readers online is fairly simple. Reporters and photographers can easily return to the newsroom and edit their material. Either myself or our Managing Editor Allison Nichols then looks over the content before posting it.

However, in a situation such as the stabbing, transporting this news becomes more difficult and cumbersome. This is for two reasons: 1.) The incident occurred after 10 p.m. and 2.) It took place off campus and required the use of several cars. In this case, the reporters heard about the incident on a police scanner in the newsroom and rushed to the scene. Four reporters split up into two groups. One of them called a photographer who left his apartment to get photos and shoot a video. Our staffers kept touch by cellphone and gave us some basic information to put online. This was how we updated until they returned to the newsroom. The following day we continued to update as more information came in from police.

So what is the point behind this little rundown? We don’t get everything right all the time, but we are trying to keep you as informed as possible, even on nights and weekends, which don’t mesh with our print edition schedule. I think that’s something pretty rare for a college newspaper. There’s always a lot more we can do with breaking news. A lot of the stuff that we find out, you won’t hear about until the next day’s paper or when the print edition goes online around midnight. I know I’d love to hear thoughts on the current process and any feedback readers have on improving our breaking-news coverage.

Katrina coverage

For those of you who picked up the newspaper or visited the Web site this week, you probably noticed that we spent a significant amount of space on a project we did recognizing the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Two of our most senior reporters, Eric Johnson and Joseph Schwartz, as well as a senior photographer, Beth Ely, traveled to the Gulf Coast in early August and spent about a week reporting in Mississippi and New Orleans. I encourage you all to read Joe and Eric’s blog and check out our special content page for Katrina coverage.

What did it take to put all of this together? It originated with Eric and Joe proposing this idea to me in the spring. After receiving the official DTH blessing (and a hefty budget of about $1,000), the team made their travel arrangements and outlined topics they hoped to look into for the project. The name of the series, “Eyes of the storm,” comes from a desire to tell the stories of ordinary people who are still struggling with the everyday impacts of the hurricane. The print coverage included a profile of a interesting person or family each day to reflect this.

Once the team returned from the Gulf, several editors sat down with the team to map out our coverage. Eric and Joe had a list of 10 stories that they wanted to write about, and Beth also requested full color pages to run pictures on for two different days of the week. It was at this meeting that our team really got cranking on the online and multimedia portions of the project. We wanted to create a one-stop shop for you online to read our coverage, hear the voices of the people interviewed and see more of the pictures and video that were shot. Hopefully we created a visually appealing and accessible site, but you’ll be the judge.

Hundreds of hours were put into this project. I think this reflects the feeling of much of the staff of the DTH that Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath is one of the great challenges facing our nation and this generation. It might be two years after the storm, but there is still a daunting amount of work to be done. See Friday’s coverage for ways that you can help out those who were impacted.

Special thanks go out to:
*Joe and Eric for their determined and precise reporting.
*Beth Ely for her vivid, and sometimes stark, photography
*Seth Moser-Katz and Emily Merwin for compiling a fantastic site to house our content
*Photo Editor Ricky Leung and Multimedia Editor Chris Sopher for ensuring coherence in our visual and audio content
*Managing Editor Allison Nichols for helping to shepherd the whole process and ensure continuity between our print and online products.

Welcome

Welcome to the new and hopefully improved version of the DTH blogs. Our Online Editor Nicole Norfleet redesigned this portion of the site to make it more visually appealing and, if all goes well, more relevant to you. In the past, this site was updated sparsely, if at all. We want this site to provide you with another venue to speak out and engage in our community.

So what can you expect from our blogs? As in the past, full versions of letters to the editor (and ones that didn’t make it into the paper) will be posted. The main difference you’ll notice is that we’ll have more content. We’ve hired bloggers who will be updating daily on topics such as the campus, town, state and nation. We’ll also be adding to that content as the semester moves along. For example, we’ll have study abroad bloggers writing on a weekly basis about their adventures. These blogs will supplement the print product and give you tidbits that maybe didn’t merit a full story in the paper.

This particular blog will focus on the inner workings of the DTH. I’ll be blogging about what it takes to put the stories and visual packages together that make it to the paper and online. I’ll also address any particular coverage that merits special mention or attention. The last topic this blog will address is general media trends that readers might find interesting. I hope this makes the DTH decision-making process more transparent.

I welcome your feedback and look forward to this experience with you. If you have questions or comments, please feel free to let me know. I will do my best to address all of you.

Thank you for blogging with us!