News Editor Andrea Hewitt, who wrote last week’s story about HvZ, asked to use the editor’s blog as a place to discuss why the Index chose to run a story about HvZ. We received quite a bit of backlash about the story, hopefully this will help to clear up any concerns about why we thought it was newsworty.
Let me start out by saying this isn’t an apology or retraction. I’m not sorry about how HvZ was covered in the last edition of the Index. I’m writing this to clarify why I decided to run an HvZ story and why I chose that angle. The job of assigning stories falls on the assistant news editor Dan Warner and myself. Each week, we sift through potential story ideas and decide what we want to cover based on some criteria — the main question we consider being “Is this newsworthy?”
As you all know, HvZ is played once a semester. The newsworthiness is not the fact that it’s happening. People already know it’s happening, or can assume it is by the fact that hundreds of students are running around campus with nerf guns and bandanas wrapped around their head/arm. The newsworthiness exists in three main points, which I think are laid out clearly in my article,
1. The two incidents that happened
2. HvZ is trying to become an organization and the risk management concerns with a game where hundreds of college students are running all over campus
3. HvZ is holding an invitational at Truman April 2.
This isn’t a community bulletin where your mom submits clips about how great you ran a game of tag on campus. I’m not your mom. My goal as news editor is to inform readers of community and campus news with the most accurate information available and without bias. I didn’t include any commentary on HvZ. I have no personal vendetta with the game. If I wasn’t in the newsroom 20 to 30 hours a week, I’d consider strapping on a bandana and rolling up some socks.
Look guys, I’m not mad that 7 to 8 percent of the student body is probably egging my house right now. We’re not so different. Journalism is my passion much like HvZ is many of our readers’ passion. I’m just reporting the facts, not trying to break your spirits.
One last thing: Thanks for the feedback. I don’t want to speak for all the editors, but feedback, negative or positive, is a well enjoyed at the ‘Dex. Talk to me if you feel you’ve been wronged by an article. We are eager to talk with you about editorial decisions we make. Let’s keep the lines of communication open.
Andrea
November 16, 2010 at 4:07 pm |
My main problem with the article is that it seemingly implied that HvZ should not become an organization due to two incidents and apparently those incidents call into question risk management. Now, I am not sure what statistics you learned, but two out of what has to be hundreds of interactions of the game is not grounds for questioning whether or not the moderators and players are prepared for the risks involved. They are. And you don’t really have any right to call into question their preparation for risk management and then almost seemingly try to prove that they are not worthy enough to become an organization. And really, whether the article was trying to make that point or not is not the issue. That is the way it was read. Not just by players, but non-players. The moderators painstakingly involve Campus Police and Administration so that risk of “incidents” is almost 0%. Accidents happen. The article was not as offensive as the “comic,” which I found to be in utter poor taste.