By Ward Howard
As a senior at Union University and fan of the student newspaper, observing the slow transition of the Cardinal & Cream from a physical to online format has concerned me. When I came to Union , my roommates and I eagerly waited for the new edition to show up in stacks around campus.
The articles let us know what our fellow students were experiencing, what our administration had handed down from on high, what the implications of those decisions would be and what current topics Union students were struggling through.
The C&C is still all about these things, but I am concerned that the move from frequent publications to occasional publications supplemented by online material to an exclusive online presence will not allow the C&C to maintain the same relevancy. While unintentional, the C&C will lose some of its influence for two reasons: exposure and perspective.
First, the C&C’s influence rests on the degree of its exposure to the student body. The online publication will not have the same kind of reach that a physical paper did. Second, the perception of the C&C’s content will be altered. The gains of increased timeliness cited by staff for the transition will be offset by a decreased lack of focus on key content.
While anyone can go to the C&C website, college students are perennially busy. A print paper available at high-traffic locations around campus forces students to notice its presence. A physical paper encourages students to take a few minutes between classes to keep up with events outside their immediate sphere, contributing to the unity of the Union community.
An online C&C does not do as good of a job at creating this unity, since the paper is no longer there to interrupt the daily flow of homework and that upcoming exam. I have talked to several students and readers of the print C&C who admitted to not reading the online articles as regularly. While the online transition is intended to increase relevance through better timeliness, I am afraid the competition of physically present activities will lead to fewer readers of online material.
A second concern involves the way students’ perceptions of goings-on about the school will be altered. While an online C&C will lead to a greater ability to provide up-to-date content and cover a wider variety of student activities and editorials, it will also have consequences for how students see that information.
In ‘The Incredibles‘, the villain realizes that if everyone has special superpowers, then those powers mean less. A similar problem will result from the online move. The folds of a paper only hold so much content, and editors are forced to make difficult decisions on what makes it into the paper. Though brevity may be fostered online, the constraints of the printed paper uniquely lend themselves toward focus and conciseness in documenting student life.
To make matters worse, the publication of a single print magazine a semester does not solve either of the above problems. A magazine is not a paper, but a memorial. While a printed paper does fall a few weeks behind current topics, a magazine must cover an entire semester. An online publication’s coverage might be too broad, but a magazine is far too narrow to capture the rhythm and pulse of Bulldog life.
The magazine won’t provide sufficient exposure due to limited space, and neither will the online version due to limited readership. While the C&C will continue to provide thought-provoking, interesting and timely updates, I do not see the online version creating the kind of breathless anticipation my roommates and I experienced, waiting to see what the fresh pages had to offer.
Ward Howard is a senior physics major.
Read a response by the Cardinal & Cream Editor.
