The top ten news stories on WKU's website are: "WKU ALIVE Center Hosting Campus and Community Network Meeting Nov. 12th," "Winners Announced in 2015 Jim Wayne Miller Writing Contest," "WKU Public Media Stations Part of New Ohio River Network," "WKU Forensics Team Wins at Largest Event of Fall Semester," "WKU Ranked Among Best for Vets for 6th Straight Year," "Karen Powell Crowned WKU's 2015 Homecoming Queen," "Family and Consumer Sciences Receives Gift from Alumnus," "Barren County School Receives WKU Libraries Grant," "WKU Honors 28 at Lexington Area Scholars Luncheon," and "View from the Hill -- Homecoming Float Preps."
All of these news stories would be classified as "soft news." None of these stories made it to the Bowling Green Daily News. I'm sure WKU has an impact on our local news (sometimes) but this is not one of those times. The size of the newspaper has a lot to do with this. When there are not any "hard news" stories to report, the staff has to come up with something to report in their paper. These stories, although important to the people directly affected within the stories, are not very important to the student body at large.
The level of the newspaper's reliance on WKU public relations is probably a bad thing for news reporting. They are less likely to report negative news as it relates to WKU, so the truth is not publicized. Overall, these stories are promoting a healthy dialogue in the community, but some other stories, such as the new smoking policy, for example (which has many very angry) doesn't get the attention it deserves in the press.
No comments:
Post a Comment