The Griffon News

I am Dan Donan, I am a journalist, and I am the Media.

Does that offend you?

It would seem so, since many of you duck into bushes like the media is engaging guerilla warfare, just to avoid answering a few questions.

I have just begun my journalistic training and proudly stand ready to scourge the dark underbelly of the campus for the truth.

Perhaps you have read my articles in the past, I wouldn’t know since there is so little feedback out there, I am only inclined to assume that no one is reading what I say besides my editors.

So maybe if I arrogantly declare my intent, you will all become riled up enough to send me your hate mail.

I want to know that you are listening. Everyone loves to hate the media these days but still we consume every tidbit of information we can wrap our brains around, and at a premium rate even. But why hate us so much?

Perhaps it is because much of the time there are questionable ethics that are used in the pursuit of the truth.

Maybe it is because the media is constantly focusing on what is bad in the world.

Perhaps it is due to the sensational tactics employed all in the name of ratings.

Maybe it is time the media investigated itself.

However, we might find these things may not be what they seem.

This is a proclamation of investigation and a challenge to all those out there who want to know the truth, a challenge to open up your senses to the world around you and demand to know what is going on, and know that to help you do just that, there are journalists all around you.

We are sitting in the classrooms with you always listening for the story.

We are walking past you in the hallways, eyes ever vigilant for something that will say “this is News.”

We are dining with you at the table, ears ever alert to what people want to know. We are smoking cigarettes with you in the designated areas feeling and reaching for the vibe in the street.

We are amongst you and we want to help you.

Journalists should be given badges and the authority that comes with them.

It falls to the media to shape the world as people perceive past their own limited senses.

With an office of authority would not also a greater accountability for the media ensue?

We would be held to higher standards. If media could move about the world freely with authority then there would be no need for questions of objectivity with things like corporate bribery like free Super Bowl tickets or trips to Disney World. Badge or no badge, journalists are a force to be reckoned with and should be respected.

Throughout history they have built empires and changed the face of the earth.

Are we perfect? No.

There is yet to be a perfect human agency. But we are here to help.

We should stop and consider the faults of the media and see they might be our own faults as well.

The Media, just like politics, is after all, an extension of the will of the people.

We give you sensationalism because you buy more of it than the tamer stories.

We tell so many stories of bad news because people keep doing bad things.

Everyone hates whiners, but remember without whiners, there might be no one to point out where it hurts in the world.

Where it hurts is what I want to find so we can fix it.

That brings me back to my declaration.

I am going to be around here for at least another three years.

I am just starting now. Who knows what can be found in that time.

I will seek out the highest profile and the lowest tier of student society.

It would be nice if you helped.

Send me your feedback, tell me what news you want to see, tell me what information you need.

Throw your hate and praise my way so I can know that there really is a literate society out there.

After all it is all in the name of truth. So in the words of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem Ozymandias, I proclaim “Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”