My biggest issue with working on my high school newspaper was the lack of appreciation we got for our work. Most students did not even know we had a student newspaper, much less what we wrote about. When I came to college, I hoped that the community at Northwestern State University of Louisiana would have a more mature perspective on the importance of journalism.

I still have not found this maturity. I am continuously shocked and disappointed by how our campus community treats student media. Between the snide jokes from students on YikYak and dismissive attitude from university administration, I’m getting tired. I think it is time to pay The Current Sauce the respect it is due.

Feedback is essential for anybody trying to develop a skill. As a student journalist, I appreciate input from others about my articles. However, some recent comments have shown a blatant misunderstanding of what our publication is. These are the things I wish you understood about my job as the Viewpoints editor of The Current Sauce.

We are entirely student led.

Our articles are not official university press releases. In fact, the university has no direct control over what we publish (besides enforcing ethical guidelines). Every article written by The Current Sauce is done by students, from the initial story pitch to the interviews and the editing of the final draft.

As students, The Current Sauce reporters have no greater access to information than you do. The information we obtain for articles is acquired by asking those with authority to share it with us, whether it’s a police report or a statement from administration.

We are not withholding any information from students. We are working with the same data set that everyone else is, but we do the work to compile the information and synthesize it into an article.

This also means that those with authority are often hesitant to give us information. While the university can not directly censor us, they may inhibit our writing process. Contacting sources can often be like pulling teeth.

For example, housing staff took weeks to respond to our interview requests, making it difficult to cover hot issues in a timely manner. When investigating the removal of gender-inclusive housing, it took many days of persistent emails to get a response from Campus Living Villages. There are many offices involved in running our campus. Some of them, such as campus dining and housing, are managed by third-party companies that do not easily volunteer information to student journalists.

With persistence, we were able to get some information from housing; however, we could only get a comment over email and did not land an in-person interview. While we recognize everyone’s busy and conflicting schedules, the same is true for many other faculty and staff members.

Not every article can be a flashy repost-able headline.

The Current Sauce writes about a variety of topics, which is why we are broken up into sections: News, Sports, Arts & Living and Viewpoints. I am the Viewpoints editor, meaning that I specialize in writing articles that provide commentary on NSU, Natchitoches, Louisiana and other topics involving student opinions. My articles are rarely dramatic breaking news. Does this mean my job is pointless? Some students on YikYak certainly think so. I think the problem is with how people interact with news.

It is common in today’s world for people to consume journalism via a series of reposted headlines on social media. We deny it, but it is just factual. A study from Pennsylvania State University discovered that 75% of articles shared on Facebook were reposted before the user actually clicked the link to the article.

This aligns with statistics from The Current Sauce Instagram and Purple Media Network. Take, for example, my article “Is it time for NSU students to become more politically active?” The headline posted on The Current Sauce Instagram received 135 likes, 10 reposts and 29 shares. Compare this to the article itself on Purple Media Network, which is sitting at a whopping 33 views. This shows what people are really looking for when it comes to journalism: a headline that hits hard. Only a fraction of people are interested in the full story.

This is true for more than just Viewpoints stories. Bella Scamardo’s story about NSU’s potential law school got over 600 likes on Instagram, while the article itself only garnered 100 views.

I think this is especially problematic with Viewpoints articles, because those headlines convey very little information. Viewpoints headlines are typically a question, and potential answers are revealed throughout the article. Each piece takes the reader through multiple sides of an issue, and it concludes with a call to action. The headline is not the purpose of a Viewpoints article—it is an invitation into a larger discussion.

I understand that not everyone has the time to read a full article; however, if you only learn about things through social media posts, you miss so much. How can you expect to understand the world around you if you won’t look closely? Have the clutches of anti-intellectualism dragged our student body away from curiosity? It worries me.

I can’t control you, you can’t control me…but we can communicate with each other.

Though I wish it was possible, I can not make anyone read my articles. I can’t make anyone like them. I can’t force anyone to give my work the respect I think it deserves. I have accepted this.

Likewise, The Current Sauce can not always be exactly what the student body wants it to be. Due to the aforementioned challenges and restrictions, we (the staff) can’t even make it what we want it to be. We try to serve the students, but only so much is possible. So, can we approach each other with a little more patience and understanding?

The Current Sauce has a Tipline Google Form, where you can share information with our newsroom. The form is chronically under-utilized. If you want The Current Sauce to be better, I urge you to use the Google Form and make your voice heard. If you have lots of ideas, maybe you should apply to be on our staff next semester. Rather than be upset with each other, we can all contribute together and improve student media.

Being in The Current Sauce is fun! I would not keep doing it if I didn’t enjoy it. However, it is not an easy organization to be part of. We work so hard because we want to have a good publication. Journalism matters to us, but it is disheartening to feel like it matters only to us. It seems like most NSU students make very little effort to understand their student newspaper. There are a lot of harmful myths going around about The Current Sauce, but we are dedicated to spreading the truth as much as we can.