Students at UNR Criticize Journalism, While Not Knowing About Campus Student Publications

While asking students on the UNR campus in Reno what they thought of journalism, Wenei Philimon was surprised to find out they don’t know about student publications on their own campus.

Montage of photos of different students on campus being interviewed about perception of journalism.

Listen to audio story above by Wenei Philimon.

Society Moving Away from ‘Legacy Media’ into Uncertain Territory of Social Media

People used to depend on newspapers to get their news, as well as so called “legacy media,” such as established publications, radio and television, where the consumer is generally passive. Nowadays, that seems to be increasingly rare. According to a recent survey on Statisa, an online portal for statistics, 30% of people from the age of 18 to 30 do not read newspapers at all. Students at UNR do not even know that there is a student run newspaper.

Julissa Perez, a veterinary medicine student doesn’t read anything by student journalists, but it doesn’t stop her from criticizing journalism.

Ideas to Make Campus News Better, Without Knowing About It

“A lot of journalism kind of exaggerates certain topics and doesn’t express the true story. When it comes to political things or certains students achieving or student’s not getting the credit they deserve. For example, they would say, “this hard working girl from Walmart ‘’ but not say their ethnicity.”

Perez had ideas about how to make student publications better.

“Targeting more things like, I guess the biggest topic is diversity but also expressing things that are hard to cover like mental health, sexuality, being able to be open and be more welcoming to the student body. I haven’t really experienced anything to do with them. I don’t see much of the student newspaper. I feel like they are not as accessible or well promoted.”

A lot of these topics have been covered by student media recently.

Above in a video by Karina Dominguez with David Delfin, student journalists also encountered deep mistrust for certain segments of journalism.

Against “Subjectivity”

Kayla Miller, another veterinary medicine student, does not like subjectivity even though she also doesn’t consume student news.

“Student journalists should really focus on talking to both sides of whatever they are researching because that avoids biases and they should avoid putting them in there because that’s when it starts to go south.”

Henry Stone found more enthusiastic responses on the continued importance of journalism on his own tour of campus.

A finance and economic student, Estefanosse Tibebu, who was doing homework did see value in what student journalists bring.

Importance of Students Covering their Own News

“I think it’s good [student journalism] because they kind tell the story of a lot of things that they notice from their perception,” Tibebu (pictured above) said. “When students are running it, they can tell stories about what’s happening on campus or what they see in their lives and things that they are interested in that may interest a lot of people their age. I don’t read [any student news ex: Sagebrush] because I didn’t know it was a thing.

So, maybe it’s also a question of marketing and being more active on social media.

University of Nevada, Reno student, Klé Boyd consumes their news, “all over the place.” whether it be journal articles such as Reddit or online with friends through a video game chatroom called Discord. In regard to journalism as a whole, Boyd said: “I think there is a lot of corruption. I think it could be better but I think some of that is kinda inescapable.” Photo and Interview by Sophia Day.

Reporting by Wenei Philimon with additional photos and quotes where indicated by other students with the Reynolds Sandbox