My parents believed in education, so it worked out. At the age of four, I already knew the basics of human anatomy – from the digestive to skeletal to the reproductive systems. My parents didn’t believe in telling their children the stork stories, so when I asked where babies came from in my pre-kindergarten years, I got a straight answer. And, in my house, we had open discussion about the topics we were educated on. I grew up in a place that allowed me to voice my opinions or question the system without fear of alienation.
To this day, I still believe in informing and providing an open forum for discussion – which, I suppose, is why I became so interested in being a journalist in the first place. So, when I choose to let the articles run in The Reflector that I do, I look to see if they fulfill a purpose worthy of publication.
And that especially rings true for articles that deal with sexuality. Sex, and the issues surrounding it, is a subject I know that is sensitive to part of our readership. So discussions take place, articles are edited and decisions are evaluated and re-evaluated when we choose to publish something of that nature.
In the opinion section, as most of you know, Rachel Perkins has a weekly sex and relationship column. Rachel’s opinion does not reflect the views of the entire staff (how can over 80 employees completely agree, after all?), but it does provide value to the opinion section. She discusses issues that are sensitive and does it well.
Does the column represent the entire student population? Of course not because everyone has a different opinion or experience about each facet of sex and relationships. We don’t pretend that it does, and if you want your opinion published in the newspaper, send it to us at [email protected]. I can only print the opinions written and sent to The Reflector.
And, a criticism we have received multiple times is that what we publish, specifically in her column, could show the university in a bad light, which could deter everything from recruiting to the good opinion of alumni. I’ve said it once: we report the news good and bad – and we publish opinions on everything from sex to politics to new entertainment trends. Rachel’s column is honest, relevant and something a large number of our readers enjoy. Although we take the representation of the university into consideration, we shouldn’t let fear dictate our content.
In addition to opinion articles (which, once again, are colored by the columnist’s viewpoint), we also publish news and feature articles. And, as is the case with several articles running in today’s paper, they focus on controversial issues (in this case, repercussions that can come from sex). These articles don’t try to glorify these topics or tell the reader how to think – they seek to inform. The viewpoints in these articles are those that are expressed by sources.
We chose to publish these articles to inform and educate. We try to explore multiple viewpoints and seek all sides of the topic. And, admittedly, everything is not perfectly done 100 percent of the time. But that won’t stop me from striving to perfection and publishing relevant stories that will be of benefit to the reader.
Our responsibility is to our readers. Because of the nature of our newspaper, it just so happens a good deal of our audience deals with issues that correlate with sexuality. And, although we strive to be ethical and responsible in our articles (columns or news or features, aside), we will continue to publish content that deals with these topics.
And, if there’s a story you want us to cover or if you want your opinion published, email me. Because we do this for the audience.