Last week, we — Iselin Bratz, the current Editor-in-Chief, and Meg Richards, last semester’s EIC — held a focus group with six students from various corners of Emerson. We did so to learn more about what students care about on campus and how The Beacon can improve our reporting as student journalists.
Our inaugural focus group hosted students from the School of Film, the School of Communication, and the School of Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies. We recognize that six opinions are not representative of the entire student body; this was just the first of many discussions The Beacon plans to hold in upcoming semesters.
Here’s what we have learned from our respective tenures leading the paper and our goals for The Beacon’s future.
What we discussed
Students brought up that some issues The Beacon has written about could be expanded upon, including the renaming of departments, events, and positions regarding Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; the disconnect between Emerson administration and students; racism, classism, and other forms of discrimination at Emerson; the institution’s financial health; the financial burden of an Emerson education and the perceived prioritization of profit over people at Emerson; and the lack of access to classes required to complete certain minors.
They also talked with us about the continued concerns on campus regarding a video we posted to The Beacon’s Instagram from a protest last October, and made recommendations on how we can build more trust with the student body.
The two of us were directly involved in the social media coverage of last semester’s Oct. 7 protest. We covered the arrests of 13 protesters, some of whom were Emerson students, and posted video footage from that evening. Concerns from our community members arose because the videos we posted showed the faces of those who were arrested, which led to our decision to take the videos down.
After discussion with our editing team, we reuploaded the video using clips that did not compromise people’s faces. We published a statement of transparency about our decision and a commitment to reconsider our protest coverage.
This semester’s managing and news editors — with input from the editing staff as a whole — have created new internal social media coverage guidelines and policies. After many internal discussions, along with our first focus group, we will share more about these policies and our processes next week.
What we’re going to do
This semester, we have been seeking to establish a new, easier line of communication between the paper and the student body.
We will be rebranding, and will reformat the Community Feedback Form, which previously existed for Emerson community members to share feedback about the way we report on stories. The new line, called “Tell Us Your Story,” will expand on this function, and will also be a community board where students, faculty, and staff are invited to tell us about events their organizations are doing, student productions we should check out, or something that’s been bugging them about campus life. To fill it out, visit berkeleybeacon.com/tell-us-your-story/.
We want our reporting to reflect what the student body cares about and the changes happening at this college on an institutional level. Onward, our goal is to represent as many facets and perspectives of these topics as possible.
This also means getting involved in the community beyond only reporting on it — not only showing up to events to report, but also being a part of them. We want to reconnect with the different communities at Emerson that we serve.
Reflections
At the end of the day, we are students first, not reporters; the way we function as a news organization should reflect that, not disregard it. While we will continue to uphold ethical journalism standards to the best of our abilities, this does not mean we are just journalists — we are classmates, roommates, and disgruntled group project members who also report.
To best achieve this blend, we must be more in touch with the community. We want to talk with you all, bridge the gaps, and back up our words with action. A huge part of that is listening, and this focus group was the first step.
As two graduating seniors, we will soon no longer be a part of this paper, but we know that our new masthead will be dedicated to continuing the outreach needed to uphold these values. The method will change with each new masthead. At the minimum, future staff will continue holding more campus events such as focus groups, town halls, social events, and tabling.
We want to collaborate to make this paper — and on a bigger scale, this college — better. But we can’t do it alone. It’ll take all of us. So please take this as an invitation, from us to you, to join the conversation.
