condoms, cartoons, and responsible journalism

Recently, I was reading a copy of The Sentinel, the newspaper from North Idaho College. We run into the students and adviser from this paper fairly often, especially around the time of the national ACP conference each fall. The paper has a pretty solid national reputation as one of the leading newspapers among 2-year schools. Which is why their presentation of a story about National Condom Week threw me for a loop.

From the front page, you would think this story was a large spread or at least in-depth feature. At the top of the page next to the flag (newspaper lingo for the name of the newspaper at the top of the front page), a row of neon-colored condoms sat on the left side of the page, teasing the story. (I can't find the page at the moment, otherwise I would have included a picture). However, the teaser in no way matched the news value or really the tone of the fairly mundane event. In fact, the story uses an almost intentionally shocking lead in order to make the story seem like more of a big deal, in my opinion.

Now as a disclaimer, a lot of my journalism experience comes from public high school and a private Christian liberal arts university. However, this doesn't mean I can't recognize irresponsible journalism when I see it. Yes, the paper should have run the story. Yes, the story was about condoms. Yes, putting colored condoms as the dominant graphic on the front page will grab reader's attention. However, this doesn't mean you should present the story or information in an overly sensational or misleading manner.

It's decisions like these that make it that much harder for journalists to get sources to trust us, or even cooperate during an interview. Journalism balances on the crux of public cooperation, and if we abuse this responsibility, we will find ourselves losing not only our reputations, but our vital role as a trusted source of information within a community. And while I have great respect for The Sentinel and the work they do, I would urge us all in the journalism world, especially in college newspapers, to strive for a higher level of professionalism.

On another somewhat related note, here are two other opinions columns from that week's issue that might help emphasize my point about a need for responsible journalism:

Lose the wheels, lose the weight: rolling your backback only facilitates laziness, unhealthy behavior (also of related interest to the condom article is the graphical representation, in this case a cartoon, for the purpose of shock value.)

Purge the wicked: abort sex offenders (This one is a good example of a headline used for shock value that doesn't really relate to the content of the story.)