Coverage of the LGBT community in The State News,
Michigan
State
University
'
s independent student newspaper, wavers from semester to semester.
There are many factors that contribute to the somewhat inconsistent coverage. Among them is the high turnover of reporters and LGBT campus leaders, which makes is hard to establish a lasting relationship with sources. Because students balance class and extracurricular activities, the solid relationships that are shared with city and campus officials and the paper is almost nonexistent with most diversity sources. As one of the few openly gay members on staff, I often alert our diversity reporter to events, issues and news from the LGBT community. I try to act as a resource within the newsroom, using my relationships in the LGBT community to better the paper’s coverage.
When I began college four years ago, the LGBT community on campus was extremely active. It was not hard to find an event or an issue that was not being tackled by the eager activists on campus. But now, with many of the leaders having graduated or moved on from their positions, the LGBT community is dormant throughout the year. Instead of publicizing issues, the community simply talks about them within itself, often closed off from some other communities on campus. This, combined with weak reporting, has impacted the paper’s coverage.
To solve this problem, campus and diversity reporters must learn to immerse themselves with someone they might not be comfortable with. Our current diversity reporter left one LGBT event feeling awkward about asking transgender individuals how they identify. I pulled her aside later that evening and explained that it is never wrong to politely ask a question; however, it is wrong to assume anything about any source, especially in the LGBT community. People need to expand beyond their personal comfort zones. It is the job of a reporter to know the community, whether it is a physical location or a minority group, which they are reporting on.
As one of the top editors at my paper, diversity is something that is always at the front of my mind. I work to make sure every community, not just my own, is covered in the paper. It is our job to inform the school about the different and diverse people that attend it.
More emphasis needs to be placed on the diversity beat in our newsroom. Once that is done and the beat is revamped, perhaps the paper can have better coverage of all campus groups. We can only better the paper if we first better ourselves by stepping into someone else’s shoes.
