Criticism of The Exonian and Its Reputation
By: Gamze Toksoz and Chengyue Zhang
At the beginning of the 2020-21 school year, in which students learned through the world of Zoom, The Exonian connected the student body, especially new students, to the campus’s current events. Reading the paper and following its social media updates were easy ways for Exonians to stay in-the-know during an isolating time. However, as the school has returned to in-person programming, the newspaper has only grown more and more irrelevant by the week, or should we say fortnight, as the 144th Board has adopted a new bi-weekly schedule for publishing.
Though harsh, this criticism holds at least some truth. Most of the time, the stacks of papers in the dining hall or EPAC go untouched. Students seem to only pick up a copy or demonstrate any interest in the paper if they wrote in it, were mentioned in it, or just want to do the crossword. If students are actually interested in the paper’s reporting, they’re more likely to read only the Humor and Opinions section, as you might be doing now, to read more personal and subjective student pieces.
Following the 144th Board’s implementation of a bi-weekly publishing schedule, the News and Life sections inevitably became less relevant and up-to-date, unable to keep up with the fast pace of Exeter’s events. What student would care to read on events that happened up to two weeks ago? Reporting becomes obsolete, and even when an event is reported on time, the quality of reporting is lower because there is a lack of information, as the writers were expected to write about the event two weeks before the publishing of the issue. The editors and the board are making an active effort to plan ahead to make the article topics relevant, but there are unavoidable holes in the system. This is not us trying to slander the new schedule, though. It has reduced the writers’ and editors’ stress, and in the short term, the new schedule adds flexibility, but the long term consequences are worth contemplating.
Furthermore, an important question to ask when considering The Exonian’s relevance is: who is the paper’s audience? Is it the student body, the teachers, or maybe the parents? Most of the time, the paper may feel redundant for a student, but perhaps more useful for a parent, teacher, or someone outside of Exeter, as it reports mostly large-scale events that most students already attend. If the paper wants to stay relevant to students, it needs to increase students’ engagement with the content of The Exonian and make the paper reflective of students’ lives, not only through reporting school-wide events, but also by celebrating the individual experiences of the student body.
Additionally, it is universally agreed upon that part of what makes a good article is the writer’s genuine interest in the topic they are writing about. During recent article sign-up meetings, editors can be seen “bribing” or pressuring writers to sign up for pre-determined article ideas. No shame, it’s their job to keep the paper alive, but the fact that few writers are enthusiastic in their sign-ups tells of The Exonian’s culture. Writers’ true commitment to the paper and what we report is an integral part of the paper’s success, and the seeming lack of it should be addressed and discussed.
Perhaps it is worth looking at how the Opinions and Humor sections operate, as they appear to be the most alive sections of The Exonian. The common denominator of these two sections is that it is fully up to the writer to come up with what they want to write about. Giving the writers more power on what content the paper covers and possibly starting each meeting with a question like, “What is something that you would like to share with the community?” could enhance the diversity of thought in the paper and help establish a community within The Exonian. It could even encourage new writers to join.
One way to achieve this is to report news that is not directly related to Exeter. We know, we know. The articles “should always tie back to Exeter so that there is a reason an Exonian is reading it,” but this furthers the idea of the “Exeter bubble” and shelters us from the rest of the world. It would be beneficial to hear personal stories from students featured in The Exonian that don’t necessarily relate to the school, but should be heard anyway; students’ stories and lives are relevant to the paper simply because it features a member of our community. Furthermore, it would be great to see The Exonian picking up more columns, such as the Trend Watch on fashionable Exonians, or reports on fun events in town such as the Farmers’ Market on Swasey.
The Exonian is a journalistic paper, but establishing an art section, maybe in collaboration with another club, where creative writing and artwork can be submitted and featured. Many students do not feel connected to the paper because student work outside of journalism is not featured. Though this is not the main focus of the paper, offering a section to feature student work beyond reporting could add more diversity to the writing and would be similar to blurbs in many newspapers. The Exonian holds the power of publishing high quality papers every two weeks, so why not branch out and make these resources more accessible to the general student body? There are so many ways in which The Exonian can improve upon its current reputation, and these are only a few of many other students’ brilliant ideas to consider.
