Letter from the editor: On celebration

It’s with nice pleasure and immense satisfaction that I write to you right now to commemorate a big milestone in our publication’s historical past. 2023 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Washington Sq. Information — 50 years of relentless dedication to impartial reporting, to knowledgeable discourse, to coaching the subsequent technology of journalists.

Our five-decade journey is a testomony to our unwavering dedication to the pursuit of fact in a dynamic world, each on and off campus. Whereas impartial, rigorous, student-run journalism is usually a making an attempt pursuit, bearing witness to the challenges and triumphs which have formed the NYU neighborhood is each a duty and a privilege. It’s a activity that generations of WSN workers have been honored to undertake.

Because the editor-in-chief, I can say that we’re all honored to share this exceptional second with you. Furthermore, we’re thrilled to mark the event with a particular print version of the Washington Sq. Information.

WSN is persistently acknowledged as one of many nation’s main faculty newspapers for its excellence in digital journalism. However there stays an influence to the sensation of newsprint in a single’s fingers. A print newspaper reminds us that — it doesn’t matter what cover-ups, bias or misinformation might search to obscure — the phrases of diligent truth-tellers can impress a really actual mark upon the world.

Our commemorative print situation is a tribute to that journalistic custom. Even in an more and more digital world that appears more and more pitted in opposition to fact, the printed phrase retains its energy to tell, educate and encourage.

From breaking-news protection to in-depth investigations; from thought-provoking opinion items to interviews with up-and-coming artists — the breadth and depth of WSN’s protection embodies the complexity of the world that NYU college students are studying to navigate.

We maintain the campus knowledgeable. We form its discourse. We encourage crucial pondering; we nurture various views; we domesticate strong dialogue. We inform the tales that matter to our various neighborhood, and we ask the questions that they need to know the solutions to.

And it isn’t solely the readers who profit. Our publication serves as a platform for college kids to immerse themselves in real-world journalistic observe. Right here, they refine their writing abilities and develop their instincts as they prepare within the ideas of goal reporting, fact-checking and journalistic ethics.

At WSN, scholar journalists reckon with their preconceptions and do the messy work of sifting via uncertainty. They discover a variety of matters, have interaction with various views, and confront the challenges of in search of out and conveying fact. This practicum builds on their NYU training as they work to grow to be societal custodians of truth.

The idea of fact itself is as underneath risk because it ever has been. In politics, deception, falsehood and straight-up lies threaten our society’s democratic foundations. Within the media, missteps and equivocations — actual and perceived — have earned the press disdain within the eyes of many.

Now, the endeavor of incomes and sustaining the general public belief via the protection of truth lies forward. Fact will want a brand new technology of defenders.

School newspapers are the crucibles during which the best-tempered journalists are cast — and we want the perfect we will get.

Pupil journalism performs a useful position in creating the defenders of a free and democratic society. It’s in these pages that the subsequent technology of journalists will discover their voices, develop their skilled identities, and emerge as knowledgeable and accountable contributors to the worldwide discourse.

Nevertheless, like many publications, we discover ourselves going through monetary challenges. The transition to the digital panorama, coupled with shifts in promoting and funding fashions, has offered obstacles we’re hard-pressed to summit alone. To proceed our mission of empowering scholar journalists and informing our neighborhood, we want your assist.

As we rejoice our fiftieth anniversary, we invite our loyal readers, alumni and mates to face with us. Your assist will be sure that we will maintain the custom of impartial journalism alive and thriving on our campus.

Within the spirit of this anniversary, we encourage you to replicate on the significance of scholar journalism.

The Sarah Raybin Portlock Fund was established in honor of a WSN alum who served as editor-in-chief, in 2006. She was not solely an completed journalist, however she additionally mentored and championed younger journalists all through her profession, beginning at WSN. Sarah championed scholar journalism as a method to inform a campus neighborhood and to offer the area and assist college students must become considerate, rigorous journalists. The previous and way forward for WSN try to take care of the longevity of our publication and facilitate a sustainable setting for our scholar journalists. Your donations assist us proceed to offer a platform for the tales that must be informed and the details that must be heard — at NYU and past.

– the editor
Manasa Gudavalli
[email protected]