Instructor Dean Hume gave a lesson to his Newspaper Editors class Monday, July 29 in order to teach his students the importance of balancing what a newspaper’s targeted readership wants to read and what they need to read, saying that there should be a balance of both in newspaper. The class, located in the Communication Arts and Sciences Building, is targeted towards those learning to improve their editing skills.
Hume, who sometimes speaks through anecdotes, related to a story of his childhood about how his mother would make him eat lima beans, and, not a fan of lima beans, he would mix them with his mashed potatos to make them taste better.
“Are you giving them what they want: the mashed potatos, or what they need: the lima beans?” Hume said, adding that it’s necessary to tell both types of stories for a good publicaiton.
His students, arranged in a circle with name tags on each person’s desk,went around the room and each shared an example of stories that their readership either wanted to read or need to read that their respective publications have covered, branching off into other discussions on the validity of facts and the widespread information that is informing political beliefs.
Hume also gave his students advice, telling them what a journalist is expected to do when it comes to information.
“[Journalists] can’t ignore one thing in order to form an opinion: that’s the duty of a journalist,” he said.
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