Because The Mirror is produced by students of different majors, genders and race, we like to think that the paper has a fair representation of people from all walks of life. In addition, The Mirror works hard to foster a comfortable environment in which a network of voices can be heard, and every week, the paper strives to produce the facts that our writers and our readers know to be true.
You can imagine the shock that The Mirror felt when we attended the Act Against forum last Thursday and heard that many students were disappointed in the front page article entitled “Bridgeport Shooting Threatens Student Safety.”
The intent of the article was to inform readers about the shootings that occurred outside of Club Lo at Bostwick Avenue and Pine Street, which left one dead and another injured.
However, according to students at the forum, a photo illustration of a hooded figure brandishing a gun, in addition to both the headline and manner in which the article was written, misrepresented Bridgeport as a dangerous place to live and visit. Other students also felt like the article did not consider the perspectives of students who live in Bridgeport, who see the town as their home.
As some background information, this past week served as a transition to our new staff for the 2012-2013 school year. With an overwhelming addition to our current responsibilities, staff members were forced to make certain editing decisions due to time constraints.
One of these was the photo illustration. Because we were unable to get reprinting rights for pictures of the actual crime scene, we made the last minute decision to use this picture from our archive. We do not believe that the photo illustration itself was bad. The article was about a shooting, and the picture had a shooter in it. However, in conjunction with the headline and some student quotes, we know that it could have been seen as bad taste.
So what have we learned from this? Attending this event and ones like it is crucial to promoting a nurturing community here at Fairfield. How? Although we initially realized that our editorial decisions were lacking in terms of visual design, none of us comprehended the negative message the front page was suggesting. It took the attendance of our editorial staff at this event to uncover and understand our mistake.
With this in mind, students should constantly strive to connect with those of different ethnicity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic background and every other conceivable aspect of what makes us unique. Although we all (hopefully) can agree that what happened in Claver is unacceptable by any standard, it shouldn’t take a hateful act to promote these types of connections at Fairfield. General apathy and a lack of attention toward promoting diversity and acceptance at Fairfield can make your actions just as hurtful as those of the Claver vandal.
When we were considering how to respond to this criticism, The Mirror reflected on another controversy that had hit the newspaper in 2009. A “He Said, She Said” article degraded women by using coarse language and caused a wave of disgusted and disappointed comments to appear. After that, The Mirror’s reputation was tainted. However, since then, The Mirror has worked to improve its level of writing and to review the content that it publishes each week. By listening to these reactions, we’ve changed for the better and we’ve moved past – but haven’t forgotten – this controversy. We hope to do the same with this recent issue.
Lastly, The Mirror would like to defend the writer of the article who has been nothing but a reliable and dedicated member to the staff.
Let us be clear that The Mirror fully supports student activism on campus. The staff encourages future student participation in these Act Against forums. These forums can potentially become mediums for change, if only students offer more of their voices. Students who spoke against the March 2 article brought their discontent to our attention, and we thank them for that. We always welcome responses from students, faculty and administration.
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