On Our Mind: Criticisms of The Bulletin's coverage

Cartoon by Taryn Trousdale

Everyone knows that the most important aspect of a newspaper is its audience: the readers. Here at The Bulletin, we work hard to make our readers happy. Despite the occasional mistakes that come from the fact that all of us are imperfect people, we feel that we’re doing a fairly good job at producing the best news that we can for our readers.

Something we’ve come to notice recently is that some of our readers don’t seem to appreciate all of our efforts. In fact, The Bulletin staff has worked hard to heed the suggestions and even harsh criticism of the Emporia State community, perhaps more than ever, within the last year.

We have no trouble conceding to the fact that in years past our content, layout and reporting have left something to be desired. Consequently, we have worked from the bottom up to transform The Bulletin into a valid, respected publication.

Nearly three years ago we printed a survey on the back page of The Bulletin and asked our readers to respond. They did and an overwhelming majority of those responding said they wanted more hard-hitting news and news that would make changes on campus.

We have worked hard since then to cover more important issues and to work to make change on campus. We have done this through various changes to the newspaper.

These changes have occurred within the writing, photography and overall design of The Bulletin. We feel that in the last year, our material has become much more relevant and more equally representative of all students on campus.

Yet it would seem as though some people are dramatically opposed to the changes that we have made, especially in terms of reporting. We have been disappointed many times to find that some members of the ESU community do not seem to have any desire to gain a deeper understanding of their surroundings.

In our numerous attempts to report with integrity, timeliness and professionalism, we have been consistently criticized for our dedication to writing newsworthy material. It would seem as though, despite our best efforts to please our readers, some people simply enjoy finding something to complain about.

There are others, however, who have noticed the changes that we have worked so diligently to make and appreciate our commitment to integrity, and those are the readers for whom we will continue to strive toward excellence.

We would like to sincerely thank all of those who have supported us throughout the past year as we have worked to improve this publication. We look forward to continuing to serve and represent this community in an accurate and straightforward manner.