Take a moment to close your eyes (well hang on, read first and then close your eyes) and imagine that you are a reporter for USA Today. Now imagine that your pay has been docked to about half of minimum wage.
No one will take you seriously, and to add insult to injury, you have to pay for most events you cover for the newspaper.
Now imagine how difficult it would be to do your job if you were not given the proper materials and information to do something as routine as review a local play.
This is what it is like to be working for a student newspaper. We are criticized when we are unable to cover campus events yet antagonized when we do.
Many student organizations on campus are very kind in assisting the East Tennessean. SGA and their concert committee along with Tricia Nguyen have always been extremely helpful to us – along with ETSU Athletics – for always getting us those last-minute press passes and granting us free access to their events.
But there are so many times when we either have to beg to get into events for free (it is difficult to cover every campus event without occasionally catching a break), are denied interviews, put off and generally disrespected, and then we are somehow expected to put out a well-rounded paper twice a week.
Sunday, for instance, I was trying to acquire a program from “Macbeth” because I just needed some actors’ names. The program was snatched from my hand and I was told that I had to pay for a ticket before receiving a program. I am unsure as to whether or not this was bitterness on their part because they were expecting a bad review from me after letting me in for free on Thursday or what …
At the Dierks Bentley concert this past fall, even though we were allowed press passes, we were given a hard time about entering the Mini-Dome early, and told that we could “interview people in the back of the line.” There were already students filing in.
What if something had happened in the Dome while we were standing in the back of the line until the concert had pretty much started? What if there was something to note in the set-up of the event? What difference would it have really made in allowing two student reporters into the building early with the rest of the press? If Channel 11 news was there, I doubt they would have been asked to stand in line.
I also always wonder why there is no meet and greet allowed for the East Tennessean with the concerts here on campus. Yet, there are photos all over Facebook of students posing with the Goo Goo Dolls in the Mini-Dome.
Eventually we did gain access to a “Macbeth” program, and after waiting around for a while we were let into the Dierks Bentley concert early. But why must we fight for these things? No wonder we are considered to be JUST a student newspaper, when that is exactly how we are treated.
We are not trying to be an annoyance. We are here to report on news, cover campus events, review plays, etc., and that is exactly what we will do.
As so eloquently stated in Bagdikian’s Observation, “Trying to be a first rate reporter on the average American newspaper is like trying to play Bach’s ‘St. Matthew’s Passion’ on a ukelele.

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