By The Editorial Board
Though it’s one of the most important skills to have in the age of disinformation, media literacy is a unicorn — we sometimes wonder if it’s real or just a myth. So, as misconceptions of how news organizations work proliferate and suspicion of journalists is at an all-time high, we thought it would be a good time to explain the different sections at The Baylor Lariat to give a look into what we do and what the role of journalism is in a society that increasingly distrusts media.
Under the News, Arts & Life and Sports sections, The Lariat publishes articles that start when a writer pitches a story to their editor. The writer conducts at least two live interviews, and when they submit their stories, it goes through two or three rounds of edits before it appears on The Lariat website and in our print.
Some stories focus on coverage of campus or Waco events, sports or breaking news. Other stories, especially in the A&L section, are lifestyle columns or reviews of albums, movies and TV shows. Each of the three sections have feature stories that focus on a person or a community and highlight what makes them interesting, unique or newsworthy. Feature stories tend to be longer, and they sometimes highlight controversial topics or figures.
Because of that, it’s important to note that coverage of any topic in these sections does not equate to an endorsement of that person or topic. As a news organization, The Lariat makes an effort to cover anything that qualifies as newsworthy based on the values of timeliness, currency, proximity, oddity, impact, human interest and conflict. That means that if a story is odd or unexpected, close to Baylor and Waco, is happening currently, has an impact on the communities we serve or presents a compelling and interesting look into a particular topic, it is worthy of publication.
The value system that Lariat writers, reporters and editors are guided by is the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics, which places emphasis on accuracy, truth, journalistic independence and accountability. And while The Lariat is published by Baylor University, we are grateful to have an administration that understands the importance of journalistic independence and does not dictate what content we cover in the News, A&L and Sports sections and in individual Opinion columns.
Under the Opinion section, our staff and students in the Advanced Reporting and Writing class write columns on rotation. The only permanent member of the Opinion desk is the Opinion Editor, who leads Editorial Board meetings and works with those on rotation to sharpen their columns and help them clearly explain their position. The Opinion section covers a wide range of topics from diverse political takes, religious discussions, cultural commentary and which vegetable is the best.
In the Opinion section, The Lariat encourages its staff to be bold and write from a place of passion that is balanced with research. Multiple viewpoints are represented in this section
Writers on rotation are not prohibited from stating opinions in their columns that may not align with the university’s mission statement or Christian values, and these individual columns are just that — individual. They do not speak for The Lariat as a whole.
The Lariat Editorial Board, however, does. It is currently made up of the Editor-in-Chief, the Opinion Editor, the News Editor, the Arts & Life Editor, a Photo Editor, the Web Editor and the cartoonist. Once a week, we come together to decide on the topics for the following week’s editorials like this one.
We hold robust discussions of political ideas, lifestyle choices, religious differences and more, and the result is a nuanced position that has made its way from one member of the board’s opinion to something that takes into account the perspectives of six other editors.
All of these somewhat bureaucratic descriptions of The Lariat have a purpose. We are an organization of several different moving parts and sections that publish different content, but we come together to provide an essential service to the Baylor family and to Waco.
Good journalism informs readers, keeping them updated on events and stories that are important and current. In the News, A&L and Sports sections, The Lariat publishes dozens of stories a week to accomplish that.
Another thing about good journalism is that it can be challenging. A reader might encounter stories containing content that are at odds with their worldview. This is because in a city as diverse as Waco and on a campus as large as Baylor, there are countless walks of life that, as a news organization, The Lariat strives to fully represent.
The Lariat Editorial Board wrote similar pieces to this one in 2022, 2021, 2020 and 2019. There’s probably more, if only we had the patience to go back that far in our archives.
Suffice to say, the need for better understanding of the media is a recurring theme. We hope that this one doesn’t become just another installment — like the Marvel Cinematic Universe, this is getting old.
