With student publications making national news recently,  The Shield staff feels it’s a good time to discuss the role of the collegiate journalist.

Earlier this month tensions on the University of Missouri campus reached a boiling point as the student group Concerned Student 1950 actively protested then-System President Tim Wolfe, citing racial inequalities and a lack of representation in campus administration as their main concerns.

On Nov. 9 several Mizzou students uploaded footage of protesters harassing student media attempting to cover the event, using hand-made signs to claim a public part of campus as a “media free safe space.”

One such video shows student photographer Tim Tai, a photojournalist on assignment for ESPN, being verbally and physically harassed by a mob of students.

Before becoming a journalist, Tim Tai was (and remains) another member of campus. As any photojournalist can attest, student press want to report and document events that matter to their respective campuses.

When media arrive to cover an event, regardless if they’re local or university media, their presence means the event is newsworthy. It’s not common practice for journalists to cover an event simply because they have nothing better to do. Enough time and effort is expended on covering important news that we simply don’t have the time to waste on fluff.  There has to be a meaningful story or important development to make it worth the attention.

More importantly: if the media does not cover something, the event might as well have never happened. We put a lot of work into our job to ensure the whole of campus is covered and receives a free and balanced news source.

Before continuing, it’s worth noting that by Nov. 10 all “safe space” signs were removed and replaced with signs and hand-outs encouraging protesters to support any media in their midst. This almost immediate change in outlook is welcome, but the fact that a student protest on First Amendment rights attempted to censor media coverage in the first place is cause for concern.

Not all media succeeds as providing a fair and unbiased report of popular events, particularly national news outlets. But the more localized an outlet is, the more true to form the story will remain when it is properly reported. When something happens on campus, it’s our territory as university journalists. We are the closest ones to the issue and as such, are equipped to do the best job of being honest, inclusive and providing context for the event.

Blocking us from doing that only hurts any given cause. We, as college journalists, fully support the voice of the students.

To quote a front page editorial in the first issue of the The Spartan Shield, published Oct. 15, 1968: “We recognize both the value of and the necessity for divergent opinions and the right for all voices to be heard on any and all issues. It is therefore our intention that The SHIELD provide a medium for these voices in editorial statement and in readers’ comments.”