A Case for School and Community Journalism

I regret that my career in journalism didn’t start at the Priory Press. Searching through the haze of my memories, I guess that my decision not to join or contribute to the school paper at the time was due mostly to me not knowing my own passions, or in which direction to face. Knowing myself better now, it was probably also due to my arrogance, thinking that community-level journalism—the community in this case being ours at Saint Anselm’s—couldn’t be glamorous enough for my oversized yet aimless ambitions. How pompous of me.

I spent more than a decade reporting from West Asia and North Africa for the newspapers, radio stations, and TV outlets I had dreamed of contributing to. But in a world where the internet is available globally and English is widespread, the role of the foreign correspondent in reporting about local affairs elsewhere, sadly, often results in speaking over, for, or plagiarizing local voices. True, extremely empathetic outsiders can sometimes see things locals cannot, but locals are generally more capable of telling their own stories or reporting on the community of which they are a part. That is in part because they are involved in building their own community on a daily basis.

Here at the Abbey, we have a unique opportunity to do community-level journalism. We have an in-built community (the audience/readership) that is already interested in learning about issues affecting one other. Our community is so closely knit, yet many still don’t know what others are up to. What is going on with the other clubs that we don’t attend? Have our fellow students had successes and challenges and adventures we haven’t heard about by word of mouth? How is our chess team doing? Our quiz bowl team? Our sports teams? A reporter would investigate and report back to let the rest of the community know!

What about interviews with teachers? Are there teachers we love, especially those with lots of experience who may be retiring soon, who we wish we could learn more about outside of the classroom? I personally wish I had had more chances to speak with Mr. Achilles before he retired. An interview for the Priory Press (if he had accepted) would have been a great excuse to sit down with him to discuss these questions, as well as a means of sharing with the rest of the community his accumulated wisdom about history, teaching, and the school. What about interviews with monks, parents, grandparents, coaches, or alumni?

The best reporting involves journalists listening to, questioning, watching, recording, and thinking about the voices of multiple people and then presenting or representing their interviewees as truly as possible. At its best, journalism is a form of public education. It is something of incredible value to society, yet, paradoxically, largely unprofitable. Years after the collapse of local papers due to their unprofitability, it is hard to express what was lost with them to a generation of Abbey students who never experienced it. While we still have a community paper in the Priory Press and a special community to write about and for, I urge you to make the most of it. Journalism is a great tool for learning and for teaching, for building community, and for honing one’s writing skills.