A journalist’s foremost job is to answer questions that readers have.
And so right from the outset, we shall answer the question that is no doubt on the minds of every reader of this website—why set up a third source of news when the student body is already served by the Nanyang Chronicle and NTU Tribune?
Newspapers should exist to serve their readers.
Such a simple notion is often lost in most news organisations today, where the existing mode of operation is fraught with complexities.
Journalists—whose job is quite simply to seek truth and to present them in a fair and comprehensive manner to readers—often find themselves encumbered by forces non-editorial in nature.
Advertisers, eager to sell their products to their target audience, find ways to disguise advertisements as editorials. In more extreme cases, they seek to influence editorial content that may otherwise put them in bad light.
But it is not merely advertisers whom journalists must appease. Their publishers, who in most cases own and pay for the papers, may take exception at certain stories and prevent their publication.
Still, such is the reality of the press today: newspaper publishing is a business, and an expensive one at that. It comes as little surprise that the people who are putting the pressure on journalists are those with the money.
The Nanyang Technological University has been gracious to fund not one, but two campus newspapers: the Nanyang Chronicle and the NTU Tribune.
In the Chronicle, students from the communication school gain invaluable experience by putting what they have learnt in classrooms into action.
Such a model where student journalists concentrate on doing journalism while the university picks up the tab has served the university well in the past 14 years.
But the recent saga where the university decided to pull two news stories on a visit by opposition party leader Chee Soon Juan made salient the influences that are not within the control of journalists.
Clearly the 15,000 copies of Chronicle printed once every three weeks come with its own set of strings attached.
While the university had until recently not interfered in the editorial functions of the Chronicle, the Chee incident has highlighted that it can and it will do so if it deems the content unacceptable.
A simple equation where readers should have been at the forefront has thus been upset.
In setting up the Enquirer, we hope to restore the imbalance where readers have become almost an afterthought in this equation by answering only to our readers—the most important stakeholders in journalism—and to ourselves.
We, however, harbour no unrealistic dream of replacing the Chronicle and Tribune as papers of record.
Far from it, we see this online newspaper in a complementary role to the mainstream university press; covering the stories that the Chronicle and Tribune do not and in angles which have not been looked at.
There is currently a void in the discussion of issues as the Chronicle and Tribune are vehicles for events coverage. We will fill that void with in-depth reporting on matters that impact the lives of NTU students.
True to our mission, we believe the student body of the university will be better off with one more outlet of news, and that is our reason of being.
If you like this story, please consider making a donation to help further the Enquirer's cause.
psy
says:October 4th, 2008 at 6.18am
rock on, guys. :)
K
says:October 4th, 2008 at 10.49am
(: Good luck.
Enquirer.Sg Debuts « College Media Matters
says:October 4th, 2008 at 4.27pm
[...] possible within school-sanctioned publications. In an introductory editorial headlined, “Reason for Being,” the chief editor [...]
Xiong
says:October 4th, 2008 at 9.31pm
All the best, as you guys strive for the highest journalistic standards!
kash
says:October 4th, 2008 at 10.34pm
An extremely well-written editorial.im here, all the way
Cheryl
says:October 4th, 2008 at 10.51pm
Guys, thanks for setting up the site.
Let’s make the hit counter (figuratively speaking) go through the roof.
Xinyi
says:October 5th, 2008 at 3.04pm
All the best!
Lin
says:October 5th, 2008 at 5.58pm
I’m looking forward to this more than to the Chron or the Tribune, whose stance on issues are often more so the Universities than the students. While it often seems like the paper is a voice for the students, its pretty much a University-accepted student-body voice.
Go for it, write as you think, you feel and you believe.
Cheers!
kairu
says:October 5th, 2008 at 7.55pm
jiayou guys! you have our support! :)
Justin.z
says:October 5th, 2008 at 11.34pm
Hey, nice initiative guys. I always wondered why this was not done earlier.
I think rather than see the world as one with or without censorship, let’s see it as something more fluid. Censorship will always exist but what is more exciting and effective is this constant presentation of resistance to it. I see The Enquirer as one such resistance.
Also, while it is easy to white-wash all publishers as “evil”, but let’s not forget we all have different interests. As the editor of The Enquirer, you are a publisher too and your interests may one day clash with a news you want to publish too.
Just my two cents…
Students protest Nanyang Chronicle censorship « Satsueisha
says:October 5th, 2008 at 11.46pm
[...] Enquirer describes itself as “an online newspaper based in NTU (which) aims to carve out a niche in comprehensive [...]
psy_
says:October 6th, 2008 at 1.14am
way cool.. you have my prayers.
jing
says:October 6th, 2008 at 10.04pm
good initiative. keep it up!
z
says:October 7th, 2008 at 10.43am
JJ, you guys rock! great work here. keep up the good work, and like every senior will eventually say to you some day, as they always say to us. Don’t sell out.
Keep it up, make it even better than Tribune, or even Chron (which is so ironic) but yeah. Let not every headline be “NTU profs say lalala” “NTU expert says…” “NTU won lalala”
Bravo!
wei
says:October 8th, 2008 at 9.54pm
toast to the autonomy of student media!
NUS Student
says:October 11th, 2008 at 11.07am
Indeed, a toast to the autonomy of student media (if it’s possible). Even here at NUS, we’re observing you. Wish you the best.
Alexius
says:October 18th, 2008 at 12.41pm
Finally, a fair and balance media arises.
usherer
says:November 19th, 2008 at 10.32pm
Kudos to the Nanyang Chronicle team! I graduated in 2004, and I’m glad to see that the CS students of today hare pro-active and politically mature.
I’m wondering about the latest updates about the article, and the impact that Hong Lim protest had on NTU/Singapore. Has the school management addressed this issue with the students? How has CS alumni working in ST and CNA reacted to this, and what support have the members given to you? I’m guessing not much change has taken place. In that case, will you be following up on the article?
There’s an increasing amount of activism both online and offline. Sad to say, I do not know of many CS alumni members who are initiating or participating in this – besides you guys. After all, there is a whole group of CS alumni students who work in the mainstream media, government agencies or government-linked corporations.
Has NTU’s School of Communication Studies failed to produce passionate media professionals who desire to use their specialist skills to bring about positive policy changes in their country?
Please keep up the spirit on your end.