Editors’ Blog

San Francisco Chronicle editor Phil Bronstein announced last week that he had promoted former blogger Eve Batey to online editor. It is yet another sign of the increasing connection between newspapers and their online development.

Last year The Daily Californian introduced The Daily Clog and podcasting, and earlier this month we launched the Editor’s Blog. The toughest task for our online team is tackling larger online projects while addressing daily demands. Improving our online capabilities and increasing user interactivity will be major areas of focus this upcoming year.

“It’s difficult to keep up with new media and new ideas, with the limited resources we have,” online manager Jeff Bowman said. “And we have to do things right—our work may still be around years from now, and millions of eyes around the world will see it.” Read the rest of this entry »

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Last Monday, we published an op-ed written by a UC Berkeley student who is an undocumented immigrant. As stated in the column’s editor’s note, it is Daily Cal policy not to print unsigned letters or op-eds, unless the writer would feel threatened if his or her identity were revealed.

There was a post last week by Justin Azadivar, who uses the pseudonym Beetle Aurora Drake on the Berkeley blog Beetle Beat, questioning the omission of the writer’s name.

Given the writer’s status and the current contentiousness of the issue being discussed, opinion page editor Andrea Lu and myself decided to withhold the name. Though the submission appeared unsigned in print and online, the Daily Cal contacted the writer several times before publication to understand the reasoning behind the request. Publishing the writer’s name could have exposed the writer or the writer’s family to hate crimes and potentially made them more susceptible to deportation. Read the rest of this entry »

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If you flipped over to the back page of last Monday’s paper, you would have come across a large picture of Steve Sexton on the sports page. Sexton, a second-year graduate student, is a talented athlete with Olympic aspirations on the Cal Triathlon Club.

Summer provides a great opportunity for the Daily Cal to cover stories such as Sexton’s. The sports section only publishes once a week in the summer compared to five days a week in the fall and spring semesters, but it allows the section the ability to produce more features on teams and athletes.

Although much of the coverage in the fall and spring is dedicated to the 27 Division I teams on campus, the Daily Cal recognizes there are athletes at UC Berkeley with noteworthy accomplishments for club teams.

Last week, ESPN.com featured “a few of the best non-NCAA-sanctioned programs in the country.” Its first article was on the Cal rugby team, winners of 14 of the last 15 national championships, including a 37-7 win over BYU in May. While the Daily Cal assigns a beat writer to the rugby team because it is a Division I sport, ESPN.com’s coverage serves as a reminder that there are often teams and athletes that are overlooked by the media. It’s great to see a national media organization like ESPN be mindful of less prominent sports. Read the rest of this entry »

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Welcome to The Daily Californian Editor’s Blog! This being the first ever post, please take a moment to read about the idea behind this blog.

I will draw from outside sources as much as possible to get various perspectives and keep this blog interesting and informative. Hopefully, it will help familiarize people with different aspects of our organization.

We were all shocked when we learned about the Berkeley family that was found dead in a parking lot at Tilden Regional Park on June 18. In addition to publishing the initial crime story, our coverage also included an article on the memorial for the family.

A journalist’s job becomes very difficult during times like these. The public wants to know why or how such a tragedy can ever happen, but attempting to uncover such information usually requires asking the victims’ friends and family questions at an uncomfortable time.

The Daily Californian follows the Code of Ethics outlined by the Society of Professional Journalists. Two points covered in the second section, titled “Minimize Harm,” had particular relevance the stories written two weeks ago.

— Show compassion for those who may be affected adversely by news coverage. Use special sensitivity when dealing with children and inexperienced sources or subjects.

— Be sensitive when seeking or using interviews or photographs of those affected by tragedy or grief.

Read the rest of this entry »

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