This blog post is a response to Greg Lukianoff’s discussion of how censorship and the limitation of free speech on college campuses harm our national discourse and contribute to our current “armed camp mentality.” To fully appreciate my response, please watch Lukianoff’s video on YouTube, which is the second link below.
This is my entry into the New Threats to Freedom Scholarship Contest (yup, it’s that time again… getting ready to start my graduate degree in writing at Chatham University this fall).
Word count: 479
Campus Censorship and Independent Student Journalism
George Lukianoff in his New Threats to Freedom video argues that censorship and the limitation of free speech inhibit college students’ ability to engage in discourse and public debate after graduation.
When someone confronts you about your beliefs, asks you “why” and presents another side, you are forced to think about why you believe what you believe. This discourse is essential in a democratic society, and without it, we are reduced to, as Mr. Lukianoff puts it, an “armed camp mentality” in which members of each camp fling nothing more than insults at each other.
College is a modern day right of passage for many young adults, and it is essential that these young adults learn how to debate, discuss and share ideas civilly if there’s any hope for the continued prosperity of our country.
These institutions will not change unless they are forced, and the only people who can force that change are the people that make the institution possible: the students.
Enter student journalism. The media is often called the fourth estate, with the first, second and third being the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the United States federal government. The fourth estate informs our country’s citizens of what’s going on in the world and what our government is doing. As a working journalist and former student journalist, I believe that the fourth estate is essential in keeping the government honest. It’s much harder to keep a secret with a reporter constantly nosing around your office.
Independent student newspapers can and should serve the same function on college campuses. At the University of Pittsburgh, I worked for The Pitt News as a student journalist. I was lucky, because The Pitt News is not only daily, but independent. The school administration has no say over what is printed, no matter how critical of the administration a story might be.
My time at The Pitt News taught me to look at every angle of a story and ask the hard questions. I no longer accept things at face value. I do my research, and I know why I believe what I believe. I learned, not only through The Pitt News but many of my classes at Pitt, how to engage in open discourse, how to share ideas and how to learn from ideas that differ from my own.
The ability to express opinions freely, to criticize a school administration, to debate with my peers: those things have made me a better person, and a better American citizen.
Many school newspapers aren’t independent, but I believe that is the best place to start in the fight to end campus censorship. If your student newspaper isn’t independent, start a campaign to make it independent, and make sure you involve your local newspaper. Once you establish the fourth estate on your campus, the administration will have a tough time squelching opinion.
