“Gum placed under table sticks to student’s pants.” This was a headline in the Exponent the other day. I was talking to a friend about how uninformative the Exponent was. We started thumbing through the pages and pointing out headlines of stories that we wouldn’t ever want to read, just complaining about the newspaper. It was the perfect time to run across that article.
To their credit, the article was in the opinion section, where stupid articles should be. The article was Alexandra Holliday writing in, she was complaining that someone placed gum under a desk. She then had the (sarcastic) joy of pealing it off with a piece of paper. I guess it must have really upset her. In her rage, she immediately wrote a letter to the Exponent- the new form of self expression.
The letter she wrote to the Exponent was just sarcastically thanking whoever placed the gum under her desk. She then continued to bash that young person’s maturity. The letter was for one person. Good thing it was published in the newspaper for the whole campus to read (That was a taste of the sarcasim that I learned from Alexandra Holliday's article).
Here is some more sarcasm that Holliday taught me:
Her article was well-written. It had a solid beginning, middle, and end. It flowed very well. She got her point across. The sarcasm was funny and appropriate.
Another thing that bothered me about this article was the Exponent is not a place for self expression, or a place to let your anger out. It should be a place to bring light to the news. That article that Holliday wrote has its place… maybe in a blog like this one, or a diary; not the newspaper. There is an ongoing argument in the opinion section about evolution- an issue with actual opinions. I would like to write back, causing this also to be an ongoing opinion section argument, and tell her that this is no place for an article like that. But doing so would contradict what I’m trying to tell her. Now that would just be hypocritical of me.
(Just a side note: I am in a lab writing this and there is a girl over to my left who keeps trying to read over my shoulder. My message to her: Can you read this? This part is to you! Maybe you are Alexandra Holliday, or are friends with her, and are offended by this paper that I’m writing. Either way, mind your own business.)
Now back to the matter at hand; my rage. I’m not entirely mad at Holliday for writing in with such an unamusing article. I am upset at how the Exponent, a “news”paper, would let this letter in the opinion section when it isn’t really even an opinion. There is a reason the Exponent does not have a “complaint” section.
My rage is not at all justified. In fact, I’m not terribly upset. I just rant sometimes, and it often gets out of hand and extremely boring. I appreciate you sticking it out to the end of this entry.
I agree with you the Exponent is a very uninformative newspaper. The comment that you mentioned in the paper I saw and I just kept going because it seemed like it would be a pointless read.
ReplyDeleteI think that with the amount of pages that the exponent has I feel like not many of it is actually good high quality news. If you take a closer look at the exponent you'll see most of it is pointless ads and nearly half of it is ads and comments. But also I agree with you about the opinion section it is terrible at times and needs to be better monitored.
True. I think that the Exponent tends to stick with one side of arguments without giving the other side a chance to defend itself. I've been very frustrated with the newspaper and can completely understand your stance.
ReplyDeleteI read that opinions article and laughed the whole way through it. I think it's good for people to get their opinions out, hence the opinions section. But like you said, this article was completely random and unneeded.
I agree as well. When I read the Exponent, i feel like the articles are too drwn out and forced. When things are forced peoples tendency to keep reading lessens and lessens.
ReplyDeleteI agree with trueguy as well, the paper has too many adds. When we are trying to go Black Gold Green how can we continue to ad as many advertisements to the paper. I feel as if the paper is being filled to its pages because there is a set number of pages that has to be in each one. If this is the case it is out dated and needs to be eradicated. Shorten the stories (no rambling) and eliminate the adds and we will save more paper.