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Public Editor: On the Occident: campus deserves more from annual joke issue
After the final issue of the Orient is published every year, the staff comes together during reading period to put together the Occident, a once-a-year joke issue that takes on a variety of groups and people across the campus. Each year, the Occident receives a range of responses—some people love it and find it hilarious, and some find it offensive and mean-spirited.
If done well, the Occident can be both funny and have a positive influence on campus. Humor is an honorable goal in its own right, but beyond that, satire can be a powerful way to highlight flaws in the College’s policies.
One example of a very good piece from the 2012 issue is the article “Phase II to be modeled on ‘Hunger Games.’” The topic was funny, the writer used satire to emphasize a real campus problem, and the jokes were creative and punchy.
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Public Editor: All media require journalistic professionalism, even tweets
After adding a blog, Facebook page, Flickr account and Twitter handle over the last few years and unveiling its overhauled website this fall, it is clear that the Bowdoin Orient is no longer simply a newspaper. Recent editors-in-chief have acknowledged that these extensions of the Orient brand are experimental, and the policies and guidelines for each of these platforms have evolved over time.
With these expansions into social media, mistakes have certainly been made. Some, the editors have apologized for (see “On the record,” November 30, 2012), and some they have not. But to me, no mistake has been quite as troubling as the Orient’s decision to repost tweets from prospective students who had been accepted, wait-listed and rejected from Bowdoin over Spring Break.
On March 22, the Orient’s Twitter account @bowdoinorient retweeted 13 tweets by high school seniors responding to their decision letters from the Office of Admissions. One of those 13 tweets was from a prospective student who had been accepted, and it read, “Just got accepted into Bowdoin! #woooooo #polarbear #wooooo.”
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Public Editor: Orient owes community an anonymity policy
In an editorial published in the November 30 edition of the Orient, the editors attempted to tackle the thorny issue of anonymity. Broadly, they succeeded in illuminating the Orient’s guidelines as they relate to the use of anonymous sources. However, they failed to put forth a coherent policy that outlined the circumstances under which students’ identities are revealed—or not revealed—in conjunction with breaches of school rules or the law. The piece that provoked the editorial was an interview with the individual behind the Twitter handle @notbowdoin. The Orient’s editors granted the student anonymity in the piece, which ran on the front page of the paper. The editors explained, “The Orient was granted an interview with the student behind @notbowdoin on the condition of preserving the individual’s anonymity, which the student requested to preserve the nature of the account.”
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Public Editor: Recording Orient interviews reduces risk of misquotation
The Orient is introducing Jim Reidy '13 as public editor to act as a liaison between the paper and its readers. He will solicit reader concerns and write a monthly column on the Orient’s standards and execution. Jim knows the Orient well from his two years on staff, but is now independent from the paper and has been given complete editorial freedom. We hope you find him to be a fair judge and strong advocate for your comments and concerns.