Parlor Talk
This issue is an extraordinary one for the Bulletin. In the days before publication, we have rewritten and redesigned a half-dozen pages to accommodate a breaking story about the Board of Managers' decision to revamp the athletic program. Yet while we have worked overtime to do this, the story itself has been constantly changing, so that what readers see here is but a snapshot taken on Dec. 7.
There's a lesson in this about information. On campus--and for those off campus who have the tools and desire to access it--the drama of the past week has been available in an entirely new form. The Phoenix, which is almost 125 years old as a newspaper, has printed two special editions this week, but its on-line version has probably been more widely read. And the Daily Gazette, a rival student news source distributed each morning by computer only, has competed with The Phoenix like an upstart Hearst paper 100 years ago.
Those of us on campus--and those far away who care to be involved--have relied more on electronic sources than on the news we have received on paper. I read the excellent Dec. 5 New York Times article about Swarthmore on-line before I ever saw a paper version. Even venerable WSRN got into the act with audio feeds on their Web site from rallies and meetings where their microphones were present. When I got to work Monday morning, I found several staff members sitting around their computers, listening to "broadcasts" of debates that had happened a day or two before. Can you picture a family listening to FDR in the 1930s?
What does it all mean for a magazine? First, it tells us that accurate reporting is essential because some of our readers have already heard President Alfred H. Bloom speak or have read the latest Phoenix editorial. The Internet forces us to go deeper, to provide analysis and background that readers won't find on-line.
As an editor, I both love and loathe the Internet. When I want instant information, it's there on my screen. But when I want the heart and soul of a college, I think these pages will fill the bill for a while to come.
--Jeffrey Lott
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