After reading Filak and Reinardy's article "College Newspaper Advisers, Controversial Topics, and Willingness to Self-Censor," I thought a lot about the Sandspur's article controversy over the past couple of years. The results of the study on sex was consistent with a Sandspur article several years ago that Dr. Tillmann made my CMC200 class aware of last year. I can see why sex would be a more uncomfortable topic since it is not at the point where it is freely discussed among students, professors, parents, administrators, etc. Maybe one day it could get to that point, but I don’t believe it is there yet.
I was also thinking that the study should have included “race” and “racial topics” since that was the main controversy surrounding an article last year as well. I personally don’t think such controversial topics should be discussed, even though it grabs readers’ attention. I think that there is a way to go about choosing article topics while still remaining “neutral” in the sense that no one’s feelings should be hurt by it.
What if an issue is really important? Last year the author certainly thought immigration was an important issue that needed to be discussed, even if she didn't actually know what she was talking about. How about the Trayvon issue, now? Isn't it our duty to discuss difficult issues? How do we best do that in a way that doesn't destroy our sense of community?
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