By: Logan Peterson, petersonlo@mnstate.edu

Welcome back to MSUM. Or, if you’re new here, just welcome.

I’m excited to be writing this letter. I’m hopeful that we, as The Advocate, can provide an accurate and fair report of MSUM students and their lives here.

We’re in a strange time for journalism. Social media, and technology in general, has completely changed how we report the news. Last year, The Advocate began its transition online.

For almost 50 years The Advocate has published a weekly print paper. Last year the staff decided to meet the students where they are: online. We published only seven print editions in the 2017-2018 academic year, with online articles still published every week. We saw a tremendous response to the change last year, with some stories reaching an audience that the on-campus newspaper would’ve never seen.

Along with the good, social media has also brought some issues. It’s much easier to fill your feed with information that doesn’t challenge, but instead confirms your political beliefs. People are reading too many headlines and not enough articles, myself included.

Just like everyone else, we’re trying to figure out what newspapers will look like in the future. In an attempt to do that, we will fight against those issues. We will do all that we can to represent every side in each article we produce. We will approach stories with an open mind, and write what we find and not what we want to find. In other words, we will try to write the journalism we want to read.

Despite our good intentions, it’s entirely possible we will fail at these things. In fact, it’s almost inevitable. We are journalists, but we’re also students. The Advocate is an institution that is meant to prepare us for our careers. One thing I can promise is we will try to recognize any mistakes, and make sure to avoid them as we move forward. If you feel one of our stories doesn’t meet that standard, I encourage you to reach out to us. We are always open to critique and correction.

If you’d like to be a part of the paper, we are always looking for reporters and photographers. Wherever you are regarding experience, we have a weekly staff of experienced journalists who can help you improve.

If you just want to keep up-to-date with campus and follow The Advocate, we need you too. A newspaper is nothing without an audience. Make sure to connect with us on social media and check our website, msumadvocate.com, for weekly articles.

Sincerly,

Logan Peterson

Editor-in-Chief