The purpose of a college newspaper such as the Butler Lantern is to report the facts. We, as journalists, are not here to make the college look good or bad. If something controversial happens, we are going to report on it and on the flip side, if something really good happens, we are going to report on it. We are the voice of the students and we are always accepting story ideas as well as letters to the editor. If there is something in the paper that you do not agree with or you just simply want to make your opinion known, feel free to email butler.lantern@gmail.com and we will feature it in the next issue of the paper.
Student newspapers are important because we are in a main position to inform staff and students about updates going on around campus whether that is breaking news on campus, campus updates and sports. Since the Butler Lantern is the student newspaper at Butler. It’s important that we are apart of the media here at Butler because we provide vital information that students and staff not only want to know, but need to know. Information that students and staff need to know would be drug bust, crimes and campus updates. They need to know this information because it’s important for students and staff to know what’s going on around them. It’s important for the Butler Lantern to put out information that students want to know because you want to keep staff and students interested while at the same time presenting breaking news. Other news or features that may interest readers entails sports and arts and prose.
The First Amendment of the Constitution states that Congress shall make no law prohibiting the free exercise of speech or freedom of the press. For the Butler Lantern and other publications including those of schools, this allows reporters to write any true content and publish it to the public. Without this amendment, newspapers could get in legal trouble from their stories just because somebody didn’t agree with what was published. Because of the First Amendment, the Butler Lantern can relay news to its readers, students specifically.
Censorship is the suppression of words, ideas, images, anything that is deemed offensive to the public. The First Amendment is in place to protect the creator of the work. Student publications are protected by the First Amendment and will not be censored unless they cause meaningful hurt or harm to the public. But student journalists will report on the news and the happenings around the campus. If a person steals from the lunchroom, the student publication has a right to publish it in their publication. The publication is not trying to cause harm against the person, they are just reporting on the happenings around campus.
