This past weekend, Pam Evans Smith Arena at Wittenberg University was packed with some of the top teams in the Division III Women's Volleyball nation. Among these teams included the #1 seeded team, Calvin College; #5 Cal Lutheran; #8 Juniata; and of course the #9 Wittenberg Tigers. However, with all these headline drawing teams facing off in one tournament, there was not one mention of the event in the local newspaper, the Springfield News-Sun.
This all was called to my attention by an employee of the HPER center at Wittenberg. The employee disclosed to me that he had tried to find the report on the tournament in the newspaper and he also had attempted to listen on the radio to the games, but was unable to find even a snippet on the event. This lack of interest in Wittenberg Athletics by the local news has seemed to be a common trend from the Springfield community. When my anonymous source discussed the issue with me, he said that when he talked to Ryan Mauer, Wittenberg's Director of Athletics Communications, about the lack of coverage from the local news sources, Mauer replied that all necessary information was posted online. The HPER center employee argued that there were some people in the community who didn't have a computer or internet access and that he was one of them. The employee said that Mauer's response to this statement was simply a shrug.
Incredibly, I personally noticed a large amount of support this weekend from the Springfield Community at our high profile volleyball tournament. But I question how much more the community would support Wittenberg in general if the University communications and the Springfield news sources collaborated with each other. I believe a remedy for the lack of communication and sharing of the campus news with the community (and visa versa) would be an alliance between the Springfield News-Sun and the Torch. This alliance could be a sharing of sources, information, and latest news concerning both the Springfield community and Wittenberg University alike. There could a short blurb in each paper concerning events occurring in the opposite area. Awareness of the local news from both the Wittenberg community and the Springfield community could lead relations between both communities to be a little smoother and allow both communities to become more involved within each other. While I understand the concept of the "Wittenberg bubble," I would like to mention that I have noticed in my 4 years attending this university that the bubble is not as strong as it once was and may pop soon. The amount of collaboration between Springfield and Wittenberg is growing but has a lot more progress to make. And what better way to kick that progress off with an alliance in the two biggest sources of local news in both communities? The Torch and the Sun shouldn't have to work too hard to understand each other...after all, they both pass the light of knowledge off to others, as is demonstrated in both newspapers' names.
Fine idea, Kiah. Have you discussed it with the Torch editors?
ReplyDeleteAlso: often, mainstream newpspaper coverage of college events, especially with a small newspaper, is done by college students acting as stringers; that is, providing coverage for a small stipend. You might think about talking to the News-Sun about that.