By Lydia Fiser
My name is Lydia Fiser, and I’m one of the three editorial board members for The Fine Print. My vision for this paper sprouted out of frustration with the current state of the media and how it has affected our society.
Before college, I watched CNN, read my local daily newspaper and the occasional online news source, and like so many other Americans, I assumed I was getting the majority of the important news. But after being immersed in political science and journalism classes, I quickly realized how wrong I was. I, like everyone else, had been duped by the system. I learned about dozens of humanitarian atrocities that were funded by national governments that should have been in our news, but somehow they had been “overlooked.” The more I learned in my classes, the more I started searching for news articles about these events. What I found was that other than the large papers, American media didn’t cover these events. I was shocked, to say the least. I realized that the media isn’t a fair, unbiased podium. It’s a biased filter through which the news of everything that happens in the world passes through, and most news doesn’t make it out the other end of the filter to us, the public, or if it does it’s usually in some watered-down, half-truth version.
What was worse is that when I became aware of this, I looked at things differently and I began to see what seemed to me like a sense of apathy consuming Americans. So many people didn’t care about anything other than their grande mocha latte, morning rush-hour traffic and that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie had kids. Who cares when thousands of people are being tortured, starving and dieing at the hands of power-thirsty governments?
I blame the apathy of Americans on the poor media coverage they take in. Even when someone tries to inform herself, she is only bombarded with images of celebrities and sparse coverage of a select few news events — nothing that would actually spark a sense of caring or action in anyone.
Instead of becoming a part of what I believe is the downfall of the fourth estate in exchange for job security, I decided that I wanted to try and do a better job. So with the help of a great team, we began The Fine Print for the students at the University of Florida.
We’re not necessarily unbiased, but sometimes that’s not what readers need. People can and should take in as much information from as many sources and viewpoints as possible. We are a leftist, progressive paper. We are all for critical thinking and open-mindedness, and we will present issues that are liberal in nature but based strictly on facts.
My personal goal with the publication is to report on issues that are often overlooked by our local mainstream media or not covered in enough depth. I want to dig deeper than the other papers, follow through and show how issues affect each individual, thus inspiring UF students to get involved and take action in their community. I want you to feel uncomfortable, I want you to get angry and I want you to channel those feelings into action.
I hope that we accomplish this goal and that all our readers feel more informed and are motivated to get out of their comfort zones and make our campus and town a fairer and more open-minded place. Forget about your morning coffee for one second and take look at bigger picture.
