Real experience, not experiments

According to the Society for Professional Journalists, an ethical journalist is to seek the truth and report it, minimize harm, act independently and be accountable.
This code of ethics is used to recognize those who report on as humans, be the watchdog for the public, and be held accountable for unethical and useless content.
A great reporter works to bring the audience a story free of bias and ultimately where they don’t become a part of the story.
Due to the thin line between unethical and ethical, journalists are becoming more newsworthy than the news itself; falsifying information, misquoting, and just not doing their due diligence.
With unethical and ethical journalists working together it has become harder and harder to know where to turn for your news and who to trust.
The Southern Digest, EGO Magazine, and The Jaguar Yearbook are press/media organizations.
Our jobs are to tell the stories that concern the Southern University community. This includes the students, faculty, staff, area community and alumni community.
Our organization has never been — and will never be — a place to play, to attack, or to determine the fate of Southern University. We are here to seek the truth and report it; the good, the bad and the ugly.
Just as any other media organization or job, you learn and gain valuable experience to take into your next job and your next stage of life.
The Office of Student Media has never been a laboratory to experiment with the powers of the administration, faculty or students.
This is a real-world transition from being only accountable to yourself and becoming accountable as a team and a publication.
We are trained young professionals who also balance classes, other jobs and life.
Our jobs have never been simple or easy to explain. We wear many hats as future media professionals, future photographers, future engineers, future doctors, future lawyers and future teachers.
We not only carry the burdens of full-time and part-time students, but also of a profession that others are quick to judge and criticize. We try not to shine false light on the issues and concerns of the Southern University community no matter how large or how small.
We ask some of the toughest questions and get some of the most important answers.
Our office is and was the home of great media professionals who have grown inside this office and through their experiences.
They received the training and exposure they needed to apply the techniques and education they acquired in the classroom.
Without the Office of Student Media and its accomplishments and efforts, Southern University would not be home to a consecutive award winning publication staff.
If there is anything, that is in question concerning the journalists that work for The Office of Student Media it is when and how the next year’s staff will perform and what opportunities their involvement will place in front of them.
The Office of Student Media is a way to keep your foot in the door. The Southern University degree gets you in the door, the experience during and after your college career keeps you there.
The editors before me and hopefully after will continue to offer the opportunity for all students to get published, work as a team, gain work experience, be held accountable, compete in this global economy and be compensated for their work; as the world outside this university works.
 
Evan Taylor
The Southern Digest
Editor-in-Chief
2011-2012