With the turn of the new year, you probably thought of a few resolutions to conquer for yourself, and The North Wind has a few of its own.

Recent years have brought an atmosphere of distrust toward the media and 2019 is looking no different. “Fake news” is as ubiquitous as ever on the internet and its spread through social media has journalists preoccupied with fact-checking rather than reporting. Journalism is quickly becoming a “second draft” of history.

We’ve experienced this wariness even at the collegiate newspaper level. Last year, staff found contacting and communicating with some members of the university community and with political parties increasingly difficult. Students are even apprehensive to express their opinions in a publication that exists for the sake of students’ guaranteed free speech.

Our primary priority is reporting objective, accurate and inclusive news. By continuing and improving the quality of our coverage, we hope we can remove some of this stigma even if only within our student body.

We’re students just like the majority of you and we make mistakes, but we are always willing to correct them and to hear your opinions. We cannot create a newspaper that is representative of the campus community if we aren’t hearing directly from this community.

Would you like to see a specific event or group covered? Are you looking for analysis of university policies? Do you feel we aren’t equally representing a topic?

We must be made aware of the public’s opinion to represent and inform the public. You might find national news sources untrustworthy and feel powerless in changing that, but you can impact your local media by picking up the phone, logging into social media or stopping by The North Wind office. Diverse coverage results from communication.

We hope this new year brings news tips, article submissions, letters to the editor and visitors in our office letting us know what they would like to read when they pick up a copy of The North Wind.