It’s possible that I’m just a stick in the mud. I doubt it, but I guess it’s possible.
Regardless of why, I don’t like joke April Fools’ Day editions of student newspapers. In fact, I don’t even like April Fools’ Day jokes in the workplace.
Maybe it’s because I’m not funny. Perhaps I’m just entirely too serious about the collegiate media’s role in information dissemination. It could be that I need to lighten up and quit taking my job as a college media adviser quite so seriously. It also may be that I see the potential pitfalls in students’ attempts at humor.
The Maneater at the University of Missouri did not run an April Fools’ edition this year. The decision comes a year after a joke edition resulted in controversy and editors’ resignations.
The Maneater’s staff wasn’t the only one to experience the fallout after last year’s April Fools’ editions.
Editors of Boston University’s student newspaper, The Daily Free Press, apologized for their joke edition. Cinderella in a prostitution ring, a dwarf gang bang, and a fraternity investigated for dealing drugs were just a few of the stories resulting in public backlash and a Twitter apology. You can read the full story on Jim Romenesko’s blog. Not exactly what you want your student media to get Romenesko’s attention for, huh?
Onward State editors also apologized after posting an April Fools’ breaking news story announcing the death of their former editor. The editor previously resigned after falsely reporting to the Penn State community that Joe Paterno was dead before the former football coach actually died. The editors apologize for the joke after being called “tactless” and being told it was “too soon,” according to a post about the issue on College Media Matters.
Not every collegiate media staff that created an April Fools’ edition last year took it this far.
The Daily Nebraskan reported that university officials would begin enrolling bedbugs in an effort to increase the student population. Ok, that’s kind of funny.
The Crimson White announced the remodeling of the president’s mansion into a sorority house.
The Montage, advised by a good friend of mine, Shannon Philpott, brought a major league baseball player back to campus to play ball, announced open tobacco pipe smoking on campus and seemed to have elected their president’s mustache to some type of public office.
Here is a short list (including screenshots) of some of this year’s joke editions.
You can see that there are levels to what college students find humorous.
It’s the concept of the April Fools’ issue itself I rebuff. The crux of this issue for me is professionalism. It comes down to how student media want to be viewed by their campus community. If student editors want their communities to take them seriously, to consider them real journalists, then they must act accordingly. They can’t expect to be treated like professional journalists only when it suits them.
