Press Council Talk

The associate editor of the Otago Daily Times gave Press Council Members a talk during Easter Tournament. In the luxurious surroundings of the women's committee room, Union Building (Otago), student newspaper representatives from all over New Zealand gained in three hours a mass of knowledge which probably took Mr Auben 20 years of experience to accumulate.

Local Interest: According to our guest speaker, the local situation is journalistically speaking more important than overseas events. That which is near to us will concern us more. Thus, a newspaper in Otago can be broken up into sections—Business, Rural, Student, Housewife, etc. The time a local pub closes would be more important than the Congo affair; what happens to our student executive would be more important than the latest sins of Russia.

Newspaper personality: Indeed, a keen interest in local matters, trivial matters even, soon gives a newspaper a personality. It becomes almost human. So Salient could develop a "Student Flavour." Or we can have a "Anti-executive-rightly-or-wrongly" attitude. Readers soon learn to look for these qualities. They like them. And when they are not there, the reader is disappointed. The style of a newspaper becomes personal. What the editorial says can affect public opinion.

Public Opinion and Newspapers: Before we can have public opinion influenced in any way, however, we Must Have an Opinion There Beforehand. (This is what Victoria University students do not have). We must have built up over a number of years a background of informed public opinion. (Editors past and future—please note). Even if we succeed in raising public opinion however the situation today is that editorial opinion is no longer considered seriously. This has been so since the days of the Depression.

Responsibility: Nevertheless newspaper editors should all have a sense of responsibility. They should do what they can to raise the standard of reading. The public trend at the moment is towards sex-infiltrated literature— infiltrated to the point of vulgarity. Someone had said: "The majority of people (now) buy rubbish because they like it." This may seem a cruel thing to say. But it is the truth. Out of economical considerations it is sometimes difficult to resist the public trend. Yet it would be foolish to present a population with one thing when it demands another. Anyway, dear reader, remember this: the corruption is not always within the editor's office.

—Salient Reporter.