As someone who has devoted two years of his college career to the Branding Iron, I feel I have a grasp on what the paper is and what the paper is not.
Sadly, I also feel most students on campus do not have a slight idea of either. So this editorial will attempt to clear up any misinformation about this publication.
The Branding Iron is a learning institution. It functions as a lab of sorts for students looking to hone their writing ability and begin learning the craft of journalism. It also serves as an internship opportunity for students without the time or means to clock unpaid hours at another publication.
It is not a paper full of staff with years of experience. Many of our staff members have never done anything like this before.
So when you bash the Branding Iron, know you are really bashing burgeoning writers in the midst of their first attempt at journalism. When you mindlessly post on Yik Yak that the Branding Iron sucks, the only person receiving the criticism is a new writer or photographer attempting a craft, for possibly the first time.
Imagine an architectural engineering student sitting down to draft their first blueprint or design at their first internship. Already a pretty daunting task, right? Now imagine that the entire student body is berating that student on the Internet every time they make a mistake on their design. The aspiring architect’s task becomes much more difficult. Their confidence is drained.
This is the setting UW students force Branding Iron writers and photographers to work in.
Before we get any further, let’s clear something up. This editorial is not the Branding Iron staff asking the student body to stop criticizing the paper. We welcome your criticism when it is constructive, and we absolutely need it if we, as aspiring journalists, are to improve. By all means, send us emails and comment on the stories on Facebook. Let us know if we get something wrong. This makes us better at our jobs, and makes the paper better as a whole.
But most criticism from fellow students is not constructive, and most of it lacks substance.
When you mindlessly and anonymously bash the Branding Iron, you are not making the institution better. Instead, you are taking a direct shot at the students brave enough to put their name next to their finished product for the first time. You are hurting your fellow students ability to grow into a future profession.
If you truly think the paper “sucks,” I would encourage you to apply for a job here in the fall, and work to make it better. Sadly, I am guessing the vast majority of trolls on Yik Yak are not brave enough to put in the work to do so.
