Editorial
When Stony Brook University’s Graduate Student Organization made the decision to go a different direction with its online graduate magazine this past summer, they trusted the people they hired would make professional, journalistic decisions regarding how articles are written and what was worthy of being posted on its site.

When a news article is written, the writer is always supposed to be unbiased, with the objective of delivering a story fairly, leaving the reader to form his or her own opinion after reading about the view point from all parties involved. Similar to a scientific experiment, the more samples or in this case, sources a story has, the more knowledge the reader has to come to a well thought out conclusion.
A lot of work has gone into re-creating the publication’s website and producing quality articles that will inform, educate and provide graduate students with a news source geared towards their interests.

However, we also understand graduate students, like anyone else, like to keep busy with art and entertainment.

This is why we have assistant editor and art history graduate Megan Daum captaining our leisure section. The leisure section is on the lighter side and keeps students up to date with the latest events taking place on campus and in Manhattan. It also provides students with music and restaurant reviews.

Any graduate student who would like to have their club, committee or organizations events posted to help spread the word, we are more than happy to help. If there is an event or conference taking place, we would also be interested in covering it.

However, when it comes to a news story involving more than one person or party’s point of view, if we cover the topic, we will always reach out to the other parties involved and report their viewpoint as well. Readers may not agree or like what the other person or party has to say, but it is the fair and journalistic thing to do when publishing a story for public viewing.

Regarding news stories, it is not our job to take sides. It is our job to report facts and opinions fair and balanced. Sometimes people may say something about another person or party that is not true. However, we would never report something as fact coming from another source that has self interest in the matter being written about. What we do is attribute what was said to the person who said it so readers know where the information came from and can determine how valid that particular information is.

A piece of advice my dad told me when I was about twelve, which has benefited me greatly when writing news stories, is everybody is always selling something. We understand this and this is the reason why we attribute exactly what was said to who said it.

If a person, committee or organization wants to write an opinion piece based on their thoughts towards a particular matter, as long as it is written in a form fit for publishing, we will post it. However, it would not be an article without establishing the other parties involved opinions and would be posted on the editorial page under opinion.

The biggest objective for the publication is to create a following with our readers through quality, accurate information important to graduate students ranging from news and politics to a great place to sit down for a tasty meal.