On the August 8th, 2007 Thursday issue of the Daily Universe, BYU's local student newspaper, there were four front page articles (the most coveted spot on the paper, attests James). Two were Associated Press articles - one detailing the rescue efforts of the Crandall Canyon mine collapse, and the other about a company being charged with manslaughter, since they used weak material on a tunnel ceiling which caused panels to collapse and crash down, resulting in the death of a motorist. Fair enough.

The two student written articles detail an article called "Students urged to return to dating" by Emily Borders (with a visually illustrated poll of fifty BYU students on whether they prefer formal dates to hanging out, and which they do more often) and "Celebrate the day" by Debra Skaggs, which is about buying wedding anniversary gifts.

I think this definitely warrants a journalistic "WTF, mate?" (replace the "F" with "fetch" for you Mormon kids) with lots more exclamation points and ones.

The other student written articles for the day which did not - somehow, in some unexplanatory way, get to the front page - included these headline titles:

"UVSC Ballroom Dance Company to perform 'Black Pearl' medley"
"Boy drowns in Utah Lake"
"Provo resident begins booming online business"
"Historic Air Force jazz ensamble to perform"
"Some record labels offer inspiring artists, CDs"
"Daily Universe now available in PDF"
"Fans flock to buy season football tickets" (written by the mysterious writer only known as BYU Athletic Communications)

One story is about how the UVSC Ballroom Dance Company is performing a piece based off of the Pirates of the Caribbean movie (the good one), another about a preventable death of a boy at Utah Lake, another about how a Provo resident has started several successful businesses, a jazz performance, an article that I can only refer to as a blatant plug for Shadow Mountain Records (who handles Deseret Book's music side), an announcement that the Daily Universe is available on the internet in PDF form and how the school is selling a record amount of tickets this year for the upcoming fall football season.

Are you telling me that nooooone of these articles are more important or newsworthy than some article on dating? Don't get me wrong. The poll was very interesting to study - 69% perfers formal dating to hanging out, but 75% of those polled often practice hanging out than formally dating - but the content is rediculous. This is not front page news, people. A story about a successful Provo entrepenuer, a boy drowning in Utah Lake and even on a slow news day, the story of record football ticket sales would be considered news over dating.

I mean, the entire dating article bases its information on two talks - one given by Elder Oaks on May 1, 2005 and one given by Bruce Chadwick in 2002. This news is hardly new at all. In fact, at its best, it's over a year old. You're just putting a story about it now?

An article of this content would be better done in a feature or focus section, not on the front page. But wait, that's right! The Daily Universe doesn't really have sections. So it causes readers to wonder if the editors actually think that Shadow Mountain Records making "Best of" collections for EFY music is really a news article. At best, it would be more appropriate as a review, except the writer never actually reviews any songs, but just quotes the recording label marketing communications manager.

Interestingly enough, there was a letter to the editor that very day, responding to a previous letter that had indulged in some personal Daily Universe bashing. The writer, Adam Buchanan of Damascus, Oregon, makes some very valid points: "It is not just a student-run paper - it is a lab paper. That means almost all its reporters are taking the semester-long communications 321 course and are just learning how to be journalists. They are not professionals, nor have they even done this for several months. They are beginners." In addition, he writes, "The Daily Universe reporters and staff members work hard to bring us a good-quality, daily paper. Maybe it's not a professional newspaper, but it's not meant to be."

But this isn't about quality or even professionalism. This is about organization. An article on dating based on talks given one and five years ago plus an article on what to buy your hubby on that special day should never beat out an article about a mortality at Utah Lake (especially a preventable one) or an article/profile about a success story of a local resident. It shouldn't even be a question. All the student written articles were pretty decent; they weren't perfect, but as Adam Buchanan would agree with me, they aren't supposed to be perfect. But the layout of the newspaper is haphazard (and sometimes feels just plain wrong) and could be improved greatly if the editors would just plan ahead.

For example, sections would be great. There's plenty of articles on the arts and entertainment, so make a bloody A&E section. Just lump all of your A&E articles together. That way, you don't have to spin the EFY records article to make it sound like legitimate news - just review the CD and give your opinion of it. And if people just care about that kind of information, they know exactly where to open the paper to. Then you can make a focus or feature that encompasses those stories that would be considered traditional "hard news stories," but are still interesting nonetheless. Then, your front page can go to that which is more traditionally front page news.

Thursday's front page was especially disappointing. Not only is dating and marriage repeated ad nauseum in the already relationship saturated BYU Culture, but the newspaper now considers it one of the most important news items of the day. This is not true. This is exactly what causes everyone to think our religion focuses on marrying people off and sending them off to pump out babies every nine months for ten years. It's not healthy for BYU, the Church in general, nor the public's disposition to either institutions. A little bit of future planning would solve this journalistic connundrum.