With the new school year upon us, the editors of the Technician would like to introduce themselves to the student body, as both members of Technician’s editorial board as well as fellow students of NC State. The individuals below are only a few of the many students that work together weekly to create the content both in printed editions of our paper as well as online.
News editor Mary Dare Martin, a fourth-year studying media communication
Q: When did you first get involved with Technician?
I got involved almost a year ago now. I came to a news meeting back in August of 2017 and started as a correspondent, then got hired as assistant news editor that October and then as editor the following January.
Q: How would you define the News section?
I think there’s a lot you could say about it, really. In News, we obviously prioritize students and like to report on things that are going to affect them no matter if it’s something on campus or off it. I would say that, as a section, we try to produce consistent content, articles that students are going to care about and read as well as what they might want us to look into as well. I would say that it’s an ever developing section. Things are always changing in News, so we just kind of adjust accordingly, but I think that Alicia Thomas, the assistant news editor, and I are ready to build on the consistency that we have already created in order to keep helping the section to grow.
Q: What do you look for when writing a news story?
Basically, as I kind of touched on this before, but how it is going to impact students. I think impact is probably the biggest consideration that we make when trying to think of story ideas or in actually interviewing a source, how students will be affected and why they should care. I think that exploring all of the different angles and asking those big picture and more small, focused questions to the people we interview so that we can really get the angle of why students should are about this.
Opinion editor Noah Jabusch, a second-year studying physics and mathematics
Q: How did you first get involved with Technician?
I got involved by coming to the Technician open house the day before classes started my freshman year, and then I came to the first Opinion section meeting and fell in love right away. It sounded really exciting to learn about issues on campus and write about my perspective on them, and I really enjoyed the platform Technician gave me to do that.
Q: How would you define the Opinion section?
The mission of the Opinion section is to take all of the facts and stories that the other sections produce and use those to contextualize what’s going on. We’ll look at multiple news stories that cover a particular topic and weave them together and portray our opinion in a way that reflects a lot of information, a deep dive into any given subject matter that’s affecting the NC State community. We also, of course, value contributions from the NC State community about issues that they feel affect them such as guest columns and letters to the editor.
Q: What is your favorite thing about working with your section?
I would have to say the people. Our staff are a really diverse and interesting group of people who all have different perspectives on what’s going on in the world, and it’s really fun to hash out our ideas and work collaboratively to strengthen everybody’s position. It’s just a fun environment, we all get along really well and so it’s a real boon to come to work and enjoy being around the people that you work with.
Assistant Sports editor Alec Sawyer, a fourth-year studying communication
Q: How did you first get involved with Technician?
Someone came and spoke to one of my classes at the beginning of my sophomore year, and I just thought that it would be something interesting that I’d probably enjoy doing. I sent an email to the then editor-in-chief Rachel Smith, and she set me up with the Sports team in September of my sophomore year, and I started writing for the Sports team and just kept going with them, and I’ve been on the editorial board for the past year and few months.
Q: How would you define the Sports section?
Sports section is there to cover and report about all NC State sports, as well as other area sports like the Carolina Hurricanes as well as a little bit of NCFC, NC Courage. Our role is to look at NC State sports. Our role is to look at NC State sports, not just football and men’s basketball but also go in and look at the non-revenue sports, the sports that other media outlets aren’t necessarily covering and do our best to inform the student body, to form opinions, to do everything a news organization should do to report on all of NC State’s sports, not just the ones that usually get the most attention.
Q: What do you look for when writing a Sports story?
I look for interesting stories. It can be hard sometimes with just game recaps, but to try and get a story that’s more than just a stat, to try and make it interesting, make it more than just what you get from looking at the box scores if your article is just stats. To brings stories in, also, is an important thing with journalism, especially in sports. We have this inside access to the teams, the coaches and the players, and it’s important in a sports story to let that platform be what they have to say about it, I think that people who read it care about what the players say about the game, what the coaches have to say about the game, as well as what the writer has to say about it. It’s good to have that mix of your own opinion and analysis as well as what the coaches and players said.
These students, along with many of Technician’s other editors, will be present at the Student Media open house on Tuesday, Aug. 21, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Witherspoon room 323 to answer questions about the paper and how to get involved with the publication.
