My email signature just got a little bit shorter. This will be my final column as editor of the Technician’s Opinion section. Though it’s been fun, for lack of a better word, it is time I move to other ventures.
My premature departure (I would have been replaced at the end of April, anyway) could be attributed to a number of things. No, there was no internal conflict at the Technician, nor have I decided to quit all my responsibilities to live in the wild (yet).
Though I will not miss every moment of my tenure as opinion editor—production nights and dropped assignments, for instance—I will most certainly miss working on columns, both my own and my staff’s.
It’s hard to tell what is so appealing about writing columns, and maybe even harder to determine the appeal of reading them. Certainly, a column will never change the world; most columnists know that. Rarely, a good opinion piece might influence someone who eventually goes on to change the world, but that chance is hardly, if at all, a reason to write, and is definitely no reason to read one.
Even still, what started as a single, literal column of text allotted for writers in newspapers has evolved into something more requisite, a glorified standard. Opinion sections often rank as the most read section of various newspapers. There must be a reason.
Perhaps it has to do with social comparison. When people read the opinions of others, they are able to think about (and, in some cases, challenge) their own views. For them, it is not enough to know simply what happened; they must also know how others react to certain events and whether their reaction is reasonable.
Sometimes, people hold opinions about topics without knowing entirely why they think a certain way. By reading what like-minded others have to say about a topic, and reading how they defend their stance, readers can better understand themselves.
The same goes for writing columns. To organize one’s thoughts into an argument that relies on examples, defenses and consideration of the opposition is a wonderful thought exercise.
On top of that, organizing opinions and doing the research required to make an argument, as well as reading that argument, help us to make sense of the world around us. Through columns, we can develop a schema of how the world works and a narrative as to how people and society interact in that world.
A column, in my opinion, is the height of journalism—or at least it can be. Opinion pieces offer the “so what?” to their (ostensibly) unbiased news counterpart. They dig into why something could be considered newsworthy, examining the social impacts of their subjects. It acknowledges that no piece of writing is entirely unbiased. Instead of trying to hide that bias, the columnist acknowledges and explains upfront where it comes from.
But columnists must never take themselves too seriously. They do not exist to “tell people what to think,” but, at best, to help people figure out why they think what they think. Columns and opinion writing in general help to personalize the news, to help us form a relationship with the going-ons of the world around us.
There’s a reason the Technician’s Opinion section used to be called “Viewpoint.” To write a column is to give a voice to one’s viewpoint in the context of newsworthy events that affect society.
The potential opinion writing has to amplify the voice of any number of subjugated people is an amazing thing. I strongly encourage members of any subjugated or marginalized group to pen op-ed pieces and to submit them to newspapers and other text-based media outlets. Likewise, I encourage media to continue publishing these pieces. To promote the voices of historically silenced people is the best thing the media can do.
Since I began writing columns, I have often examined social issues, with special attention to gender. Never once did I feel as though my work would reform the culture or solve any widespread social problems. However, I must give thanks to the numerous feminist scholars who helped shape my beliefs.
Without the influence of bell hooks, Audre Lorde, Simone de Beauvoir, Patricia Hill Collins and all of the various and intelligent women I have known over the years—among others, I would never have been able to refine my perspective of gender, race or class in society.
My stepping down will mean one less white guy spouting his opinion once a week. For that, I could not be happier. With that in mind, we can move toward privileging underprivileged voices and allowing them to help us form a narrative of the universe.
