The everyman has daily responsibilities on their mind that take precedence over anything else happening around them. Going to and from work, balancing their finances to prepare for any upcoming bills, and socializing with their peers may be too time consuming for most when the day comes to an end.
This leaves them in a situation where they lack the energy necessary to keep up with what is happening in their town, state, or even country. It is the job of journalists and news publications to pass on truthful information to individuals who do not have the time to connect the dots.
If the people are fed misinformation, it can manipulate their decision making, regardless of the possible malicious intent behind the source of information. Whether the misinformation results in a “good” or “bad” ending, the reputation of the source of information is damaged and the truth becomes unimportant.
The job of a journalist is to ask questions and form a story around the answers they find. Some answers may lead to more questions creating a never-ending chase down the rabbit hole. These questions and answers take time to think of and require even more time to form an in-depth conclusion worthy of meeting the public eye.
This goes back to the everyman who does not have the time (and possibly the resources) to dive into a question and connect the dots to form a cohesive conclusion.
The amount of time and energy that goes into publishing a weekly paper filled with content is a daunting task for small sized college newspapers. The everyman in this case are regular college students who may be taking on a high amount of credits, working full/part-time, or are interested in their own club affairs.
Thinking of unique ways to convey information to the public while maintaining their interest is a difficult feat, but worthwhile for the few who learn something new from reading the paper. Just like any national paper, if an article were to be published with false information, readers would be led astray by the information and lose trust in said publication.
Researching info for an article can be easy or difficult depending on the content of the piece being written. There are not any corners that can be cut due to the standards set by the industry. Time and time again, readers notice mistakes and inconsistencies in every article and to combat this, there is a process to check for misinformation, spelling, grammar and most importantly plagiarism.
In the case of plagiarism, the student at fault would take the brunt of the punishment. Compared to the writer of a plagiarized article, where it is not just the individual at fault, but the entire publication.
