By Erika Norton and David Adams | Echo
With more ways to communicate and present the news through the expansion of online and digital media, one thing remains here at The Echo-our focus on you, our readers.
In the past, The Echo has examined how best to reach you-we hope you enjoy the paper itself and following us online, on Facebook, on Twitter and on our new Instagram (shameless plug: it's @TaylorU_Echo). But this year, we're taking a closer look at the stories and content that fill our pages each week and asking ourselves, "What matters to you?"
The "Unspoken" series last year gave three students a chance to share their stories, bringing forth their pain and joy in equal parts and sparking discussions on how best to love our brothers and sisters in Christ. We commit to telling stories like these-stories with meaning.
Meaningful stories are those you can hold, feel and believe, said journalist and speaker Brad Miller. Meaningful stories capture the hearts of their subjects and their readers, connecting them in ways that make an impact. Meaningful stories surprise, delight, challenge and change.
The Echo exists not only to tell these stories, but to give you, our audience, the chance to tell them yourselves. In short, when you flip through the pages of The Echo or visit us online, we want you to see not our words, but yours.
We want you to see you.
One of several ways we're seeking to put you in The Echo this year is through blogging. We're excited about adding a blog section to our website, where staff members will have blogs dedicated to specific topics of interest to them and to you. These blogs will allow for a more in-depth look at different issues, trends and ideas which can promote further analysis and discussion among our students, faculty, staff, parents, alumni and all our readers.
Due to the unlimited space an online medium offers, blogs create a unique opportunity for more detailed reporting, commentary, discussion and interaction with the news. Blogs can also incorporate other forms of media, including photographs, slideshows and video.
For example, one blog will be entitled Technotes, which will delve into news surrounding music technology. We are also adding a photo blog entitled Humans of TU, which will feature photographs of students, faculty and staff with small quotations or short stories from each photo's subject, similar to the popular Humans of New York page on Facebook.
We hope some of you will act as guest bloggers and submit blog posts about issues or topics you are passionate about and are relevant to one of our blogs.
Another way for The Echo to hear you is through open forums with staff members. We invite you to tell us what you want to see in The Echo and how our stories can better serve you.
We also want you to know: our door is open. The Echo office is located in Rupp 230 (our windows face the chapel). Stop by. Share your thoughts and feedback. Tell us what you love and how we can do better.
Tell us your stories. We promise we'll listen.
