The Orbis

Issue date: 2/17/10 Section: Opinion

Media Credit: Allie Diffendal With only five issues released since 2006, Talented Tenth racks appear perpetually bare.

The last copy of the print newspaper will land on somebody's doorstep in 2043, predicted Philip Meyer in his 2004 book "The Vanishing Newspaper." For Vanderbilt's niche student newspapers, that day might be much, much sooner.

Since Vanderbilt Student Communications, Inc.'s founding, the VSC board has held the laudable goals of establishing a student media which reflects campus diversity and maintaining an active body of student media participants. Unfortunately, despite the efforts of VSC's divisions, many of those involved in student media are noticing a decline in the activity of niche publications.

Vanderbilt's African American newspaper, The Talented Tenth, provides a case-in-point. The publication was founded in 2006 by African American students who felt that the voice of the black community was not being addressed in Vanderbilt's other student media outlets. "They felt misrepresented and they felt that the only way to address those grievances was to start their own paper," said The Talented Tenth's current Editor-in-Chief Janelle Stokes.

Since The Talented Tenth's founding, the wiring of the student paper's barren stands has unfortunately become more recognizable than the paper itself. In fact, only five issues have been published since the newspaper's inception - two in 2006, two in 2008, and one in 2009.

The Talented Tenth has not yet published an issue this year. "No Editor-in-Chief has to my knowledge been able to fulfill their goals of having Talented Tenth run on a regular basis," said Stokes.

She attributes part of the blame for The Talented Tenth's irregular publication cycle to a lack of staff writers.

"On a good day," Stokes said, "we have about five or six regular staff writers." In fact, a student leader has not even been a constant in the newspaper's history. The VSC board granted the Talented Tenth a one-year probationary extension in the spring of 2007 when no student interviewed to lead the publication.

The newspaper's lack of a clear mission statement has also contributed to The Talented Tenth's irregularity, according to Stokes. "There hasn't really been a clear definition of what it's going to be."

Continued...

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