Editor’s Desk: Finding Journalism with The Good 5¢ Cigar

I spent my spring break along the Pacific Ocean in San Francisco, so I decided to turn to the Atlantic for this edition of my Editor’s Desk.

When I think of the east coast now, I think of my sister who’s now a first-year at the University of Rhode Island, home of the student newspaper The Good 5¢ Cigar.

Lauren Drapeau is a fourth-year journalism major and editor-in-chief of Rhode Island paper. Although she has eventual aspirations to travel west, the Rhode Island native loves the “transparency” of the east coast.

“People are ruthless,” Drapeau said. “They will say what’s on their mind and they do not care. I like knowing that I can go into a conversation and immediately feel out if the other person isn’t feeling it.”

Drapeau first enrolled undeclared in Rhode Island’s College of Health Sciences but after a strenuous year and gap semester, she found her stride in journalism.

“After declaring journalism, I think that the people in the major and my friends that I’ve met now after coming back from a gap semester, they’ve completely reframed my entire college experience,” said Drapeau, 21. “Now I can actually go to school every day and enjoy being there.”

But at Rhode Island, their Harrington School of Communication and Media recently announced the public relations and journalism majors will be undergoing a “departmental merger,” The Good 5¢ Cigar reported. The degrees will remain separate and the decision was made to “streamline administrative burdens.”

This feels like such a shame. I often hear that journalism is just an extension of public relations. While there are similarities in terms of skills necessary, the two fields are wildly different. As soon as writing is being done with a motive beyond telling the objective truth, that’s no longer journalism.

At The Loyola Phoenix — and The Good 5¢ Cigar, it seems — being a voice for the students and the community is at the forefront of our work.

Drapeau, who doesn’t graduate until December, said her favorite part about working with The Good 5¢ Cigar is the “reward” of their printed edition each week. 

“I’ve never had a product like this newspaper that’s just felt so much like mine,” she said. “Knowing that I can look at each section and be like, ‘Oh, these people wrote it — that’s my team.’ It’s extremely rewarding.”

I want to thank Drapeau for taking time during her spring break to talk to me this week about our papers and beyond. I hope Loyola and Rhode Island meet when Sports Editor Griffin Krueger and I travel to Brooklyn this week for the Atlantic 10 Men’s Basketball Championship tournament. Read his preview of the week in sports.

Happy birthday to my sister, Paige. Thank you all for reading.

Featured image courtesy of Paige Hojdar