• Apply
  • Archives
  • NewsWatch
  • Classifieds
  • Multimedia
    • Ole Miss in Puerto Rico
    • Campus Protests
    • The Queen of Marks
    • Meet Aubrey Armstrong, a Real Champion and Local Celebrity
    • Mississippi voters passed Initiative 65. What’s next?
Friday, January 15, 2021
  • Login
No Result
View All Result
The Daily Mississippian
  • News

    UM chooses enrollment veteran to fill new vice chancellor position

    Mississippi voters passed Initiative 65. What’s next?

    Mississippi voters passed Initiative 65. What’s next?

    Thousands of scholars rally behind fired UM professor

    Campus prepares for flu season, ‘uptick’ in cases

    University assembles vaccination task force

    Oxford man shot, killed by police after domestic violence situation

    Gallery: Drive-Thru Drag Show

  • Sports

    Gallery: Ole Miss women’s basketball defeated by Mizzou 86-77

    Gallery: Ole Miss men’s basketball falls to Florida 72-63

    Rebels bring home Outback Bowl trophy after 26-20 win over Indiana

    Gallery: Ole Miss defeats Indiana 26-20

    Ole Miss receives bowl-game invite despite LSU loss

    Ole Miss vs Arkansas

    Ole Miss football’s Elijah Moore and Kenny Yeboah to focus on NFL Draft

  • Arts & Culture

    The secret to The Luv Shak’s success

    A look into the fluctuating Oxford food truck business

    A look into the fluctuating Oxford food truck business

    Film Festival brings classic pastime to a new generation

    UM band plays together for the first time this year

    UM band plays together for the first time this year

  • Opinion
    Cartoon: The way you in my business

    Cartoon: The way you in my business

    Opinion: Insulin is far from “cheap like water”

    Cartoon: Vice president-elect Kamala Harris

    Cartoon: Vice president-elect Kamala Harris

    Opinion: We need civility in American politics

  • Print Editions
  • Advertise
    • Advertise with Us
    • Ad Policy
    • Classifieds
  • Contact
  • News

    UM chooses enrollment veteran to fill new vice chancellor position

    Mississippi voters passed Initiative 65. What’s next?

    Mississippi voters passed Initiative 65. What’s next?

    Thousands of scholars rally behind fired UM professor

    Campus prepares for flu season, ‘uptick’ in cases

    University assembles vaccination task force

    Oxford man shot, killed by police after domestic violence situation

    Gallery: Drive-Thru Drag Show

  • Sports

    Gallery: Ole Miss women’s basketball defeated by Mizzou 86-77

    Gallery: Ole Miss men’s basketball falls to Florida 72-63

    Rebels bring home Outback Bowl trophy after 26-20 win over Indiana

    Gallery: Ole Miss defeats Indiana 26-20

    Ole Miss receives bowl-game invite despite LSU loss

    Ole Miss vs Arkansas

    Ole Miss football’s Elijah Moore and Kenny Yeboah to focus on NFL Draft

  • Arts & Culture

    The secret to The Luv Shak’s success

    A look into the fluctuating Oxford food truck business

    A look into the fluctuating Oxford food truck business

    Film Festival brings classic pastime to a new generation

    UM band plays together for the first time this year

    UM band plays together for the first time this year

  • Opinion
    Cartoon: The way you in my business

    Cartoon: The way you in my business

    Opinion: Insulin is far from “cheap like water”

    Cartoon: Vice president-elect Kamala Harris

    Cartoon: Vice president-elect Kamala Harris

    Opinion: We need civility in American politics

  • Print Editions
  • Advertise
    • Advertise with Us
    • Ad Policy
    • Classifieds
  • Contact
No Result
View All Result
The Daily Mississippian
No Result
View All Result

Opinion: A call to professors: America needs your guidance

Francisco HernandezbyFrancisco Hernandez
August 21, 2017
2 min read

As today’s solar eclipse teaches us, a lack of light can be a cold and frightening experience. Unfortunately, this summer revealed an even more unnerving darkness: the lack of intellectualism in our nation’s mass media.

In a country where in 1787 a small group of intellectuals forged one of the world’s strongest democratic systems and in the 1960s civil rights leaders brought the constitutional ideal of a “more perfect union” closer to realization, the lack of honest and informed public debaters is even more worrisome.

Our current times have challenges of their own, and if we want to avoid a national existential crisis, there are many questions we need to face with braveness and thorough examination.

Just as the opioid and obesity epidemics require the intervention of medical doctors and healthcare professionals, this information crisis requires the intervention of intellectuals and academics. And nobody is more prepared for the task than university professors all across the U.S.

I know that the responsibilities of teaching, researching and serving publicly that professors already perform are enough to ask for. But times like this require some additional steps and adaptations. The divisive questions being debated are simply too plentiful to let fester.

Is immigration an essential part of this country’s identity, or has it become an economic and social burden for some? How will we avoid the reintroduction of white supremacy into our politics? Is access to affordable healthcare necessary to promote the general welfare? Does our system of meritocracy justify our level of economic inequality? What steps should we take to stop human-induced climate change?

These are just some of the most important questions of our time, and their answers will shape decades to come. Yet the media has proved unprepared to predict and address these challenges, even in a time when information is more accessible than ever.

Overabundance of information has only divided us further without providing any clarity: Mainstream public debate on the left comes from late-night TV hosts with a talent for comedy but no scientific or academic background, while the right contributes its loud-mouthed cable news anchors who prefer yelling over discussing substantial policy ideas.

Social media and the internet provide a similar picture: Algorithms record readers’ preferences and cater to our biases with sensationalist stories that will increase the number of clicks or likes.

Academic specialization has greatly expanded our fields of knowledge, but it’s not clear whether it has allowed us to keep a united vision about our past, our present and our future. Academia needs to step outside its comfort zone of specialized knowledge and begin providing guidance to society as a whole.

The classroom is a great starting point to promote open debates that avoid political agendas and focus on the latest fact-based research. Engagement in social media will also be crucial, as those platforms, for better or for worse, represent the future of public debates and require active and informed guidance for college-graduates and non-college graduates.

Lastly, the participation of professors in the mainstream media is a necessity for both journalism and academia. Academics will provide the background the media lacks, while mainstream publications will contribute with a louder voice and reach than specialized journals.

Maybe with this joint effort, as literature professors might say, we will be able to rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Francisco Hernandez is a senior international studies major from Valencia, Spain.

In Case You Missed It

Gallery: Ole Miss women’s basketball defeated by Mizzou 86-77

12 hours ago

Gallery: Ole Miss men’s basketball falls to Florida 72-63

19 hours ago

UM chooses enrollment veteran to fill new vice chancellor position

4 days ago

Rebels bring home Outback Bowl trophy after 26-20 win over Indiana

2 weeks ago

Gallery: Ole Miss defeats Indiana 26-20

2 weeks ago

Ole Miss receives bowl-game invite despite LSU loss

3 weeks ago

Opinion: A call to professors: America needs your guidance

Francisco HernandezbyFrancisco Hernandez
August 21, 2017
2 min read

As today’s solar eclipse teaches us, a lack of light can be a cold and frightening experience. Unfortunately, this summer revealed an even more unnerving darkness: the lack of intellectualism in our nation’s mass media.

In a country where in 1787 a small group of intellectuals forged one of the world’s strongest democratic systems and in the 1960s civil rights leaders brought the constitutional ideal of a “more perfect union” closer to realization, the lack of honest and informed public debaters is even more worrisome.

Our current times have challenges of their own, and if we want to avoid a national existential crisis, there are many questions we need to face with braveness and thorough examination.

Just as the opioid and obesity epidemics require the intervention of medical doctors and healthcare professionals, this information crisis requires the intervention of intellectuals and academics. And nobody is more prepared for the task than university professors all across the U.S.

I know that the responsibilities of teaching, researching and serving publicly that professors already perform are enough to ask for. But times like this require some additional steps and adaptations. The divisive questions being debated are simply too plentiful to let fester.

Is immigration an essential part of this country’s identity, or has it become an economic and social burden for some? How will we avoid the reintroduction of white supremacy into our politics? Is access to affordable healthcare necessary to promote the general welfare? Does our system of meritocracy justify our level of economic inequality? What steps should we take to stop human-induced climate change?

These are just some of the most important questions of our time, and their answers will shape decades to come. Yet the media has proved unprepared to predict and address these challenges, even in a time when information is more accessible than ever.

Overabundance of information has only divided us further without providing any clarity: Mainstream public debate on the left comes from late-night TV hosts with a talent for comedy but no scientific or academic background, while the right contributes its loud-mouthed cable news anchors who prefer yelling over discussing substantial policy ideas.

Social media and the internet provide a similar picture: Algorithms record readers’ preferences and cater to our biases with sensationalist stories that will increase the number of clicks or likes.

Academic specialization has greatly expanded our fields of knowledge, but it’s not clear whether it has allowed us to keep a united vision about our past, our present and our future. Academia needs to step outside its comfort zone of specialized knowledge and begin providing guidance to society as a whole.

The classroom is a great starting point to promote open debates that avoid political agendas and focus on the latest fact-based research. Engagement in social media will also be crucial, as those platforms, for better or for worse, represent the future of public debates and require active and informed guidance for college-graduates and non-college graduates.

Lastly, the participation of professors in the mainstream media is a necessity for both journalism and academia. Academics will provide the background the media lacks, while mainstream publications will contribute with a louder voice and reach than specialized journals.

Maybe with this joint effort, as literature professors might say, we will be able to rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Francisco Hernandez is a senior international studies major from Valencia, Spain.

In Case You Missed It

Gallery: Ole Miss women’s basketball defeated by Mizzou 86-77

12 hours ago

Gallery: Ole Miss men’s basketball falls to Florida 72-63

19 hours ago

UM chooses enrollment veteran to fill new vice chancellor position

4 days ago

Rebels bring home Outback Bowl trophy after 26-20 win over Indiana

2 weeks ago

Gallery: Ole Miss defeats Indiana 26-20

2 weeks ago

Ole Miss receives bowl-game invite despite LSU loss

3 weeks ago

Facebook Twitter Instagram Youtube
Mississippi Press Association

Sign up for The Morning Briefing, our newsletter with the top news of the day.

SUBSCRIBE

  • News
  • Sports
  • Arts & Culture
  • Opinion
  • Print Editions
  • Advertise
    • Advertise with Us
    • Ad Policy
    • Classifieds
  • Contact

All Rights Reserved to S. Gale Denley Student Media Center 2019

No Result
View All Result
  • News
  • Sports
  • Arts & Culture
  • Opinion
  • Print Editions
  • Advertise
    • Advertise with Us
    • Ad Policy
    • Classifieds
  • Contact

All Rights Reserved to S. Gale Denley Student Media Center 2019

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In