Pacifican Editors: Past and Present
On Monday, April 22nd, The Pacifican sat down to interview past Editors-in-Chief from the paper. These editors included Patrick McDowell, English, ‘81; Susan Giraldez, Spanish, ‘79; Karen Davis, Communication, ‘81; as well as current Editor-in-Chief Malavika Raj, Biological Sciences, ‘21. It became evident early on in the conversation that, over the years, The Pacifican has changed immensely as a publication.
Some of these changes were technological. Giraldez explains that during their time with the paper, the editors and writers set type themselves, developed their own photos, and drove the copy over to the newspaper press in Tracy to be printed for publication. Giraldez, Davis, and McDowell all reminisce about the long nights spent laying out the paper. For Raj, however, the 2020-21 proved to be a massive shift for The Pacifican, as it transitioned from a completely print to a completely digital publication. She mentions how it was difficult to navigate the transition and build a dedicated staff, especially with the new needs demanded of a news source during a global pandemic. “I think we needed to change how things ran…[in order] to move online. And the pandemic was a great excuse to get backing on this.”
Karen Davis talks about her time before being Editor-in-Chief, when she was The Pacifican’s first female sports editor. “I travelled with the football team. When I went to South Carolina with them, I was actually kicked out of the press box because they thought that I was someone’s secretary, and didn’t know why I would be in the press box. I had to get the sports editor from the Stockton paper to vouch for me, that I really was a reporter and had every right to be in the press box.” Giraldez also adds how, prior to her time with the paper, most of the writers and Editors-in-Chief had been men. This is a stark contrast to The Pacifican’s current staff, which is made up entirely of women.
McDowell also added some thoughts about the differences between journalism during his time at Pacific and now: “I think there was more of a general understanding that the press ought to be independent.” He stresses the importance of objectivity, which he says establishes a paper’s credibility. The paper then was very focused on investigative journalism, which involves a great deal of time spent interviewing sources and eyewitnesses, researching, and collecting data. He mentions that during his time with The Pacifican, he sought to write stories that reflected an earlier form of “brash, street-style journalism.” This was reflected in the stories that were published in the paper at the time, which sometimes offered criticism of ASuop, or the university administration. The journalistic freedom afforded to The Pacifican and its staff then, he suggests, played a crucial role in their development as writers and editors. It helped them learn about journalistic integrity, how to balance critique with honesty and objectivity.
The four editors emphasize how working on the paper has helped them in their careers, which have all taken a different turn. McDowell, for instance, is currently a journalist with Bloomberg and is based in Hong Kong. Giraldez, who is a Spanish professor at Pacific, calls the paper “it wasn’t just an extracurricular...it was very curricular. It contributed so immensely to what we’re able to do professionally.” Davis, former mayor of Glendora, CA and current pastor of the First Christian Church of Glendora, also stresses how the skills she learned in the paper helped her in her careers in the church and in politics. For Raj, the paper has helped her learn business and communication skills that she feel will be useful in her future career in public health.
Over the years, The Pacifican has changed immensely as a newspaper. Issues of technology and modernizing publication that did not exist before are now being encountered by current editors for the paper. The Pacifican has undergone several changes in key areas, such as administration, funding, oversight, and content. It has evolved in terms of audience: who it serves, what it conveys, and how it conveys it. However not all things have changed so drastically. The Pacifican has been meaningful to the editors in different ways, and for different reasons. In their time with the paper, all four Editors-in-Chief have had to navigate the turbid waters of journalistic ethics amidst these various circumstances and situations which shaped (and continues to shape) The Pacifican’s role on campus.
