As online sources overtake print, allowing for much faster global accessibililty to information and resources, the media now find itself in a situation of do or die. It’s evolve or lose advertising and circulation. At the same time, more overtly seen than ever the news media lacks the social savvy to speak to issues of diversity and the needs of communities. Following a group of Penn State University student journalists from The Daily Collegian for a year, Aaron Matthews’ documentary The Paper perfectly defines these national media issues through a microcosm of its machine.

In his year as editor-in-chief, James Young enters the scene with flagging circulation numbers. With an expected pick up rate of 20,000 papers, throughout the year, The Daily Collegian slumps to 14,000 pick ups. Insulated in the newspaper offices, the editors brainstorm the needs of their college-aged community, but from fighting issues about press ethics to strugging against the red tape of the collegiate administration, the process is anything but simple. Compound to this the fact that the newsroom is staffed primarily by white middle to upper class reporters, all of whom are overtaxed, the coverage keeps to a narrow path, never straying outside the safe zone and into innovation. Even in the circumstances in which junior reporters attempt to stir up the coverage, the paper maintains a strict and unbudging ideal about what college-aged students can and should read.

Only a controversy saves the day for The Daily Collegian circulation numbers. By printing a hate speech “Letter to the Editor” that responded directly to a photograph the paper had run of gay couples kissing, the paper stirred the sentiments of the campus, reminding its readership that homophobia still holds place as a harsh reality, even on a fairly liberally-minded campus. The questions remain here though: Is controversy the only element of news that sells? What else is the newspaper neglecting to cover that’s critical and possibly even positive?

An absolute must-see for any student journalist and any person interested in the workings of news media, The Paper pinpoints the roots of journalism’s loss of integrity rightly as laziness, ignorance and an unwillingness to grow but gives in the end a hope that change is possible, starting, as on this college’s newspaper, on a small level.

For more information visit www.thepaperdocumentary.com.