Young journalists compete for top spot in MTV reality show

The passion. The deadline. The competition. The drama.

It will all be there in black and white, or black and blue if the new
MTV reality show, “The Paper,” lives up to its teasers.

The show follows four teenagers as they compete to become editor in
chief of their award-winning high school newspaper, The Circuit.

Somebody please etch what I’m about to say in limestone somewhere,
because this is the first and last time I will ever say this about an
MTV reality show.

I am dripping with excitement for this show.

As someone about to face the real world with a brand-spanking new
journalism degree and a half decade’s experience at newspapers, I feel
strongly connected to this story.

Putting out a newspaper (whether it’s daily like The State News or
monthly or weekly like most high school publications) is a stressful
endeavor. The whole process is compounded by the extremely political
and stressful process of selecting management for the paper.

For every person who crumbles up copies of the paper and says “I
could write a better article” in disgust, there are five people inside
that paper fretting over sources not calling back, deadlines and
meeting the needs of readers and editors.

It’s drama.

But in all of it’s awkward, acne glory, high school is drama, too. So
the marriage of these two stress inducers is welcome in my book.

That being said, I have one gripe about the treatment. This show would be so much better if it was set at a college newspaper.

Instead of thinking about prom and world history, college journalists
have to juggle college credits, living on their own and producing
daily content for a paper that reaches more people and means more in
their career landscape.

College newspapers are like their high school counterparts but on a
drunk, horny rollercoaster.

Where do we find the time to get drunk and be reckless on a Tuesday
night? Will we land a professional internship? Can we live off Ramen
noodles? Who wouldn’t want to watch every second of that?

These are the questions and having a college newspaper reality show
is the answer.