It is the habit of newspaper readers everywhere to receive the regular delivery of their papers with scarcely a thought about the complex processes required to produce a newspaper. The almost magical appearance of the newspaper in the mail or hands of a newsboy leads us to accept casually this modern miracle of technology, education and hard work.

   This being the fifth anniversary of The Chungang Herald, it is an appropriate time to discuss briefly some of the problems and accomplishments of newspapers in general and of school publications in particular.

   Newspaper publishers and editors must accept some of the blame for readers taking their newspapers so casually. Because journalism is a complex business, those in it tend to describe their work in terms of clichés. One of these clichés is that “a newspaper is a mirror of society. As even a child can hold up a mirror and see in it an accurate reflection, we tend to assume that reflecting society in the pages of a newspaper is a rather simple business.

   To correct this misconception all one need do is to look at several back issues of a newspaper. One then realizes what a difficult business it is to catch the fleeting reflection of society. This is particularly true for the Chung-Ang Herald because over the past five years it has attempted to reflect not only the specialized interests and activities of a university community but also the major developments in the nation as they affect education.

The reflection of society one finds in a newspaper is not the constant, sharply defined image seen in an actual mirror, but it is a shifting, ever-changing mosaic. This must be so because of the dynamic, fluctuating nature of modern society.

   As one surveys back issues, I becomes apparent that a newspaper does more than merely reflect society; the paper becomes a contemporary history of society. In those collected pages we discover a remarkably coherent description of our progress and failures, aspirations and achievements. A newspaper seldom impresses us as a work of history because we read that history in short installments and tend to lose the thread of continuity. It is, nevertheless, just that.

   In this anniversary issue, it is timely to acquaint the readers of The Chung-Ang Herald with some aspects of newspaper work which are unique to student publications. In addition to the usual journalistic challenges faced by any newspaper staff, such as providing accurate and complete news, facing the technical problems of putting the paper together, seeing that the publication gets out on time, the Herald staff has to face a limitation commercial newspapers do not: the Herald staffers are only part-time journalists. Their main task is to be good students; only after this can come the work of producing a newspaper.

   Another difficulty is that the Herald staff changes rapidly, as do all college newspaper staffs. Reporters and editors come, briefly perform their jobs, and then leave following graduation. The Herald faces the problem of maintaining continuity and along with this, an acceptable level of journalistic performance regardless of the flux.

   Still another limitation the student journalists must cope with is their very inexperience, They come to a university to obtain an education and yet, while studying, they are called upon to fulfill an adult responsibility of producing a newspaper which will be circulated internationally.

   Despite these limitations, the staffs of the Herald, from the first issue, have done a remarkable job of producing a high quality English language newspaper. One is struck by the initially high level of performance which was achieved and the consistency with which the newspaper has clung to this standard.

   In the first issue of The Chung-Ang Herald, May 1957, Mr. Chae-Kyung Oh, then director of the Office of Public Information, Republic of Korea, stated, “It is my hope and belief that The Chung-Ang Herald will provide an effective medium for the exchange of academic, cultural and scientific information of great value to the University and the student body.

   Five years after this challenge, on can truly say that The Chung-Ang Herald has sustained Minister Oh’s hopes.