The Paper

Chronicling a year in the life of Penn State University's The Daily Collegian, one of the largest student-produced newspapers in the country, Aaron Matthews' The Paper offers an insightful, funny, and thought-provoking microcosmic look at contemporary journalism. Out of the paper's 200 employees, the documentary focuses on a handful, including editor-in-chief James Young, managing editor Bridget Smith, features writer Laura Baker, sports reporter Jenny Vrentas, and cub reporter Kayur Patel, as they struggle with dropping circulation figures, pressures from the black student caucus to make newsroom employees attend diversity training (Young admits that the headline “Queen of Spades”—for a story about a black woman card sharp—was a poor choice), and a media firestorm that erupts when the paper prints a cover photo of a gay couple kissing—leading to a series of back and forth letters to the editor (and, as Young happily notes, a hefty boost in circulation). Equal attention is paid to the more subtle behind-the-scenes issues as football fanatic Vrentas tries to run an end-around on the monolithic “sports information” department that shields the college's players from the media, Baker lobbies for more coverage of sexual violence on campus (but is told she has a conflict of interest, since she is a member of a women-against-violence group), and Patel tries in vain to get an interview with the president of the college. Combining cinéma vérité footage with interviews of the principals, The Paper—which aired on PBS' Independent Lens series—is consistently engaging, whether following reporters chasing the real story (“we gotta differentiate between all the PR stuff and what actually happened,” says Patel) or watching staff members have a good laugh over a letter to the editor from Ivana Humpalot. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (R. Pitman)