From the managing editor: Let’s teach Bartleby how to go zeitgeist surfing

Usually, this space is used to wonder rhetorically what the
paper is good for, anyway.

Well.

Newspapers have been filled this month with news about the
two-year anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, hurricanes, reports on the
recall circus, Jennifer Lopez and Mars.

Perhaps a better question would be: How does this paper report
on the zeitgeist?

Zeitgeist is where news meets the unpredictable, where popular
trends intersect with establishment, where fashion is nobrow, where
randomness mixes with deliberate intellect. The dictionary will
tell you it identifies the intellectual, cultural and moral
“climate” of an era. But it’s intangible; it
takes on a different form daily, subject to the whim of the
masses.

Based on the number of people suddenly fascinated by the
September news celebrities, it’s not as though the public is
lacking in curiosity.

But the zeitgeist is more than just the news reported in the
headlines. Often, it’s what isn’t reported. It’s
fickle ““ and slippery ““ and the moment when you just
get your fingers on it is where newspapering is the most
rewarding.

The Bruin should serve as more than a campus Bartleby. This
year, I hope we can accomplish what no other publication here can:
an opportunity, every day, to pick up a paper and find a story that
straddles the line between straight news and the absurd ““ one
that casts light on a unique profession, an intellectual battle or
a puzzling pattern, that offers a glimpse of the campus culture
otherwise foreign to us.

We create this culture unintentionally. We all contribute to it,
but sometimes we only see the collective result ““ we often
can’t see the pieces. In this paper, we’ve attempted to
uncover a few of them:

A student-run clothing company with roots at UCLA has a
following in Orange County surf shops. A reporter meets the
eclectic characters of Third Street’s music scene. USC is
creeping up on UCLA’s reputation, with the university’s
art history and neuroscience departments helping to boost its
nationwide rankings. A campus triathlon team led by two engineering
students takes its division by storm.

While it is expected that a newspaper will report news, it takes
skill, acuity, edge, flavor and persistent curiosity to find the
zeitgeist, to find the colorful truth that evades press releases
and staged photo-ops. Headline-grabbing stories are still news
““ but so are the smaller, perhaps less obvious pinches of
zeitgeist ingredients.

As the managing editor, I’m supposed to know what the
paper is good for (and coordinate daily production). Faced with fee
increases, tax increases, new governors and war, the relative
importance of these ingredients might be marginal. But
they’re what make this campus unique. Ultimately, I think the
biggest impact this paper ““ and its readers ““ can have
is on the UCLA zeitgeist, and that’s the most important
thing, anyway.

Finally, The Bruin is committed to covering the community with
fairness and accuracy, but if we fall short, let us know. The paper
should be an outlet for its readers to express themselves,
especially because it cannot cover its own community without
contributing to the zeitgeist as well.

Jenkins is the 2003-2004 managing editor and can be reached
at [email protected].