Spring 2009 Editorial Staff

Contacting the Daily Trojan is as easy as picking up the phone, connecting to the Internet or operating a fax machine. We always welcome story ideas, letters to the editor and guest editorials. Below is a list of important contact information:

Online: www.dailytrojan.com

E-mail: editor@dailytrojan.com
E-mails to specific individuals at the newspaper will be redirected to the appropriate party by the editor in chief.

Fax: (213) 740-5666 (Non-advertising material only)

Advertising: (213) 740-2707

Editor in Chief: To comment on the general content of the Daily Trojan or for other questions, call the editor in chief at (213) 740-8829.

Managing Editor: To comment on the general operation of the newspaper or when the editor in chief is unavailable, contact the managing editor at (213) 740-5668.

News Desk: To offer story ideas for general news or campus features, call the assignments editor at (213) 740-5661 (News) or the projects editor at (213) 740-5664 (News features). For questions or discussion of news coverage in general, contact the city editor at (213) 740-5667.

Editorial Desk (Opinions): To comment on an editorial, submit a letter or write a guest editorial, call the editorial director at (213) 740-5665.

Lifestyle Desk: To offer story ideas related to entertainment or feature ideas of general interest, call the Lifestyle editor at (213) 740-5645.

Sports Desk: To offer athletic story tips, call the Sports department at (213) 740-5671 or the sports editor at (213) 740-5670.

Other Numbers: If you don't know whom to call from the above list, please call the main newsroom line, (213) 740-5667, or the Student Publications office, (213) 740-2707, to be directed.

How to get into the Daily Trojan

Editors at the Daily Trojan work diligently to provide students with up to date information that will help to educate them and allow them to make their own desicions about critical events and issues, both on and off campus. There are countless ways for us to determine what makes the news and what doesn not and much of this is subjective. Some principles editors keep in mind include:

Relevance: How important is this issue or event to USC students? How important is it to college students in general?

Implications: What does this story mean to the USC community? Is there a similar trend at the national level? What is the impact?

Interest: Is the subject of the story something unusual? Is it something that people would not already know about?

Explanatory Value: Will this help students know their community in better and more clear terms? Is this something that will excite their interest?

Community: Who does this issue effect? Is this a group that tends to be overlooked in typical news coverage, either in Daily Trojan or mainstream press?

These principles are the foundation for journalism values in all sections of the Daily Trojan, although their application varies from section to section. Ultimately, all decisions rest with the editors, whom the public must hold accountable to these values.

For more information on the operating policies of the Daily Trojan, please see the General Information page.

Comments and Forum Posting Policy

Thank you for your interest and participation in the Daily Trojan comments and online forum system. To safeguard USC's Principles of Community while fostering a healthy campus dialogue, we require users to follow these basic posting guidelines:

Right to Delete Posts
Any postings that the Daily Trojan deems incongruent with its policies - including messages that are defamatory, obscene, abusive or in violation of copyright or trademark laws - are subject to editing or deletion. Although the Daily Trojan cannot reasonably expect to review every forum posting and is not responsible for any posted content, it reserves the right to monitor forums and remove posting privileges of users who violate these terms. All messages must be written in English.

Posting Rules
Comments, interactive areas, discussion boards, and the Daily Trojan Forums are intended to encourage public debate. We expect participants to differ ? judgment and opinion are subjective, and we encourage freedom of speech and a marketplace of ideas. But by using these areas of our website, you are participating in a community that is intended for all our users. Therefore, we reserve the right to remove any content posted on our site at any time for any reason.

Decisions as to whether content violates any Posting Rule will be made by the Daily Trojan at its sole discretion, after having received actual notice of such posting. Without limiting our right to remove content, we have attempted to provide guidelines to those posting content on our site. When using our website, please do not post material that:

* contains vulgar, profane, abusive or hateful language, epithets or slurs, text or illustrations in poor taste, inflammatory attacks of a personal, racial or religious nature, or expressions of bigotry, racism, discrimination or hate.
* is defamatory, threatening, disparaging, grossly inflammatory, false, misleading, deceptive, fraudulent, inaccurate, unfair, contains gross exaggeration or unsubstantiated claims, violates the privacy rights of any third party, is unreasonably harmful or offensive to any individual or community, contains any actionable statement, or tends to mislead or reflect unfairly on any other person, business or entity.
* violates any right of the Daily Trojan or any third party.
* discriminates on the grounds of race, religion, national origin, gender, age, marital status, sexual orientation or disability, or refers to such matters in any manner prohibited by law.
* violates any municipal, state or federal law, rule, regulation or ordinance, or attempts to encourage such an evasion or violation.
* unfairly interferes with any third party?s uninterrupted use of the Daily Trojan.
* advertises, promotes or offers to trade any goods or services, except in areas specifically designated for such purpose.
* uploads copyrighted or other proprietary material of any kind on our website without the express permission of the owner of that material.
* uses or attempts to use another?s account, password, service or system except as expressly permitted by the Terms of Service.
* includes images, photos, or articles or other content that constitutes, promotes or encourages illegal acts, violation of any right of any individual or entity, violation of any local, state, national or international law, rule, guideline or regulation, or otherwise creates liability.
* uploads or transmits viruses or other harmful, disruptive or destructive files.
* disrupts, interferes with, or otherwise harms or violates the security of our website, or any services, system resources, accounts, passwords, servers or networks connected to or accessible through our website or affiliated or linked sites.
* "flames" any individual or entity (e.g., sends repeated messages related to another user and/or makes derogatory or offensive comments about another individual), or repeats prior posting of the same message under multiple threads or subjects.

(Adapted from the Los Angeles Times Forums Policies with permission.)