Free Press re-launches website

By Free Press Staff

The McDaniel Free Press has relaunched its website, McDanielFreePress.com. The site was orginally launced in the fall of 2007, but it rarely recieved major web traffic.

The new site is fully integrated with the Free Press blog network, allowing users to interact with each other seemlessly. Comments can be placed on each article, and there is a forum that welcomes photo and freelance submissions.

To log onto the site, simply type http://mcdanielfreepress.com into your favorite web browser’s address field. From the homepage, you can read unique web content under the “Free Press Blogs” from many contributors who post frequent updates. Each newspaper section also has its own homepage, and feedback can be offered in nearly every aspect of the site.

Check out the “Announcements” section to suggest story ideas or alternate perspectives for upcoming issues.

In short, interacting with the web version of the McDaniel Free Press will lead to a more fulfilling engagement with your college life.

Constructive Note from the editor:

Right now, I am involved in a long-term-ish research project regarding the internet and democracy in America. In light of many articles and books I came across, I decided to redesign McDanielFreePress.com to facilitate the kind of discourse that is vital to the perpetuation of government for the people, by the people.

Now, it is true that this website concerns only McDaniel students, but the proliferation of groups in civil society is neccessary for a large scale democracy such as ours to function.

The problem is that there is so much information available to each and every one of us who cruise the internets, that it becomes impossible to see all of it. Not every perspective is equally represented at the legislative table. But when a community of people, such as the one found at McDaniel College, can come together and set their own agendas in the democratic discourse, then those lost voices can be heard. The internet makes this possible.

Independent newsgathering organizations are just as important for a small college community as they are for an entire nation-state. The function of the McDaniel Free Press is to keep the McDaniel College community informed. In the past, this was a top-down conversation. The goal is to build a bottom up discourse, and believe it or not, this website is a big step towards making McDaniel College more democratic. – M.W.H.