Editorial by Kernel Staff

Each year a new Kernel staff receives the opportunity to develop the collective mission. Of course, our ultimate goal is to be a watchdog for the campus and surrounding areas, informing readers about what sometimes goes unseen in the community.

The means for effectively accomplishing this goal is where an opportunity for change is presented. Journalism has a historical tendency to be locked into an old-fashioned role, ignoring technological advances, and as of late, journalism is paying the price. The Kernel is ready to break the cycle. This year, we plan to take enormous strides in multimedia content to accompany both our online and print stories. We anticipate adding video supplements to a large portion of our material, as well as slideshows and audio soundbites.

Last year the Kernel started using a handful of new mediums, examples ranging from the new Blue Nation Blog for sports and our numerous Twitter accounts. This year we are not only going to maintain them, but also buff them up.

Blue Nation Blog will be a venue for readers to get more in-depth and up-to-date insight from our sports writers about activity in the Big Blue Nation, while our Twitter accounts will give you concise, accessible breaking news.

Both the Kernel and Blue Nation Blog now have free Apps for iPhone and Droid, and in the coming months, we anticipate new Apps for the iPad.

As far as our planned projects, this year offers us a natural opportunity to elaborate on some of the notable coal and tobacco projects of previous years. We will examine the hypocrisies of our state, city and campus in an effort to see why our leaders on all platforms make the decisions they do.

We also hope to offer readers a great deal of access to some of the incredible members of this university and city with in-depth profile pieces empowering our audience to learn about some of the great achievements by others in their community.

UK is a campus featuring students and faculty from all over the country as well as the world. We had editors, writers and photographers training and gaining experience from as far west as Seattle and as far East as New York City, and in countries ranging from Australia to Ecuador. They foresee their experiences will contribute to the Kernel and subsequently, its readers’ knowledge.

Journalism is not dying, but rather, it is changing. The Kernel has already shown its ability to adapt, and that is a trend that will only continue this year.