In today’s competitive job market, it’s hard enough beinginterviewed, even by the most enthusiastic recruiter. But imaginehaving a potential employer question you about a story, run by yourschool’s newspaper, citing your comments as a liability that couldprevent your hiring.

It sounds a little nightmarish. But this very scenario happenedto a student — who asked to remain anonymous — who was profiledin The Daily’s mental health series that ran Fall Quarter. And, inan effort to avert another uncomfortable situation, the studentrequested that the paper remove the article from its onlinearchive.

Immediately my heart went out to the student — the verymean-spiritedness of the employer’s background check is chilling.What will recruiters think when they read stories from my cubreporter days, such as an in-depth analysis of sex toys — or evena column detailing my own mental health history?

Gray (and grayer) areas

Amanda Pister, who also was profiled in the series, saidalthough the situation disturbed her, it was counterintuitive tothe series’ purpose.

“I’m always a little hesitant when I write down stuff about mymental health because I don’t want them to say, ‘My god, she’s aticking time bomb!'” said Pister, a Weinberg junior. “But really, Ithink this a problem with the employer. That’s part of the problemwith society, and the only way we can change the way mental healthis viewed is by speaking out.”

Checking my gut reaction, I spoke with Daily editors andrealized that although there is no concrete policy addressing thisissue, we generally do not remove content from the Web site.

With the exception of police blotter items, online editor JimMartinho said all content is archived on a daily basis — and hasbeen since 2000. But he also said there is a lot of gray area inthe administration of online journalism.

“I think there should be some leeway for special circumstanceslike this,” said Martinho, a Medill junior. “When it’s a matter ofit affecting a person long after the story’s been written andthere’s really no reason for it to stay up on this site any more,it should be possible for us to make an exception.”

But Martinho added that he ultimately follows the decisions laidout by Stacia Campbell, The Daily’s general manager, and theeditorial board.

A decision on how to handle this case is pending, while Medilljunior Elaine Helm, the editor in chief, consults the paper’sleaders.

local paper, global impact

Medill Lecturer Janice Castro, who is one of the founders of theOnline News Association, said online journalism has created a wholenew media world.

“When (your paper is) on the Web, it’s an international orglobal publication,” Castro said. “It can be read by somebody inDakar, (Senegal), it can be read by somebody in Singapore. They’regonna find you in Google from some fragment of The Daily that showsup in a search — and normally that’s terrific.”

Castro emphasized that although this can negatively affectstudents, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the piece should besuppressed or removed from the Web site.

But Castro also pointed out that removing a story from TheDaily’s archives does not prevent it from continuing to circulateon the Web.

“The article can remain online for a while even if The Dailyremoves the article from its database,” she added. “Why? Because ofthe way search engines work: They copy documents into their owndatabases for easier processing.”

Castro suggested, though, that The Daily establish a concretepolicy to address such issues.

Changing the archives might not be an adequate solution toaddress this student’s problem. But as The Daily continues toexplore how best to serve its public, a reassessment of onlinecontent is necessary.

Public Editor Torea Frey is a Medill junior. She can be reachedat [email protected].