Daily Texan OnlineEdit
Daily Texan Online is the digital arm of The Daily Texan, the student-run newspaper at the University of Texas at Austin. The Daily Texan has a long history dating back to the early 20th century, serving as both a training ground for aspiring journalists and a watchdog on campus governance. Daily Texan Online carries the same mission into the internet era, delivering real-time campus news, sports, opinions, and culture to the UT community and the broader Austin readership. Content is produced by students under the oversight of university-appointed leadership and a publications framework that emphasizes independence, transparency, and accountability to readers.
The UT community relies on a visible, on-campus press to report timely developments, analyze policy choices, and reflect the concerns of students and staff. The Daily Texan Online aims to balance journalistic duties with the responsibility to remain accessible to a wide audience, including alumni and local residents who follow campus affairs. In a university environment that prizes open inquiry, the paper frequently covers tuition, campus safety, athletics, research breakthroughs, and the administration’s decisions, while also hosting forums for opinion and debate. University of Texas at Austin The Daily Texan Daily Texan Online
History
The Daily Texan began publication in the early 1900s and grew into a central institution of campus life at University of Texas at Austin. Over the decades, it evolved from a print-only newspaper into a multi-platform outlet that includes a strong online presence. The Daily Texan Online emerged as part of the broader shift to digital media, expanding access to news and enabling faster reporting, multimedia features, and interactive discussion. Today, the website complements the traditional print edition and serves as the primary hub for campus journalism, with content ranging from breaking campus news to long-form investigations and opinion pieces. The Daily Texan Daily Texan Online
Content and operations
Coverage: The Daily Texan Online provides coverage across news, sports, arts and life, and opinion. It seeks to reflect student life, campus policy debates, and issues affecting the wider Austin community. Where relevant, reporting also touches on state and national questions that impact campus life. University of Texas at Austin News
Staff and governance: The publication is produced by student editors, reporters, photographers, and designers under a governance structure that includes a publications board and editorial leadership. This framework is designed to preserve editorial independence while ensuring accountability to readers and to university policies. Publications Board Student journalism
Funding and audience: Like many student newspapers, it relies on a combination of student activities funding and advertising revenue to sustain operations, enabling it to publish online daily and in print as schedules allow. The aim is to maintain open channels of communication with students, faculty, alumni, and local readers. Advertising Student Government
Standards and ethics: The Daily Texan maintains standards for accuracy, corrections, and transparency about sources and conflicts of interest. It also provides space for a broad range of opinions, including guest columns and editorials that reflect the diverse views of the campus community. Journalism ethics Editorial independence
Editorial stance and controversies
The Daily Texan Online, like many student outlets, operates in an environment where campus politics and cultural debates shape readership expectations and editorial choices. Supporters emphasize that a student-run newspaper should be energetic and bold, willing to challenge official perspectives when warranted, and rigorous in fact-checking and sourcing. They highlight the value of free, open discussion on college campuses and point to the paper’s role in informing students about budget decisions, campus safety measures, and academic policy.
Critics and observers sometimes contend that any campus publication can reflect the prevailing campus culture, which may lead to perceptions of bias or underrepresentation of certain viewpoints. In this context, some readers argue that conservative or alternative perspectives deserve stronger presence in both news reporting and opinion sections; others counter that a healthy campus press should prioritize issues that most directly affect student life and fiscal responsibility, while providing a platform for diverse voices through letters, op-eds, and moderated forums. Proponents of editorial independence respond that the outlet strives to balance coverage, editorial pages, and corrective practices, and they note that a student newsroom can be a training ground for civil discourse and professional journalism.
When controversies arise—such as disagreements over how campus protests are covered, which topics receive prominent attention, or how opinion content is curated—the Daily Texan Online tends to respond with policy reviews, corrections when needed, and efforts to broaden participation. Critics of perceived bias may argue the paper should expand reach to a wider ideological spectrum, while defenders emphasize that the publication is focused on reporting on student life, governance, and public policy in a way that serves readers and upholds professional standards. In this context, the paper’s editors often point to a spectrum of voices in its opinion pages and to reader feedback as evidence of ongoing, dynamic debate on campus. Journalism ethics Publications Board Free speech