About The Mesa Press

The Mesa Press is the student newspaper of San Diego Mesa College.  This college news website and accompanying social networking sites are published as a learning experience for aspiring journalists at San Diego Mesa College. All materials, including the opinions expressed herein, are the sole responsibility of The Mesa Press student staff. We publish one print magazine at the end of the fall and spring semesters. We do not publish during winter break (January) or summer break (June-August).

To become a staff member of The Mesa Press, you must be enrolled in the course titled Journalism 210A – Newspaper Production 1. The course is offered every fall and spring semester on Tuesday/Thursday from 11:10 a.m. -12:35 p.m. on the Mesa College campus.

Under appropriate state and federal court decisions, these materials are free from prior restraint by virtue of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America.

Accordingly, materials published herein, including advertising and any opinions expressed, should not be interpreted to be those of the San Diego Community College District, the college, or any officer or employee thereof.

To submit a letter to the editor for consideration, please include your name (unsigned letters or letters signed with aliases will not be printed), age, major/profession, college attending (if not Mesa), and e-mail address. Submit your letters to 7250 Mesa College Dr., San Diego, CA 92111, or by e-mail to mesa.press@gmail.com.

Please limit all letters to 250 words. The Mesa Press reserves the right to edit letters for space and content.

For information on advertising with The Mesa Press, along with specific publication dates, please click on the “Advertise with The Mesa Press” link at the top of our homepage.  Call (619) 388-2630 or e-mail mesa.press@gmail.com for additional information.

To view past issues, visit https://issuu.com/themesapress .

Requests for deletion or removal

The Mesa Press does not remove content or delete details such as names from our website once published, except in the case of threats or a story that will cause measurable consequences to the person involved. Removing content would deny the community a full public record of the history of people and events at San Diego Mesa College and in the surrounding community, and would damage our credibility as we strive to be fair to all. Errors of fact can be corrected with a note to be inserted in the story pointing out the revision. All changes are at the discretion of the student editorial board. Contact us at mesa.press@gmail.com for more information.

Interview Policy

The Mesa Press has a policy for staff members to conduct interviews either in person, over the phone, or using a VoIP application such as Zoom or Skype. We do not conduct interviews via text messages and emails. We understand that some sources might prefer interviews via text messages or emails,  but our reporters are instructed to arrange phone calls and in-person meetings in order to learn the art of conducting an authentic interview in a professional manner. This policy helps keep interviews spontaneous and candid by avoiding pre-formulated, carefully scripted statements, and boosts transparency by assuring that any quotes are actually from the person being interviewed, not from a third party covering for the interview subject. Instantaneous follow-up questions – difficult and time-consuming to conduct via text or email messages, especially on deadline — lead to better, more interesting stories. Full names are always used unless requested by the source and anonymity is only granted under extenuating circumstances.

Error/Correction Policy

At The Mesa Press, we are dedicated to providing our readers with accurate and trustworthy information. However, because these are students learning the craft of journalism, we acknowledge that errors or inaccuracies occasionally occur despite our best efforts. To report corrections and clarifications, please email mesa.press@gmail.com with the subject line “Mesa Press correction.”

We are committed to correcting errors discovered either by Mesa Press staffers or by our audience as soon as possible.

• Corrections will be made without notice to stories that have minor corrections, such as typographical errors, grammatical mistakes, or other minor issues that do not significantly affect the context and meaning of the story.
• For errors and corrections of fact that affect the meaning and context of a story, we issue an accurate revision. This correction will be accompanied by a correction notice at the bottom of the online story.