Editor’s note: The Daily runs a media literacy column by Sarah Cavanah, interim executive director of Oklahoma Scholastic Media and former Daily staff writer, every Tuesday to give readers a behind-the-scenes look at The Daily and media coverage in general.

My favorite misconception about The Daily is that it has many levels of oversight. It’s mainly my favorite because it allows me to conjure up the following scene in my mind:

It’s a chilly autumn night. OU President David Boren is tucked under piles of quilts in a bed next to a roaring fire. Boren is wearing a long stocking cap — the kind with the fuzzy ball on the end — and old-fashioned spectacles. In his hands is a preview copy of The Daily’s next issue.

Boren sets down the paper, and looks over to his wife, Molly, who is sitting next to him in bed, knitting away at a crimson-and-cream cardigan for her loving husband.

“Molly Shi?” Boren asks. “Do you think there’s a way to get a mention of National Scholars into a story about repairs on Elm Street?”

No. This scene and nothing like it ever happens. Even the president of OU has to wait until morning to find out what will be in that day’s edition of The Daily.

In fact, the only “adult” who does know the content of the paper beforehand is the paper’s adviser, Judy Gibbs Robinson. Even she doesn’t see everything, and what she does see, she doesn’t censor. Robinson says she believes she is a consultant for the student journalists who make the choices in the newsroom, not their boss or their parent.

This is different than what you find with high school papers. If your high school was lucky enough to have a newspaper, it probably was subject to prior review by the school’s administration. It’s even the case at some unlucky colleges and universities. Last year, the student newspaper at Cedarville University in Ohio shut down rather than put up with the administration’s demands to preview all content, and that’s actually a fairly common tale. Two weeks ago, staffers from the Chicago State University newspaper cleared a legal hurdle in their suit against the university over acts of censorship.

At The Daily, though, it’s all in the hands of the student journalists who work there. They have to know enough about media practices, ethics and law to make the right choices. They’ve constructed a system with several levels of editors to discuss choices and bring differing perspectives.

It works. The column I originally wrote for today was bumped by my editor to the editor-in-chief, who thought I had some facts wrong. While I’m checking it out, we’re running this column instead. And that’s the kind of oversight a student paper needs.

— Sarah Cavanah, professional writing and journalism graduate student