Just the other day I asked a few students how they prefer to get their news. After getting past the typical answers of “I don’t care about the news,” I found that a good majority read the paper or look online. For instance, Dave Dippold, junior in hotel, restaurant and institution management, says he prefers getting the news online.

“If I want to find out what happened [in the news], it’s much easier, quicker and more convenient to go online,” Dippold said.

After asking them where they got their news, I asked if they ever watched the news on television. A good majority gave me a simple “no.”

The negative response to television news was due to the fact that the topics covered are not very interesting to them, or are topics they cannot relate to — aside from economic problems, but everyone can relate to that.

Unfortunately, I must agree that I am not a huge fan of the evening news for some of the very same reasons.

However, there is some good news for me and some of those students. This past semester, a new place to find the news on television was created. It is a place where you can get a different take on the most current events. It runs every week, and is simply called “The Weekly News.” It is an independent student-run news show created by Jordan Tuerler, junior in journalism and communication.

I have not seen many episodes, and since it is brand new, they are still trying to establish themselves. What I have seen is a very strong effort at combining humor with the world’s biggest news items, as well as adding in some shots of current events happening at Iowa State.

Some may argue that this show is reminiscent of shows like “The Colbert Report” and “The Daily Show.” However, host Jordan Tuerler has said he believes it is different because their aim is toward a student audience.

“We try to do things we think students would want to watch,” Tuerler said. “Whether that’s sex jokes and beer references or trying to drink a gallon of milk in 5 minutes and puking it all over — whatever, as long as it’s entertaining.”

The efforts of the students who are responsible for putting the show together is also cause for much praise. Every week the producers, camera people, writers and crew work hard to deliver the very best product possible.

“We spend generous amounts of time on this show every week to try to produce a quality show,“ Tuerler said. “I believe people should watch because it’s not the normal mundane humor you often see on TV. It’s new and fresh. It’s produced by students, for students.”

The show also uses correspondents to add an extra dimension and give the show depth. Like John Oliver, Steve Carell and Aasif Mandvi from “The Daily Show,” the correspondents for “The Weekly News” give Tuerler’s “straight man” persona something to feed off of and to run some jokes.

It is unfortunate that the show has not seen more publicity and has yet to catch a very large fan base. This can be blamed on it running on the ISU Network, or being put in a crummy time slot — having to go up against such television juggernauts as “Ugly Betty,” “Survivor” and Nancy Grace, herself. Because of some of these reasons, Tuerler also hopes to start streaming the episodes online so more people can see them.

So, if you are like me and cannot stand watching Nancy Grace on CNN or Katie Couric trying to deliver the nightly news, why not check out this show? It airs at 7 p.m. every Thursday on ISUtv. Check it out, and show some support for another form of student-run news media.

 — Jordan Wickstrom is a junior in journalism and mass communication from Beresford, South Dakota.