Resting at the top of the masthead of Duke's independent daily newspaper, The Chronicle, is the name of junior Danielle Muoio. Formerly a department head of the Health and Science section of The Chronicle, Muoio was elected as the Editor in Chief of v. 109 by Chronicle staff this Spring.
"My daily responsibilities entail overseeing all the departments, making sure everyone is happy and putting forward a vision in terms of things that I would like to see change with both our print and online editions," Muoio said.
Known for her articles on lemurs or campus sexual health, Muoio did not expect to become editor, describing her ascent from “a shy staff writer” as a “whirlwind process.”
“I still remember making my way to West Campus by myself for an information session in this hot room—it was like a thousand degrees and everyone was talking about how they served as editors and managing editors of their high school papers,” she said. “I thought well, I'll just write one article and that one article turned into 76 articles and going.”
One of which was an interview with Dr. Robert Lefkowitz, James B. Duke professor of medicine and professor of biochemistry and immunology, shortly after he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Muoio describes The Chronicle's role at Duke as that of the “watchdog” on campus—highlighting student and faculty concerns and events on campus.
“Without our presence people wouldn't have as much of a say in terms of how Duke is shaped,” she said.
She also notes how important it is that The Chronicle is student-run and fully independent from the University. She described how she once met another newspaper editor who attended a Catholic university where the paper was reliant on university funding.
"Before the paper goes to publication, nuns have to read over every single article,” Muoio said. “[The editor] said they would read over articles and literally change them last minute.”
Since The Chronicle has no affiliation with the University, Muoio said, its staff has the freedom to write whatever it deems important.
"And that's really something that's not to take lightly," she said.
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