Penn State’s Daily Collegian is no “rinky-dink college newspaper,” a former editor in chief told PBS. Tonight the public-television network’s “Independent Lens” series will broadcast The Paper, a documentary film on the students and struggles behind the old rag.

The filmmaker, Aaron Matthews, uses the college newsroom to explore some of the crises of American journalism: declining public trust and financial vulnerability. “The Paper is a revealing portrait of the young journalists whose disillusionment and determination are shaping the news of tomorrow,” says a PBS Web site.

A review in The Philadelphia Inquirer says the college reporters come off as charismatic.

“They are probably a little more lovable in their youthful struggle to do the right thing than some of us more seasoned journalists,” it says, “but they care just as much as we do about the two age-old problems of journalism: How to provide readers with what they want and what they need.” —Sara Lipka