This study explored whether student journalists believed they shared news topic preferences with the public. Previous research suggests journalists are very different from the audiences they serve, which may influence their perceptions of audience story preferences because of the social identity theory and the social distance corollary. A national random sample of students working at campus newspapers showed that student journalists believed that their preferences were quite different from the public's preferences. Thus, student journalists could define their social identity as "in group" apart from the public; this has implications for gatekeeping and journalism education. (Contains 39 endnotes and 1 table.)