[pressgang] Student Journalism

[Que Chi Luu]

On Sun, 25 Jul 1999, Steve Darlington wrote:

> >Hmmm...must be Brisbane, because I know of several schools in Sydney with
> >Actual Real Live Newspapers, and it's not just the posh North Shore
> >schools either.
> 
> Maybe I just don't know the right schools. 

Or more probably maybe it's just Brisbane...

> Ah, but university mags - at least in Brisbane - are generally ridiculed to
> the high heavens.  Sure, people read them, but nobody respects them, except
> for a few first years who are impressed by finally seeing swear words in
> print.  And only a few poor deluded fools who think that people care about
> what's in it actually bother to write it.

Well admittedly I don't read uni mags, but Honi Soit, the newspaper, is
not unamusing at times. And if people want to write for a newspaper (and
it seems heaps of them do), why not let them without imposing some sort of
angsty social significanceon them. I don't think they do it to prove
themselves or to be accepted by the coolies, but they just do because they
like it. No tribal theory.

> >plaid. Dags live! Yay!
> 
> I am all for dags, geeks and the scum feeders getting the glory they so
> rightly deserve, but I've never seen a school paper be daggy.  That is, it
> is like playing football - most people think it is stupid, but those who do
> it are attracted to it because of its percieved prestige.  They join the
> paper because they think it makes themselves cooler in some way.  

Have you done a study/survey? How do you know why people write for papers
unless it's something that they obviously enjoy (since they want to do it,
and no one usually 'volunteers' them)

> This idea is common enough to lead to what we geeks call the Latent Geek
> Phenomenon.  You see, Star Trek fans have noticed that although every Trek
> movie has been loved by audiences and has later achieved critical
> recognition, they have also been universally slammed by critics on their
> original release.  The explanation for this is the Latent Geek Phenomenon.

Well not _every_ Star Trek movie...

> In high school, the people who do the paper and the magazine (or newspaper
> people as they are known) are geeks.  However, they like to think that
> because they do the paper, they are special, they contribute something to
> the school, they are respected and even thought cool, and thus they are
> miles above the geeks.  They are, in their tiny little minds, jocks.  Music
> people and occasionally other fields also fit this model.

Man, what school did you go to?! Jocks, geeks, nerds...are we living in
America's 51st state? From my personal experience I never did the paper to
be thought cool, but in order to annoy the staff and principal, who was an
absolute cow. Talk about pidgeonholing - the good thing about Australia is
that (or was?) you don't have this strict separation of 'groups' like you
do in all those Hollywood teeny-bopper films (just saw one yesterday -
Can't Buy Me Love - incidentally had Seth Green (Oz in Buffy) playing
Chuck, the nerd) - groups happen depending on the roll class you're in or
by pure accident, not because of what you like to do at school (or at
least, not normally). We look at Hollywood teen flicks and laugh, because
they're so sad and pathetic with that whole preoccupation with jocks and
nerds etc etc. 

The same thing happens in Press Gang - sure, there are sporty types, and
nerdy types, but no one has any trouble mixing like they seem to in
Hollywood movies (or even 90210). It's not going to be social death if
you're a sporty type who's seen talking to a nerdy type. Unless of course
you're seen talking to Colin...

Chi