The Observer, October 5, 2007
Volume XL, Issue 6
Outside the Circle
The alternative student press
In writing a recent paper during the completion of his Ph.D. in journalism at Ohio Unversity, Dan Reimold wondered "What would students do if they got to create a media by them, for them – to create whatever they want, and not have to worry about what's always been?"
What he realized was that more student publications are becoming more Web-based and much edgier than traditional journalistic endeavors. The alternative student publications seem to be "going beyond what the mainstream, professional press was addressing," Reimold said in an interview.
But the format for these edgier publications is more diverse than ever. With some posting blogs of news daily and others publishing Web-based content once or twice a year, its hard to find any pattern to the new media.
Some, like Michigan State University's daily-blogged SpartanEdge (motto: "The Future of Online Campus News is Now") are embracing the news aspects of visual media that journalism schools have been slow to adapt. Others, such as Michigan State University's The Big Green, embrace magazine-style feature writing and creative writing. The key objective at Green is to allow students to experiment with writing in their own voice as opposed to news-speak.
And the College of New Jersey's unbound is "a place where the purpose is to figure out how to exploit the Web," says Kim Pearson, an associate professor of English (including journalism) at the college. The content is primarily based on feature stories, soft news, sex columns, and music reviews.
"We mostly rely on students coming up with ideas that they think they want to write about or want to pursue," says Sharon Tharp, a senior at the College of New Jersey and unbound's Editor-in-Chief.
Price check
Police officers were called to the scene of an historic Harvard bookstore late last week after three students refused to leave when being asked by employees several times. They were writing down ISBN numbers for textbooks with the intention of sharing the information with the public.
Two of the students operate a website that supplies students with ISBN numbers and claim that the bookstore wants to prevent them from amassing any more numbers. Jerry P. Murphy, president of the Harvard Co-op, says the case is about students disrupting the flow of business in his store.
The goal of the website was to provide Harvard students the option to compare bookstore prices with prices from stores online. Jon Staff, director of the site, said that the bookstores around campus were already cracking down on students copying down the numbers, but he and his friends refused to leave after repeated requests. No charges have been filed.
According to Staff, he and the employee at the bookstore argued about the morality and legality of copying down the ISBN numbers. The bookstore argued that they were the owners of the information provided by the books.
"This sheds light on the intellectual property debate," Staff said. "Everyone realizes that ISBN numbers are facts that cannot be copyrighted."
Jonathan Band, a lawyer who deals with technology law and policy, says that although the store, under state property laws, has the right to control what people do within its premises, "the notion that they have an intellectual property right in this case is just wrong."
"This is about free enterprise," said Jarret Zafran, one of the students who refused to leave the bookstore. "I don't debate their right to charge what they want. The problem is when they try to gouge students and crack down on the competition they do face from online sites."
Back to a diet of Coke?
In early 2006, Swarthmore College decided to remove bottled Coke products from its dining facilities and requested that the company allow an independent investigation of claims of attacks on union organizers and complicity in murders in Colómbia and environmental damage in India.
Now, this fall, the college decided to stop the purchase of all Coke products. In order to effect this decision, the college cut their contract with Coke, citing that the company responses to letters from Swarthmore officials asking about the human rights issues were inadequate.
"Coke has been trying to convince schools that they have been corporately responsible," Maurice Eldridge, vice president of Swarthmore, said last week in an interview. "The position of the students – and the administration went along – is, 'Let's see what happens with this investigation.' If we are satisfied that this will happen, the question of the contract can be reviewed."
The student organization behind the ban is "Kick Coke." Though celebrating their victory in effecting the ban, the students are coming up with criteria for the company that would have to be met in order to reinstate the contract.
However, the Board of Managers is requesting the student group state its case as to why the school should continue the ban. Eldridge, also an assistant secretary for the board, said that itis unlikely that the board takes any action, but it could eventually reinstate the contract if the board reaches a consensus.
Added Eldridge: "The board's point of view is that any kind of stand that the college takes – a public stand on a policy and ethical issue – needs to represent the college in the best way possible."
