Student Union Mag - Campus

carol9 wrote: »

It's an absolute disgrace that "mature", "educated" adults are giving students such a hard time about the college view. I'm a regular reader of this paper, I have nothing to do with it's team whatsoever and still I have only positive things to say about it. For most of the students writing for this paper it is their 1st time having a go at the world of journalism, encouragement is what they need, not negative comments about how "biased" their newspaper is; how can ye expect 100% professional standards from people who are trying out their profession for the 1st time? Don't forget, it isn't only the College View team who write these articles, ordinary students are contributing to the paper every issue, ye hardly expect the editors to change every word written & discourage these young hopefulls (the way ye do)!

Tabloid papers pride themselves on glamourising the porn industry, how can an article entitled "The Sinister Reality of Pornucopia" be compared to these tabloids?

I can safely say the college view is highly objective, giving both sides to every story; every article always quotes the two parties involved (if this is the case). How could ye be so critical of a paper that is helping it's college's clubs and societies by informing the student body of their achievements?
I say hats off to these troupers who continue to write for this paper every issue, despite these horrible comments being published every week!

all this would be fine, if you were talking about assignments or a little newspaper thrown together in a class or something. But you're not, you're talking about a newspaper that uses a lot of student funds, your money, my money, that claims to be DCUs only independent newspaper and that comments on real people, who have had their reputations damaged by shoddy reporting by these people. If you were on the SU how would you feel if you'd read some of the stuff they've written this year that was completely wrong and damaged you? Also, you're the first person on this thread to mention the word Tabloid!

Because it is propaganda.

Oh, btw the College View is not a society.

irlande wrote: »

Ah, love a good publications rant!

In short, my views:

Campus > College View.

College View has potential, it's not met (albeit not through lack of enthusiasm, dedication and commitment) due to a sincere inability to adopt criticism. The USI article, for example, annoyed me. But like I've said before, I enjoy reading college view for updates. Great sports section and there's generally a great deal of information in their news. It's really only annoying when their 'news' (wink wink nudge nudge) includes overly biased opinionated rants.

Campus, on the other hand, is a different ball game. It's an SU funded publication for the Students, from the SU. Providing information on clubs and socs and the SU itself. It does its job. It does it well. It's popular. It's read. It's great, keep it, it's needed.

As for CV claiming to be independent, I never got that. It's funded from the same source as Campus, both indirectly coming from the Office of Student Life. Pretence pretence pretence.

A: It comes through the SPC rather than through the S.U.. So it doesn't really come from the same place as Campus. Otherwise, you may as well say all the money for everything comes from the students. B:It's functionally independent. The SPC don't want to see what's in it before it's published, we've never commented on it's content, and I sincerely hope they don't intend to start.

Tony.Time wrote: »

With respect, as I may be misreading the motivation of your post, but ALL money that funds clubs & societies comes from students. That is what our registration fee pays for. And that is according to the former minister for education that introduced the registration fee, she said it on the tuition fees special on DCUFM. I distinctly remember her saying this. I also remember an article in the College View which stated the same. Neither of which has been refuted. The same article also stated that the registration fee was at the behest of student unions - which you must really thank them for that tax!! Mind you we would probably not have clubs & societies in DCU.

There are times when the university would possibly fund additional budgets etc for clubs & societies, but it would be factual to state that the money comes from students, and a complete fallacy to say otherwise.

Out of pure curiosity......how does one challenge a ruling of the SPC? Who is above the SPC? There must be another committee that the SPC answers too that doesn't have SPC members on it?

That's exactly my point. All money ultimately comes from students, but you'd hardly say that compromises college view's independence, would you? And the Office of Student Life is above the SPC. There is no appeal of SPC decisions to them however. For day to day running, how the SPC gives out SPC funds, approval of new societies and the like, the SPC is the final stop (although, our decisions on new societies and the allocations have to be ratified at the next SPC TGM by the treasurer's of every society). We have two members on the Office of Student Life though. Eventually, you have to reach a top point. For practically all purposes to do with societies, the SPC is that.

Tony.Time wrote: »

That's cool. I just wasn't sure exactly what you were getting at but we are singing of the same hymn sheet.

I'm not up to speed fully on what is going on in the college view. But I do think there is no need for the college view to be a society. What are the reasons behind the SPC wanting this....as the comment editor in a previous post said they were behind it in this thread.

I don't think anyone would challenge the need for an independent publication on campus, especially considering we are a communications college. What I find amazing in DCU is the lack of investment in the various student media around dcu. One paper, one dcusu publication and a radio stn that has a studio that is a mess - then of course flashback once a semester. Personally the layout of both the college view and flashback (especially flashback leaves a lot to be desired). Mind you the college view is better than the previous years, but it could be so much better - many of the photo's are not good enough quality. But that is not the aim of this thread.

Nor is the independence of the college view, actually. What directions can the SPC make to a society? Plain and simple question: If the college view was to publish a story that reflects badly on the SPC, the university or the SU or embarrasses either, can the spc refuse to continue to fund additional editions of the paper? Also I was told that the SPC only fund a number of editions of the college view not an entire year - that i would see as control, even if this is unintentional. The SPC should fund the college view for the year, not just a couple of issues at a time. That IMHO is a threat and control of the paper, and any reasonable person could deduce the same. Is this the current situation or does the spc authorise funding for the entire academic year?

We generally authorise it per semester. Not because we care what they print. But because they have a history of printing piles of papers, and leaving them around the clubs and socs office. The SPC has a limited amount of money every year, and we're not really interested in putting it into a paper if the staff of that paper aren't interested in promoting it properly. So I suppose the absoloutly correct answer to that is that, yes, we could refuse to fund it based on stories it put out. I don't think we've ever thought about it, and I know over my two years on the SPC they've had a go at us over the Clubs and Socs ball, and they've had a go at the SU on a few occasions, and they've certainly annoyed just about all of us at one point or another. I doubt any of us even thought about the idea of not funding them on the basis of what they printed. But they will always rely on the SPC for funding. The lack of promotion by publications in DCU is half the reason we want it to become part of a publications society. We felt that the addition of a dedicated P.R.O. and committee would give it A: A better membership base. I've never been heavily involved in the College View, but from talking to various committees over my time in DCU, I always got the impression that they had some difficulty getting people to actually participate in it. A society lets them run events, so that they have a better chance of getting people involved in the paper, bar those actually running it. B:A committee would give them people to actually promote the paper. Promotion for events/getting people involved/getting people to read your paper isn't easy, and currently the College View doesn't have anyone dedicated to it. A committee, and a society built around the publications was something that we felt could help with this. It's worth pointing out, that the publications all agreed to joining a society. We didn't come down on high and force them into anything.

lil_cain wrote: »

We generally authorise it per semester. Not because we care what they print.

Basically, it seems to me that the SPC, if anyone, should carry the can for the current situation. It seems to have taken a series of severely retrograde steps over the past five years which have damaged the independent publications.

1. Abolishing the Publications Society: Pub Soc used to provide a number of central functions to Flashback and College View, namely advertising and promotions.

Admittedly, it had its faults - there was too much of a focus on College View to the extent that it actually blocked the emergence of Flashback, which had to be launched under the Arts Society! After the first issue, however, it recanted and took Flashback in.

2. Semesterly approvals: What's the about? It means that the publications can't do multi-issue advertising deals. It also gives the SPC an unhealthy level of control over the publications as if they don't like the first few issues, they can pull the money for semester two.

And now for the SPC's goals for the new Pub Soc...

A: A better membership base.

It has one since when I was last involved. College View also has more pages and higher standards. I would have said that it's coming along nicely with the base it has.

B:A committee would give them people to actually promote the paper.

I agree fully.

It's worth pointing out, that the publications all agreed to joining a society. We didn't come down on high and force them into anything.

What I would say is a Pub Soc is not the cure to all ills. In the past we had a Pub Soc and standards weren't great. You need someone experienced as an advisor (either on the SPC or something) to monitor their performance and help out the editorial teams.

Ken Griffin [Founder editor, Flashback]

Tony.Time wrote: »

What I find amazing in DCU is the lack of investment in the various student media around dcu. One paper, one dcusu publication and a radio stn that has a studio that is a mess - then of course flashback once a semester. Personally the layout of both the college view and flashback (especially flashback leaves a lot to be desired).

It's actually better than my day: we had one paper, one very poor DCUSU publication, a homeless radio station for one week a year and Flashback.