Magdalena Wozniak

Print Chic: Text Blog

Much like fashion, media trends flow in cycles. Just as yesterday’s reject bin items become today’s catwalk statements, we now find ourselves standing before a press renaissance. Today’s 'Generation Y' children have been raised on a diet of virtual communication, and they yearn for a return to the palpable. This is evidenced in popular art projects such as PostSecret or PostNoBills, which are both predicated upon the privileging of corporeal post over alienating e-mail. Both these projects celebrate the uniqueness of ‘traditional’ post, and the advantages of the physical that e-mail has not yet been able to mimic. PostNoBills creator Anwyn Crawford commented, “There is an intimacy to letters and to zines and to the kind of mail people send… and a tactility to it that you just can’t derive from an email or a text message… It’s a tangible object. An email or a text message just disappears into the ether but letters are forever” (Frost, 2006).

Joining Forces (text post)

By now, I have hopefully established the fact that print media has something distinct to offer the media landscape.  Print media produces a certain level of legitimacy and tangible community, in a manner that the internet simply can not.  We can, therefore, conclude that, while citizen journalism and student media are based upon the same underlying tenants, the former does not threaten the existence or power of the latter.

It is undeniable, though, that the internet can play a powerful role in complimenting its print counterpart.  In my last video blog, Pelican reader Thomas Reynolds asserted, “I think there’s definitely value in Pelican having online accessibility, even though its true form is the printed.”

Vox Me Up: Pro-print Opinions (text post)

So far in this blog I have highlighted the reasons why an internet medium is far superior to print, and also suggested that student press no longer has a place in a landscape rife with student bloggers and citizen journalists.  Now, I shall attempt to turn this argument around, and emphasise the superiority of the print medium, as well the continued relevance of student print.  Little academic writing has been done on the subject (perhaps because student print does admittedly range greatly in regards to both content and quality), so now I shall turn towards interviews that I myself have conducted with student editors across Australia, and I also draw from my own, personal experiences as editor of the Pelican. 

The Great Debate (text post)

On 9 December 2005, the Higher Education Support Amendment (Abolition of Compulsory Up-front Student Union Fees) Bill 2005 was passed through the Australian Senate, and Australian student unions experienced what anti-VSU movements have coined “a dagger through the art." Since 1 July 2006, Voluntary Student Unionism has been in full force, and student guilds have been enforcing strict cost-cutting regimes in order to deal with the decreased income.  In most cases, student newspapers have been amongst the first to suffer. As 2007 editor of the UWA student guild's publication, Pelican, I feel that I am in an appropriate position to comment upon these changes.

Hi all!

Cheers,
magda

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When Bird Meets Blog

Content and Format Overview

In this internet powered world, what is the purpose of student print media? UWA’s Pelican is released every month during the semester calendar, with a circulation of 5000 both on and beyond campus, but its content is not dissimilar to that which students produce through their own, personal blogs online. Is this paper a valid form of communication, or an outdated and redundant waste of limited guild funding in a post-VSU climate? These are the questions that I will be addressing.