An ‘Organ of Student Opinion’? Alternative Print, Protest, and the Politics of Education in Salient, 1973-1989

<p>This thesis explores Victoria University of Wellington’s student newspaper, Salient, in the 1970s and 1980s. Salient covered a wide array of issues, performing its role as a campus newspaper while closely engaging with and informing students of wider political issues during a period of significant student protest. As a publication, it consistently and deliberately set itself apart from the mainstream media, a position which placed it alongside other alternative or radical publications. Furthermore, the thesis demonstrates that the connections between Salient and the Wellington Marxist-Leninist Organisation (MILO) were profound and enduring in the 1970s, with significant implications for the kinds of analysis and issues that Salient presented to its readers. While individual editors did have unique editorial policies, the nature of Salient’s journalism in the 1970s was notably socialist and activist in its outlook. In the 1980s, while Salient maintained a progressive political outlook, the direct association with MILO (by then the Workers’ Communist League) loosened. The paper’s political content still covered a range of contemporary social issues, and its editors took political stances, but its content was more akin to political commentary than an extension of political activism. The exception was Salient’s opposition to user pays tertiary education, which was seriously considered by David Lange’s Labour Government as part of its neoliberal reforms. As the possibility of a user-pays tertiary education system became more likely, Salient dedicated more space to covering, opposing, and organising action against this disruptive policy which had major implications for its student readership. Salient often did not speak for all students, but provided a platform for alternative analysis of social and political issues, pushing the boundaries of the purpose of student media and its place within the print landscape of New Zealand.</p>

An ‘Organ of Student Opinion’? Alternative Print, Protest, and the Politics of Education in Salient, 1973-1989

<p>This thesis explores Victoria University of Wellington’s student newspaper, Salient, in the 1970s and 1980s. Salient covered a wide array of issues, performing its role as a campus newspaper while closely engaging with and informing students of wider political issues during a period of significant student protest. As a publication, it consistently and deliberately set itself apart from the mainstream media, a position which placed it alongside other alternative or radical publications. Furthermore, the thesis demonstrates that the connections between Salient and the Wellington Marxist-Leninist Organisation (MILO) were profound and enduring in the 1970s, with significant implications for the kinds of analysis and issues that Salient presented to its readers. While individual editors did have unique editorial policies, the nature of Salient’s journalism in the 1970s was notably socialist and activist in its outlook. In the 1980s, while Salient maintained a progressive political outlook, the direct association with MILO (by then the Workers’ Communist League) loosened. The paper’s political content still covered a range of contemporary social issues, and its editors took political stances, but its content was more akin to political commentary than an extension of political activism. The exception was Salient’s opposition to user pays tertiary education, which was seriously considered by David Lange’s Labour Government as part of its neoliberal reforms. As the possibility of a user-pays tertiary education system became more likely, Salient dedicated more space to covering, opposing, and organising action against this disruptive policy which had major implications for its student readership. Salient often did not speak for all students, but provided a platform for alternative analysis of social and political issues, pushing the boundaries of the purpose of student media and its place within the print landscape of New Zealand.</p>

READING BEYOND THE STROKES: A SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS OF EDITORIAL CARTOONS ON A CAMPUS NEWSPAPER OF A HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTION IN THE PHILIPPINES

Editorial cartoons have an unchallenged history as a unique and important artefact in both political and cultural discourses. In journalism, they offer varied insights and may eventually alter beliefs and opinions, influence politics, trigger discussions, and give life to ideas. This paper investigates the signs and meanings of editorial cartoons published in a campus newspaper of a tertiary school in the Philippines. It anchors on Chandler’s semiotic concepts in analyzing the editorial cartoons that incorporate both the Saussurean dyadic concept of signs, signifier and signified, and the Peircean triadic concept of signs as symbolic indexical, and iconic. It also considers Leymore’s idea of the figure and ground, which identifies the primary, secondary, and tertiary signifiers based on their importance or impact on editorial cartoons. Analysis shows that editorial cartoons contain all types of signifiers, primary, secondary, and tertiary, which work together to effectively convey the intended meanings to its target readers. These signifiers also possess certain characteristics as being symbolic, indexical, and iconic and they blend together to enrich the editorial cartoons’ intended meanings. Furthermore, these editorial cartoons illustrate the newspaper’s perceptions as well as its stand on various issues and concerns relating or affecting the students and the whole academic community. Although these editorial cartoons are only published in the campus newspaper, they do not only deal with important local issues and concerns but in the national and global spheres as well.

Intelligence Plus Character

When you walk into the Character Lab office, the very first thing you'll see are the words of Martin Luther King, Jr.: “Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education.” The quote comes from an essay King published in the Morehouse College campus newspaper around his 18th birthday. King opens his argument with an observation: “I too often find that most college men have a misconception of the purpose of education.” A common mistake, he says, is in seeing only one of two aims. The more obvious goal of education is “to become more efficient,” particularly in “thinking logically and scientifically.” Today, we might say we send our kids to school to become critical thinkers. “Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction.” Another—perhaps less obvious—goal is to cultivate character: “But education which stops with efficiency may prove the greatest menace to society,” King wrote. “The most dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason, but with no morals.”

Toward Exclusion through Inclusion: Engendering Reputation with Gender-Inclusive Facilities at Colleges and Universities in the United States, 2001-2013

Ample sociological evidence demonstrates that binary gender ideologies are an intractable part of formal organizations and that transgender issues tend to be marginalized by a wide range of social institutions. Yet, in the last 15 years, more than 200 colleges and universities have attempted to ameliorate such realities by adopting gender-inclusive facilities in which students of any gender can share residential and restroom spaces. What cultural logics motivate these transformations? How can their emergence be reconciled with the difficulty of altering the gender order? Using an original sample of 2,036 campus newspaper articles, I find that support for inclusive facilities frames such spaces as a resource through which an institution can claim improved standing in the field of higher education. This process of engendering reputation allows traditional gender separation in residential arrangements to be overcome, but it also situates institutional responsiveness to transgender issues as a means of enhancing a college or university’s public prestige. This, in turn, produces novel status systems in the field of higher education—albeit ones that perpetuate familiar forms of institutional and cultural exclusion.

Student, Faculty, and Staff Approval of University Smoke/Tobacco-Free Policies: An Analysis of Campus Newspaper Articles

Objective: To provide a nontraditional source of data to university policymakers regarding student, faculty, and staff approval of university smoke/tobacco-free policies, as published through campus newspaper articles. Methods: From January to April 2016, a total of 2523 articles were retrieved concerning campus smoking/tobacco at 4-year, public universities. Of these, 54 articles met the inclusion factors, which described 30 surveys about campus approval of tobacco-free policies and 24 surveys about smoke-free policies. Results: In all, the surveys included more than 130 000 respondents. With the exception of 4 surveys, all reported that the most of the respondents approved a tobacco/smoke-free campus policy. Conclusions: Although the study had several limitations, the findings provide a synthesis from a nontraditional data source that is consistent with findings from the peer-reviewed literature, in which most of the students, faculty, and staff on university campuses approve of smoke/tobacco-free campus policies.

Perceptions of a campus-wide condom distribution programme: An exploratory study

Objective: Condom distribution programmes are an important means of preventing sexually transmitted infections (STIs); yet little research has examined their perceived and actual impact on college campuses. Design: Quantitative, cross-sectional study. Setting: Large public university in the Southeastern USA. Method: Approximately 2 months after a campus-wide condom distribution programme began, we utilised intercept surveys with 355 students (68% women; 43% racial/ethnic minorities) to examine their perceptions of the availability, accessibility and acceptability of condoms, and their perceptions and use of the newly installed condom dispensers. Results: Students perceived condoms to be available and accessible on campus after implementation of the condom dispensers. Students had heard about the dispensers from other people (36%), through social media (18%) and the campus newspaper (15%). Most students (71%) had seen the dispensers. Almost one in four students (23%) had taken a condom from the dispensers; among those who were sexually active during the 2 months that the dispensers were available, 33% had used them. More than one-third of students (37%) – and 53% of sexually active students – indicated intentions to use the dispensers in the next 6 months. Multiple regression analysis controlling for age, gender and race revealed that prior condom use, attitudes about the dispensers and comfort with the dispensers were significant predictors of sexually active students’ intentions to use the dispensers ( p < .001). Conclusion: Overall, results indicate that over a short time period, this condom distribution programme was successful in reaching students and providing free condoms. Implications for implementing condom distribution programmes on college campuses as well as future directions for research are discussed.

A Communication Approach to Campus Bottled Water Campaigns

This article applies a communication/persuasion model to examine what characteristics of students on a United States university campus are associated with drinking bottled water. Survey results show that those who drank more bottled water included non-Whites, those who trusted traditional organizations more and environmental organizations and scientists less, those who read the campus newspaper, and those who valued water safety, taste, and convenience more. Significant bivariate influences on more frequent bottled water drinking that did not persist in the hierarchical regression included conservatism, religiosity, Christian religion, nonindividualism, less interpersonal communication about environmental issues, less civic involvement, younger age, and fewer environmental behaviors. Groups working to reduce bottled water consumption on campuses should provide access to filtered water and emphasize the connection between bottled water and environmental issues, rather than health issues.

The Influence Of Alcohol Advertising on Students' Drinking Behaviors

This study examined the perceived influence of alcohol advertising in a daily campus newspaper on the drinking behaviors of students at a large midwestern university. Data came from two sources: a descriptive analysis of alcohol ads that appeared during a four-week period in the student newspaper and a survey questionnaire. Findings indicated that college students do perceive that their drinking patterns are influenced by alcohol promotions in the campus newspaper and, furthermore, that self-identified binge drinkers were influenced significantly more than were nonbinge drinkers.