About a month ago, I was told that in the ‘real world’ (Is student life not real enough for you?) my future employers would look at my blog. I guess it’s better than looking at my facebook profile. I have set the privacy setting higher just in case they think of checking it as well. My wall is full of comments that would embarass my friends more than myself – it’s in their interest.
Either way, I have set up my blog. Excuse the slightly pornographic edge. The Full Monty is one of my favourite movies and I thought the expression would be fitting for this blog. I am a new media student at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa. One of my biggest challenges this year – to hell with it – the biggest challenge for me this year is my editorship of a student newspaper. I run The Oppidan Press, a publication started by the former editor, Lionel Faull, and myself back in 2007. It has become the preferred student newspaper for most students at Rhodes University: 55% of the student population are Oppidans (students living off campus) and we have many residence subscribers. Our website has become immensely popular. Many friends and acquaintances in the new media and website industry have complimented me on it and one even went as far as saying that it was ”the best newspaper website in the country”. And he himself made an amazing website.
Things are definitely going well. Ever since we started up, our competitor, Activate, has been following in our footsteps: an Opinions section (pioneered by us), a Politics section (when before it was African Affairs and was cut), etc. They are also starting up a multimedia website in 2 weeks time. But we are still forging ahead with innovations like a newspaper ombudsman, a cheeky editorial policy, newspaper baskets, front page investigations, more pages, and a Health section. For this next edition we have 8 letters! We even have a dedicated training manager who has set up unique training workshops for our staff. Things are going well, but the pressure of having to come up with new ideas all the time is getting to me and I am feeling slightly worn out.
I know people who work on Activate will read this, tell each other about it and they might even be offended. I mean nothing of what I say with disrespect: I have spoken to some of the staff on the paper and most of them agree that (at the moment) Activate is inferior in quality and outspokenness. Issues get avoided and no real stand is made on any topic. However, the paper is improving and I look forward to the challenge.
Enough about our competition (I feel quite strongly about it as you can undoubtedly tell). I had a meeting with the dean of students, Dr Vivian de Klerk, yesterday. We discussed the relationship between the paper and her office. Things had turned sour in the past few weeks. We had a very successful meeting. She is a very friendly and open woman. We sorted out the issues and have come to a new understanding about our relationship and responsibilities towards each other.
That’s it for my first post. I should end off with a witty comment, but I prefer to end off with something a little less conventional.
Quote of the day: ”Flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.” – Douglas Adams
