Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

Revisiting the importance of the student press

ANDREW LODGE

In her article for last week’s editorial, “Campus media saves the day,” the Manitoban’s editor-in-chief, Tessa Vanderhart, comments on the newly available and complimentary copies of the Winnipeg Free Press around campus, and presents a case for the value of the student press. I, like Vanderhart, strongly believe in the importance of the student press, though apparently we disagree on its fundamental role and significance in the realm of the intellectual community.

According to its website, the mandate of the Manitoban is to “report on issues and events of importance and/or interest to students of the University of Manitoba . . . and to stimulate debate on issues of importance to students and/or society in general.” In her editorial, Vanderhart’s suggests part of her “personal mandate” is “to get as much as is going on at the U of M into the paper as humanly possible.”

Now, certainly there is nothing wrong with this agenda per se, and obviously Vanderhart can infuse any personal leaning she chooses (presumably, at least, as long as it doesn’t contravene the Manitoban’s constitution). But there is certainly another way of

understanding “issues of importance to students and/or society in general.”

As students, we hold a position of certain privilege within society (even if this role can come at substantial financial burden); namely, we are granted the opportunity — perhaps even garnered the responsibility — to think about some aspect of the world around us, be it the safe design of a bridge, the human genome, the works of Aristotle or whatever else lies in the seemingly countless jurisdictions in the realm of academia.

The student press is a fundamental aspect of this. The value of the student press, in my mind, is its unique position: that of being somewhat protected within the walls of the academy from the distortions that most privately-owned media are subjected to, and, from that somewhat less encumbered vantage point, being able to observe, analyze and interpret the larger society to which we all form a part.

Vanderhart’s point revolves around the fact that only the student press can, or is willing to, report on all things student. But one must ask whether the majority of the student body in Canadian universities cares about such things? The evidence suggests otherwise.

Year after year, students are implored to vote, and yet voter turnout is consistently abysmal. As a case in point, in a very telling result a number of years ago, University of Winnipeg students actually voted “no” when the position of UWSA president had only one nomination and required merely a majority of voters to vote “yes” to the candidate. The students actually voted to be leaderless, a bit of an indictment on the current brand of student politics, to be sure.

I must admit, like most students, I never really know what UMSU is up to and never really took the time to find out. Perhaps I should feel guilty about this, but, of what I know about UMSU, its relevance to the world I care about is minimal. Apparently the overwhelming majority of the student body agrees. Of course, student politics

doesn’t have to be this way. But as of now, it is.

In other words, I have a hard time accepting that the importance of the Manitoban is its ability to cover “student”

issues. I think the importance lies instead in the unique vantage point of the student, in the sense of “the student” as a position in society. Concomitantly, the student press is able to report on issues in such a way that does not necessarily conform to the mainstream discourse, or fit within the margins of “acceptable” reportage, acceptable in this case as defined by the status quo. Neither do any other newspapers, for that matter, but few, for whatever the reason, seem able or willing to do this. Not that the student press always succeeds in providing an alternative, and indeed, one could argue that given its advantageous position

in this regard, it squanders the opportunity far too often. I think, though, that the very existence of this opportunity is of considerable value. Naturally, of course, one can only hope that it is not wasted.

These are definitely heady times: a simultaneously fragmenting and re-polarizing world, a planet that cannot stop heating up, a growing chasm between

the globe’s haves and have-nots, the proverbial “us” and “them.” And yet, toeing the ostensible party line has become the norm for most major media in North America. The student press has the strong — and critical — potential to act as a counterpoint to all this.

Students have been part of the vanguard of social change in the past. The birth of modern China, the collapse of the Eastern bloc, the civil rights movement in the U.S., the ouster of colonial power in Africa — the list goes on and on. They remain so today in many parts of the world. And at the center of these struggles to build a better world has been the student voice in the form of the press communicating ideas and presenting arguments and generating discourse. Therein lies the value of the student press.

And I’m willing to bet heavily that the Free Press won’t be acting as an agent for change anytime soon.

Andrew Lodge is a student of medicine.