SA Qualities
Posted on 17. Feb, 2010 by Online Editor in Video
SA Qualities from Craig Hickerson on Vimeo.
The New New C2 on the Web
Posted on 10. Oct, 2009 by Jonathan Pichot in Editorial
The Campus Chronicle is no longer only a newspaper. By changing our name to C2, we have also changed our focus. Part of that change involves a reassessment of the types of articles we print and how we publish.
The news is moving to new forms. As digital natives, children of the information revolution, we understand this intrinsically. Information is becoming mobile and effortlessly accessible. The newspaper industry is experiencing this as a crisis. Many medium-sized papers have gone bankrupt; print readership continues to fall and revenue with it. Large papers such as the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal continue to lose money. Many different culprits have been blamed: Craigslist, cable news, anti-intellectualism in American culture. But the fact is, the web is killing them. This new technology, trumpeted as the great democratizing force of information, is killing the very institutions that for so long in the United States have kept a check on government and a skeptical eye on the nation’s corporations.
Clay Shirky, professor at New York University’s graduate Interactive Telecommunications Program, has compared our moment in history with that of Johannes Gutenberg and the invention of the printing press. Like the 1400s, the 21st century has seen the emergence of a revolutionary new communication technology, the effects of which could not be predicted. These technologies, because of their ability to spread information cheaply and rapidly, destroyed institutions: in the 1400s, the Catholic Church, in 2009, the newspaper industry (amongst others.) Yet the weakening of the Catholic Church, like that of newspapers today, came before any viable alternative has emerged. In Europe, the collapse of the Church led to instability and chaos before the emergence of the nation-state. For 21st century America, the Internet is crippling the free press, an institution on which our Republic depends.
College newspapers, as the training ground for future journalists, should be on the forefront of finding new forms of news making and new business models. Sadly, that is far from being the case. College newspapers have not kept up. Most college newsrooms are still captive to the limitations of print media. Their distribution method of a paper newspaper does not reflect the way most people–particularly the technologically literate crowd of a college campus–consume information. If we are to stay relevant in this new world we must adapt as well.
C2 is committed to moving onto the web and doing it well. We are reorganizing our workflow to give you relevant news as soon as we have it rather than two weeks after the fact. As our website matures, we hope it will become equal to our print edition in terms of relevancy and content. For now, the site will reflect the print edition, but as we get better at this, the site will also feature web-only content as well as extended length articles and interactive media. The web will also allow us to try new methods of interaction. Commenting on articles will be open. We hope to integrate our commenting feature with Facebook to allow you to post on our site using your profile. We will encourage discussion that is relevant, constructive, and honest.
The web provides us with the means to democratize and amplify voices that may not fit into the print edition. We can publish online more frequently, in greater length, and with more diversity than we can in paper; this also frees up our paper edition to become more theme oriented, and perhaps become more of an arrow pointing toward the website. In fact, a motion toward online is our ultimate intent. We are here to foster discussion and discourse, and as members of the wiki-culture, there is no better way for us to engage in dialogue than the internet.
We have ambitious plans for our print and web editions. We hope you’ll help us out. Remember: C2 is a platform for students.
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