Student Journalism is Still Alive!

Throughout this year, one question about Osqledaren has concerned me more than anything else: why do we even print 10 000 of these magazines? Why do we need student journalism in this form?

I still don't have a final answer. What I do know, is this: student journalism is still alive. In Stockholm, with Osqledaren, #studietid, dbuggen (D), Index (I), Esset (S), Emissionen (E), The Force (F), Slurpen (IsF) and many more that I am forgetting (sorry!). In Uppsala with Ergo & Techna, in Linköping with LiTHanian, in Lund with Lundagård, in Göteborg with Spionen & Tofsen.

Some of us are celebrating anniversaries - Lundagård celebrated 100 years this March, Osqledaren will (if you include our predecessor Kårbladet) turn 80 in 2024. Others are new or rising from the deaddbuggen just printed their first edition in several years, the new Index was released just a few weeks ago, Emissionen has a new editor-in-chief, others will follow.

In a time where we can reach people across the globe in seconds, a printed magazine from the chapter hall next door feels counterintuitive, but I hope that at least some understand the charm in that. They are both ancestors and an extension to the KTH-memes and Legends of Tâmorrow, Facebook groups, Jodel channels and Discord servers of today - and even more. They can be an expression of creativity that is not based around pressing on a screen, adding bunny ears to a video or sending memes around, but it allows us to put our thoughts, ideas and dreams onto paper, into something physical and real that will endure.

That's not something that many university programs allow us to do. Everytime I grab a random magazine from Osqledaren's archive, I'm surprised at how the ink has survived the last 30, 40 or 50 years, how it feels like it could've been written and printed yesterday. And how urgent and relevant the topics still seem. Should our student union be political? What is KTH trying to change about our education this year? Which part of Nymble is being renovated this time?

We often go around in circles in the student world and discuss the same things over and over, so it's worth looking back and learning from, but also admiring the minds of past decades. It can help us be inspired and learn what to do with our future.

This will be my last Osqledaren, but it will for sure not be the last OL. We will change, as will all the other student magazines around Sweden - but we will still be here in another 20 years for our 100th birthday, as long as there are still students that want to create, express, criticize, ask questions, change. And inspire others to do the same.