CAMPUS
PUBLICIZING THE PRESENT PRINT JOURNALISM AND TUFTS’ DIGITAL AGE
By Isabelle Charles and Liani Astacio
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tudent publications are critical to the voice and expression of the student body. As technology has dominated our lives academically, politically, and socially, print publications are less “en vogue” and digital forms of publications have taken over. Student publications are not just meant to be kept in dusty bins only to be revived generations later by curious descendants; these publications are often personal and elevate the voices of students. A print copy of these works cements a kind of concreteness that deviates from digitized texts. Will technology dominate our transmission of information at Tufts, or is there a glimmer of hope for student journalism in print? Des Porte, the co-editor in chief of Onyx, the only literary magazine on campus dedicated to Black student voices and experiences, stated that “print publications are very relevant, especially in the case of Onyx, because it was developed in 1984 as a means for Black students to come and share their grievances that they had with the institution.” For many students on campus, Onyx represents something larger than just a student publication. It reflects the voices of the Black student body at Tufts and is a space for creative expression at this predominantly white collegiate institution. In addition to serving as an outlet for Black students, Onyx “act[s] as a safe space to share Black joy and experience… It’s important for us to have different mediums for our students to show their creations,” said Porte. For Porte, their initial experience with Onyx was finding the magazine on a coffee table on display in the Africana
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Center. “When I saw Onyx magazine in Capen Lounge [my freshman year],” Porte said, “I was like ‘I want a piece in Onyx.’ ‘I want to have something submitted by the time I graduate.’ This is for freshman year me to have my little piece in Onyx.” Onyx uses both printed copies and an online presence to reach its audience. According to Porte, “It’s nice to have a physical copy… It’s nice to have different ways that you can use this art… Onyx has been digitized…from the years 1984 to 2009 [available in the archives], but I still end up printing out a lot of those versions, so I feel like it’s very important to have physical copies.” The online presence of Onyx exists primarily through Instagram as a way to share student work. “We mostly use our Instagram to share a lot of poems or art that we have. We do have a website but [it] is under construction, so once that is fixed you can also view our works from there” said Porte. Onyx is just one of many arts and literature themed publications that have been adding a digital component to their publications. The Historical Review, Melisma, and Future Histories all have websites where interested users can access articles and pieces from recent publications as well as from their archives. The Tufts Daily, one of Tufts’ largest publications, has also been managing the balance between creating digital and print content. Alex Viveros, the former editor-in-chief of the Daily, said, “I am of the opinion that [print journalism] doesn’t really work anymore… I think we’re so digital now and print journalism [doesn’t]... really follow how news is spread on campus… So as an example, the Daily reports on something [and] half of campus already knows about it because, you know we have Sside chat, Facebook, [and] Twitter.” Additionally, Viveros emphasized that the spread of news is considerably more rapid in digital formats. “... there’[re]s a lot of stories that just go unreported, ‘cause we simply don’t have enough people or by the time we report on it, it’s already old news,” Viveros said. He continued to say that publications on campus should consider a more digitized format as opposed to physical ones. Viveros noted that,, “Tweeting is [also a] part of journalism… If something had just happened, [journalists will] just tweet it out, and that’s how the news is received [today].” For the Daily, Viveros recounted the amount of work and money printing physical copies of the newspaper
