Student Union Newspaper?

TheJeanGenie

Was just wondering how you would go about writing for the newpaper? Is it called the Observer? Sorry for my lack of info

Also Starring LeVar Burton

There's also the College Tribune.
Just drop into the offices. Tribune office is in the lower grounds of the arts block and the Observer office is in the Student Union corridor.

Zounds

There are two newspapers on campus. The Observer (broadsheet) is run by the SU and the Tribune (tabloid) is independent.

Last year the Observer had a stall in the tent outside Quinn during Orientation Week where you could fill in a form to show your interest. Otherwise you could go and see them in there office in the SU corridor.

My experience with the Observer was negative, I went to their introductory talk thing and the editor spent a lot of time congratulating himself on how awesome the Observer was and congratulating us on what a fantastic life choice we had made by coming along.

The Tribune's office is in the Arts' building basement, next to FilmSoc, I found the best way to get involved with them was to go in and say hello and that I was interested in writing for them.

My experience with the Tribune was ultimately negative too. I was given something to look into and write a story on. When I looked into it it turned out it didn't exist. I went back and said this, they suggested a slightly different angle to look into it from. I did so and there still wasn't anything there. I went back and said so and then went on a weekend away. When I came back the newspaper was out and there was a fluffed out piece on the nothing I had been asked to look into in the paper. If they had found something I hadn't I would have said it was my mistake but the story was just fluff and hype as I had said it would be.

You should, of course, make up your own mind about them.

Stabshauptmann

Zounds wrote: »

There are two newspapers on campus. The Observer (broadsheet) is run by the SU and the Tribune (tabloid) is independent.

This is a comment on the layout of the papers only, not their actual content.

TheJeanGenie

Zounds maybe we could we see about publishing our own paper, lol

vote4pedro

Kaptain Redeye wrote: »

This is a comment on the layout of the papers only, not their actual content.

Huh? It's pretty obvious the Trib has a tabloid feel to it, whilst the Observer is the stuffier broadsheet alternative.

Tayto2000

vote4pedro wrote: »

Huh? It's pretty obvious the Trib has a tabloid feel to it, whilst the Observer is the stuffier broadsheet alternative.

True that, the Trib has never let the facts stand in the way of a good story... :rolleyes:

Zounds

Kaptain Redeye wrote: »

This is a comment on the layout of the papers only, not their actual content.

In Kaptain Redeye's opinion.

Stabshauptmann

Imo, the observer is like the Indo. Looks like a broadsheet (well, I know thats not strictly true anymore) but reads like a social column.

I just wanted to clarify that while one would normally expect a broadsheet to contain more intellectual content than a tabloid, there is no significant difference in the two university papers, other than perhaps that the Observer is more hackish* [sic], imo.

*By this I mean obsession with the union, reporting everything that goes on inside a certain circle of friends and the pretentious attitude that having a broadsheet layout automatically makes it a better paper.

And in case it looks like Ive an axe to grind, Ive never been involved with any media, student or otherwise.

vote4pedro

You really can't see a difference in style between the two?!

The Tribune dedicated one of its covers last year to student prostitution at UCD (seriously) and iirc the year before a story taken from some website about gay blokes hooking up on the net to go dogging by the athletics track. The Observer is likely to have a thrilling story about a government minister not showing up at a L&H debate.

Het-Field

Both papers are rags. The Observer is nothing more than self gratifying ****. I should know between late 2004-October 2006 I had enough of my ego boosted by it. However, the vast majority of it is useless. It normally focusus on society hacks moving from Secretary to Vice Chair. Each year there is a full supplement on the Student's Union election candidates, and the rest of it just makes fun of Richard Butler and other long in the tooth hacks.

The Tribune has a far more enlightened view of things, even though it was once a mouthpiece for the Left. I recall it having a far more balanced view in 2005 then the Oberver had.

It is nice to get printed and published, and im aware that it is great for completing a portfolio, however, both papers have fundamental flaws, and these are reflected by the relatively low readership.

The professional presentation is one of the major plus points, although the best is one TCD paper which resembles the Wall Street Journal.

-If you are a budding Writer : Get Involved
-If you intend to be a prominent society Hack : Get Reading
-If you are neither : Dont Bother

TheJeanGenie

So are the newspapers more focused on UCD politics than anything else?

It would be worth publishing a newspaper that informs students of global events, sports, music and film reviews, that sort of thing.

Pride Fighter

The tribunes is ok but the observer is exactly how Het-Field and Karpain Redeye described. The turbine piece in the tribune is sometimes funny and the main reason I read it.

Het-Field

TheJeanGenie wrote: »

So are the newspapers more focused on UCD politics than anything else?

It would be worth publishing a newspaper that informs students of global events, sports, music and film reviews, that sort of thing.

Agreed. But why get a student newspaper, when you can get the indo and the Times for 1Euro in the SU Shop ?

Granted there is a bi-weekly supplement reviewing albums and gigs etc. Many of these gigs are the ones held in the student bar. Much as I pressed in my time dealing with the SU, there was no chance of the likes of Metallica ever playing !

Furthermore, the bulk of the readership tends to come from those involved in various capacities.

Also those who write on pertinent issues tend to come from societies involved in those fields. Thus if somebody was to write an article on Brian Cowan, Enda Kenny, Eamonn Gilmore the Greens or the PDs, the respective CollegeChair of the party's youth wing would more than often be the author of such a piece. It tends to be very partisan in that way.

Dont get me wrong, there is opinion piece. But it would be less prominant that other pieces

Stabshauptmann

vote4pedro wrote: »

You really can't see a difference in style between the two?!

The Tribune dedicated one of its covers last year to student prostitution at UCD (seriously) and iirc the year before a story taken from some website about gay blokes hooking up on the net to go dogging by the athletics track. The Observer is likely to have a thrilling story about a government minister not showing up at a L&H debate.

I didnt read the article, but I cant see why student prostitution wouldnt make a great story.

And no, I dont think a trivial story with a tenuous link to an "important person" makes an article intellectual. Its play school stuff.

edit: And thats what I meant by hackish...

Stabshauptmann

TheJeanGenie wrote: »

So are the newspapers more focused on UCD politics than anything else?

It would be worth publishing a newspaper that informs students of global events, sports, music and film reviews, that sort of thing.

No it wouldn't, there exists already a myriad of papers dedicated to the real world, most of them far better than any amateur student operation.

Student papers should be focused on campus events, otherwise whats the point?

TheJeanGenie

Kaptain Redeye wrote: »

No it wouldn't, there exists already a myriad of papers dedicated to the real world, most of them far better than any amateur student operation.

Student papers should be focused on campus events, otherwise whats the point?

Just to give 'budding' writers a chance to write articles found in the real world

But it is true that there are hundreds of papers concerning those topics already. Guess I'll stick to the ole Guardian

vote4pedro

Kaptain Redeye wrote: »

I didnt read the article, but I cant see why student prostitution wouldnt make a great story.

And no, I dont think a trivial story with a tenuous link to an "important person" makes an article intellectual. Its play school stuff.

edit: And thats what I meant by hackish...

Well if you actually read the story you might realise how tabloidish the Tribune is, iirc it consisted of them finding an adult 'services' ad that said "I'm a naughty college-girl looking to pay the bills in Dublin so come on fellas gimme a call....", which resulted in ridiculous claims about the cost of living driving students to prostitution. I mean, come on. The 'gay sex story' was similar, a couple of quotes from some gay dating website became 'sex maniacs prowl belfield at night'.

You're right, the Observer is hackish and does report on all sorts of inane rubbish to do with societies, and the scandal of the cancellation of some obscure course, but (as you pointed out earlier) thats more the point of a student publication. Yes its dull, and no I rarely read it bar the entertainment supplement which gets some decent interviews tbf.