Salient (magazine): Difference between revisions

Content deleted Content added

Inline

Revision as of 06:40, 15 May 2006

Salient is the name of the weekly student magazine of the Victoria University of Wellington Students' Association (VUWSA) at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Salient was established in 1941. It was originally published in newspaper format, but has lately become a magazine. Salient's style and editorial position can change from year to year due to changes in editors. However, the magazine has generally taken a left-wing stance.

Editor

The Editor of Salient is an employee of VUWSA operating under a charter that grants them full editorial independence. The Editorship is an appointed position employed under a fixed term contract that lasts roughly from the beginning until the end of the academic year. Previous involvement with the magazine is not a prerequisite for applicants to the position, but every editor since at least 1996 has had some role at Salient prior to their editorship. James Robinson is editing in 2006. Robinson has been involved with Salient since 2003 and as a feature writer in 2004 and 2005.

Past Editors

2006 — James Robinson
2005 — Emily Braunstein
2004 — Sarah Barnett
2003 — Michael Appleton
2002 — Max Rashbrooke
2001 — Nikki Burrows
2000 — Nikki Burrows
1999 — Mike Beggs
1998 — Jonathan Hill
1997 — Toby Manhire
1996 — James Palmer

News

Salient is a member of the Aotearoa Student Press Association (ASPA). ASPA has had a press gallery journalist in the New Zealand House of Representatives since 2005. As Salient is based in Wellington, the ASPA press gallery associate also doubles-up as the News Editor for Salient.

ASPA Awards

Salient has participated in the ASPA Student Media Awards since their inception in 2003. The magazine dominated the first two years of the awards winning amongst other categories Best Publication in 2003 and 2004. Otago's Critic is generally seen as Salient's strongest competition and in 2005 turned the tables, sweeping a number of categories including Best Publication with Emily Braunstein's Salient coming second.

Controversy

In September 2005, Victoria University obtained a court injunction to prevent an issue of Salient from being distributed - thought to be the first time in the magazine's history this has happened. The issue of Salient contained information obtained from leaked university council documents with details about possible university fee increases of 5 to 10 percent. The controversy made national media, with several items on the television news. The university failed to realise that information was put on to the ASPA newswire, hence the information was published in several other student magazines and on the internet. Distribution of Salient was eventually allowed, four days late after Salient and the university reached an out-of-court settlement. The article can be seen here. The documents were returned to the university, reportedly with pictures of male gentalia drawn over them.

In April 2006, Salient published a short piece which put "Chinese", together with animals like poisonous snakes and penguins, in a list of "Top five species we should be wary of". The supposedly "joke" upset Chinese community and caused huge protests from both Chinese students and Chinese Embassy. Accused of being blatantly racist, the editor James Robinson apologised thereafter, "It was a ridiculous jab that was honestly so stupid I didn't even think twice about it," However, he argued people who were offended had misinterpreted it , "We put 'the Chinese' between 'penguins' and 'very poisonous snakes' on the list, and people somehow took it seriously." He also defended his right to publish it, "It's not hate speech or inciting violence against the Chinese race. It would be a dangerous precedent to come out and say, 'Sorry, we were totally out of our minds to print such a thing'."

Censorship

Following complaints from various sources the letters pages were censored in 2005 under Emily Braunstein's editorship. Previous letters published had been highly offensive as letter writers are able to remain anonymous. Existing pseudonyms await with interest the unveiling of the 2006 censorship policy.

Pseudonyms

A group of anonymous writers (often referred to collectively as The Pseudonyms) have become very prominent in Salient as columnists and letter-writers.

Some columnists who currently write in Salient use the following pseudonyms:

Critical Critic
Lemon Cohen

Some frequent past and present letter writers from the letters pages of Salient use the following pseudonyms:

Critical Critic
Fibonacci
Major Lee Piztof
The Off-Peak Boy
Yule Sukmeov

External links

This magazine-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

See tips for writing articles about magazines. Further suggestions might be found on the article's talk page.

This New Zealand university, college or other education institution article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

@@ Line 25: / Line 25: @@
 ==Controversy==
 In September 2005, Victoria University obtained a court injunction to prevent an issue of Salient from being distributed - thought to be the first time in the magazine's history this has happened. The issue of Salient contained information obtained from leaked university council documents with details about possible university fee increases of 5 to 10 percent. The controversy made national media, with several items on the television news. The university failed to realise that information was put on to the ASPA newswire, hence the information was published in several other student magazines and on the internet. Distribution of Salient was eventually allowed, four days late after Salient and the university reached an out-of-court settlement. The article can be seen [http://www.salient.org.nz/index.php?a=2079&c=55 here]. The documents were returned to the university, reportedly with pictures of male gentalia drawn over them.
+In April 2006, Salient published a short piece which put "Chinese", together with animals like poisonous snakes and penguins, in a list of "Top five species we should be wary of". The supposedly "joke" upset Chinese community and caused huge protests from both Chinese students and Chinese Embassy. Accused of being blatantly racist, the editor James Robinson apologised thereafter, "It was a ridiculous jab that was honestly so stupid I didn't even think twice about it," However, he argued people who were offended had misinterpreted it , "We put 'the Chinese' between 'penguins' and 'very poisonous snakes' on the list, and people somehow took it seriously." He also defended his right to publish it, "It's not hate speech or inciting violence against the Chinese race. It would be a dangerous precedent to come out and say, 'Sorry, we were totally out of our minds to print such a thing'."
 ==Censorship==