Student Media
About Us
About Student MediaThe mission of ASU Student Media is to provide the university community with news, information and a forum for the exchange of ideas, while also providing an educational learning environment for student. Through the production of a newspaper, web site, television station and other media, students gain practical experience in news gathering, and dissemination, management, production, advertising and the business aspects of Journalism. These media operate with editorial independence under the leadership of the department, and they strive for financial independence through advertising and other entrepreneurial efforts. Student Media generates 90 percent or more of its own revenue, making it a largely self-supporting department. Salaries, equipment, phones, supplies and other essentials are paid out of the department revenues. The university's first student newspaper, The Normal Echo, debuted on Oct. 18, 1890, as a one-page supplement to what is now the Tempe Daily News Tribune. Resembling a literary magazine more than a newspaper of today, it hoped to "unite more closely the student body and alumni," and featured short stories, human interest articles and short editorials to the students at Tempe Normal School. A series of name changes for the normal school translated into new names for the publication as well. In 1906 the Echo became the Tempe Normal Student, a four-page tabloid distributed on campus each Friday for five cents per copy. The school became Tempe College in 1925, prompting the newspaper to change its name to the Tempe Collegian. The name was shortened to the Collegian in 1930. Two years later, the college began teaching its first journalism courses and the paper fell under the umbrella of the new department. By 1925 the name of the normal school had been changed to Tempe State Teachers College. In 1936, when the newspaper became the Arizona State Press, the school was known as Arizona State Teachers College at Tempe. It became Arizona State College at Tempe in 1945 and Arizona State University in 1958. The newspaper's name was shortened to State Press in the 1960s. In the mid-1970s, amidst a nationwide movement to make campus dailies independent of academic departments and direct faculty supervision, the State Press gained a hotly contested divorce from the mass communications department. John Schwada, then-president of ASU, placed the paper under the authority of a Board of Student Media. The first board resigned within a month because of a disagreement with the Arizona Board of Regents regarding its role in the newspaper's affairs. The department is now under the Office of Vice President for Student Affairs. In the 1980s, the paper added a Monday edition and became a five-day-a-week daily. Student Media developed into a program that included various self-supporting publications giving students experience in all phases of publishing. Today, the department of Student Media is made up of the following:
Student Media also publishes special issues during the Fall and Spring semesters, for example:
Student Media also offers pre-press services to the campus, providing design, graphics and everything else needed to bring a print product to press. Staff and student employees work with many departments to produce their newsletters, magazines, brochures, flyers, posters and other print products. For more information, contact our Production Department at 480-965-6183. We participate in activities with our peer institutions through organizations such as College Media Advisers. Arizona Newspaper Association and the Columbia Scholastic Press Association. Our strongest involvement is in the Western Association of University Publications Managers, an organization made up of 25 of the largest student publications programs in the country. |