University of Oregon media

The University of Oregon has a diverse array of student-run and student-created media, including such journalistic sources as the Oregon Daily Emerald and Flux Magazine.

Newspapers

Daily Emerald

The Daily Emerald, published Monday through Friday, primarily features news items and commentary pertaining to the University community, and is considered the daily paper of record. In addition to the print newspaper, the Emerald publishes its features on the internet. The Emerald has been in publication for more than 100 years and has many distinguished alumni. A court case involving the Emerald's publication of several first-hand student accounts of drug use during the 1960s became the basis for the subsequent creation of the Oregon Shield Law. The paper became independent in the 1970s after editor Paul Brainerd realized the potential conflict of interest between acting as a watchdog while simultaneously receiving direct funding and oversight from the university. Today the paper is supported by advertising revenue and is distributed free to students because of a subscription fee paid by the ASUO with incidental fees.

Magazines and quarterlies

Oregon Voice

The Oregon Voice primarily chronicles popular culture in a zine format. The Voice often profiles music acts as they tour through Eugene, and in 1998 the magazine published a widely read interview with Infinite Jest author David Foster Wallace.

Oregon Commentator

The second oldest publication on campus after the Emerald, the Oregon Commentator, is a journal of political opinion and humor, modeled in equal parts after such publications as Harvard Lampoon and Reason Magazine. Often, but not always, the Commentator is known for a libertarian or conservative stance. In general, its aim is to serve as a contrarian outlet for students resistant to the prevalent political atmosphere on campus. In addition to its print magazine, the Commentator publishes its content on its website, where it also maintains a group-run blog frequently linked to by national news outlets. It maintains close observation of liberal commentary on campus, particularly within the Student Insurgent, and secondary commentary in fact forms the bulk of many Commentator issues. It was founded in fall 1983 primarily by Dane S. Claussen, later editor and/or publisher of various US newspapers and magazines, a US journalism professor, and now Visiting Professor, School of Journalism and Communication, Shanghai International Studies University; and Richard E. Burr, now with The Detroit News business news staff.

Student Insurgent

The Student Insurgent is a journal of radical politics published by a collective of students and occasionally community members. The paper's coverage shifts periodically, but has covered anti-capitalist, radical environmentalist, and anti-war topics. Notably, the Insurgent has expressed solidarity with such groups as the Animal Liberation Front and the Earth First! organization. It has also rallied for the release of Mumia Abu-Jamal and Jeff Luers, a local eco-anarchist whose 22-year arson sentence was later overturned on the grounds that it was excessive, as well as other imprisoned radical-left voices, often claiming that they are wrongly held political prisoners.

More famously, the Student Insurgent became the center of national controversy when it printed "The Jesus Issue", featuring commentary on Christianity and cartoons of Jesus, including "Jesus with erection", in response to the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy. In response, Bill O'Reilly called for the firing of university president David B. Frohnmayer and invited members of the Insurgent and the Commentator onto the O'Reilly Factor, but only Commentator staff accepted. The president of the Catholic League, William Donohue, called "Jesus with erection" "one of the most obscene assaults on Christianity I have ever seen".^[1]

The Siren

Feminist magazine produced by the Women's Center

Flux

Flux is an annual magazine written and edited by students of the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication.^[2] It contains in-depth features about a wide variety of topics, many of which are based in the Pacific Northwest but have national appeal and interest.

The Ecotone

The Ecotone is an annual publication created by the graduate students of the Environmental Studies Program at UO. The journal provides a venue for communication and exchange within the Environmental Studies Program—among undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, staff, and alumni—and facilitates cross-campus dialogue between disciplines and departments. The University of Oregon is home to a diverse array of environmental scholars, activists, artists, thinkers, designers, scientists, theorists, and researchers. The Ecotone hopes to engage this community in ongoing dialogue through its paper and online publications. To this end, The Ecotone, serves as a venue for sharing professional interests, discussing environmental concerns, and posting creative expressions.

Other student media

Other student publications on the University of Oregon campus include the multicultural magazine Korean Ducks, and the multilingual publication Global Talk.^[3] Global Talk,^[4] a student-created news publication, provides a place to bring language and culture together including one page each for Chinese, French, Dutch, Persian, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian, Scandinavian, Slavic, Swahili, Portuguese, Spanish, and other minor languages unrepresented by major departments. Global Talk is funded by several departments at the UO and was founded in November 2005. It is the first university of Oregon multilingual publication published within the university system and within the whole state of Oregon. Other publications include the ASUO Women's Center's newsletter The Siren, and the ASUO governmental newsletter NETMA (acronym for Nobody Ever Tells Me Anything).

Non-student media

The Oregon Quarterly is a University magazine which presents "the diversity of ideas and people associated with the University, Oregon, and the Northwest."^[5] The tri-annual, Northwest Review journal of literature was published over 50 years up to 2011.^[6][7]

The University of Oregon Press^[8] publishes books, which since June 1, 2005 have been distributed by the Oregon State University Press.

The Libraries' Educational Video Group maintains the UO Channel, which uses streaming media to provide access to campus lectures, interviews, performances, symposia, and documentary productions.

News and information pertaining to university affairs is reported by the blog AroundtheO.^[9] The controversial watch-dog blog UOMatters is another popular campus information source.^[10]

Student media controversies

Controversy has occasionally surrounded the Commentator and the Insurgent. In 2001 the Insurgent gained national attention for publishing in the December, 2000 issue, a primer on violent methods of ending scientific testing on lab animals, opposite a page detailing the names, phone numbers, and home addresses of science professors alleged to be involved in such practices.

In 2005, members of the Student Insurgent Collective led efforts to defund the Commentator on the grounds that it had violated its own Mission and Goals statement by ridiculing a prominent student senator. The ASUO's Programs Finance Committee (PFC) voted to defund the Commentator. Later, three members of the PFC resigned their positions under duress, including one whose criminal record was published in the Commentator. The free-speech advocacy and civil rights organization FIRE threatened legal action against the University, and the Commentator's funding was subsequently reinstated by a reconstituted PFC.

In 2006 the Commentator republished the twelve Mohammed cartoons that had sparked riots across the Middle East after first appearing in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten several months prior. The Insurgent followed by publishing twelve cartoons depicting Jesus with an erection, some of which featured the deity with a prominent erection.^[11] Several groups demanded a public apology or a defunding of the Student Insurgent, and news outlets including The O'Reilly Factor called for the firing of the University's President David B. Frohnmayer. Both the Emerald and the Commentator publicly defended the Insurgent's right to free speech and Frohnmayer's decision to uphold it, citing the 2001 Southworth decision by the Supreme Court.

The Emerald itself is not a stranger to controversy. In the 1970s and early 1980s, the student newspaper published an annual satire supplement called the Immorald. The 1981 Immorald featured the phrase "Give me a fucking break" in nearly all its stories, which led to an angry editorial in the Eugene Register-Guard, entitled "The Immorald is Not Funny". The phrase had been used earlier that year by Emerald political columnist (and former editor) Greg Wasson, which prompted Max Rijken, a member of the Oregon Legislature, to photocopy the article for fellow legislators and demand that the UO administration take action against the newspaper. The co-editor of that year's Immorald, Mike Rust, went on to co-found the Commentator a few years later.

The other 1981 Immorald co-editor, Mike Lee, had lightly sparred with the Emerald itself a few years earlier, in a mock controversy that had real consequences for the UO mascot, the Oregon Duck. In 1978, the Emerald sponsored a student referendum that would officially declare the cartoon character Mallard Drake as UO mascot. Drake, the creation of Emerald editorial cartoonist Steve Sandstrom, was a black-feathered duck, closer in spirit to Daffy Duck than the UO's Donald. Lee opposed the referendum through an organization called the "Retain Class in Your Bird" committee, itself a parody of a campus radical group, the Revolutionary Community Youth Brigade. Students ultimately voted for Donald over Mallard, in an election that drew more votes than the student-body president on the same ballot. UO officials later used that election as evidence that students "officially" voted for Donald Duck as campus mascot.

Radio

The University, under the Associated Students operate three radio stations on campus. KWAX broadcasts classical music and KWVA which broadcasts a variety of music and talk.

Television

Duck TV is the University of Oregon's only student-run television network. Weekly episodes feature news, sports, comedic and dramatic segments.

Publications No Longer Operating

The Comic Press

The Comic Press^[12] was a semi-monthly newspaper written and edited by students at the University of Oregon during 2008-2009.^[13] The Comic Press's mission was to 'provoke intelligent thought and discussion through humor.' It republished a number of webcomics and contained topical and humorous features about a wide variety of campus topics. The Comic Press was originally known as The Weekly Enema, but the name was changed with the release of their 7th issue.^[14]

Daily Jade

Daily Jade^[15] was an independent satirical news website founded by students John Cross and Ryan Levenson on November 18, 2013. It satirized major University of Oregon institutions such as the Oregon Daily Emerald, UO Athletic Department, ASUO, and Greek Life, as well as smaller aspects of university life. On top of news, Daily Jade featured a comic strip, "Jaded.," and worked in conjunction with Oregon Fifth Year to film a monthly talk show entitled The Oregon Show.

References