About a year ago, I picked up a college publication. I was flicking through it, skimming some articles, when I noticed something peculiar. I’ve read this article before. There were three articles, all in different sections, about the same topic. In the previous edition of the paper, there had been multiple other articles also covering the same thing. Guess what? In nearly every edition since, the same topics have come up in some way or another. It is an endless loop of articles, all recycled from the last. A bit like Alice falling down the rabbit hole, except the hole is filled with articles about safe sex, Erasmus and the cost-of-living crisis. Which is fine. I guess. It is not like these pieces are not necessarily topical. It is, however, just a little boring.

The quality of the journalism is not bad –the articles are well written, researched and edited, but one has to wonder what the point is? If everyone is going to write the same opinion pieces all year round, why bother?

A cynic, like myself, would argue that it is ease and disinterest. It is easy for editors and writers to just copy what has come before. It is uncontroversial, they know that it works. A lot of people write for college publications, there are bound to be some who are doing it casually. Not everyone wants to be the next Hunter S. Thompson, especially at the college level where students might just want to give writing articles a shot. However, it does make you wonder where this is all going. There are some issues and articles that I read where you can just tell that there’s no heart in it anymore. People are just writing to stick on the CV that they ‘contributed’ to the student paper or to fill space and a deadline. Honestly, I am guilty of the same thing and it’s a shame.

The main issue is probably a lack of available topics within the student experience. Being a writer for student publications, I admit that finding stuff to write about is sometimes shockingly difficult. Finding things to write about that you really want to write about, and that students might actually read, is even harder. Plus, even when students go for raunchier topics, there is a lot to think about. Firstly, it is unlikely that every single person involved in student journalism will have an original thought about something that has never been published before. We are, at the end of the day, novices with some intermediaries thrown in. Secondly, Trinity is a small place. Publications on campus obviously tend to focus on things relating to students and critiquing, reviewing or giving a negative opinion on something means you will likely run into the people involved, eventually. In this case there is also the fear of saying the wrong thing, or giving a different opinion that haunts student journalists. Regardless of who reads it, no one wants to upset anyone.

Ultimately, should we be writing because people read it or because the writers and editors have something they want to contribute? I think it is both. Obviously the audience is important, but the audience also deserves to be challenged. The way to get people interested is not to tell them what they want to hear, but subvert their expectations. Whilst this may be difficult and not for everyone, at the very least it might create some much needed discourse.

As ironic as my saying this might be as someone involved in student journalism, I admit, people will sometimes write just to fill space and get something on their CV. This is not inherently bad, but there is a strange sadness to it. The problem seems that people care just that bit too much. It appears they think that everything has to be shiny and glossy, and well formed. But it doesn’t. This is student journalism – like most of being a student, it is not the real world yet. Embrace it! Write something weird, or a little subversive, see the reaction it gets. At the very least, if it is terrible, we can write about how bad it is.