It was a beautiful April afternoon, and then ... there was The Scoop. I hate that I'm even mentioning the name of this "thing," which surely does not deserve the title of "magazine."
OK, that was a bit of a harsh start. In my defense, it needed to be said. Henceforth, I shall try very hard to be constructive in my criticism of this attempt at journalism (but I make no promises).
Penn State boasts a number of student-driven publications, each filling its own particular niche. There's Phroth, purveyors of their own unique brand of humor and satire in an attempt to keep us from becoming too serious about ourselves. La Vie, the Penn State yearbook (on sale now!), captures the year in stories and photos in order that we may, in time, revisit our college years from a safe distance. You've got Problem Child and Kalliope covering the two-dimensional creative goings-on of the student body. And, of course, The Daily Collegian catches everything else. These are the "Big Five" student publications on campus, and they do a nice job of covering all the bases. Heck, the yearbook even includes a DVD, just in case you need a video reminder of what happened this year.
This appears to leave little room on the market for a new student publication. Nonetheless, we have, as of yesterday, a new contender in the arena. What does The Scoop bring to the table? According to a note from the editor of this little experiment, "This publication will bring our readers stories they can relate to, learn from, and be entertained by." For a mission statement, that's pretty bland -- the same could be said of most, if not all, publications, professional and otherwise. What's more, it's certainly not covering any new ground. I relate to the poetry of Problem Child, I learn from the news stories in the Collegian and I am highly entertained by the hijinks of those crazy kids over at Phroth.
The editor goes on to say, "Our content represents common issues that students deal with every day of their lives." My concern here is that students would be better off participating in their lives than reading about them in the unnecessarily glossy pages of this piece of fluff. What passes for content on the poorly-designed pages is a potpourri of stories targeting a fictitious audience comprised entirely of stereotypes, to the misguided, broke, sexually active college freshman who can't cook for himself or herself and the tattooed, bar-hopping senior who likes sports. Yes, college students do frequent local watering holes from time to time, but if I had somehow managed to overlook the existence of Café 210 West in my years here, I only would have had every other publication on campus (not to mention advertisements) to remind me.
In fact, I'm not entirely convinced that this magazine isn't part of some promotional scheme by downtown businesses. Most of the articles are focused on explaining the benefits of downtown bars, eateries and other services. Conveniently, addresses and phone numbers are displayed for each business alongside some brightly colored banner ads. Some of the other groundbreaking story ideas include why movie sequels aren't as good as the originals and a no-holds-barred discussion of sex. Oh, and just in time for nine months ago, a touching recap of Sept. 11.
I would really like to talk about the abysmal quality of the layouts and the use of 18-point font for body copy, but it just hurts me too much.
For all of this, should I still give some credit to the people who invested their time to create this magazine? After all, I've never started my own magazine before. Hey, I'm in no position to be giving orders. If these people came up with their own money and want to publish a magazine, I can't stop them. I do think that the waste of resources used to produce the mag is irresponsible. How many copies of this newspaper end up in trashcans every day, and yet we have another group trying to walk the same beat? On the other hand, if this magazine is the result of university or student money, I want my money back.
The editor tells us that she decided to start this magazine "after taking a magazine article writing class." My thoughts on this are that 1) just because you can do something doesn't necessarily mean that you should; and 2) there's more to making a magazine than knowing how to write the stories.
There may yet be some space for new student publications at Penn State. I'd shell out for some kind of PSU-related tabloid, and no one has really staked a claim to the realm of comic books and graphic novels. Opportunities for genuine creativity exist, so why settle for this redundancy?
Maybe I'm totally wrong here -- I have been wrong before. Perhaps this particular magazine will move forward from humble beginnings to become a great periodical. I, for one, hope that this is just a single Scoop and nothing more.
