What this is and why it’s important

Students always have a voice and that’s what unions allow and encourage. It is a platform for students to be heard and develop skills that can really help. This is why student newspapers are so important. They are used to express student viewpoints and while todays Liverpool student union paper is a more opinion based publication, in years gone by they have been a method to encourage action. To mobilize students and to encourage decisions that benefit themselves. Liverpool student union’s student press is an area of the student union that every student of LJMU should be able to appreciate. They influenced decisions and with the support of the student union are perhaps the reason we as students have such good facilities now. In the 1970s especially student press made a difference and another reminder of what student unions encourage and support.
A method to make a difference, offer a student point of view and to influence decisions. The student press has done this remarkably well with the support of Liverpool’s student union and long may that continue. LiverpoolSU has had a number of different publications and below have a read about 4 that really stand out. Two made a huge difference in the early days of the union and one showed that LiverpoolSU and the Guild union can work alongside eachother, the last is the current publication that is produced and shows the current personality of the student press.

Let’s begin with the paper that the union supports now, The Looprevil Press. The name is of course Liverpool backwards, it shows the other side of Liverpool, or the side of Liverpool that the students see. It simply offers a student take on a variety of different stories, for all readers they can find out advice on where to go on a night out or anything good happening in the local area. It’s simple but does exactly what it needs to do in today’s student press. It is also more of an online publication showing the evolution of the student newspaper.

It is not exactly common for the student unions to work together but in the case of the Liverpool Student newspaper, which was a joint publication with Liverpool Students' Union and Liverpool Hope Students' Union they did. This is a great example of why the press is important, it can tie students together, whilst it closed down in May 2007 because of increasing costs and declining advertising revenues, it still is a success for student newspapers. Years of planning by the student unions of Liverpool University, Liverpool Hope University College and Liverpool John Moore’s University have culminated in a blueprint for a super paper. To create Liverpool Student, four publications have been scrapped including the 63-year-old Liverpool Gazette and Sphinx magazine, which after 103 years of existence had become an integral part of Liverpool's Guild of Students. Shout magazine has also been swallowed up, even though it recently won a Guardian/NUS design award. While the Liverpool Student did not work it is something that was well worth the gamble and all unions of the respective universities should be proud of this.

The two newspapers that really did shape the university that we attend today are called WHO and ZERO. The names unlike Looprevil aren’t trying to make a quirky jibe at what student life is like, they are designed for a much more subtle reason. Both names are utilized because unlike todays student press names do not follow articles. At these times even being part of a union group, especially one outspoken at the university and their actions could damage the chances of doing well or even lasting the duration of your course.

When looking at Zero, it’s easy to be misled by the more lighthearted logos but in 1972 and 1973 especially these newspapers combined exactly what the polytechnic society and the university needed while finding its feet. It offered that great mix of serious news and more general student news. It appealed to everybody and that is the best compliment to give any sort of publication. It offered news about the polytechnics location while looking a lighthearted point system to a night out. It showed how all the sports teams were doing while fighting for autonomy of the student union and advice and building awareness of student elections. It was maybe too serious and too comical but at the end of the day isn’t that what student life was all about. In this time period the polytechnic was not settled and Zero really played off this and did write something for everybody.

The last publication is WHO. This was a paper which was maybe ‘too’ serious but then again looking at the circumstances the paper faced then did it really have an option not too be? In 1974 the student union faced a number of problems. Zero looked at these issues but it was around this period where the issues really started to become reality. All of the WHO issues discuss dates in the past few years as why there is problems and they had to try and arrange the polytechnic student union in the best way possible. Issues in the student press nowadays come out a few times a year, even Zero was once a month but WHO brought out papers almost weekly because they simply had too. While they did still keep the students up to date with what was happening in a more general sense the problems were at the forefront of student life. Education cuts were rife, promises that had been made in 1969 to the union and despite their power were not being met. The students union knew that they faced an uphill task and how to do everything in their power to help. This involved an occupation of Walton house to force the polytechnic to listen. The union paid for students to go down to London and engage in national demonstrations. The students wanted not only better accommodation for their selves, at the start of this year there wasn’t enough beds to even go around! They wanted nurseries and better education but they also wanted what was fair. They wanted better education for themselves and everybody and the WHO organised them and gave them the chance to do so. It did what social media does today, it garnered a reaction and this reaction helped form not just the student press of today but the university we study in.