Following the controversial hiatus of the University of New South Wales’ now-defunct student publication, Tharunka, the UNSW student media landscape was stuck in purgatory.
After the culmination of a social media campaign and censorship battles earlier this year, the student publication has since been revived and renamed to Gamamari due to concerns that its prior name was either inappropriately stolen from an Indigenous community, or made up. But after the ‘70 Years of Tharunka’ anniversary event on June 17 and new name launch, their online presence, publishing and social media is yet to be fully revived.
In the meantime, Noise — the self-funded, independent student publication born in March of this year — is striving to fill the student media sized hole at UNSW.
Noise coordinator Pepsi Sharma sat down with Honi to update us on how Noise stands today and their durability in the face of Gamamari’s attempted resurgence.
Diving straight into the ethos of Noise, Sharma explained that one of the publication’s missions is to hold Arc — the university’s student organisation — to account but also stated that “[Noise] can be critical of Arc and still publish the broader student landscape stuff”.
Sharma claims that Gamamari’s recent name change is an attempt to “continue the legacy of the name so they don’t have to do new reputation building”.
Currently, Noise is funded out of the pocket of the volunteering editors and crowdfunding. They are currently unable to pay editors or contributors but told Honi that they “would like to find a funding model to afford Noise and compensate their team”.
Sharma did note, however, that unlike the University of Sydney which allocates 78% of SSAF to student-run bodies, UNSW only allocates 37%. A recent change in the Federal Budget stipulates all universities to allocate at least 40%. That 3%, Sharma said, has to go somewhere — it could be Noise.
Unlike other student media, Noise is completely open about its books. On its website, every cost and donation is documented with goals created to encourage people to donate. Sharma conceded updating this page was a large administrative burden but they were proud of its transparency.
A current editor of Gamamari told Honi that “the new publication follows a consensus model approach for approvals and does not require Arc Marketing approval. However, Gamamari is still required to consult their in-house legal team before publishing any content that may be deemed high risk.”
The Gamamari editor claimed that “the new editorial team will have discretion in that process, once the media law training has been completed.” Historically, however, Arc has revealed itself to be a more cautious institution with less of a culture of independence. While there is no evidence any articles have been blocked so far, it would be unsurprising if the threshold for legal risk was much lower than it would be at other publications.
To what extent the fallout over Tharunka has impacted Gamamari’s reputation is contested. Sharma suggested that the paper was “struggling” to recruit students who were flocking to Noise instead. That is disputed by the editor who told Honi “Gamamari has successfully recruited a team of student volunteers which is ever-growing.”
Noise has been the most active publication, publishing more articles, a new podcast, and consistent social media content, including breaking the story last week that Honi had been hacked.
Sharma was still careful not to become complacent. “They [Arc] were always going to put out a new paper,” they said. And unlike Noise, Sharma argued, that had to “start from the ground up,” Gamamari still had an over 50 year activist legacy to draw on which gave it influence.
Even though Noise was founded in opposition to Arc and Tharunka, both publications are in principle supportive of media diversity. Having more publications is “always a good thing,” Sharma argues and Dominique Lakis, Arc’s Media Coordinator agreed, saying that “they showcase different perspectives and cover the immense variety of things going on at UNSW.”
Whether there is a demand for either publication will depend on if Noise can secure more funding and become self-sustaining and Gamamari can shed its past to some extent and become fully operational.
The very impetus to create Noise highlights the clear demand for student-run media. That, if nothing else, is a reason to be optimistic about the future.
