The power of student journalism
A discourse on the purpose of The Medium and its meaningful mark in history over the years.

The University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM), or back then, Erindale College, first opened up in 1967. The following year, UTM’s first student newspaper, The Erindalian, was founded. The Erindalian would run for five years before closing in 1973. From its ashes, The Medium II sprang forth in 1974. As you can see, from the piece of paper you’re holding or the screen you’re gazing upon, our newspaper is still going strong… or is it?

Last year, I served as features editor of The Medium. While I loved being an editor, it also showed me the reality of dying student journalism. Every week, I pitched to students, edited their articles and published them into a void where you hear nothing back. I couldn’t help but think, “What’s the point in writing if there is no one there to read it? What’s the point of The Medium?”

To answer this question, I decided to interview Professor Robert Price and Aya Yafaoui, former Editor in Chief (EIC) from Volume 26 and the current EIC for Volume 52. Two people, who at two different times, put their heart and soul into The Medium. I wanted to know why they kept on writing, and if it was worth it to continue.

A place of belonging

I joined The Medium because I was looking for a place to write. For someone who only knows how to be himself in writing, this was the only place I could shout to my heart’s content. I was surprised to find out that the two previous and current EICs also had similar reasons for joining. 

Professor Price started writing for The Medium on the encouragement of Lennox Phillips, the news editor for volumes 22 and 23. “Lennox was a cool dude,” Professor Price recounted, “I wanted to write more articles for him because I liked Lennox and I wanted to hang out with him more. And I just got into chasing stories around campus.” By Professor Price’s second year, The Medium became “the little place on campus where [he] felt a sense of belonging.”

Yafaoui also came searching for that same sense of belonging. “In my first year, I really struggled with feeling lonely on campus and connecting with the community,” Yafaoui admitted. “When second year rolled around, I wanted to join some clubs to meet some people.” 

Yafaoui’s passion for writing and journalism led her to The Medium. She stayed with The Medium because it became a place where she could express herself. “I found a voice in my writing,” Yafaoui explained. “I found the things that I was passionate about, and I had the platform and ability to write about them.”

As writers, The Medium is a place for us to belong and a platform to communicate with others. However, Professor Price brought up an important question that The Medium has struggled to answer in the last few years—“What is The Medium to its readers? What makes them pick up the paper?”

Through thick and thin

“When I was in The Medium, we had the view that we should be writing about the campus, the here and now,” Professor Price shared. They were focused on investigating decisions made by UTM committees and featuring students in the community. “We believed it was our mandate to inform students on what was happening.”

That was his solution to make readers, like yourself, pick up the paper. The Medium was a publication that informed the student body on important decisions made by campus authorities that end up affecting us. In addition, people always tend to pick up the paper if they or their friends are featured in it.

Up until before the pandemic, The Medium continued that same tradition. “Before the pandemic,” Yafaoui recounted, “The Medium was more integrated with the UTM community. Our sports editor had direct connections with athletes and coaches, and even for the opinion section, we used to get letters to the editor; it felt like there was a dialogue between The Medium and the students.”

Then everything changed when COVID-19 attacked. As the campus shut down and the community moved to a virtual space, many of The Medium’s connections disconnected.

“What we ended up having to do is pivot to being online and more global, because we didn’t have a local community to report on,” Yafaoui explained. When The Medium’s Instagram account was shut down due to Bill C-18, The Medium lost ways to connect with a now online student body. Since then, the paper has been slowly growing its community and engaging in meaningful content.

Why I will keep on writing

At the start of my interview with Professor Price, I asked him about the difference between The Medium today and 25 years ago. He replied, “Each year of The Medium is a time capsule of the campus, and what was important to the students and the editors each year. How the editors produce the paper, and what they choose to focus on, is the product of the times.”

Every article written in every volume of The Medium serves to explain UTM at a specific time period. For example, Yafaoui explained that The Medium recorded what was happening on UTM during September 11, 2001.

In other words, student writers captured the emotions and atmosphere of UTM in response to the tragic event. They recorded how the community responded to the catastrophe and how the community changed in response to it. 

The articles we write for The Medium are not just information for current students. They are evidence of what the UTM campus experiences and values at a particular point in time. We document the social, political and artistic environment of the world, and how it mattered to students at that time. We create a dynamic record of the past and present. 

I feel my despair lifting after the interview with Professor Price and Yafaoui. They have inspired me that even if it feels like my articles aren’t being read, knowing that I’m recording stories and histories of this time gives my work value and gives me a sense of purpose. This story of The Medium, and why students keep on writing, has now been recorded and left for someone to read. I have lit the torch. It’s up to the readers, whether now or in the future, to pass it down.