Written by Anushka Vineet and Ava Finkelstein
Once in a while, someone will approach us and pose the age-old question.
Why are you writing for Observer?
Now, there is a vast range of differing opinions, inherently dependent on the reporter. If you asked these writers, they would remark about their love for writing and one might remark about her need to cosplay as a News Reporter instead of being knee-deep in their law readings.
However, student media is more than just a resume-building tool.
Student media offers something quietly powerful within the sprawl of a vast university campus: a sense of orientation. In a place that can often feel overwhelming, defined by constant movement, competing priorities, and an undercurrent of uncertainty, it provides a fixed point. There is a comfort in knowing that somewhere within the noise, there exists a collective voice paying attention, asking questions, and making sense of it all.
This kind of journalism fosters a shared space of awareness. It creates a community by drawing people into a common conversation, one where students feel informed, connected, and seen. In that sense, it forms a kind of permeable ‘bubble’: not insular, but intimate enough to cultivate belonging.
In the vastness of university life, student media reminds us that this place is not just an institution, but a community with its own character, rhythms, and stories. By fostering community, student media can help bright-eyed first years establish their place on campus.
Student media is a vital mechanism for sharing information among students on campus.
Issues that are inherently important for students are normally missed within mainstream media. Though the issues of Renew ANU did eventually hit The Canberra Times and the ABC, such articles hid behind a paywall, only accessible through deep-diving of Reddit threads. Student media remains a free and accessible means of educating the student population on issues that affect them.
Fun fact: student journalism in Australia predates the ANU. The first student newspaper in Australia began at the University of Melbourne with Farrago. In the following years, the existing major universities established their own student media organisations.
Joshua Finnell highlights the “enduring value of student papers” and their unique dual existence as “pedagogical tools that help undergraduates achieve media literacy”. Student media has historically been a critical tool of accountability to ensure that students remain informed about the leadership that govern universities.
Australian student newspapers have a rich history as advocacy tools. During the height of the Civil Rights movement, many such publications remained vital as progressive political commentary. Student media fought against the rise of social conservatism and remained an independent educational tool in an era of propaganda and misinformation.
University students remained important advocates in the fight for racial and sexual equality that marked the 1970s, and student publications were at the forefront of reporting and advertising on protests that were widely ignored by mainstream media. During the Vietnam War, student newspapers were vital for gaining more of an understanding of how the young Australian population viewed the conflict. Throughout the conflict, Honi Soit, based at the University of Sydney, released polls posing the question if Australian troops should be sent to fight via conscription. Such discourse is a paramount historical artefact to help understand the views of students at the time.
In an increasingly polarised society where misinformation is on the rise, student media, as independent media, remains vital. It is a tool of accountability, a means of educating a target audience and a way to remain engaged with the society that you inhabit.
From explainers on birth control subsidies and the inner workings of the medical centre that highlight the seemingly small details that quietly shape student life, to sweeping reforms with the potential to reverberate across the ANU, student media captures what would otherwise go unnoticed. The best stories should document the texture of everyday experience, from the light-hearted rituals of dating at university to the shared accommodation horror stories, while also tracing the work of student activists, from protests to unexplained changes to the Timetable release.
In moments of institutional change, student media’s role becomes ever more vital. Student media should demystify the complexity of the struggles universities, such as the ANU, faced in 2025. It should render opaque decisions transparent for the wider student body. In doing so, student media does more than report; it equips students with the clarity to understand, question, and engage with the transformations shaping their university, ensuring that no one is left in the dark.
Student media is written by students, for the students, about issues that affect you, the students.
And that is the singular mission of Observer.
Graphics by Anushkaa Ahuja
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