Editor's Note: Eulogy

The print media has been declared dead  (like  innovative British Rock). The  toe  tag  reads  “homicide, due  to  lack of patience”. We  live  in a world where newspapers like the O.C. Register  have  entered  bankruptcy  in  order  to  maintain  themselves, and usually sacred publications like the  New York Times and Newsweek are by no means  safe  from  the  changing  media  environment.  Not  so  long ago,  it was hard  to believe  that a morning  read of the daily paper, a cup of coffee and a smoke  (God forbid) might be entirely replaced by an inter- web  scan via  laptop  and  a  frapaccino, but  such  is  the reality.  

Being of a generation so immersed in the culture  of  rapid  fre  news  (mostly  of  starlet  train-wrecks  and  other  “celebrity”  misadventures),  the  idea  of  journalism by a  journalism student has succumbed  to romantic daydreams. The new media blogosphere  is about as romantic as Rohypnol. These daydreams  involve  the  intellectually  proud  press  person  roaming the uncharted wilderness fnding meaning  and  truth  in  the  absurd. The  task  of  fnding  such  meaning and  truth  in media content, I feel,  is now  up to the reader.   

It is hard to imagine a domestic landscape without  magazines.  Coffee tables would never be the same  without  them;  replaced  by  kitschy  knickknacks  from all over the world, but somehow always made  in China. 

It was out of genuine respect for magazines that  I joined the Torch staff in my frst semester. I wrote  fve stories and conducted my frst interview while  on staff. My role as Editor-in-Chief of the Torch will  likely be my last act of journalism before taking the  debt express train to a college for big boys and girls.  I could wax philosophic about completing the circle  or pushing my personal boundaries of responsibility,  but I feel I have taken advantage of my surroundings  and become apart of something larger than myself.  Within these 48 pages is a community of creativity,  worth-while not only  to  tell my stories but  to help  others to tell theirs. They of course do not need my  help as the stories they write, photograph, illustrate  and design speak for themselves.    

A community of creativity is not unlike a college  of  the  community,  providing  for  the  needs  of  the  whole.  It  is within  the  collaborative work  that we  fnd success; this notion provides the theme for this  magazine “surviving college”. Save one that is about  simply surviving, all of the stories and departments  refect  in  one  way,  shape  or  form,  the  needs  or  experience of students, be it money, aid, a place to  have a good time, or simply music and art. Though  we may begin to write the eulogy of print media, its  purpose is still golden, a voice of the community, by  the community for the community…college.