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Reader 1995 | And
finally... concluding thoughts about the first year SchNEWS - as it is.A little miracle happened every week this year - another issue came out. It can only be so in a 'disorganisation' that relies entirely on free spirits, free time and free money as anyone who visited that hectic mayhem called, ominously, 'the office', will contend. We have tried to be as honest, as accurate and as truthful as we can. Exaggeration doesn't help, nor does disinformation. We are only human, we are not perfect and we don't pretend to be. We make mistakes. This book is, as much as anything else, a historical document so we included everything warts and all. The first issues were put together without an office and the design's a bit dodgy. We got better. The spelling's atrotious (cheap joke) and if you try to ring a free party collective and end up talking to a bewildered woman in Battersea don't say we didn't warn you. We do not want to end up as an alternative Guardian. Diversity is our strength. The DiY media has exploded and there are many views, many sources. Half the time we don't write anyway - we sample/massacre/customise/blag and rip off. The articles are only the views of the people who write them, they are not definitive truths. In fact don't believe anything we write - you have to go out and see it for yourself. Each SchNEWS takes on a life of its own. Someone will start writing, someone else will add a little nuance, a factoid or two. Along will come a couple of visiteurs who'll bash in a few hundred words. The fax will whirr and in goes a quote. Before long it's grown to ten times what we could possibly fit on two sides of A4 and half of it disappears again. Accrediting articles would be an impossibility. We are activist-reporters, native journalists - I can't find the phrase - but what we are not is London-o-centric, censored, salaried, compromised car-driving careerist meedyah-types. (They do like to ring us up, though). This year, the first ever socio-professional profile of the British journalist revealed an almost exclusively middle-class occupation. Half went to university, 95% are in favour of competition, 88% free enterprise and 83% business profits. That's hardly going to reflect a wide range of experiences and opinions. It's one-dimensional and dangerous. And there is a frightening scarcity of good investigative journalism. People tell us that what we do is important, so we carry on. We had no plan to still be going after 20 issues, certainly not a year. In fact I don't remember us ever having a plan at all! There are three central tenets, however. One, it's free. Two, it's anti-copyright. Three, we won't accept advertising - so you know there is no compromise. No cash in the equation. Money is raised for printing costs by parties and donations and we practice open accounting if you ever want to have a look at the figures. To continue we need help, and here's the rant: If you receive support and materials from a grassroots organisation, then pay them if you can. Always enclose at least an SAE if you want a reply. If you want to use us as a free research facility then at least have the courtesy to send a donation, even if it just covers the cost of a fax (national press take note). And it's easy to criticise from the comfort of your pint or spliff, but if it 'aint constructive, it 'aint gonna help. There, that's better! And Finally ... SchNEWS exists to provide information for action. And one action is worth a thousand angry words. So - if you haven't already - get off your arse and go for it! Here's to the another year, Volume Two. TURN IT UP!!!
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@nti copyright - information for action - copy and distribute! |
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