Watching The View From The Afternoon

Eleanor Hatch - Robertson, e-zine editor and undergraduate publishing student

theafternoonview.com is a cheeky alternative to the student newspaper and is supported by the Oxford Brookes Publishing Department. It is full of light-hearted fun and frolics, with the occasional dare I say it, bit of naughtiness! But this just makes it all the more fun to be a part of.

The View’s team are a lovely bunch. They do a fabulous job of keeping the tone witty and entertaining. Regardless of academic background, no-one working on the magazine takes themselves too seriously and this is where The View really manages to hit the pulse of student attitudes and living.

We do a whole plethora of studenty bits and bobs: anything from the events page to regular features, including the occasional more serious item. These are the things we feel affect Brookes students and our friends down the hill alike. We let writers decide what to write about because we really want this to be the students’ e-zine.

There have been times when I’ve wondered if it’s worth all the hard work and hassle. Let’s face it, I’m a student too and love to snooze in the day and be out playing at night if I can get away with it! My undergraduate studies alone can be stressful and demanding as well. Ultimately I just think that it is really important that our Publishing Department should have a successful student mag, providing fun with work experience, so the work involved is worthwhile. Leander Reeves does a fantastic job of looking after us and I would really like her and the students who read the site to find amusement in what we do.

And now a word from a non student…

The World of Work is a tough place; recession and increased competition for jobs have made the job market for graduates an increasingly brutal challenge. Some might argue that the time has come when having a degree is simply not enough. Prospective employers are demanding and expecting a greater degree of immediate professional competency and broader knowledge from their graduates. Work experience outside the classroom has always filled much of that expected non-academic training and students realise this.

This is where we come in. The View From The Afternoon was conceived from the simple notion that students could come together, organise themselves and create a published eMag for the student body in Oxford. A not for profit organisation set up to help current students gain valuable professional work experience, its aim is to provide a published product of quality for students studying at Oxford Brookes and Oxford University.

The View From The Afternoon is an e-zine which aims to be an honest and useful source of opinion, comment and advice from a student's perspective and understanding. It's also meant to be funny! All content is written by students for students. Occasionally we non-students lend a hand, but what you see here has been the creation of a great many committed and talented undergraduate students. We at the Oxford International Centre for Publishing Studies continue to support our students and believe in them, because they deserve it.

The range of experience gained from this project varies from managing themselves within job roles, e.g. Editor, Marketing Manager, Art Director etc to commissioning features, pictures and design. Tasks also include: working with freelancers, printers, advertisers, designing visual concepts across platforms, taking photos, writing features and marketing to both the students and local businesses. Experience includes technical challenges and a range of software ones together with the complex use of software specific to the publishing industry such as InDesign. As well as transferable skills such as professional and confident communication and of course not forgetting the sometimes much ignored but very necessary skill of diplomacy!

The View From The Afternoon was created under the ancient but never more pertinent adage that the best way to learn it is to do it.

Leander Reeves
Senior Lecturer in Publishing, Oxford Brookes University.

If you have any questions or would just like to know more, please email me:

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Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 19 Nov 2010 around 11pm

Filed Under #Publishing