University of Sydney Media Society

The Sydney University Media Society was created on September 2nd, 2004. It was the result of the amalgamation of the Sydney University Journalists' Society and the Media and Communications Society.

The Society is a not-for-profit organisation that aims to become a totally-integrated media outlet, democratically run by its members. It produces print and electronic publications, and is attempting to start a Radio Station at Sydney University, as well as other broadcasting activities such as campus television. It has a dual purpose of creating and promoting - hoping to encourage student media, especially at Sydney University. Its uses the brand name idMedia for its publishing activities, and has an eight-person executive, three of which are vice-presidents, each tasked with fulfilling one of the three activities of the Society: publishing, broadcasting, and events (media-degree related).

idMedia

"idMedia" is effectively a website that hopes to achieve three things: personal, community and collaborative publishing.

Personal publishing takes the form of providing blogs to members of the Society, and other selected individuals, allowing them to comment and provide perspectives on the many issues facing students and Society. It also refers to the open-publishing policy of allowing anyone to submit an article via the website, and to have it posted on the main page of the idMedia website.

Community publishing takes the form of the [http://digest.idmedia.org.au News Digest] , a weekly e-zine that summarises campus, Australian and International news. It first began on March 25 2004 with 50 readers, and by the end of the year it had a regular weekly readership of over 300, promoted purely by word of mouth. The "Digest's" popularity is due to filling a niche in the campus media as it provides a broader, entertaining and more critical coverage of campus politics than what previously existed. Tharunka, the UNSW student newspaper, republished the Digest in a shorter form each week in Semester Two 2004 creating further exposure of the publication outside of Sydney University.

Collaborative publishing is a new project in which to create a Sydney-university encyclopaedia called "Wikid" based on the Wikipedia concept and software. The Wikid will be a living publication that captures the ideas, people and events that come out of Sydney University.

External links

* [http://www.idmedia.org.au idMEDIA website] .
* [http://www.usydmedia.org Society's website] .