The oddity that is The Odyssey
WSU’s Greek community has its own newspaper – if you can call it thatPublished 11/15/2011
Comments (0)It looks like The Daily Evergreen has some competition now. The Greek community on campus has acquired a student-run publication of its own, titled The Odyssey. This newspaper targets the Greek community exclusively and runs content provided by the fraternity men and sorority women on this campus.
The Odyssey is published by a company called Olympia Media Group, which also publishes similar papers at many universities around the nation – sort of like how McDonald's franchises their cheap and easy food to every town in America. Far be it from me to question the usefulness of such an enterprise, I just hope no student or state funds were used to pay for this thing.
I am not saying The Odyssey is a bad publication, but judging by the content I have seen thus far, there is no reason it should be produced in print, with copies only available within Greek houses. There are no deadline stories or traditional precedents that warrant a printed newspaper.
The content generated seems to lend itself more to the online realm and, to be fair, The Odyssey does have a website. To be unfair, however, their website makes The Daily Evergreen's look good.
As much as I would like to tear down The Odyssey for being an insult to student publications everywhere, I really cannot find any evidence to support such a claim. However, I have noticed that most everyone I have talked to about The Odyssey shares the same funny feeling about it.
As I tried my best to navigate the clunky online archives of The Odyssey, I struggled to find any stories that I could hold up as examples of work that would merit any amount of money being spent on printing it.
A sampling of the top stories listed in the archives include: “The definition of swag,” “Bros in the classroom” and, my personal favorite, “Boners popping up everywhere.” While some of these stories were quite entertaining, they were entertaining in the same way that "Jersey Shore" is entertaining.
What I found more disconcerting than the lack of news was the lack of bad news – of any negative occurrences in Greek life at all. It lacks a complete coverage of Greek life. For example, I was unable to find any evidence of a story concerning Chad Heffelfinger, a Sigma Nu member who had an unfortunate drunken fall that was published in several publications, including The Daily Evergreen.
As I continued my exploration of The Odyssey, I soon discovered why I had not seen anything negative in the archives. On the list of requirements for prospective writers, one item in particular stood out to me. It said that articles “must portray Greek life in a positive light.”
Before I discuss that troubling statement I would like to share another quote, this time from The Odyssey's Facebook page. “The Odyssey isn’t a standard newspaper; it’s a platform for discussion within the Greek system. Since all the writers are Greek, The Odyssey automatically takes the shape of the Greek community with the most relevant information.”
Well they got one thing right, The Odyssey is not a newspaper, nor is it a “platform for discussion within the Greek system.” Honest discussion involves talking about the things you do not want to talk about for the sake of improvement. So long as The Odyssey continues to hand pick only the cheeriest stories of Greek life while ignoring the dark side of it, they will never be a newspaper. They will be a magazine at best, and at worst, an ironic reflection of what they seek to avoid showing.
As it stands, The Odyssey appears to be little more than pro-Greek propaganda. It appears to be a lot like the dark side of the Greek community: money-driven, exclusionary and well practiced in the art of saving face.
Now before you inundate our office with hate mail, please note that I am not directly attacking the Greek community or The Odyssey. Granted, it has its flaws – just like every major institution on this campus. I am always the first to defend the Greek system with the examples of Greeks I know who are fine representatives of the ideals of the Greek system and, more importantly, are just good people.
I am merely saying that if The Odyssey wants to be taken seriously as a student publication, it needs to start holding the community it serves accountable.
The Odyssey is published by a company called Olympia Media Group, which also publishes similar papers at many universities around the nation – sort of like how McDonald's franchises their cheap and easy food to every town in America. Far be it from me to question the usefulness of such an enterprise, I just hope no student or state funds were used to pay for this thing.
I am not saying The Odyssey is a bad publication, but judging by the content I have seen thus far, there is no reason it should be produced in print, with copies only available within Greek houses. There are no deadline stories or traditional precedents that warrant a printed newspaper.
The content generated seems to lend itself more to the online realm and, to be fair, The Odyssey does have a website. To be unfair, however, their website makes The Daily Evergreen's look good.
As much as I would like to tear down The Odyssey for being an insult to student publications everywhere, I really cannot find any evidence to support such a claim. However, I have noticed that most everyone I have talked to about The Odyssey shares the same funny feeling about it.
As I tried my best to navigate the clunky online archives of The Odyssey, I struggled to find any stories that I could hold up as examples of work that would merit any amount of money being spent on printing it.
A sampling of the top stories listed in the archives include: “The definition of swag,” “Bros in the classroom” and, my personal favorite, “Boners popping up everywhere.” While some of these stories were quite entertaining, they were entertaining in the same way that "Jersey Shore" is entertaining.
What I found more disconcerting than the lack of news was the lack of bad news – of any negative occurrences in Greek life at all. It lacks a complete coverage of Greek life. For example, I was unable to find any evidence of a story concerning Chad Heffelfinger, a Sigma Nu member who had an unfortunate drunken fall that was published in several publications, including The Daily Evergreen.
As I continued my exploration of The Odyssey, I soon discovered why I had not seen anything negative in the archives. On the list of requirements for prospective writers, one item in particular stood out to me. It said that articles “must portray Greek life in a positive light.”
Before I discuss that troubling statement I would like to share another quote, this time from The Odyssey's Facebook page. “The Odyssey isn’t a standard newspaper; it’s a platform for discussion within the Greek system. Since all the writers are Greek, The Odyssey automatically takes the shape of the Greek community with the most relevant information.”
Well they got one thing right, The Odyssey is not a newspaper, nor is it a “platform for discussion within the Greek system.” Honest discussion involves talking about the things you do not want to talk about for the sake of improvement. So long as The Odyssey continues to hand pick only the cheeriest stories of Greek life while ignoring the dark side of it, they will never be a newspaper. They will be a magazine at best, and at worst, an ironic reflection of what they seek to avoid showing.
As it stands, The Odyssey appears to be little more than pro-Greek propaganda. It appears to be a lot like the dark side of the Greek community: money-driven, exclusionary and well practiced in the art of saving face.
Now before you inundate our office with hate mail, please note that I am not directly attacking the Greek community or The Odyssey. Granted, it has its flaws – just like every major institution on this campus. I am always the first to defend the Greek system with the examples of Greeks I know who are fine representatives of the ideals of the Greek system and, more importantly, are just good people.
I am merely saying that if The Odyssey wants to be taken seriously as a student publication, it needs to start holding the community it serves accountable.
