Abstract

Student newspapers, as an object unto themselves, have in the past been subject to very little scholarly examination, particularly in Canada. However, such publications are a unique site where students can engage in the production of publications with significant reach, assisted by the particular institutional arrangements that characterize these papers. Student journalists in such a position may seek to articulate journalistic identities, practices, ideals and standards that are distinct from 'mainstream' journalism (and which take up a progressive political mission or 'activist' orientation). This thesis examines two Montreal English-language student newspapers which have historically sought to fulfill a mission as politically-engaged publications, Concordia University's the Link and the McGill Daily , for the period of reference 2000-2010 - with particular respect to the ways in which the content of the two newspapers and reflections of student editors describe how they negotiate their particular social positioning (including tensions between 'professional' and 'activist' orientations to their work as journalists). In pursuing this examination, self-representations (in print) of the respective papers' histories, their involvement with and interventions in Canadian University Press, incidents of media critique directed at mainstream media, the ethical and normative journalistic standards described in guiding documents and by writers and interviewees, cases of change or acute tension with regard to 'professional' and 'activist' orientations, and coverage of anti-globalization and anti-police brutality protest events are discussed, tracing a selective history of the publications examined