Big Changes at the Student Review

After almost 50 years of circulation, the Student Review is moving into the 21st Century by going digital.

Throughout this semester, the Student Review has developed a partnership with the Homewood-Flossmoor and Chicago Heights Patch news sites. These efforts have finally come into fruition with The Student Review starting its own blog through both Patch sites. Every new issue will be published digitally concurrently with the physical release of the newspaper from now on.

This partnership began when Ryan Fitzpatrick, editor of the Homewood-Flossmoor Patch, reached out to Prairie State’s own student-led newspaper.

“Patch is all about reflecting the community it serves, and the Student Review represents an important and often underrepresented portion of that community,” Fitzpatrick said.

For the Student Review, this partnership is a huge opportunity to boost readership, increasing from just students, faculty and visitors at Prairie State to the entire Homewood-Flossmoor and Chicago Heights communities.

Another exciting change this means for the Student Review comes from the technological nature of publishing articles online.

“Students will be able to break free from the limited capabilities of paper,” Fitzpatrick said. “That means videos, photo galleries and increased social activity, among many other exciting possibilities.”

As journalism continues to develop, publishing work online permits these college students to enter the next frontier of reporting.

Below are the addresses for each of the Student Review’s bogs. Both will be updated regularly for each issue, so members of each community will receive the most up-to-date information from the students at Prairie State College.

http://chicagoheights.patch.com/blogs/-prairie-state-college-student-review

http://homewood-flossmoor.patch.com/blogs/prairie-state-college-student-review

These are not the only new changes happening with the Student Review. A Facebook page is also getting started to provide links to the digital copies and give previews about what articles will be included in future issues. The Prairie State College website will also begin to publish new issues of the Student Review, along with offering archived issues from the past half-century.

With all of these advances in computer publishing, the Student Review has not lost sight of print journalism as a medium. Five new cherry wood newspaper racks have been purchased to replace the short plastic ones currently being used. In the spirit of sustainability, an old rack will be placed on the second, third and fourth floor of the main campus as well. One of the new cherry wood racks will be placed in the Health Tech building, where the Student Review has not previously had a presence. This will continue the goal of reaching as many students as possible, while publishing electronically will also allow the Student Review to reach those outside of the school.

These changes are very exciting and provide new opportunities for the staff of the Student Review and all students at Prairie State College.

“I'm personally very excited to see how the addition of the Student Review will help make both Homewood-Flossmoor and Chicago Heights Patch a much richer reader experience,” Fitzpatrick said.