Girish Mahajan (Editor)

The Signal (college newspaper)

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Format
  
Tabloid

Founded
  
1933

Editor
  
Troi Charity

Type
  
Weekly student newspaper

Owner(s)
  
Georgia State University

Publisher
  
Georgia State Student Publications

The Signal is the official student newspaper of Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia. As of 2013, The Signal has a weekly circulation of 5,000, distributed to numerous locations on the Georgia State campus and a handful of locations in the surrounding area. The paper publishes on Tuesdays during Spring and Fall semesters (in addition to an "Incept" issue for incoming students in the Summer). It primarily covers news, events and issues specific to the Georgia State community and covers stories relating to the city of Atlanta with interest to its readers.

Contents

History

Like the university, the student newspaper of what is now Georgia State University has evolved with each incarnation of the school. Georgia State's first student newspaper, The Technite, was named in homage to the Georgia Institute of Technology's own student paper, The Technique, when the school was founded as the Georgia School of Technology's Evening School of Commerce. In 1933, as the University changed to become the Atlanta Extension Center of the University System of Georgia, the two divisions of the school (the day division and the night division) each produced their own separate newspapers (named The Junior Collegiate and the Evening Signal, respectively). On two occasions the publications would appear in combination with one another, initially as the Collegiate-Signal on April 21, 1941, and again as the University Signal on September 22, 1941. It wasn't until the Evening Signal merged with the day division newspaper, The Junior-Collegiate, permanently in 1943 that the formal name of the publication would become The Signal. Since that time, a number of mastheads have been used, including The University Signal, The Georgia State Signal, the Georgia State College Signal, and the Georgia State University Signal.

During his time at Georgia State, D.W. Pine, Design Director of Time magazine was editor-in-chief of The Signal.

Present-day publication

The Signal is published every Tuesday during the Fall and Spring semesters, with the exceptions of Finals Week, Spring Break and Thanksgiving Break. It also prints a special summer issue for incoming freshman and transfer students, known as the "Incept Issue" and publishes daily online throughout the year.

The newspaper is operated by a staff of approximately 50 paid and unpaid students, broken into the editorial, marketing and advertising departments, respectively. Although Georgia State offers degrees in journalism, The Signal welcomes all students within the university to contribute to its content. It is funded primarily by print advertisements, printing costs are paid for by student fees. It runs its website, georgiastatesignal.com, independently from the school. The georgiastatesignal.com URL was launched in 2012 (after over a decade of the paper publishing at gsusignal.com through the College Publisher system).

Sections

The Signal is generally between 20 and 24 pages long and organized into four sections:

  • Arts and Living
  • Includes human interest stories, reviews of music, movies, performance arts, and video games, cartoons, a crossword puzzle, sudoku puzzles, and campus events.
  • News
  • Includes news, investigative stories and Georgia State-specific crime reports.
  • Opinions
  • Includes editorials, an editorial cartoon, op-eds, and letters to the editor, as well as a regular Student Vox feature.
  • Sports
  • Includes features, team profiles, in-depth analysis and summaries of recent Georgia State sports games.

    Awards

    The Signal has won numerous awards, including;

  • the 2012/2013/2014 General Excellence awards in "Division 4A" from the Georgia College Press Association (awarded in 2013/2014/2015)
  • The "Best College Newspaper" award in the Southeast Journalism Conference's 2013 "Best of the South" contest
  • Best in Show in its division at the National College Media Convention on November 4, 2012
  • References

    The Signal (college newspaper) Wikipedia