Once upon a time, not so long ago at my student organization’s guild room my eye was struck by an odd magazine on the coffee table. The student organization for computer science and engineering OTiT’s magazine Terminaali. On the cover there boasts a teekkari with two OTiT-branded lightsabers and a marking “One of the magazines of all time!”. It intrigued me and I picked the issue up.
The content did not disappoint. The amateurish layout, whole bunch of memes, and low-to-no-class-tier articles filled the pages. Definitely one of the magazines of all time.
At the same time I glanced at cultural researchers’ magazine Kultisti and pondered on how its articles are prim and proper not resembling Terminaali or any other student organization’s magazine at all.
The spectrum of student organization magazines is clearly a wide one. It made me ask the question: why aren’t all of them as silly as Terminaali or as serious as Kultisti?
A magazine just for the students
Typical for the student culture in Finland is the publication of an own magazine for the student organization. Despite this almost none of them include relevant information for the organization or announce their official statements. The content is often very frivolous and nonserious. The articles are just like their students. Topics are anything from reviews, reports on student events or parties, and from short stories to humoristic strings of text. The magazines are written either by the editorial staff or with just the editor-in-chief with the help of the regular students.
Student organization magazines have always and will always look like the students that write them. The editor-in-chief is chosen by a vote for a term of one year by the students. This means that the content of the magazine won’t get stale and will evolve with new students.
Proper or raunchy?
Magazines made by teekkaris often are the most unserious of them all. OTiT’s Terminaali is a by-the-book example of this. The bar for what is released scrapes the floor and the graphic design can be pretty much anything. Dirty jokes and memes fill the pages.
However, this is not a bad thing.
In the ocean of similar magazines the silliness of Terminaali is a breath of fresh air. Since all of the other magazines are alike, a magazine that tries to be as ridiculous as possible is a great thing.
If Terminaali does not take anything seriously, Kultisti is its opposite. The magazine produced by the student organization for archeology, literature and cultural anthropology Kultu ry from front to back is appropriate. Most of the content in it is seriousminded and artistic. This is not a coincidence. Ever since the magazine started appearing it was meant to be different from the other less serious magazines.
Furthermore, since Kultu ry is the student organization for students of literature producing convincing texts come naturally to them adding to the professional atmosphere of the magazine.
A voice of the students: An interview with the editor-in-chief of Terminaali
What is the nature of Terminaali and Kultisti and what do the editors-in-chief think about the content in their respective magazines?
The editor-in-chief for Terminaali is the first year student of computer science Julius Kuruheimo. In OTiT he was elected as the “information minister” whose job among other things is to edit Terminaali.
Terminaali did before, approximately before the year 2020, in fact resemble a regular student organization magazine. This doesn’t mean that the magazine was always prim and proper. An example of the built-in raunchy humor of the magazine is the fact that a lightly clothed or a naked woman can be found in every issue of the magazine since 1998. Nowadays the content has been going towards a previously less serious direction.
According to Kuruheimo what affects the content of the magazine the most are the students and what they choose to write about which is why he doesn’t see a simple reason for the change. The main point of Terminaali is to bring forth the voice of the students of the organization so it should also look like the students themselves.
The content of the magazine sprouts from the students but the editorial staff is not totally powerless in deciding on what is released. Not everything can be published even though at first it might seem like it. Offensive articles or personal attacks will not be tolerated by Kuruheimo. “The magazine is meant to make people laugh, not offend.”
Kuruheimo reveals that the editorial staff has been considering making the magazine more serious. “Already there are “half-serious” articles in there but all in all the magazine looks like its editors”, Kuruheimo said. He also brings forth the possibility of creating a new fully serious magazine with articles that possibly could not be found in Terminaali.
Relating to if Kuruheimo would like to continue in the field of journalism he said that it is a possibility. Even if this career path is not for certain he confessed that he likes to write.
Bringing together the creative folks: An interview with the editors-in-chief of Kultisti
Next up we have the editors-in-chief for Kultisti: Anni Koivisto and Aino Uusitalo. Both of them are literature students. Koivisto is a first year student and Uusitalo is a second year student.
Both Koivisto and Uusitalo thought up the idea for being the editor-in-chief independently from each other. Uusitalo enjoys writing and organizing things which is why the position of the editor-in-chief was of interest. As well as enjoying writing Koivisto also is keen on graphic design. She has designed the layouts for all of the Kultisti issues she has made so far.
Uusitalo states that the editor-in-chief is more of an organizer than a writer. She and Koivisto do not write anything in the issues apart from the editorial. Other than that the magazine consists of other people’s texts.
Multiple editors-in-chief positions aren’t new for Kultisti. During Kultu ry’s former government’s reign there were also two of them but before that there has traditionally only been a singular editor-in-chief as Koivisto puts it. Uusitalo praises the arrangement since the workload is well distributed with two persons working on the same magazine.
“Kultisti is a magazine that is made with group work”, Uusitalo exclaims. She says that a designated group makes the magazines but anyone can submit an article to be published.
Special qualities of Kultisti are the sections that consistently appear in every issue. Other student organization magazines barely have these but Kultisti has multiple. For example comic series by the nickname “Jemma” called Naali Lipastossa has a new story in every issue. The comic features an arctic fox and other fluffy animal friends in relatable situations at Oulu university. Another consistently appearing section is the Friend Book in which students interview lecturers and professors about their favorite things.
The magazine has always strived to stand out from the rest. The magazine has been described by the former editors-in-chief in a letter to the new ones as “a more psychedelic and an artistic one” when compared to the others. At the same time they admit that the magazine is on a course to become more like the others.
Uusitalo is intrigued by the “psychedelicness”. She thinks that the magazine clearly stands out. Both of the editors-in-chief believe that they own an artistic vision with each magazine. Humor has not been forgotten however. For example, a couple of issues ago released Kultuskooppi horoscope series was made with a loose attitude. According to Koivisto it would be wonderful if the magazine had more jokes in it. “Everything doesn’t have to be serious.”
Kultisti has made great use of social media as a marketing tool and making especially the literature students aware of the magazine’s existence. “We know that literature students like to write for themselves. We are trying to make Kultisti into a zero pressure environment so they would get the courage to release their texts in the magazine or at least on our social media”, Uusitalo says.
Koivisto thinks it would be amazing if the feeling of a regular student organization magazine would be preserved in Kultisti. The issue that’s aimed at the first year students released next autumn is promised to be funny in a way that is very inline with the magazine.
When asked about what the point of the magazine is, Uusitalo confidently exclaimed: “This magazine brings together creative folk”.
Koivisto would like to work in the field of journalism in the future. Especially writing columns and articles would be to her taste. Uusitalo is not so sure but has gone through the communication studies.
The editors-in-chief know also that there is more to life than work. “We celebrate new issues by going for a drink!”
Not so different after all?
The differences between Terminaali and Kultisti are obvious. The magazines not only are different in content but also the editorial staff has some ideological differences so to say. Kultisti drives to make itself less serious when at the same time trying to keep a grip on its own image meanwhile Terminaali tries to be more serious but still being a silly teekkari magazine.
Both magazines are unique in their own way. They are very different from other student organization magazines since they do things that the others won’t. The other magazines contain humorous articles and on occasion more serious content. For example the history students’ Praavda magazine is not as artistic and serious as Kultisti.
The other magazines do not really have anything that makes them different. This is not a bad thing since the magazines are still unique in their own way, just less so than Kultisti or Terminaali.
A change in the editorial staff’s attitude towards a more unique magazine would not be a disadvantage. Experimentation in creative work is great, even encouraged since creative work without new ideas is not simply creative. Without innovation or experimentation, creativity withers away and the same old ideas are repeated over and over.
The change doesn’t have to be eternal. If something new doesn’t work it can be replaced with the old. These sorts of situations aren’t a hindrance. They are a learning experience.
The content of the magazines is at the end of the day in the hands of the students. If they do not want the change, it will never happen. And that is great. The magazines exist for the students by the students.
