The Epinal Is A Positive Addition To Loughborough University

Well, it’s finally here. Loughborough University’s first independent student publication. We were only a decade or two behind most other reputable universities but I suppose it is a case of better late than never!

As the founding Editor-in-Chief of The Epinal, Jago will be writing a regular editorial to be found here.

The Epinal has, unashamedly, been formed to challenge the status quo and bring to light incompetence, impropriety and malpractice for the good of our community; we are here to do what proper high calibre journalism is best at doing.

As students, we are all very lucky to attend one of the country’s premier higher education institutions. With that comes high-class teaching, a phenomenal research pedigree, impressive pastoral care and an incredible student experience, things that the individuals within the University and the Students’ Union should take enormous credit for.

Like in any society though, things are never perfect. The Epinal will praise the good, criticize the bad and expose the damn right awful. Will we be fair? Absolutely. Will we be ethical? Of course.  Will we be objective in our commentary? Absolutely not.

Journalistic objectivity is impossible. In fact, it is only even desired when reporting news. Great journalism fights a corner, supports a set of beliefs and aims to change things for the better.

The Mail’s stance on immigration, The Telegraph’s support for the Conservative Party, the Financial Times’ Europhilia; whatever your preferred read, whatever your politics, whichever one you love or despise, they are all equally as important in upholding a genuine democracy and the journalists that work for them are all equally as impressive.

As a mere student publication, we can only strive to live up to their high standards.

We have compiled a team that is extremely passionate, amazingly talented and quietly ambitious. From an employee of the BBC to a part-time pundit on Talk Sport, an elite athlete to a local politician to name but a few, I am so happy to finally be launching a concept that has been 18 months in the making and now has such a brilliant group of people to drive it forward.

The year ahead promises to be a challenge; a challenge that we are confident of meeting but a challenge nonetheless.

We are here to change the culture and to create something that plays a positive role in what has been coined as the ‘Loughborough experience’ for years to come.

We will have our critics. We do already.

There will be those that say we are being ‘negative’.

There will be others that will say we are only interested in attracting traffic to our website.

There will be a deluded few that don’t appreciate the importance of independent journalism and then of course, there will be those with something to hide that will for some reason regard us a threat to their own cosy vested interests.

That, unfortunately, is par for the course.

We have to accept that. They have to get in the real world. Unequivocally, we aim to confront those views head on and prove that we are on the right side of the argument.

We aim to prove that this independent publication is not only right and proper within the student bubble but also, yes you guessed it, positive.