<\/p>\n
When The Miami Student published its first edition as The Literary Focus in 1827, it only included three things: literature, poetry and philosophical thought. Now, 200 years later, The Student has sections covering everything from sports and opinion to culture and environmental news. What The Student calls the Culture section today has undergone many iterations since it\u2019s first appearance 47 years ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The first signs of a culture-centered section appeared on the front page of the Friday, Jan. 26, 1979 edition, titled \u201cFRIDAY\u201d magazine. The Student described the new segment as a separate tabloid, which quickly moved into its own section in the main paper, according to an issue from August 1981.<\/p>\n
FRIDAY magazine included stories on art exhibitions, plays, film, music and recommendations for how to spend a weekend immersed in campus culture. Many of their stories were reviews, but they also reported on the experiences of art and theater students.<\/p>\n
From 1981 to 1985, the entertainment division of the paper went through many name changes. In 1981, FRIDAY was converted back into a tabloid and renamed \u201cUnabridged.\u201d For the next three years, Unabridged covered campus entertainment events and the latest news on everything film and music, until September 1984, when the section was renamed \u201cAvantgardian.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the first edition of Avantgardian from Sept. 21, 1984, \u201cWherein the staff of the formerly termed Unabridged proves that, indeed, the Phoenix does rise from the ashes,\u201d the section explainer read. \u201c\u2026 If perhaps your curiosity leads you to question our motivation behind these bits of philosophical genius, simply have faith that they were espoused with your best interest in mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unclear if something occurred within the paper or if the author is making a sarcastic remark about the name change. However, in January 1986, the tabloid briefly returned to its former name before changing it again in April of the same year. The new name, \u201cFriday!\u201d coincided with The Student\u2019s transition period, when a new editor-in-chief takes office.<\/p>\n
In the late \u201980s, The Student published a paper every Tuesday and Friday. By the 1988\u20131989 school year, the paper had two entertainment sections: Pulse, which came out on Tuesdays, and Friday!, which had been moved into the regular edition and came out on Fridays. Pulse only lasted two years, and eventually Friday! was the only entertainment segment left.<\/p>\n
In 1995, almost 10 years after Friday! was established, Todd Danielson and Eric Prill, class of 1996, sat down with then editor-in-chief Jennifer Markiewicz Wagman to discuss the idea of bringing back an entertainment paper, titled \u201cAmusement.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201c[We wanted] to make it a standalone section that came out every Thursday,\u201d Danielson said. \u201cIt was going to be about eight to 12 pages of entertainment news in the Oxford area.\u201d<\/p>\n
In college, Danielson and Prill were in rock bands, so they knew who to talk to in the music scene. Soon after they got Amusement off the ground, the duo found people who were just as interested in the entertainment world as they were.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had pretty easily found somebody that did movie reviews,\u201d Danielson said, \u201cand somebody did music, and we\u2019d get all kinds of albums \u2026 free music came into the mail, and we could assign them out to people to do music reviews.\u201d<\/p>\n
After graduating, Amusement\u2019s chief editor changed almost every year. For the 1998\u20131999 school year, Amanda Johnson, 2000, Andrew Kern, 1999, and Brian Wolfe, 2000, were the lead editors. At this time, Amusement went from being a full-sized newspaper to a tabloid. Amusement, like the rest of The Student, also fostered many late nights and happy memories.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was such a great way to have a pulse on everything that was going on,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cIt was just such a blast \u2026 I loved doing [the] layouts and getting photos from different photographers and putting it together.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the next 10 years, Amusement printed a new tabloid every Thursday. In 2008, the section was moved into The Student\u2019s Friday editions, and eventually disbanded Oct. 8, 2010, after receiving negative feedback. Afterwards, the section was renamed \u201cArts and Entertainment,\u201d focused on entertainment-related event coverage, rather than reviews.<\/p>\n
\u00a0In an opinion article from the Oct. 8 print, Anna Turner, the Amusement editor at the time, wrote of her frustration with the decision to disband the section.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs of today, Friday, Oct. 8, 2010, Amusement will no longer be part of Miami University\u2019s student media,\u201d Turner wrote. \u201cThe blame can be placed on a small faction of the Miami community that failed to realize the importance of humor and satire in the media.\u201d<\/p>\n
By August 2014, Arts and Entertainment was officially renamed Culture, a name that almost stuck to the present day. It shifted to three separate sections \u2014 Entertainment, Style and Food in 2021, and returned to its current name of Culture in 2024 under Editor-in-Chief Kasey Turman.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t have the editors or the amount of writers we needed to have three sections,\u201d Turman said. \u201cI mean, if you look around Oxford, you look around Miami, there is a lot of culture, but there\u2019s not always something food-related happening, or something like style-related that you can write about.\u00a0 So putting it all into one section, and naming it Culture, which had already been the name before it was split, made a lot of sense for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, Culture is edited by Stella Powers, a junior journalism and media and communication student, and Ayla Peden, a sophomore sociology and journalism student. The section is a mix of columns and reported stories, paying tribute to the various changes it has undergone over the last half-century. Powers and Peden try to keep readers as informed \u2014 and entertained \u2014 as possible every week.<\/p>\n