Canta (magazine)

Canta

Cover of Canta magazine 16 Jul 2014

Cover of Canta magazine 16 Jul 2014
Editor-at-large Hannah Herchenbach
Staff writers
  • Annalee Jones
  • Callum Ching
Frequency Weekly (during Semester 1 and 2)
Year founded 1930
Company University of Canterbury Students' Association
Based in Christchurch, New Zealand
Website canta.co.nz

Canta is the official magazine of the University of Canterbury Students' Association (UCSA) of the University of Canterbury, established in 1930.

In its current incarnation, the magazine aims: "to reflect and celebrate student life at the University of Canterbury." The magazine generally features a light-hearted tone - with an emphasis on short, image-heavy articles.

Canta is a member of the Aotearoa Student Press Association (ASPA).

Publication information

Canta is freely available around The University of Canterbury campus every Wednesday during term time. It is 32 pages long and A4 in page size.

The magazine's cover changes radically each week, and generally parodies an aspect of student life or a current event.

There are a variety of sections which typically appear in every issue:

Current staff and regular contributors

Historical columns

Controversy

In 1996, the Canta editors Steven Fleming and Creon Upton were removed after publishing a range of controversial articles including a Mel Brooks Nazi parody, a column purporting to have been written by Michael Jackson, a mock Tintin comic strip, and a list of student criminal offenders (a hoax). The editors claimed at the time that their sacking was more a result of their poor relationship with the university’s student executive council than anything else. An employment tribunal later found in favour of the sacked editors resulting in a substantial payout from the student executive.

Canta was again involved in controversy following the publishing of an article entitled "The Completely Unofficial Top 13 Ways of Cheating" in the issue preceding midterm exams in June, 2007. New Zealand newspaper The Press and internet news service stuff [1] published an article which was reported on by 3 News.[2] The university announced it was introducing a random seating policy in exams following the attention. Canterbury University Students' Association president Belinda Bundy said the article was not meant to be taken seriously. "I think we only ever saw it as a humorous thing, It was just a light-hearted reaction to all the cheating issues that have been raised recently."

In 2008, a weekly column entitled "Trust Deborah - She's Always Right" surfaced. This column features a weekly rant against different groups of people, ranging from "fat" girls (females with a BMI>22, according to the column writer) and Christians. In issue 21 of 2008, Deborah again made headlines by suggesting that Christians "have the mental capacity of a Down's syndrome-sufferer with a head injury", are "mentally defective" and declaring that she wishes that all Christians would die. Her articles have generated considerable "Hate Mail", published in every issue of 2009. This has had little effect on changing Canta Magazine policy.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Steward, Ian (12 June 2007). "Cheat attack". The Press (Fairfax New Zealand). p. 1.
  2. ↑ "Canterbury student says cheating is blown out of proportion". 3 News (MediaWorks New Zealand). 12 June 2007. Archived from the original on 24 October 2007.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, January 04, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.