I’M SITTING here now as the end of the year approaches for many, and wondering: where the last year has gone? It doesn’t seem like long ago when I first took up the role of Online Editor back in May 2014. It’s been a great year for ASM this year; we’ve put on some amazing events, delivered quality content across all four strands of ASM and accomplished some amazing coverage.
It’s been a rather hectic year for ASM, although I suppose that’s nothing new. Along with some great things on this website, we’ve had 6 very successful editions of The Courier, 85+ hours of weekly shows on Bay Radio and some great content coming out of Bay TV. That’s not to forget the excellent events put on by ASM; Bay24, Varsity – Battle of the Bands: Aberystwyth Heat and last week’s Final, which were a triumphant success for all those involved!
The website itself, I feel, continues to be very strong and the main source for student news and media at Aberystwyth University. We had such a variety of articles last term I’m not sure where to start. News. Just a few of our biggest online news stories this year have included: Aberystwyth officially named ‘greatest town’ in the UK, Grade inflation scandal hits physics department and Pier goes into administration.
Elsewhere, Lifestyle this year produced an excellent array of Freshers’ articles to get you settled in, for example: Freshers’ Guide: Where to go in Aberystwyth for a… and The truth about freshers were very popular. The section continues to being the latest in travel, fashion and technology each week. In the Arts section, we published an exclusive interview with Hinterland and earlier in the term an exclusive interview with Alan Davies – so definitely check out those, and the regular updates from the Arts team if you haven’t already. On to Opinion, an article that I think many will agree with, when considering why so many (like myself) are still sticking around in Aber; As long as I got you…there’s no place I’d rather be. Secondly, Should our library be 24 hour? was another that I think a lot of students engaged with. Recently, we had an article looking at the end of the year; One term more: time to take a breath.
Sports this term, has brought you a number of weekly match reports from university level, local level and new this year; international level. A few highlights include: Match Report: Aber 2nds 2-4 Cardiff Metropolitan 2nds and, an interview with the netball team: AU Netball off to winning starts. Don’t forget to check out the Varsity Special Edition of the The Courier and Varsity match reports going online throughout the next week. Finally, the Features section this year has had a great variety of content. A shameless plug from the weekly column I have co-created: The Green Bay: Your guide to sustainability – a weekly column with advice on how to live more sustainably (yes, that’s right… I’m a geography student). Other content includes; This is Africa, Six signs you’re suffering from Senior Denial Syndrome and Destinations of degree graduates: What did 2012/13 graduates do next?
There we have it, my ‘quick’ run-down of just some of the content we’ve had this year. Of course, don’t forget to check out more of my own picks in the Editor’s Picks section of the website for a more specific selection of content I think you definitely should try to read. I’ve enjoyed this year immensely, being faced with new challenges from the off – with Bay Radio now being fully integrated into the ASM site – there’s been on-going web development all year and for which I must say thank you to our Web Admin Kieran, I’m not sure how it would have all worked without his excellent work! Make sure you check out the Bay TV section of the website as it to has been improved this year. Bay Radio and Bay TV becoming fully integrated into aberstudentmedia.com is a huge milestone for us, and something to be proud of. If you haven’t seen already, the Bay Radio section of the website has recently undergone a makeover and update – take a look!
Cameron Smyth, Rhian Hughes, Christopher-Cameron McNaught and myself at the Society Awards dinner.
Recently, we also had success at the Students’ Union Society Awards, with ASM receiving the Gold Welsh Language Award, and coming in second for the biggest contribution of the year. Our Secretary, Cameron scooped up the Volunteer of the Year award and myself, Rhian, Chris, Katie and Cameron also all received various levels of society colours.
Anyway, I’m going to end on a bit of advice. If there’s one bit of advice that I’ll give, although I suppose I am rather biased – get involved in ASM next year. I first got involved back in the second term of my first year, and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it since. The experiences that you get from ASM are invaluable to the big wide world, and heck – you might find you have that great passion for journalism hidden away in you that you’ve never been able to explore. Now is your chance. Our elections are on Wednesday 29th – come along to see how things work at ASM or ask questions about getting involved!
Finally, a big thank you from myself to the committee, contributors, members, alumni and readers for your involvement this year so far – it’s been great! As exams draw near and the everyone gets into revision, don’t forget to keep on checking back here on the ASM website, myself and the content team will still be bringing you all the latest articles… we’re just that keen. All the best!