OSPL
Oxford Student Publications Limited
7 St. Aldate’s
Oxford, OX1 1BS
Company No.: 00679920
(England and Wales)
T: 01865 722780
Dear applicant,
Thank you for applying for the position of Section Editor of Cherwell newspaper. If you have any questions about your application or the procedures, please e-mail the Editors ( editor@cherwell.org
), who will deal with all enquiries in the strictest confidence.
Applications are split into two stages:
1.
A standardised application form, contained in this document.
2.
A fifteen-minute interview.

The interview is normally held soon after the deadline, and should last no longer than fifteen minutes.
During the interview, the panel will be assessing a number of competencies not covered by the application form. You will not be asked to prepare anything extra for the interview, but may be asked to discuss the answers provided in your application form.
The selection panel will judge applicants on a number of criteria, although these are flexible and no numerical marks will be given. The aim is to allow for appointment of a team which can compensate deficiencies in one applicant's experience. You will be given a chance to explain any apparent shortfalls and weaknesses during the interview. No professional experience is expected at this stage, although any previous experience will be taken into consideration. The selection criteria, in no particular order, are as follows:

Leadership, organisation and people management

Technical ability (including copy editing, layout and the use of Adobe Indesign)

Knowledge of the newspaper and its website
Good luck,
Tom Beardsworth & William Pimlott
Editors, Cherwell

For the position of Section Editor (News, Comment, Lifestyle, Fashion, Culture and Sport)
Position applied for:
Name:
College:
Subject:
Year:
E-mail:
Mobile:
Why do you want the job? (100 words)
What other commitments do you have next term? (100 words)
In no more than two hundred words, please tell us about yourself and your interest in journalism, including any relevant experience that you have.
What experience in designing a publication do you have? (100 words)

What do you like about the section of Cherwell newspaper for which you are applying, and why? (200 words max.)
What would you like to change most about the section (in print) and why? (150 words max.)
What would you change to your section online and what new regular features would you introduce? (150 words)
What is your understanding of defamation?
What is your understanding of contempt of court?
Complete only (A), (B), (C), (D) or (E) —the part relevant to your section.
A) For prospective NEWS & INVESTIGATIONS EDITORS only i) Outline your ideas for two original news investigations. Please provide 100 words for each. ii) "Here is a list of four articles being considered for print this week.
Union invites terrorist spokesperson
Trinity College suspends all grants and bursaries for a year
Student to break Guinness World Record for controversial anti-abortion Christian charity
Oxford student communist group begin RadCam sit-in
Choose ONE that you would broadcast for CNB (Cherwell News Broadcasting), and explain how you would go about turning it around for upload within 3 days using the staff and equipment at your disposal, highlighting any logistical and editorial concerns during the production process. (max 250 words)" iii) Copy-edit the following news story, about a Varsity Ski Trip. Think of a headline for the piece and make any changes you deem appropriate. Choose a standfirst and two pullquotes. Describe what sort of quotes—from what viewpoint and from whom—you think would strengthen the article. Decrease the word count to a maximum of 600

words. Briefly comment on the article’s strengths and weaknesses and state what you have removed or changed. Also comment on any aspects of the article which you think could be legally contentious.
On the 4th of December 2,500 eager students from Oxford and Cambridge boarded their coaches, Val Thorens bound, amidst MET Office warnings of extreme weather conditions and “widespread icy roads” for most of England, Scotland and Northern Island. First-lift custemers were peeved to be told that they would not be able to board their flights that they had paid for and would instead have to travel by coach. The sub-zero temperatures made driving extremely hazardous for all.
Unfortunately for one varsity coach carrying mainly Oxford students the bad conditions led to a collision with a lorry. The accident happened at approximately 2 o’clock in the morning on the M25.
For most of the 44 students aboard, this only resulted in minor injuries and they were transferred to a coach the following morning to continue their journey to Val Thorens.
However several students and the driver of the coach were hospitalised for further treatment and some had to abandon the varsity trip all together. The collision occurred at Clacket Lane, near Croydon. Caspar Eliot, a New College third year, said, “most people were already asleep when it happened. We woke up when there was a huge bang and a jolt. It was very dark, but we could see a lorry pressed up against the left side of the coach. “Lots of people were bleeding and hurt, but there was a strong smell of diesel so we left everything and got off onto the motorway through the emergency exit.”
News eventually got through to val throrens that no one had been seriously injured on board, although there was an alarming rumour circulating for quite some time that the lorry driver of the other vehicle had in fact died in the crash. This was in fact unfounded and there were no fatalities from the incident.
After a dramatic start to the week, everyone threw themselves into making the most of the ideal skiing conditions and perfect powder. The Wednesday saw the ego driven ‘Garmin
Race to the Base’ take place after another epic afternoon of après-ski at the buzzing place-tobe: La Folie Douce. Fuelled by mulled wine, a large crowd formed on a snowy mound half way down the slope, and there was a palpable sense of anticipation in the air. Those expecting mass pile ups were disappointed though as all skiers made it down in one piece, with only few minor tumbles halfway down the course making up the sum total of skiing error, and most participants deftly zooming past.
Thursday was D-day for the participants of the notorious Valley Rally. For those who attended VT10, the Valley Rally will undeniably need no introduction. For those that didn’t, no doubt the tales of “laddish” and frankly inhumane behaviour have by now circulated.
Think people attempting innovative ways to get down the side of a mountain, or trying experimental egg cracking methods.

The winning team made the intrepid decision to place said egg in one teammates bodily orifice while another team mate smashed it with a wine bottle and the remaining team members ate the raw egg from the floor. You get the idea. Essentially the Valley Rally revolves around teams taking part in “challenges”, frankly disgraceful activities, as devised by the Off-the-piste reps, all with the hope of winning the prize of a luxury Scott Dunn skiing holiday. For the majority, the tom foolery proved too much in the early stages, and team after team bowed out. But for those brave few, those extraordinary creatures who managed to persevere through the initial shock at the abundance of nudity and general loss of dignity, the feats they soon accomplished surely went past the point of being dubbed “lad” and “banter” to just downright appalling antics. Sophie Hibbon, one of the depraved members of the winning team and all round top lad by all accounts remarked “I sold my dignity for a free holiday”. The runners up drank each other’s urine; an act which in everyday life would be considered fairly daring. But this was nothing in the scheme of the Valley Rally antics, where urine would be considered one of the more conservative bodily fluids to be drinking. The winning team enjoyed various other bodily fluids from each other, whilst naked and being covered in a concoction of pasta sauce and hot chocolate. The infamous “photo” challenge took place by VarCity, a location overlooked by literally hundreds of varsity students apartments, where contestants were leered at and jeered at by fellow students, eager to see further degradation of individuals. And they were not disappointed. The winning team proved their worth, with a display that involved a girl lying naked in the snow while teammates wanked over her. One varsity rep described how he believed he had literally witnessed students “losing their souls” while competing.
There is not much information provided on the VT website concerning the Valley Rally, other than the fact that it is “free” and is sold to students with the tagline “Make sure you don’t miss out on this great afternoon on the slopes”. No doubt it is the luxury holiday which lured most students into the action. According to a spokeswoman for Scott Dunn, the company choose to sponsor the valley rally as they saw varsity students as a “great audience for a high end operator like themselves”.
One student commented, “They are clearly a reprehensible and irresponsible company to sponsor such activities.”
It is undeniable that for VT twentyten, for competitors and spectators alike, the Valley Rally will be a lasting, amusing and somewhat scaring memory for years to come.
B) For prospective COMMENT and SPORT EDITORS only i) Outline your ideas for one new regular feature and one original article for your section. Please provide 100 words for each.

ii) Copy-edit the following feature. Reduce the word count to 700 maximum. Think of a headline for the piece and make any changes you deem appropriate. Briefly comment on the article’s strengths and weaknesses. State what you have removed or changed, and outline your reasons.
‘Hungry for Action on Global Poverty’
World hunger is a significant issue facing this generation. It kills more than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined. In the Asian, African and Latin American countries, well over
500 million people are living in what the World Bank has called "absolute poverty",.
According to UNICEF, 24,000 children die each day due to poverty. The World Health
Organization estimates that that one-third of the world is well-fed, one-third is under-fed and one-third is starving. the issue of world hunger has not got enough attention among the affluent societies of the west
World hunger is an also a moral and ethical issue facing this generation. According to
Australian philosopher and Princeton Professor of ethics, Peter Singer, letting a person die is like killing them
And they “die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. Being meek and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death”. Pope Benedict XVI said "Opulence and waste are no longer acceptable when the tragedy of hunger is assuming ever greater proportions’,U.N. Secretary-
General Ban Ki-Moon said "Our job is not just to feed the hungry, but to empower the hungry to feed themselves". considering the affluence in the society now, it’s morally reprehensible that we are not able to feed everyone, in the planet
There are Several organizations that are working towards eliminating hunger in the world.
These organizations work in different ways to the deal with issue Some organizations work as charity organizations that collect money to provide food to those communities that are suffering from hunger ‘Action against hunger’ is one such organization
There are also various governmental organizations that have setup agencies to deal with the issue of hunger. The UK government’s Department of International Development (DFID) has several initiatives to tackle the issue of hunger. The UN plays a role: the United
Nations World Food Programme are working towards the issue of dealing with hunger and poverty. [How? I’d send this back to get an answer] There are also several advocacy organizations that work towards bring policy level changes in governments around the world.
There are several student led organizations that work on the issue of hunger. These student organizations across universities of the world mainly focus on the issues of fund raise for large organizations. Some of these student organizations also let students work directly on hunger and poverty in developing countries. Some those organizations in oxford that work on these activities include OXFAM Oxford Development Abroad, etc. These organizations

let students experience poverty firsthand and also helps them shape their world view. But, is this the best student can do? Should students consider this as a significant achievement? Most often the activities of most of the organizations, including the student organizations, let our political leaders get away from solving the fundamental structural issues. that are facing the world. Ultimately politics is where the power lies; we should therefore focus on petitioning our leaders to confront these problems.
The current generation of students should realize that enormous opportunity ahead of them
Just as the generation of sixties fought for equality, this generation has the opportunity to fight for people's lives. In fact, this issue is of far bigger significance than the one faced by the students of the sixties. In 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) affirmed the right of everyone to an adequate food. This is the most fundamental violation of human rights - To deprive some people of food whilst others are basking in affluence and excess is not just offensive, but a violation of others’ rights. It would be significant achievement of this generation if we can do something to eliminate this basic human rights violation - hunger. Until we resolve ‘Third World’ material poverty we will remain morally impoverished.
Students should strive for long term systemic change to address this issue. To start, the student should bring back the lost idealism, in them. Student organizations, currently dispersed and fragmented, should come together and to challenge the status quo, on the issue of addressing world hunger. There are various student organizations, around the world, that are actively mobilizing students to voice their opinion against this issue. But, these organizations are dispersed and fragmented. There is a large silent majority that has a strong opinion on this issue and have not yet spoken up. We need to mobilise the silent majority, who have yet to speak up. The student organizations should call for this silent majority to bring out their views. Every individual voice is needed for this change to happen to bring about this change. Students should believe collective leadership and work towards consolidating it as the movement for justice on global scale. So the student leaders should reach out to other student organizations around the world. Unless these student organizations we come together and give present a collective voice, the student community would not be able to make any sustainable impact. Student leadership more often gets stuck in positions/titles and lose track of the cause. The ideal is more important than the person, leader or organization.
Finally, Student leaders should reach out to other organizations around the world to coordinate and to build a collective identity. Ultimately solving poverty is about accountability, to ourselves and to those who are suffering. We should make our leaders in government, development agencies and charities accountable to their promises. More importantly, the silent majority needs to speak up on this issue We can only do this if we are vocal. Hopefully, the student community realizes the opportunity we have to shape how this generation of students is going to be remembered. Let today’s community of students be remembered for seizing the opportunity to end poverty.

C) For prospective LIFESTYLE and CULTURE EDITORS only i) Outline your ideas for two new regular features for your section. Please provide 100 words for each. ii) Copy-edit the following music feature. Reduce the word count to 400 maximum. Think of a headline for the piece and make any changes you deem appropriate. Briefly comment on the article’s strengths and weaknesses. State what you have removed or changed, and outline your reasons.
Do you know what upsets me about Oxford? Transience. Not that we’re all moving on or growing up and will one day be thrust out into the big wild world, but that clubs are here one minute and gone the next. Remember Bar Risa? Well, that’s now Wahoo. Kukui? Yep,
Junction. Ponana? Well they grabbed the pufferfish out of kukui’s skip and renamed themselves LolaLo. Because Oxford couldn’t do without a tiki-themed club, obviously.
With all these cherished clubs disappearing like polio in India, why the fuck is Babylove still here?! Everyone there is alternative and they revel in it. They like to be among their own, but to try picking out your friends from among this sea of identical teens and it becomes a herculean task.
I frankly don't get it. Maybe that's because I am one of the ‘others' - I am painfully mainstream, and proud of it. I think Britney Spears is the greatest recording artist of all time; my favourite singer is Lemar; I have only been to one concert and that was Hear'Say - when I was 10. And guess what? I bloody loved Hear'Say. I thought the greatest news of the noughties was the Spice Girl reunion and I adore unadulterated cheesy pop: give me Katie
Perry, Lady Gaga, JLS or Beyonce any day. My iPod contains classics like B*witched's
‘C'est la vie', The Vengaboys' ‘We're going to Ibiza', Hanson's ‘Mmmbop', and Miley Cyrus
‘The Climb'. It reads like a who's-who of the most over-played crap blasting out of Capital radio, Heart or, (dare I say it) Magic, but there is a reason these artists top the charts. The thing is, people love pop.
You see, pop makes the music world go round. It may not be universally loved, but record labels know that it will be heard and, more importantly, bought by the masses. Pop makes you feel good, it makes you want to dance, it makes you want to belt along. Not tha the music on a Thursday at Babylove isn't enjoyable. Don't get me wrong, with a few vodka and cranberrys down me I can dance to pretty much anything, and I will. But I prefer pop as there's something liberating about indulging in some unpretentious music for a while. You can listen to a song just for its synthesized beats and auto-tuned artists and you can dance like you're thirteen again, tipsy after your first Smirnoff Ice.
If you want my advice, abandon your indie music and your Babylove; pure pop is the way to go and if transience brings us one thing then it’s a variety of ever-changing clubs ready to bring us the latest top 40 hits with buckets of lurid alcohol to boot. Closing time might be reminiscent of a Tijuana donkey show, but Bridge, Park End, even Wahoo are where the partys’ at. I don’t have time for any ‘alternative’ music – when I’ve got a lecture at 9am the

next day I don’t want to listen to electronica or house. Don’t get me wrong, I love Dubstep
(Chase and Status are my fave), and they were so good when I saw them at Bestival and got the whole crowd dancing. But there are certain types of music that I just can’t stand and I want to go to a place where I know that if I want to dance my socks off, I can do that without any depressing indie or grueling dance music. I love Varsity and the new Shuffle nights –
‘Beers’ Baker has done truly brought clubbing back to where it should be. I guess I was wrong about that transience thing, although not where Babylove is concerned.
D) For prospective FASHION EDITORS only i) Outline your ideas for two fashion spreads. Briefly explain where they would be shot, how you would design the pages and the overall look that you would be aiming for. If possible, attach images of the sort of clothes and styles you’d like to include.
E) For prospective CHERWELL TV EDITORS only i) Please give details of any experience you might have in broadcast production and editing? ii) How do you view the relationship between the print and online elements of Cherwell? iii) Outline your ideas for two new video series for the website.
F) For prospective PHOTO EDITORS only i) Please outline your ideas for two photo stories. ii) How would you convey the following news stories in a photo: http://www.cherwell.org/news/academic/2012/02/23/more-oxford-graduates-are-waitersthan-engineers http://www.cherwell.org/news/oxford/2012/02/23/power-cuts-hit-oxford-libraries-andfaculties