Catalyst (magazine)

''Catalyst'' is a student magazine published at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. The magazine is produced by the RMIT University Student Union.

History

The first edition of ''Catalyst'' was published on 18 May 1944 by students at the Melbourne Technical College (later RMIT University).

It was originally titled ''The Catalyst: College News'' (later shortened to ''Catalyst Student News''), and envisioned as a newspaper for the Chemistry School (hence the chemical flavour of the title and early articles), but quickly expanded to cover the whole of the Melbourne Technical College.

It has occasionally been published under other titles, mostly parodies of other newspapers (such as ''The Ear’oled'', ''The Horrid'', ''s’Truth'', ''The Unaustralian'' and ''The Rage'') or plays on the word ''Catalyst'' (such as ''Cackle'yst'', ''Catalust'' and ''Revolution Catalyst'').

Special issues have also been produced: Women’s/Womyn's editions (titled ''Havoc'') were published annually from 1984-2006 and Queer editions (titled ''Mutiny'') were published from 2000-2006. Also, one issue per year from 1995-1997 was published collectively with student newspapers of other tertiary institutions in Victoria as ''VICE: The Victorian Inter Campus Edition''.

The number of issues published each year varies across the history of the publication. Currently, ''Catalyst'' is published five times a year.

''Catalyst'' had a readership of approximately 58,000 in 2009Catalyst homepage
Retrieved 2010-04-17 - up from 15,000 in 2004.

The implementation of voluntary student unionism in 2006 had a significant impact on the viability of student newspapers across Australia, compulsory student union membership fees having been the major source of income for most. Today, ''Catalyst's'' funding is drawn jointly from the university and advertising revenue.

''Catalyst'' benefits from its proximity to the RMIT School of Media and Communication, which runs a highly regarded journalism program. In turn ''Catalyst'' alumni are active in the Australian media.

Notable former editors of ''Catalyst'' include journalists Dewi Cooke, Dan Harrison (both now with ''The Age''), Patricia Karvelas and Elizabeth Gallagher.

Cataclysm podcast

In 2014 ''Catalyst'' established its podcast ''Cataclysm'' (released tri-weekly) with each episode centring around a theme. Previous podcast themes have included animals, the body and secrets. Each episode of Cataclysm also includes a series of regular segments alongside the themed feature stories.

Mid-2015 saw one of Cataclysm's popular segments "Politics on the Couch" spawn a webseries collaboration between ''Catalyst'' and RMITV entitled "Politics at the Belleville". The program was hosted by the same talent as the podcast segment and was released every Friday afternoon.

Art of Shoplifting controversy

In 1995, ''Catalyst'' reprinted a controversial article from ''Rabelais Student Media'', its La Trobe University counterpart, entitled
The Art of Shoplifting
' – one of seven student newspapers to do so. Although the ''Rabelais'' editors responsible for the original article were prosecuted for ignoring the ban on its publication issued by the state's Chief Censor; the editors of the other seven newspapers were not targeted by the authorities. Charges against the ''Rabelais'' editors were later dropped.

Digitisation

In 2020, a combined project was undertaken by RMIT University Library and RMIT University Student Union to digitise the back issues of ''Catalyst''. As of October 2020, over 800 issues had been uploaded into the Library's digital collections. At present, the earliest issues are ‘open access’ while the later issues (those less than 50 years old) are restricted to RMIT University staff, students and alumni. Over time, this embargo will diminish as more issues move into the ‘open access’ category. The most recent issues are also available on the electronic publishing platform Issuu.

References

External links

*

Catalyst - Issuu (2014-present)

Catalyst - RMIT University Library Digital Collections (1944-present)

{{AusStudentNews

Magazines established in 1944
Magazines published in Melbourne
RMIT University
Student newspapers published in Australia
Student magazines
Bi-monthly magazines published in Australia