Oxford's biggest student newspaper, produced by and for members of the University of Oxford, since 1991.
The end of summer looms. August has begun to blur dangerously with September. Uni work can no longer be contemplated with the breezy dismissal of, ‘it doesn’t matter, term doesn’t start for months!’ It is dark before 9pm. And as summer comes to a close, so does the nation’s fling with the best/worst thing on […]
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Image Description: Social Media logos on a purple and blue background. This week our columnists discuss the pitfalls and triumphs of social media, and whether it should be more strongly regulated… Clara Morrissey is a second year Theology student at Keble, and our On the Right columnist. A dialogue taken from George Orwell’s 1984 between […]
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Image description: illustration of protesters holding up signs with the Twitter logo on it CW: Racism, hate speech In 2012, a year which saw Donald Trump tweet with his usual insight: “An ‘extremely credible source’ has called my office and told me that @BarackObama’s birth certificate is a fraud.”, the first presidential debate between President […]
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Image description: a phone with the Twitter app open on its screen lying on top of a box labelled “HANDLE WITH CARE” There was a period of a few days in early January when huge civil unrest was not only possible, but likely. A base of millions of Americans across the country stood convinced that […]
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CW/TW: Discussion of Transphobia In late June of this year, I addressed J.K. Rowling’s gleeful exposure of her own transphobia. In my piece, I wrote that Rowling’s anti-trans views were often more insidious than blatant. As time progresses, however, all semblance of nuance appears to have withered away. The insidious is degrading into the blatant. […]
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Image description: A white cassette tape on its side. Hip hop is the genre of the downtrodden, disadvantaged and voiceless. It also isn’t one to shy away from social issues: since the days of N.W.A and Public Enemy, rappers and MCs have been speaking out against police brutality and the American criminal justice system’s dire need […]
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These are troubling times for America. With a pivotal presidential election looming and the current momentum of the Black Lives Matter movement, the country is in turmoil as politics takes control. Every day, videos of police brutality and racism are shared onto the social media sites that have become the main source of information for […]
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The Medical Sciences department announced on Twitter that it was the 4th year student Rebecca te Water Naude that helped a man safely exit a train on the 28th of March when his Parkinson’s medication failed. David Murray, Patient Advocate and Trustee of the Cure Parkinson’s Trust had taken to Twitter to ask for help […]
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Image Credit: Twitter Last week, a news story caused shockwaves on Twitter, titled ‘Cambridge students reject Remembrance Day’. That’s just one article, but if you Google it, you’ll see about seven with near-identical wording, all from moderate to far-right-wing papers. Here’s the thing, though. This phrasing is extremely misleading. So what actually happened? A group of […]
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Image Credit: Tom Gould. Description: St Cross College. Please note that this article contains explicit discussion of transphobic statements and images. Professor of Sociology and Fellow of St Cross College Michael Biggs has been posting transphobic statements online under the Twitter handle @MrHenryWimbush, The Oxford Student can reveal. The Twitter account, named Henry Wimbush and […]
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A recent Twitter challenge to “describe yourself like a male author would” has gone viral, with women satirising the sexual objectification and tired clichés found in much of contemporary fiction. The challenge was instigated by Whitney Reynolds (media personality and television talk show host) in response to a tweet from Gwen C. Katz, who had […]
Continue ReadingDonald Trump’s presidential campaign violated every norm and principle that we have come to take as law over the past century in politics. While commentators have spoken for decades about the Republicans’ need to form a broad-church in their electoral base, Trump went out of his way to mock, insult and offend the vast majority […]
Continue Reading“fuck “jokes”. everything i tweet is real. raw insight without the horse shit. no, i will NOT follow trolls. twitter dot com. i live for this” Such is the manifesto of the Twitter user known only as Dril (wint to his friends). An anonymous surrealist comedian, his first tweet was in 2008: the simple word […]
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An investigation into Twitter activity during one of the televised US presidential debates has shown that Republican candidate Donald J. Trump’s support was boosted by support from automated ‘bots’. Although he would still have received more supportive tweets than rival Hillary Clinton (Democrats), four times as many bots endorsed him than they did Clinton. Overall, […]
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A reflection on what a great year 2015 was for Nicki Minaj As the only female artist on Forbes’ list of The World’s Highest Paid Hip-Hop Acts 2015, and the most charted female rapper in the history of the Billboard 100, it cannot be denied that Nicki Minaj is a fighter. This time last year […]
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Jack Dorsey doesn’t speak unless he has something important to say. This advice rings loudly in my ears as I apprehensively climb the Union staircase to meet the technology entrepreneur dubbed the “two-hit wonder”. For a man who turned 38 this week, Jack Dorsey already boasts – although I get the feeling boasting is not […]
Continue ReadingAn Oxford student has successfully raised the £10,000 needed for her masters via crowd funding. Rachael Owhin launched the campaign, with the hashtag, #Oxford10000, in August. The aim was to raise £10,000 in 10 days so she could guarantee her masters degree in Oxford University.
Continue ReadingThe threshold between being open and oversharing is one we spend our whole lives navigating. In nursery toilet training boasts might get you a sticker, but by Reception no one wants to hear it. Your Grandma loved hearing about your university offers, but don’t believe the Facebook likes – everyone else wishes you’d kept […]
Continue ReadingA storm erupted in the Twittersphere this weekend, after a bitter ex-employee abused The Turf Tavern’s online reputation. A picture of a novelty beer glass resembling a woman’s breasts was posted by The Turf Tavern Facebook page, with the message, “New branded glasswear (sic) coming soon!” Owing to the relatively few people who have ‘liked’ […]
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