Catalyst (magazine)

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

This article is about the Australian publication. For the American publication, see Catalyst (journal).

Catalyst
Catalyst, issue 2 2016, front cover.
TypeStudent publication
FormatMagazine
Owner(s)RMIT University Student Union
EditorEllie Barclay, Tamara Clark and Chloe Karis
Founded1944 (1944)
LanguageEnglish
Websitermitcatalyst.com

Catalyst is published five times a year and had a readership of approximately 58,000 in 2009[1] - up from 15,000 in 2004.[2] 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 of The Australian and Elizabeth Gallagher.[1][3]

The first edition of Catalyst, published by what was known then as the Melbourne Technical College Students' Representative Council (later RMIT University Student Union), appeared on 18 May 1944. Editions have also appeared under the names Revolution Catalyst and The Unaustralian.

In 2014 Catalyst established its podcast Cataclysm[4] (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".[5] 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.[6]

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 September 2020, 804 issues covering the period 1944-2020 had been uploaded in the Library's digital collections.

Footnotes
  1. Catalyst homepage Retrieved 2010-04-17 Archived 29 October 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  2. Ng, John (January 2007). "Catalyst advertising rates, release dates" (PDF). RMIT Student Union. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 June 2007. Retrieved 16 August 2007.
  3. "About The Age". Archived from the original on 27 June 2012. Retrieved 16 August 2007.
  4. Development, PodBean. "Cataclysm: The Catalyst Podcast". cataclysm.podbean.com. Retrieved 14 February 2016.
  5. "Politics at the Belleville #10 | Nauru,... - Catalyst Magazine | Facebook". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 14 February 2016.
  6. "The Rabelais Case". Burning Issues. 21 August 1999. Archived from the original on 30 June 2006. Retrieved 16 August 2007.
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