Madeline Pinney, a second-year student studying integrated media, created an alternative media outlet called "Jettison."
Many Ohio University freshmen studying journalism look into different student publications, choose one and start creating content.
Madeline Pinney had looked into student publications but instead of just creating content, she created her own publication.
Pinney, a second-year student studying integrated media, created Jettison, a publication that has evolved with different topics and platforms since its founding.
“I came to OU as a journalism major, and I needed to get involved,” she said. “But I just didn’t feel like any of the magazines or newspapers on campus really jived with me. ... I’m not interested in news reporting, and I wanted to start to cover what was happening off campus, like, as far as the subcultures.”
Pinney, who is from North Canton, said she spoke with Bob Benz, a Scripps Howard visiting professional, and they worked together as part of an independent study to create a magazine from scratch.
Pinney added that originally she and co-founder Marc Blanc, a sophomore studying English, wanted to to be “extremely subversive and drop the conventions of traditional media.”
“We were really disillusioned by how journalism can sometimes perpetuate the status quo, so we wanted to actively fight against that and be a voice for the activist organizations on campus,” she said. “Then we kind of started going more with the grain, and now we just stay in arts and culture, but we wanted to originally subvert everything it meant to be a journalistic media organization.”
Jettison has a website with rolling content and a fluctuating staff of three to 10 content creators, Pinney said. The publication also will publish a book next week with a variety of work ranging from poetry to comics.
“The theme (of the book) is the Internet,” she said. “It’s kinda funny because it’s a book about the Internet. ... We just gave a bunch of different thinkers and creators this prompt of: ‘What does the Internet mean?’ ”
Pinney said Jettison soon will change its focus again.
“When I’m running this, what I’m trying to do is to make this be the most innovative and (discover) how can we integrate media in the best way,” she said. “I’m trying to make something that’s almost exclusively video content and interactive design.”
Pinney added that she wants to work with students studying visual communication and media arts on videos, as well as virtual reality videos.
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“I find myself all the time clicking on articles and then never reading through them,” she said. “Why would we spend all of our time and energy to be read by only a couple hundred people? But if you really utilize the ability of social media and video you’re asking less of people, but you're still able to give them your information and what you have to say.”
Pinney said she always has been interested in media and the effect it has on society.
“I also think there is so much you can do with it, especially now in the Internet age,” she said. “It’s so cool.”
Pinney, who graduates in 2017, said she wants to continue working in media in content strategy, editorial direction, production management or media research.
“This is such a crucial time where it’s just cracking open a world of possibilities if you’re just willing to think outside the box,” she said. “I just think it’s really exciting, but I also think it’s necessary for everyone in the media business to be extremely critical of what media does to society.”
@M_PECKable
mp172114@ohio.edu
