Zoe Flood, Rachel O’Brien & Vishesh Srivastava

What links the founders of the Spectator, Louis Theroux, and the editor-in-chief of the Guardian? They were, of course, all Oxford students. By 2004, the university had long been producing journalists and powerful media figures. Arguably once the most powerful of all, Rupert Murdoch read PPE by the duck pond of Worcester College, with a bust of Lenin reportedly on his mantelpiece.

Yet twenty years ago we noticed a gap in Oxford’s multitude of student societies. They existed for chemistry and archaeology, for wine and European affairs. And there were several celebrated student publications. But there wasn’t, as we realised in a meandering and possibly pint-fuelled conversation one day, a society dedicated to exploring and examining the media.

“What links the founders of the Spectator, Louis Theroux, and the editor-in-chief of the Guardian? They were, of course, all Oxford students.“

With a shared passion for journalism fuelled by our time editing The Oxford Student newspaper, it was an industry we were hungry to work in – and find out more about. Having forged close friendships over front-page edits, powered by kebab van chips as late-night deadlines approached, we were also keen to collaborate on another project. Just preferably one that – unlike our previous roles as student editors – wouldn’t demand up to 60 hours a week of us and risk us failing our finals.

We decided to set up the Oxford Media Society – evoking ancient messenger gods with the rather grand secondary name ‘Talaris’ – as a way to learn and share more about the industry by hearing directly from the pros. In its first term, several high-profile journalists graciously found time to speak to a bunch of curious students – from the then head of Sky News Nick Pollard, who led our opening event at Modern Art Oxford, to the first woman presenter of the Today programme Libby Purves, who convinced us that radio is the greatest medium.

We had seriously limited funds but an eye for money-saving tactics: at one point Zoe drove Lindsey Hilsum to and from the station, which at least meant two fewer taxi bills to cover. Vish and Rachel negotiated hard with Majestic Wine for a bulk deal on their cheapest plonk (Cuvée Richard, for the record). We were very grateful to Paddy Coulter – the then Director of the Reuters Journalism Programme, which soon after transformed into the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism – who came on board as the founding senior member and all-round cheerleader, giving us invaluable guidance and support.

But still we doubt that we imagined the society would last more than a few years. So it’s a delight to see it thriving two decades later – even if the name ‘Talaris’ didn’t fly for long. Alongside the society, Zoe also founded The Oxford Forum, the university’s first student-run current affairs magazine, which we hope might yet see a sustainable second life.

Its ten issues had a readership of over 5,000 and contained some extraordinary journalism, with contributions fielded from both students and some wildly ambitious invitations (thank you, the Dalai Lama!). It also kick-started stellar journalistic careers, such as that of Pulitzer Prize winner James Ball. Perhaps this commemorative issue might inspire some future journalists to fully revive the magazine – once described by Tim Gardam, then principal of St Anne’s and former director of programming at Channel 4, as “far more readable than Prospect, with much more meat than The Spectator and less utilitarian than The Economist”. We’d like to subscribe!

As we ponder how the media landscape has changed, we can’t fail to notice a concurrent 20th anniversary – that of Facebook. After its initial launch at Harvard and then various Ivy League and Boston-area universities, the platform was rolled out to students at Oxford and Cambridge during our final year and in its brief iteration as [thefacebook] – when “poking” was apparently an appropriate way to flirt online. (Questionable dating site Oxford Romance or “OxRo” was possibly the only other way to do so at the time.) Given how Facebook has since exploded, shifting how the world works in some positive and many negative ways, it feels strange to think that we were among the first to have access after the original handful of US colleges.

“Vish and Rachel negotiated hard with Majestic Wine for a bulk deal on their cheapest plonk”

We feel somewhat liberated by the thought that we enjoyed most of our student years just before social media took off, when birds tweeted and clocks tik-tokked (sorry), and no one had camera phones to capture drunken nights out or had yet come up with the idea of a selfie. According to a BBC news article from 2004, our first society event discussed the future of the media, including “speed and technology versus the quality of journalism” – and how we wish we had a video of that talk to see what prescience, or lack of, it contained. We quite possibly had a sense of being on the cusp of change, but certainly couldn’t imagine how transformational the next 20 years would be for the media and the information landscape in general.

So transformational that when we discussed who had a window in their hectic schedules to draft this piece, our founding treasurer Katya Srivastava suggested, on WhatsApp, that we ask ChatGPT to do it for us to save time. As it was, we managed to cobble something together on Google Drive – which launched as Google Docs and Spreadsheets just after we graduated – with extra research on LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter) and ideas shared by VoiceNote, which we then transcribed using AI for speed. All of which would have been hard to imagine back when we were students.

Perhaps the most exciting press development during our university years was the Independent newspaper moving to tabloid format. Now the print version no longer exists. Social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok are the go-to news sources for 16- to 24-year-olds, according to Ofcom’s latest report on news consumption in the UK, with BBC One the only traditional media source to feature in the top five.

For all the broadening of access, the challenges are daunting – from the spread of false information to the influence of algorithm-generated echo chambers on political outcomes and much more. We are yet to fully comprehend the increasingly pervasive role and power of AI. Journalists also have bridges to build: the share of British people who trust news “somewhat” or “completely” has declined to under 40 percent, according to the Reuters Institute.

Fake news and misinformation have been buzzwords in recent times, but we were also complaining about bad journalism back in 2004 – and propaganda has been used to influence all sorts of outcomes since mass communication began. Some of the issues that may seem new are perhaps newly amplified – existing problems now fired up on technological performance enhancers.

We see reasons for optimism in our own careers. Rachel works for an international news agency that now has 120 journalists dedicated to investigating viral online content that is potentially harmful to the public. Despite our ever-shortening attention spans and appetite for ‘f**king tasty morsels’ (in the words of Succession’s Roman Roy), documentary filmmaker and long-form writer Zoe notes a hunger for in-depth coverage.

“Fake news and misinformation have been buzzwords in recent times, but we were also complaining about bad journalism back in 2004”

Amid turbulent times for the industry, the need for principled and tenacious journalists has never been stronger. People who are motivated by the importance of accurate and balanced reporting – and who are eager to pick up the skills and experience required to do it. The student media space offers an unrivalled opportunity to find out if you want to be among them.

But the Media Society was never just for aspiring journalists. Oxford has an unparalleled track record of producing world leaders, in politics, diplomacy and countless other fields. We hope that as it continues to provide a thoughtful space for critical but unjaded debate about the media, the society can encourage all students to consider what roles they might want to play as both news-makers and consumers.

We feel honoured to contribute to this special edition of the Oxford Forum and we hope to continue cheering on the society and magazine in coming decades. And, better still, we remain great friends to this day! How lucky we feel to have found fellow students with similar passions and energy – and with whom we still enjoy doing goofy Christmas photo shoots. This could be you in twenty years from now – although your snap might be taken by a tiny flying robot or some other unimaginable iteration of technology, rather than a soon-to-be old-fashioned selfie.