Column Vincent Oostvogels: Promotional magazine

Have you read the latest Jester? You know, the student magazine that was set up a few years ago to offer an alternative angle to that of Resource. It recently landed on the doormat in our student flat. In a full-page article, it explained how Resource had become an uncritical promotional magazine for WUR – at least, in their eyes.

I am familiar with the narrative that Resource is not critical enough towards WUR, but the story in The Jester was largely new to me. It said that in 2008, Resource was in turmoil. The WUR Board was often unhappy with what was written and at one point even threatened legal action against a Resource columnist. Eventually, Resource – which had previously been published by an independent publisher – was incorporated into the Corporate Communications department at WUR and a new editorial statute was drawn up. The Jester quotes from it that Resource’s ‘journalistic work cannot be distanced from the interests of Wageningen UR as a whole’ and that Resource is ‘part of WUR’s communication strategy’.

As a columnist writing from the sidelines, I have never experienced any limitations myself

It is quite difficult to find out exactly what was going on at the time, but it’s easy to download that editorial statute. I read it and I was really a bit shocked. Yes, it does also state that Resource serves as a ‘forum for the diversity of opinions within Wageningen UR and as a platform for debate’. But overall, the document reads like that of a company that wants to control the content of its ‘corporate magazine’.

Now you may say: there is nothing wrong with that. Resource is simply a corporate magazine. WUR pays, so it is logical that WUR has something to say about the content. Or you might say: it won’t be that bad in practice. As a columnist writing from the sidelines, I have never experienced any restrictions; perhaps the same applies to the editors.

Nevertheless, The Jester is starting a relevant conversation here. And one that concerns us all. Because what are ‘the interests of the university as a whole’?  Sure, the communications department may have certain interests. But one thing is certain: these are not automatically the interests of students and staff too.

Vincent Oostvogels (25) is in the first year of his PhD research on biodiversity restoration in dairy farming. He dreams of being able to keep a few cows himself one day.

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