In Montreal, weekly alternatives such as The Hour and The Mirror are popular venues for local information on cultural events and happenings. But if the popularity of these newspapers were solely based on timely and up-to-date information then there should be no problem in translating them into electronic form. Forms which should, theoretically, offer these services in an easier and faster way. So if local information is not the sole reason for the use of these magazines then other factors must be contributing to their popularity.
One of these may be in how they are distributed. Of course, these newspapers are free and readily available but I think it would be prudent to only look at them as commodities. Instead, their whole raison d’être is that they cover the local scenes; be they music, politics, news, fashion or even sex. These newspapers are not only ‘out there’ covering these scenes but are apart of it; physically. One of the attractions of The Mirror or The Hour is that if you have a sudden urge to see a film you can easily find a copy at any laudrymat, bar, music store, café or even the theatre itself to find all the current listings and even reviews.
What is more, there is a certain poetics or aesthetics associated with these media forms. Reading a newspaper in a public place still retains a kind of intellectual prestige but there is a quality to these types of free and alternative newspapers where each copy is itself of indeterminate ownership. You can find one on the subway or left on a café table, read it, even tear an article or advertisement from its pages and leave it for another reader. Each copy is ephemeral and exists in a space inside and around the culture in which it is describes; it is easily accessible and accessible at almost any time of day. And despite the fact that these weeklies cater to subcultures who would consider themselves ‘cyber-friendly,’ there is a certain pleasure in the antiquated technology of these newspapers; from the low quality printing of images to the ink covered fingers you get when reading them… and even the fact that they are delivered on Thursdays and you sometimes can, when walking through the streets of Montreal, see the delivery truck filling the empty receptacles with the new edition.
An interesting example of the ‘on the street’ existence of these weeklies and the inclusion of what could be called ‘local expression’ is the Mirror’s column, “The Rant Line.” Edited by Al South, this column features the ‘rants’ made by fax or phone to 271-rant. What is interesting about this column is how it combines many different types of communications technology and combines them into one column; telephone, fax, an answering machine, then the technology of print newspapers. The subject matter of the rants contains everything imaginable; someone masturbating, people pissed-off at a local producer or promoter, opinion about local bands or concerts or the lack of mushrooms in the city, or people just responding to past ‘ranters.’
The column has a very local flavour and contains much in the way of those individuals who populate the local scenes. Despite the animosity between some of the local subcultures (hip hop ranting over the way punks dress) there is at times a feeling of community expressed in the column (the Oct. 23, 1997 issue featured a caller who wanted to share a particularly ‘mind-blowing’ passage from Fritjov Capra’s the Tao of Physics).
One may wonder if this column could be successfully moved to an online publication. I suspect that it could if it retained some of the constraints of the print-based technology used in its current form in The Mirror. The fact that it is edited would have to be taken into consideration. The editor, Al South, not only edits the column because of space restrictions but also add commentary, editorial opinions, explanations and sometimes groups the ‘rants’ into related themes. Obviously, this would rule out a simple fill-out form on the web.
What is most interesting about “The Rant Line” is that it creates a dialogue for readers to communicate with one another. This, in itself, is not so uncommon. But the fact that this dialogue persists in a newspaper and sometimes across many weeks is noteworthy and lends a certain quality to the column. A reader must have knowledge and memory of rants from the past week since in any given column a few of the ‘rants’ may reference something said one or two weeks previous. This dialogue, then, exists across time and the fact that the newspaper is only printed weekly and is edited makes the column more dependent on this time-constraint. However, this constraint of the medium works and is, I think, integral to the feel of the column.
Each week, the editor gives suggestions for themes or topics of the next week’s rant (i.e. Next week: Goths, you have been summoned. Especially you, Goth Girl). Again, the time-constraint is integral to the discussion — potential respondents have a deadline of under a week to make their opinion known — a week to come up with something good to say. And here, I think, the deadline and the weekly duration between printing is integral. I am not sure if the column would be as popular if it was updated daily or even every hour. There is some excitement in knowing that the responses will all come at once and only once per week. Especially when there are ‘hot’ or contentious topics there is a strange kind of pleasure in having to wait until Thursday to read the next series of replies.
In a variety of ways, time seems to be integral to how these magazines and newspapers work and feel. That is, how time is either manipulated or constrained for whatever reason (conscious manipulation on the part of the editor or constraints due to the production and distribution process). Certainly, online newspapers or CD-ROM magazines will find their niche and their audience. But first they will have to consider what it is that make these formats popular and what possibilities and constraints there are in the new media.
© 1997, David Clearwater, McGill