Last spring, a group of students chartered Sunday News to draw attention to information not covered by mainstream media. Late night debates and discussions on Turck Four inspired the formation of the organization, largely propelled by Kalle Dahlquist '04.
The name of the organization, Sunday News, does not refer to their meeting day (they meet on all days of the week); rather, it is an allusion to the "small references deep in the Sunday newspapers about things going on in the world," Dahlquist said. The goal of Sunday News is to draw upon the accumulated knowledge and different interests at Macalester to create a forum for in depth analysis of issues, like child trafficking, as well as case studies of specific countries, such as their past presentations on Burma and Sudan.
As a group, Sunday News has a core membership of about 10 people, but their presentations attract an average of 25 people. There are two parts to the structure of Sunday News. The backbone of the organization is this core of about 10 regular members who act as a facilitating body and help participants with research. The second part of the organization includes the members of the community who participates through attending presentations and engaging in discussion. All meetings, both those to plan and research a presentation, and the event itself are open to anyone that is interested. "We love people to come and engage at any level they can-whether it is to listen or actively research," said secretary Anneli Terry '04.
Sunday News tries to create a space for sharing collective wisdom. The presentations aim at counteracting the way that stories are presented in mainstream media. These presentations focus on explaining the historical, geopolitical, social, religious and cultural context in order to further understanding about the issue. Additionally, in their research and presentations, Sunday News strives to be broad and unbiased and use different types of media.
Presentations also aim to bring discussion beyond ideology and into the realm of fact. They hope that this will allow themselves and others to build a knowledge base that leads to intellectual arguments with a factual background. "We are not an activist group, we just try to create a forum for information and it is up to people to do with the knowledge what they will-it is up to individuals to make that choice," Dahlquist said.
Sunday News events generally consist of both a presentation, sometimes given by people with first-hand experience, and a discussion where the audience can bring their information into the dialogue. Recently, Sunday News sponsored a forum on the five decade-long Civil War in Sudan. Of the five presenters, three had personal experience with the subject.
Sunday News is currently putting together presentations on women in Bangladesh and the Gothenburg demonstrations at the European Summit this summer. Presently, they are interested in engaging seniors writing honors theses in hopes of using them as a resource with other students who share their interest. Sunday News also contributes an international news story to The Mac Weekly's World News Roundup every week and their presentations can be found in the calendar events listings.
