Pulse, a student magazine at UTRGV, has launched a website, utrgvpulse.com, where it is posting monthly content.
The idea for the website, which was launched on Sept. 28, came from Faculty Adviser and Communication Associate Professor Aje-Ori Agbese and Erik Webster, a mass communication junior who serves as Pulse’s photo and video editor. The purpose of the website is to allow Pulse to post regularly for readers.
“We are going to try to get the university and the students more involved with the magazine and we figured a monthly online edition, that’s a little smaller, would be really cool,” Webster said. “The great thing about online is this capability to do video. With the magazine, we can only do pictures and words. So, right now there is a big push for us to include a lot of video.”
The videos are going to include Q&A’s and reviews of restaurants and cafes.
“For immediate accessibility to the student, it’s online,” Webster said. “We know that everybody nowadays is on their phone–Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, so we wanted to make a platform that was easy for students to access just from their phone.”
Agbese explained her role as a faculty adviser for Pulse.
“My role as the adviser for Pulse magazine is to ensure that the students get to do their job well and enjoy doing it and learn what they can,” she said.
Asked about the new website, Agbese replied, “Well, if you think about it, going online these days is extremely valuable for mass communication. It allows you to reach more people. And considering the fact that not too many people like to pick up a magazine and read it, but they like going online because it is interactive. [Going online] would be the best way to go.”
Mass communication senior Sage Bazan is the editor-in-chief of Pulse. She described herself as the person who makes sure the “ship doesn’t sink” at the magazine.
“We felt like there was a really big disconnect between a lot of the students and faculty and staff on campus and Pulse magazine,” Bazan said. “A lot of the other student media is more prominent, because they do things on a regular basis.”
The print edition of Pulse is published annually in the spring.
Bazan said the reason Pulse is publishing monthly online rather than printing, is economic.
She said she wants more student engagement for Pulse.
“Pulse is very student friendly, so anybody who wants to contribute anything to Pulse, we always take it, literally any photography, graphic work, writing, just come to us and we will sit down and look at your work with you,” Bazan said. “About 90 percent of the time we take it. We’re really looking for a bigger student involvement, and that’s what we hope to get with this online magazine.”
Pulse reader and English senior Andrea Navarro attended the website launch, held outside the University Library on the Edinburg campus.
“As a student, I always want to know what’s going on, especially current things that might affect me, might affect my other fellow students,” Navarro said.
She believes this website will increase Pulse’s readership.
“Having a website offers a lot more diversity, a lot more content, to able to be shared, and generally more feedback from everybody else. … Anyone can see it and anyone can comment,” Navarro said.
For more information or submission inquiries, email Pulse at pulse.magazine@utrgv.edu.
