28 word on the street It took a module on magazines and the ‘introduction to a whole new world’ to convince journalism student Chris Opoku to start her own magazine. ‘The Chritical’ launched in January 2022, and the first issue – perhaps aptly named ‘Epiphany’ – was published in May. Here, Chris talks to editor Jo about the importance of and need for a publication the encourages diverse opinions Jo Cummings: What inspired ‘The Chritical’? Chris Opoku: When I was younger, I changed my political stance depending on what media I was consuming. I noticed that whenever I expressed disagreement, people would say, “You’re supposed to be with us, not against us.” But I never thought I was ‘with’ anybody – I’m myself, with my own integrity, morals and values. It was then that I realised there was a lack of magazines with no obvious sociopolitical agenda. So I set up The Chritical as independent. That helps us create a mixture of opinions and understanding. The Chritical is a place to explore nuances and differences, regardless of the label that people want to put on you. You’re a human being, and you should be free to disagree and think differently without being attacked. Nuance? That’s something that seems to be lacking on social media platforms in particular… Regardless of what you think, your background, your age, it is so important to have freedom of speech, and critical thinking. My team is made up of very different people, people who you’d never think could be friends. But they’re having respectful conversations, understanding that it’s okay to disagree, that opinions are not always black and white, that it’s important to have healthy conversations and reach a compromise. How can we work with each other, instead of tearing each other down? When you understand somebody’s perspective, that does not mean you’re agreeing – you are putting yourself in their shoes and respecting them. You have almost 30 people working on the magazine – how did you pull this team together? I’m on a multimedia journalism course, so had a few friends interested in magazines who are now section editors. For the remaining contributors, I created a promotional poster on Instagram and started a forum for contributors to fill in their details. I asked every single one of them for their strongest political opinion to make sure I was getting variety. We try and avoid any bias, and that starts with the writers themselves when they’re pitching. Whether you’re a liberal or a conservative, the most important thing is: are you able to compromise? Are you able to write in a way that doesn’t directly offend or insult a group of people? I think one of the LET’S GET CHRITICAL NEW MAG WATCH
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