Canta (magazine)

Canta

Cover of Canta magazine 16 Jul 2014
Editor	Joshua Brosnahan
Former editors	Liam Donnelly
Frequency	Fortnightly during term time
Year founded	1930
Company	University of Canterbury Students' Association
Based in	Christchurch, New Zealand
Website	canta.co.nz

Canta (stylised CANTA) is the official magazine of the University of Canterbury Students' Association (UCSA) of the University of Canterbury, established in 1930.

The magazine generally features a light-hearted tone, with an emphasis on short, image-heavy articles.

Canta is a member of the Aotearoa Student Press Association (ASPA) and the New Zealand Press Council.

Previous issues are archived and freely available in electronic form on the website of the National Library of New Zealand.

Canta is freely available around The University of Canterbury campus every second Monday in term time. It is 32 pages long. Its editor is Joshua Brosnahan and deputy editor is Wajd El-Matary. There are over 30 regular contributors.

There are a variety of sections which typically appear in every issue. These include:

In 1996, the Canta editors Steven Fleming and Creon Upton were removed after publishing a range of controversial articles including a Mel Brooks Nazi parody, a column purporting to have been written by Michael Jackson, a mock Tintin comic strip, and a list of student criminal offenders (a hoax). The editors claimed at the time that their sacking was more a result of their poor relationship with the university’s student executive council than anything else. An employment tribunal later found in favour of the sacked editors resulting in a substantial payout from the student executive.

Canta was again involved in controversy following the publishing of an article entitled "The Completely Unofficial Top 13 Ways of Cheating" in the issue preceding midterm exams in June, 2007. New Zealand newspaper The Press and internet news service Stuff published an article which was reported on by 3 News. The university announced it was introducing a random seating policy in exams following the attention. Canterbury University Students' Association president Belinda Bundy said the article was not meant to be taken seriously. "I think we only ever saw it as a humorous thing, It was just a light-hearted reaction to all the cheating issues that have been raised recently."