Written by Will Arnot

Photo: Pauline Loroy/Unsplash

River Online • 23rd February 2022

Kingston committing to a sustainable future

According to the latest data published in the People and Planet university league, KU is currently ranked 73rd of all UK universities, achieving a score of 44.8 per cent. While this is an improvement on the third class grade that Kingston received in 2015, it is still a disappointing rank overall.

Kingston has been passed by universities that once ranked far below it. Durham, for example, dramatically improved their rank by 60 places between 2020 and 2021, after the university was obviously dis

Photo: Eleven/Netflix/Kobal/Shutterstock

River Online • 18th February 2022

Stop writing closeted characters as bullies

It is time to end the tiresome trope of being hyper-masculine to hide your sexuality.

Too many times in the past it seems that any story involving LGBT+ characters still has to involve a character like this.

A prominent example of this is Adam Groff, portrayed by Connor Swindells in Netflix’s Sex Education.

In a tale as old as time, Groff is the school bully who is deeply closeted and takes his self-hatred out on people around him, eventually going on to fall in love with the person he bullie

Photo: Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/Shutterstock

The River • 11th February 2022

Spotify now getting the full Joe Rogan experience

The start of the year has been plagued with controversy for Spotify, with artists across the entire spectrum of music demanding their music be removed from the platform after it refused to condemn Rogan’s alleged COVID-19 misinformation.

Photo: Keystone/Zuma/Shutterstock

River Online • 2nd February 2022

Social Media the latest threat to Television's market share

Traditional television and streaming services are now competing with social media as the rise of TikTok has drawn eyeballs to smaller screens.

Owned by the Chinese company Bytedance, the short form video app has grown massively over the last 12 months, becoming the fastest social media platform to reach one billion monthly users worldwide.

This growth has ridden a wave of interest in consuming content online, with social media to become the go-to viewing platform for 4 to 34-year-olds within t

Photo: Scott Garfitt/AP/Shutterstock

The River • 26th November 2021

The name’s Bond, but who’s name is Bond?

By the time serial womaniser and suave super-spy James Bond takes to the silver screen again, he will be sporting an entirely new look. The ending of the franchise’s most recent incarnation saw a rather explosive end for the character under the tenure of Daniel Craig and has left many fans wondering where the series will go next.

Photo: Hayley Madden

River Online • 10th November 2021

KU's latest Pick up a Pen event focuses on mental wellbeing and poetry

Author and poet Cecilia Knapp, guided Kingston University students through creative poetic introspection at the latest Kingston ‘pick up a pen’ event.

The workshop focused on Knapp’s passion, poetry and was designed to elicit words that otherwise may remain unspoken. It brought a feeling of freedom, devoid of pressure.

The room was set up awkwardly, the short corridors of computers not conducive for flow. Knapp counteracted her environment by establishing a lack of hierarchy: “Just because I a

Photo: Nick Neal/I See You Ltd.

River Online • 16th October 2021

'We just want a place to call home': KU student frustrated by living in hotel rooms for two months

KU students are spending a second month living in hotel rooms after the university said that essential maintenance at 75 Penrhyn Road is still incomplete.

The students have now been living in Kingston’s Double Tree by Hilton Hotel since the beginning of September, and are unlikely to be able to move into 75 Penrhyn Road until the end of October, according to the university.

The issue, which is related to a fault in the building’s fire alarm system was brought to students’ attention in August,

Photo:James Gillham/Shutterstock

River Online • 13th October 2021

Toni Tone is right, Black voices need to be heard on more topics than just racism

In the midst of the celebration of culture that is Black History Month, it is important not to forget that there is still a long road ahead for true equality to be achieved.

Actress Toni Tone, one of the stars of the UK’s first all-black reality show, Channel 4’s Highlife, has rightfully come out and criticised the levels of representation for black voices and stories on British television. In an interview with Annabel Rackham for BBC Newsbeat, Tone stated that: “There’s so much black people ar