Do they make t-shirts? The Liger News Network logo is fast becoming a symbol for epic satire! Photo Courtesy of Liger News Network Instagram. Did we ask permission to use it? Nope. Sue us, Mr. Meyers. You croc wearing satirical genius.
As conversations about San Luis Obispo High School’s unique school culture grows among students, a group of juniors has launched an unofficial satirical news page on Instagram: Liger News Network. Inspired by parody outlets like The Onion, the account shares humorous takes on school life through fictional headlines and creative graphics. The creators emphasize that it’s all in good fun and never meant to put the school down.
Expressions spoke with the student editors behind the account to learn more.
Expressions: How did Liger News Network form?
Junior Mason Cortez: A group of us decided we wanted to take more freedom. Me, Bob, Carlos and Tyler decided we wanted to express our feelings about SLOHS more through a nonconnected organization, intended to entertain people while also conveying some of our own opinions about the school.
Junior Bob Meyers: Me and my friend Carlos were watching The Onion, and we just thought, what if we made our own version of The Onion, but with local news? And then we just kind of did it.
Junior Tyler Gerbel: I don’t know much about how it was made. All I know is my friends needed graphic design work for making the logo and the way the posts look. So I just helped them out with that. I don’t really know how it started.
Expressions: What is your position in Liger News Network?
Cortez: I am one of the article editors. I help come up with headlines for news articles, sometimes I’ll write them, but my main goal is to help create humorous headlines.
Meyers: I don’t know if we really have positions. I guess I could be seen as the overseer? I view all the articles, make sure they’re alright to post. But if anyone else, wants to veto other ideas, or if they really are passionate about their ideas, I won’t stop them. We’re all pretty equal.
Gerbel: I make the logos, I do the graphic design.
Expressions: What are the plans for the future of Liger News Network?
Cortez: We plan to grow our audience and followers on our posts by drawing more connections and first end societal relevance towards current events and activities going on… we can attempt to build a bigger audience in order to spread more awareness about our opinions of what’s going on at campus daily.
Meyers: Honestly, probably just more of what we’re doing now. We’re just going to keep posting, hopefully daily, and hope we can continue it for as long as we want.
Gerbel: I’m not too sure. I just kind of do the branding.
Tigers, if you are interested in these unofficial satirical articles, follow Liger News Network on Instagram!
