One must only walk through any college campus to grasp the tremendous importance that music plays in the lives of American college students, as evidenced by the ubiquity of ear buds and iPods. Student-run college radio has historically played a part in that relationship.

The College Music Journal was started by a student in 1980 to cover what was being played on college radio stations. In 1994, the journal went online.

“Major commercial outlets review the same things all over,” said Steve Ciabattoni, a 19-year music industry veteran and editor of CMJ New Music Monthly.

“Our focus has been to cover bands that don’t get that sort of coverage,” he said. “We know that there’s an underserved cultural community and artistic community, and we know that there’s an appetite and market for it as well.”

CMJ speaks to those interested in new alternative music and averages 200,000 hits monthly. But according to the site, that number reaches 2 million when CMJ holds its annual Music Marathon, where various bands perform at clubs throughout New York City and panels give attendees an opportunity to learn more about the music industry.

The site features album reviews of relatively unknown artists as well as daily music news. It also offers music charts such as the top Radio 200 and other charts from various genres of music.

According to Ciabattoni, college-aged kids are still demonstrating the same passion and drive for new music as they did when CMJ started cranking out issues.

“It’s really exciting to see that many people that interested in music and that excited to be a part of a medium where they can say something different than what’s being said,” he said. “There’s always something new to talk about.”

And with a lot of alternative stations fading out and turning into other types of stations, Ciabattoni noted that college stations play a vital role in the new music world.

“It’s even more important now that college stations are expressing themselves and are serving their community in a different sort of way,” he said.

Fark.com creator Drew Curtis began posting weird and humorous news articles on the Internet to amuse his friends in 1999. He said he had no idea that within six years, his modest website would explode into a monster success, currently averaging 1.8 million page views a day.

“I was just looking to entertain a few people,” said Curtis, a self-proclaimed “computer geek, athlete hybrid” from Kentucky.

Curtis no longer needs to search for amusing articles himself, as the site’s huge following of “Farkers” and “Farkettes” submit more than 1600 articles a day from various sources.

Administrators, including Curtis, hand pick 50 of the articles, or pieces of ‘Fark,’ and post the news links on the website, tagging each link with one of almost 40 topic tags, ranging from ‘asinine’ to ‘interesting.’ Readers are then able to post comments about the articles.

The website is characterized by Curtis’s quirky sense of humor, evident with the in-jokes, known as Farkisms, which regularly appear in the daily Fark.

With the top officials of the website readily accessible, and Fark Chats, Fark Personals Forum, and Fark Parties organized by Farkers nationwide, fans are an important part of the Fark.com community.

According to Curtis, Farkers are all ages and from an amazing array of professions. While Curtis noted that Fark.com appeals to people who are “generally smart and well informed,” he also mentioned that the website often attracts more cynical personalities.

“I think it appeals to people who feel a little disenfranchised by the establishment, … who have the general idea that everything in the world is pretty fucked up.”