13.8 billion years ago there was light.  Then there was dark.  Then there was Jerk.

Jerk Magazine is the premier student-run magazine at Syracuse University. The first of its kind, Jerk has set an unparalleled standard for campus magazines since its founding in 2003. In its efforts to jerk people out of their apathy, it has established a distinctive voice that is passionate and uncompromising. Jerk confronts controversial political and social issues that affect the student body and the community that they live and work in. In support of greater Syracuse subculture, we provide a platform for alternative opinion and support local endeavors in music and the arts. Jerk aims to increase student knowledge and activism, diversify campus dialogue and encourage a relationship between SU students and the Syracuse community.

Through this fresh editorial and artistic style, it has broken away from the typical material found elsewhere and produced award-winning content that brings the media at Syracuse University to new heights.

Our history 

Jerk Magazine was the product of five creative minds and an overwhelming frustration with Syracuse University student media.

The founders saw a need for a consistent monthly magazine that would attack the high level of apathy on campus, educate SU students about the community they lived in, provide encouragement for those working to improve life both on- and off-campus, and provide student readers with an alternative to the daily news. They decided that they needed to assess their resources and start a publication of their own.

From the very beginning Jerk has worked for mature and investigative coverage of Syracuse subculture: the hazards of trans fat, underground wrestling communities, life as a transgender student, and bands struggling for a stake in the local Syracuse scene.  Since its somewhat dubious inception, Jerk Magazine has improved organization and increased page count, circulation, and staff size with each successive semester.