The Independent is an alternative news publication to Stony Brook's oldest campus paper, The Statesman (Stony Brook), while differentiating itself from the more established alternative campus publication, the Stony Brook Press, by focusing more specifically on hard news content, as well as taking advantage of its web-based identity to integrate extensive audiovisual content into its articles, including audio and video clips, photography, artwork and complementary external content from such sources as Youtube.
