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Inside Higher Ed
Reporting Their History While Living It
Student journalists are continuing to cover their colleges and
surrounding communities even though the coronavirus pandemic has pushed
them off campus. They say their work is needed now more than ever.
By Greta Anderson
March 24, 2020
When the University of Maryland’s student-run newspaper, The
Diamondback, published its last print edition on March 9, the front
page read, “It’s Not Goodbye, It’s See You Online.”
The Diamondback staff had no idea how much weight those words would
carry about a week later, when colleges across the U.S. hurriedly moved
to online instruction in response to the coronavirus pandemic and
several campus newspapers decided to halt their print editions, said
Leah Brennan, The Diamondback’s editor in chief.
Maryland’s paper of record had decided to move to exclusively digital
reporting months earlier, but the final front page “ended up ringing
really true” to the experiences of the thousands of students displaced
by the spread of COVID-19, which has quickly become the biggest news
story of their lives to date, Brennan said.
“People are trusting us for those updates and looking to us for
guidance during this time,” Brennan said. “We are student journalists …
This all-encompassing team effort really hasn’t ceased. When all this
is changing, people are still devoted to this job.”
Student publications are producing “enormously important” work during
the pandemic, telling the stories of young people whose lives have been
completely upended, even more so than some adults’ lives, said Hadar
Harris, executive director of the Student Press Law Center, or SPLC.
They are covering the pandemic in ways that go well beyond the number
of people sickened, she said.
“This is going to be a framing narrative of their youth,” Harris said.
“Being able to report this transition of our society from the
perspective of a young person is very crucial.”
Though they and their peers have largely left their campuses, student
journalists are continuing to work remotely and provide a valuable
service to their communities, Harris said. They’re holding staff
meetings over Zoom, Google Hangout and other videoconferencing
technology to discuss story ideas and plan coverage, which now almost
entirely consists of coronavirus stories, said Benjy Renton, editor at
large for The Middlebury Campus at Middlebury College, which suspended
its weekly print edition as the Vermont college moves to remote
instruction for the remainder of the semester.
As student journalists across the United States entered “uncharted
territory,” Renton crowdsourced the approaches of different college
publications and started a nationwide webinar for student editors and
writers to share tips and coping strategies for covering the pandemic,
he said. Sixty-five student journalists were on the first Zoom call on
March 18 to discuss how to cover empty campuses remotely, new methods
of reader engagement and the mental health of staff members.
“A lot of us, especially when these announcements on college campuses
came, it was hard to continue reporting when you had to leave
yourself,” Renton said. "It made me feel better and others feel better
that we’re kind of all in the same boat … I wish it didn’t take a
pandemic for us to come together, but I’m really glad we have this
community of writers and editors to bounce ideas off each other."
Renton said he is planning future sessions and has heard from more
student journalists wanting to join the conversation and approach the
unique journalistic challenges they're facing together. Being part of a
campus publication can offer consistency for students amid the
uncertainties institutions are facing, as well as social engagement and
friendship, Brennan said.
For some students, “it’s what they need to get by,” said Katina Paron,
a journalism professor at Hunter College in New York. Paron is the
editor for Dateline: CUNY, a website that curates the best student
journalism from throughout the City University of New York system.
“What you’re feeling, take that and the anxiety can be used to produce
this piece of journalism,” Paron said. “It’s a great educational
opportunity right now … in terms of dealing with how to find a source
when you can’t knock on their door, to dealing with a health crisis, to
understanding your own emotions and feelings and motivations behind
stories.”
It’s also an opportunity to connect and get input from readers while
website traffic is flourishing, Renton said. The Campus and the CU
Independent at the University of Colorado at Boulder are two student
publications among many that have created online forms for readers to
share thoughts and questions about the impact of the coronavirus
pandemic. The Campus is also planning to host virtual forums to engage
students, faculty and staff members, Renton said.
“I definitely think we’re needed now more than ever, both as a way to
get the information out but [also] as a community forum,” Renton said.
“The paper brings a lot of people together, especially now, when we’re
isolated everywhere.”
The need for student journalism is evident in the spike in online
readers that publications have seen when comparing website traffic
before and after coronavirus became a public health crisis, said Robert
Tann, editor in chief of the CU Independent. The publication has seen
four times the amount of daily site traffic in the last two weeks than
in the previous month, Tann said. The Campus readership is up 70
percent compared to last month, said Amelia Pollard, the publication’s
digital director.
“That’s one good thing to come out of this,” Tann said. “We’re proving
why student journalism and student outlets like the CUI are so vital
and important because we do serve a community purpose.”
College journalists will also begin to be recognized on a weekly basis
by the Society of Professional Journalists and the Associated
Collegiate Press, which announced on March 23 that they would sponsor a
weekly awards program for exemplary coronavirus coverage. Winners will
get an SPJ membership and social media shout-out, according to the
contest’s rules. The idea is to bring student journalists who are in
isolation together in collaboration, said Laura Widmer, executive
director of ACP, in a statement.
“We know college journalists are doing exceptional work while being
kept out of their newsrooms,” Widmer said. “This award will recognize
the great coverage student journalists are providing weekly to their
audiences during this tumultuous time.”
Brennan, the Diamondback editor, said her mind has not been on her
staff winning awards during the most impactful event of their young
careers, but on their role as a resource for the local community served
by the publication. The CUI’s work has been so “in the moment” that
there’s not much time to think beyond producing “clear, accurate and
informative” stories, Tann said.
“I’m focused on the here and now and using this as an opportunity to
test myself,” Tann said. “It’s definitely the greatest challenge that
I’ve faced as a journalist, but I’m here for it and want to step up to
the plate. I’m sure a lot of journalists are feeling that we want to do
what we can in this moment of history.”
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