By Karl Smith | Falcon Media Manager
You want the cliche lead? Here goes – It’s the best of times, it’s the worst of times.
How about something more straightforward? Try this – student media may be facing a watershed moment.
No matter how you start the story, it unfolds in this way – student journalists are producing some of the most important work ever but the very platforms they use are under siege, all at a time when their developing skills are sorely needed across the country.
Let’s start with the good news.
We’ve seen high school students help CNN break a story (this involves a pay phone, for those who love old school journalism) while at Northwestern University, it was student journalists who uncovered the hazing that ended Pat Fitzgerald’s tenure as head football coach. On the West Coast, student journalists at Stanford broke a story that ultimately led the school president’s resignation.
Amazing times for student journalists, right? Unfortunately, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows.
Of course, there are always going to be the day-to-day challenges, like Michigan State denying student journalists access to an important community event. That sort of thing is expected. Battling those sorts of roadblocks is just the cost of doing business as a journalist.
However, news Penn State eliminated all funding – all funding – for the highly regarded Daily Collegian by 2024 hit in a much more profound way.
I presented a TEDxTalk recently about the importance of student media and how it could help alleviate local news deserts. It touches on ways big and small where college journalists have a positive impact on local communities through strong coverage.
From providing a smattering of stories to providing wall-to-wall coverage on state legislative sessions, student journalists are filling voids left by the gutting of local newsrooms across the country.
The hope would be those models could grow in other spots across the country. But with news like that coming out of Penn State, maybe the question is, is college media doomed to the same fate as other local news outlets?
At BGSU, we continue to employ a model that mixes university funding (a combination of a student media fee and an allocation through general student fees) and revenue-generating efforts, largely advertising and sponsorships. This is all supplemented, of course, by the Fund for the BG News, which provides support for all facets of Falcon Media.
As we continue to build Falcon Media and equip our student journalists to do more meaningful work, we recognize that, like the “real” media world, funding will always be a critical component and one we can’t take for granted. As Penn State students learned, that dynamic can change without notice, which is why one of the primary missions for those of Falcon Media’s permanent staff is to enhance existing revenue streams while building new ones.
It’s not all gloom and doom, of course. We continue to improve our financial health here at Falcon Media and across the state, the folks at Ohio University continue to build on a 2021 reinvestment in student media.
The reinvigoration of Falcon Media continues as we seek to make an ongoing impact on our community while helping create the next generation of journalists, all while continuing to strengthen our financial model.
And if you want another cliche to end this piece, well, to be continued.
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Here’s another person’s perspective on how college journalists could help save America’s newspapers: