Redeploy Journalism Students to Support Local News

In the span of a week, over spring break, Damon Kiesow and Kathy Kiely, faculty members at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, hurriedly reformulated their project-based capstone course. Their students were working with partners like BuzzFeed and the Associated Press to develop, for example, public-event strategies.

But as the coronavirus outbreak worsened, Kiesow and Kiely realized that the priorities of such national news organizations were going to shift, and the information needs of local communities were going to become urgent. The professors also started hearing from juniors and seniors that internship and job offers were disappearing and that local news outlets were furloughing workers. So they devised a new plan for the capstone course: organize students into teams to cover four regions of the state, working collaboratively with newspapers to serve local communities.

The Mizzou students are spending the remainder of the semester learning what information readers need and coordinating with editors to fill news gaps. The students have researched topics like the latest school schedules, where to find testing sites, and local supermarkets’ distancing protocols.

The journalism school and the Missouri Press Association are going to offer as many as 10 fellowships for students to continue such work this summer, says Kiesow, thanks to funding from the Walter B. Potter Fund for Innovation in Local Journalism. Fellows will receive stipends of $5,000, which may help some make up for lost opportunities. “We want to give them a bridge from graduation into August,” Kiesow says, “to give them a chance to find their feet, hopefully.”

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