Join the University of Vermont Center for Community News for a free community journalism lecture.

As the number of full-time statehouse reporters has decreased, student reporters in University/College led programs are stepping in to fill the gap and provide high-quality experiential learning for the students. Here we hear from four of those programs; Colleen Steffen with Indiana’s Statehouse Files, Alex Bryan-Campos with VCUs Capitol News Service, Chris Drew with LSU’s statehouse news bureau, and Rafael Lorente with Maryland’s Capitol News Service. For more details see the case studies here. The panel is moderated by Kathleen McElroy of UT’s Moody School of Communication in Austin.

Join the University of Vermont Center for Community News for a free community journalism lecture.

More than 100 colleges and universities are coordinating programs to provide local reporting. In this panel, Lara Salahi, of Endicott College, and Christina Smith, of Georgia College will discuss their research on these collaborations. Salahi, an award-winning journalist, started a partnership at Endicott College and Smith worked for 13 years as a community newspaper reporter and is now a weekly newspaper scholar. Also joining Salahi and Smith is Meg Heckman, from Northeastern University, the founder of a local media initiative and a fellow scholar, and Mark Berkey-Gerard, from Rowan University, who has identified more than a hundred news-academic collaborations partnerships in the U.S. and conducted surveys and interviews on key benefits and challenges. Christina Smith will moderate.