By KAYLA DEMICCO
Opinions Editor
The Student Press Law Center (SPLC), along with the Freedom Forum Institute and the Newseum, have determined 2019 as the “Year of Student Journalism.” Even though that was last year, I see it as a stepping stool to empower the minds of student journalists all over. According to SPLC, the three main goals for last year were to “1. Raise awareness of the vital work and impact of student journalists as they report on their schools and communities (including the important role they play filling gaps in news deserts.) 2. Highlight the challenges student journalists face as they are confronted with censorship and prior review policies. 3. Showcase the contribution of journalism education to engaged civic life.”
A continuation of this theme, SPLC determined Jan. 29 to be Student Press Freedom Day.The purpose of this is to have “a national day of action when we celebrate the contributions of student journalists and highlight the need to support their independence without censorship or threat to their advisers.” Not only is this an issue close to home, but also nationwide.
Everyone gets their start from somewhere. Everyone starts at the bottom when they begin their careers. Nobody begins their profession being the best. With the right amount of persistence and determination, they can strive to be successful. SPLC says that “[f]or more than three decades, far too many student journalists have been censored by image-conscious school administrators, or intimidated to self-censor or not report on “controversial” topics that matter to their peers and community.”
Being a student journalist is not easy. They tend to be overlooked and underestimated way too often. It is obvious that not all people trust the media or want to be a source in a story and have their name attached to certain topics. Because of how looked down upon we often get, some people tend to not take us seriously. Sometimes a factor of this is because of our news outlet not being known about or large enough.
While people who practice professional journalism and work full time at their jobs are able to dedicate all their time to journalism. Some people think that kind of lifestyle is absurd but others dream of that for their futures. Since professional journalists typically work for large media outlets, it is easier to think they are more trustworthy.
Students journalists get the short end of the stick sometimes as many have other commitments outside of journalism. As students, it is easy to say that we all of some kind of job to do whether it be academic responsibilities like assignments for other classes, paid part-time/full-time jobs, volunteer work, maintaining financial stability, or trying to keep up with the struggles of being “an adult in training.”
It is because of the small scale that most student journalists fall on, that they are able to find stories that journalists of larger newspapers would not think twice about. At The College of Saint Rose, student writers go out to the small community of the Pine Hills Neighborhood and find little hidden treasures of stories that the city’s newspaper, The Times Union, may not have thought to report on. Starting off on a small scale helps us strengthen our eyes and mind to see what has the potential of being a story.
Former Executive Editor of The Chronicle, Aileen Burke, was able to take this to her advantage in the fall 2019 semester as she was able to gather information together to find out what was going on with the Madison Theatre right by campus. While the Times Union reported on it just to say that it was still in the works, Burke dug deep to find out why there was a delay.
Sometimes finding stories outside of our small scale is a disadvantage due to our status. Let’s say there is a popular eating establishment that is favored by many, but someone finds out some information that should make the place be shut down. This becomes a potential story. As many attempts as one can make to find information, people would not want to talk student journalists about it. Or for story ideas that go outside the Pine Hills neighborhood, it becomes difficult for us to dedicate the time and get in contact with the right people to make a story out of something.
As a student journalist, I am proud to represent the title while I am still studying in my undergraduate degree in communications with a focus in journalism.
