Even at a small college like Southern Oregon University, and in a small town like Ashland, faculty and student reporters can help drive the national conversation regarding the future of journalism in a free democracy.
Case in point: find out more about the community around journalism on campus via a recent broadcast on KSKQ’s Literary Ashland, featuring a long-form interview with Caroline Cabral (co-editor of The Siskiyou – The Voice of SOU Students) and Erik Palmer (associate professor and chair of the Communication program at SOU).
In conversation with SOU faculty members and program hosts Ed Battistella and Michael Niemann, Cabral helped make the case for The Siskiyou as a media channel that serves the needs of the campus community, especially students.
“We really want to stick to things that are affecting the campus,” she said, “because that is where I think the students are going to find the most interest, or things happening around town.”
Palmer framed the value of student journalism both in its service to audiences, and in the connections formed by the team of students who contribute to the weekly cycle of news production.
“Every newspaper, every news outlet in some ways is an expression of community,” Palmer said. “But more so than other genres, the student newspaper is an expression of community… It’s both the community of people who come together to put it together, and it’s the community of people who participate as audiences.”
Both Cabral and Palmer have recently been recognized for their accomplishments in journalism by organizations outside of the region, honors further celebrated in the Literary Ashland interview.
Cabral earned a paid internship at the Klamath Falls Herald and News via the Charles Snowden Program for Excellence in Journalism, marking the third consecutive year that an SOU student has achieved the statewide honor, preceded by Hannah Jones in 2017 and Eli Stillman in 2016.
Combined with other recent journalism success stories such as Erika Soderstrom (Jefferson Public Radio in Ashland), Alex Mesadieu (CBS12 in Palm Beach, Florida), Rayvan Vares (KOBI in Medford, Oregon) and Ryan Degan (Pleasanton Weekly, California), SOU has established a small but strong pipeline of professional journalists earning degrees in the Communication program.
Meanwhile, Battistella and Niemann explored Palmer’s recent designation as a Tow-Knight Disruptive Journalism Educator, and his work on ALTJSCHOOL, an online learning platform dedicated to sharing innovative journalism instruction among colleges and universities.
“If we have an opportunity to get together with some other institutions and share courses in a meaningful way relying on the latest and greatest in terms of online and interactive technology to do it, we could really create more opportunity for students like Caroline,” Palmer said. “We could also do a better job of bringing innovation to schools that aren’t adapting to the digital landscape as quickly as we are at SOU.”
