In its latest issue, American Journalism Review documents the first few years of an interesting arrangement between the University of Alabama and the Anniston Star, a newspaper covering a community about two hours from UA’s main campus.
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The basics: A small group of students enrolled in UA’s journalism master’s program spend a year in the Star newsroom, mixing coursework (some of it on the UA Tuscaloosa campus) with professional experience at a community daily while receiving a small stipend (basically on par with a graduate assistantship). AJR says the Star is “the first newspaper to house a degree-offering master’s program in its newsroom.”
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Glorified internship? In some ways, on first glance, it appears that way. Slave labor for the newspaper? Again, yes, I do think the financial advantages for the paper are fairly clear-cut and potentially undercutting to full-time (higher-paid) staff, a concern the AJR article mentions.
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While not touched upon by AJR, the arrangement also raises the eternal question: What is more valuable for j-students- coursework or practical experience? The program description lists a few courses that students need to meander through (when you cut through the siders, it’s basically just research methods, comm theory, community journalism, and j-history) but it is undoubtedly a learn-by-doing approach.
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My take: I’m ambivalent. I don’t worry so much about the slave labor argument. It stinks for the regular staffers obviously. (Will all full-timers simply be replaced by the cheaper students at some point?) But undergrads and grad students have long been paid less to do more- all part of the move up the ladder and paying dues. I just wonder if the Star‘s obvious precedence in the class-work collaboration too greatly removes the academic elements. I mean, is UA really anything more than a beard, a backdrop, in this experiment? But hey, maybe these types of agreements (among a uni, a news outlet, and a private foundation) will be what saves journalism as we know it.
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Otherwise as a college media advocate, I must state my objection to any arrangement that removes quality j-students from their campuses. My argument: Produce award-winning, impacting reports that hit home, but do it at UA, not two hours away! :)
