THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY SCHREYER HONORS COLLEGE
DEPARTMENT OF JOURNALISM
The Coronavirus Pandemic’s Impact on Student-Run News Outlets
MADDIE AIKEN SPRING 2021
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a baccalaureate degree in Digital and Print Journalism with honors in Journalism
Reviewed and approved* by the following:
Russell Eshleman Associate Teaching Professor of Journalism Head, Department of Journalism Thesis Supervisor
Patrick Plaisance Don W. Davis Professor in Ethics Honors Adviser
* Electronic approvals are on file. i
ABSTRACT
Operating a student-run news outlet is no easy task. In a typical year, the students who worked at these outlets juggled breaking news, social media platforms, a print product and an ever-changing media landscape with the day-to-day regularities of college life. Now, however, journalists at student-run outlets can no longer just focus on ledes, leadership and lectures. The coronavirus pandemic has added a new layer to student journalism, complicating everything from a staff’s reporting and editing to interpersonal dynamics. As student-run outlets feel the brunt of the pandemic, the leaders of these outlets face difficult decisions in navigating their staffs through a global phenomenon that modern journalism has never experienced. The past year has brought changes — both positive and negative — to student-run outlets across the country.
The pandemic has uprooted “normal” expectations for a staff’s reporting and editing, morale and mental health, and digital and print approaches. This thesis illustrates how student news outlets have adapted to the pandemic — as well as student journalists’ tenacity to continue reporting the news amid weighty circumstances.
ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF FIGURES ...... iii
Chapter 1 Introduction ...... 1
Chapter 2 Reporting during a Historical Time ...... 7
Chapter 3 By the Numbers ...... 21
Chapter 4 Innovation...... 25
Chapter 5 Mental Health ...... 30
Chapter 6 Leading a Staff ...... 34
BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 39
iii
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Daily Tar Heel editorial ...... 9
Figure 2: Lantern protest statement ...... 13
Figure 3: Diamondback "DBK En Español" section...... 15
Figure 4: Pitt News election front page...... 16
Figure 5: Pageview comparison ...... 21
Figure 6: Weekly print comparison ...... 22
Figure 7: Staff size comparison ...... 23
Figure 8: Recruitment comparison ...... 24
Figure 9: Michigan Daily data-driven story ...... 26
Figure 10: Diamondback coronavirus dashboard ...... 27
Figure 11: Daily Tar Heel year-in-review newspaper...... 37
1
Chapter 1
Introduction
Many student-run news outlets were already facing an uphill battle going into 2020.
Print numbers and advertising revenue were down for organizations across the country.
As students tried to find ways to make the news profitable, they also faced growing hostility toward the media landscape.
In March, the coronavirus pandemic swept across the United States, changing life as
Americans knew it.
About a month later, student-run newspapers chose their editors and business managers for the upcoming academic year.
Most were trained on how to answer emails from angry sources or resolve inner-staff conflicts. Now, they also had to learn how to lead their staffs into the next academic year amid a global pandemic.
Over a year later, student-run outlets have changed — and College Media Association
President Christopher Whitley said in some ways, he doesn’t think student media will ever be the same.
The pandemic has propelled student-run outlets toward website and social media innovation, according to Whitley. However, he said it has also cost many outlets their print products and revenue, and many students their mental health.
In many communities, student-run news outlets are one of the only, if not the only, source of journalism. This past year has demonstrated the necessity of student-run outlets to share 2 information in communities, according to Whitley — who described college media as an
“important voice in America.”
Here are eight important voices of college media in America. These editors-in-chief spent their tenures learning, innovating and coping in a pandemic.
● Casey Darnell, The Daily Orange editor-in-chief (May 2020-May 2021)
● Daisy Grant, The Diamondback editor-in-chief (April 2020-April 2021)
● Claire Hao, The Michigan Daily editor-in-chief (Jan. 2021-Dec. 2021)
● Diti Kohli, The Berkeley Beacon editor-in-chief (July 2020-Dec. 2020)
● Maria Leontaras, The Observer editor-in-chief (March 2020-March 2021)
● Jon Moss, The Pitt News editor-in-chief (April 2020-April 2021)
● Anna Pogarcic, The Daily Tar Heel editor-in-chief (April 2020-April 2021)
● Sam Raudins, The Lantern editor-in-chief (May 2020-May 2021)
The publications that these editors work at vary in everything from staff size to audience size. These outlets demonstrate the diversity of student media publication structure, as well as the different types of college communities that student-run outlets serve.
Here is a summary of the eight outlets these editors work for, and the communities that these outlets serve*.
• The Daily Orange
o At Syracuse University, a private university
o Serves an undergraduate population of 15,275 and a local population of 142,327
in Syracuse, New York (“Figures, Facts and Rankings;” “Population estimates,
Syracuse, New York”)
o Independent from the university 3 o Staff size: 50
o Total pageviews June 1, 2020-Feb. 28, 2021: 3,216,465
o Primarily remote operations during the pandemic
• The Diamondback
o At the University of Maryland, College Park, a public land-grant university
o Serves an undergraduate population of 30,875 and a local population of 32,163 in
College Park, Maryland (“Facts and Figures;” “Population estimates, College
Park, Maryland”)
o Independent from the university
o Staff size: 100
o Total pageviews June 1, 2020-Feb. 28, 2021: 2,371,081
o Primarily remote operations during the pandemic
• The Michigan Daily
o At the University of Michigan, a public university
o Serves an undergraduate population of 31,266 and a local population of 119,980
in Ann Arbor, Michigan (“Facts & Figures;” “Population estimates, Ann Arbor,
Michigan”)
o Independent from the university
o Staff size: 455
o Total pageviews June 1, 2020-Feb. 28, 2021: 4,955,195
o Primarily remote operations during the pandemic
• The Berkeley Beacon
o At Emerson College, a private college 4 o Serves an undergraduate population of 5,411 and a local population of 692,600 in
Boston, Massachusetts (Gerber; “Population estimates, Boston, Massachusetts”)
o Independent from the college
o Staff size: 30
o Total pageviews June 1, 2020-Feb. 28, 2021: 516,939
o Primarily remote operations during the pandemic
• The Observer
o At the University of Notre Dame, Saint Mary’s College and Holy Cross College,
which are three private colleges
o Serves an undergraduate population of 11,757 across all three schools, and a local
population of 5,973 in Notre Dame, Indiana (“University of Notre Dame;” “Saint
Mary’s College;” “About Holy Cross;” “Population estimates, Notre Dame,
Indiana”)
o Independent from the colleges
o Staff size: 175
o Total pageviews June 1, 2020-Feb. 28, 2021: 2,333,892
o Partially in-person, partially remote operations during the pandemic
• The Pitt News
o At the University of Pittsburgh, a state-related public university
o Serves an undergraduate population of 19,200 and a local population of 300,286
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (“University of Pittsburgh — Pittsburgh campus;”
“Population estimates, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania”)
o Not independent from the university 5 o Staff size: 170
o Total pageviews June 1, 2020-Feb. 28, 2021: 2,340,930
o Primarily remote operations during the pandemic
• The Daily Tar Heel
o At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a public university
o Serves an undergraduate population of 19,117 and a local population of 64,051 in
Chapel Hill, North Carolina (“Carolina By The Numbers;” “Population estimates,
Chapel Hill, North Carolina”)
o Independent from the university
o Staff size: 364
o Total pageviews June 1, 2020-Feb. 28, 2021: Data unavailable
o Partially in-person, partially remote operations during the pandemic
• The Lantern
o At The Ohio State University, a public land-grant university
o Serves an undergraduate population of 46,818 and a local population of 898,553
in Columbus, Ohio (“Ohio State University — Columbus;” “Population estimates,
Columbus, Ohio”)
o Independent from the university
o Staff size: 35
o Total pageviews June 1, 2020-Feb. 28, 2021: 2,572,737
o Partially in-person, partially remote operations during the pandemic
*All data are based on the most recent statistics and numbers available. Data specific to the news outlets was provided by the EICs. 6
Though the outlets’ differences have led to divergent approaches to the past year, the outlets also share many similarities in the challenges they faced and their responses.
The unique stories of these EICs and their outlets demonstrate the abnormal and strenuous year that student journalists underwent — as well as the resilience of student media in
2020 and 2021.
7 Chapter 2
Reporting during a Historical Time
Over the course of a year, the United States experienced not only a pandemic, but also protests for racial equality and a national election.
In local communities, student journalists have been at the forefront of coverage on these topics, often offering their readers a collegiate perspective that cannot have not been fully captured elsewhere.
“Student journalists are positioned in such a unique way to cover [this year] on campuses,” Pogarcic said, “because we know what it’s like to be a student going through this, and that’s just something that professional media is never going to understand.”
Coronavirus Procedures
Creating a 16-page newspaper “from their bedrooms” wasn’t something The Pitt News staffers were accustomed to before fall 2020, but Moss said the staff now completes the task once a week.
Since the pandemic hit, student journalists have completely adjusted their approach to the typical functions of their newsrooms.
In-person group meetings are now held virtually. Reporting and editing often occur remotely. Students are more likely to message a fellow staffer in Slack than they are to yell across a newsroom to get said staffer’s attention.
For students who are able to work from their newsrooms, they have been hit with reduced office capacities, masks, temperature checks and cleaning supplies. Additionally, students working in person must be ready to handle the possibility of coronavirus scares on staff. 8 Others, however, are unable to work in their offices at all, either due to university protocols or internal decisions.
Many outlets have turned to video conferencing apps like Zoom to mimic the feel of in- person meetings, edits or interviews.
“Zoom is probably the greatest invention ever,” Raudins said.
Fewer events are happening on college campuses now, leaving many outlets with fewer stories to write.
When students are able to interact with sources and staffers in person, student leaders have stressed the importance of adhering to coronavirus safety protocols.
The leaders also respect each of their staffer’s comfort levels with the pandemic.
“Our policy this year is do whatever makes you feel comfortable, and if you don’t want to go out in the field... that’s fine, but if you do, that’s also fine,” Pogarcic said. “Just make sure you take care of yourself and stay safe.”
Due to the current virtual landscape of journalism, student journalists are no longer confined to dorm rooms and college town apartments to tell the stories of their communities.
Moss said he has staffers who are not on campus, reporting from across the East Coast.
“[Reporting during the pandemic is] not something that I was really trained how to do, because how would you train someone to do this when you didn't know it was going to happen?”
Moss said. “It's literally never been done before.”
9 Holding Universities Accountable
When Pogarcic approved the word “clusterf---” in a headline for The Daily Tar Heel’s editorial about four coronavirus clusters on UNC’s campus one week into the semester, she didn’t expect the editorial’s reach to extend outside of North Carolina.
Figure 1: A tweet sent out by The Daily Tar Heel regarding the outlet's "clusterf---" editorial (The Daily Tar Heel). However, the editorial made national news, with The Daily Tar Heel’s opinion editor even being interviewed on CNN.
Pogarcic said the editorial stemmed from “a lot of anger and exhaustion” with UNC’s execution of bringing students back to campus in the fall (“We all saw this coming”). 10 “[The Daily Tar Heel is] in a unique position, and I think we have a duty to speak for students and hold the university accountable for the decisions it makes, including the decision to bring students back in the fall,” Pogarcic said.
This editorial is just one example of student journalists using their voices and platforms to report on how universities handled the coronavirus pandemic.
While The Daily Tar Heel took a more critical approach to UNC’s handling of the pandemic during the fall semester, the outlet’s coverage “changed” in the spring 2021 semester.
Pogarcic said UNC “learned a lot” coming into the spring semester, and the changes that UNC implemented made “a big world of a difference” on campus.
“That has also obviously changed our coverage,” Pogarcic said. “We're not necessarily asking the same questions we would be.”
The Observer also published an editorial about university leadership that ruffled feathers.
In September, Notre Dame President Father John Jenkins was seen not wearing a mask or socially distancing at now-Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination.
In response, The Observer published an editorial criticizing Jenkins’ “hypocritical” actions (“Frankly, this is embarrassing”).
“Our work, regardless of the section it's in... can have a message,” Leontaras said about the editorial. “We should use our voice to push out meaningful messages.”
For many student journalists, the uphill battle with their universities didn’t stop at their universities’ flawed handling of the pandemic. Many universities prevented — or tried to prevent
— students from reporting on certain topics related to the pandemic.
At Emerson College, Kohli said the administration would occasionally not answer questions that The Berkeley Beacon posed to the college. 11 Additionally, Emerson administration would not report certain information directly to the
Beacon, but instead would share information with select students or student groups. Beacon reporters had to talk to students who received this information before asking the college to verify.
However, through its reporting efforts, the Beacon witnessed its stories make an impact at Emerson, according to Kohli.
“When we ran certain COVID stories, it changed the way that the administration was handling the pandemic,” Kohli said.
Grant said The Diamondback also experienced issues with the university’s level of communication. Stories have been delayed because university communications simply will not respond to The Diamondback.
“We've been having to fight with them a little bit. I say fight but, you know, push them and be more firm with them, which is good practice,” Grant said.
Journalism and the Fight for Racial Justice
As a pandemic raged across the country, a renewed fight for racial justice was heard in cities, towns and campuses.
Streets became filled with painted signs and pepper spray — and student journalists were tasked with covering protests, while simultaneously making internal decisions and examining their own staffs within the context of racial justice.
In June, Lantern staffers were pepper sprayed by police while covering a protest in
Columbus. 12 Three months later, The Lantern came under fire for choosing to show faces and publish names of protesters at an on-campus protest.
The protest originated when Ohio State sent out an alert about an on-campus incident that it categorized as an aggravated assault and hate crime (White). The alert included no information about the suspects other than the fact that they were Black, and did not identify the race of the victims.
The alert made many Black Ohio State students feel unsafe, and a group of students gathered twice to protest at the president’s office.
At the second protest, protest leaders, upon seeing Lantern reporters and photographers, told them not to show faces or name names in The Lantern’s coverage of the protest.
“We had a long discussion as a staff, like, ‘What do we do?’ Because the leaders of the protest were high-ranking members of student government [and] they had megaphones with their names written in large letters and Sharpie marker,” Raudins said. “We went out of the way not to show faces of the crowd. But we did highlight the leaders of the protest, and we named them.”
Raudins wrote a letter from the editor explaining The Lantern’s decision to show and name protest leaders in the outlet’s coverage of the event (Raudins).
The letter received “a lot of pushback,” according to Raudins, and she took a break from social media after it was published as people were threatening her life online. 13
Figure 2: Part of the statement written by Raudins that faced backlash (Raudins).
However, The Lantern’s thoughts and conversations on racial justice and journalism were not limited to protest coverage. In March, The Lantern launched “The Black Voices Project” in collaboration with Ohio State’s Black and Bold Magazine.
The project, which was months in the making, sought to uplift Black Ohio State students, faculty and alumni.
Additionally, The Lantern examined diversity within its staff and recruitment. Raudins said The Lantern is “mostly white,” and Lantern leadership had conversations about how to be a more inclusive news outlet. 14 Darnell said leaders at The Daily Orange also put an emphasis on how to improve diversity within The Daily Orange’s recruitment. The outlet sent recruitment emails to schools within Syracuse that are more diverse than Syracuse’s journalism school. During the 2018-19 academic year, Syracuse’s journalism school was 77.1% white (“Journalism at Syracuse
University”). In contrast, Syracuse University as a whole was 56.9% white the same year (Rose).
The Daily Orange also focused on telling inclusive stories about marginalized communities within its current staff.
“We know that [better representation on staff] starts from the content you’re [creating],”
Darnell said. “If the content is representative, then people feel more comfortable applying to work for you.”
At The Diamondback, Grant said student journalists had conversations about how The
Diamondback could better cover underrepresented communities. Prince George’s County — where the University of Maryland, College Park is located — is over 64% Black and over 19%
Latino (“Race and Hispanic Origin, Prince George’s County, Maryland”).
During the summer, The Diamondback reached out to different cultural groups and student unions about The Diamondback’s coverage and what marginalized communities would like to see The Diamondback do better.
“On the day-to-day grind, you get caught up in event coverage and… everyday news, and miss some of the things that aren’t as obvious to you,” Grant said. “We’ve been doing a lot better on [our coverage of underrepresented communities] I think, [though] obviously there’s always room for growth.”
Additionally, The Diamondback launched a “DBK En Español” section during the fall
2020 semester. Spanish-speaking Diamondback staffers write and edit important community 15 stories in Spanish. Due to the large Latino population in Prince George's County, Grant said The
Diamondback wants to make its news more accessible for the Spanish-speaking population.
Though Grant said the section has a long way to go before it’s full-fledged, she is
“proud” of the work that Spanish-speaking staff members have done thus far.
Figure 3: The Diamondback's "DBK En Español" section (DBK En Español).
16 A Landmark Political Year
The day before the 2020 election, now-President Joe Biden and Lady Gaga stopped in
Pittsburgh to campaign and talk to voters.
Biden was slated to speak outside of Heinz Field, and The Pitt News worked all day to get credentials for the event to seemingly no avail.
At the last minute, a former Pitt News staffer who now works at a professional news outlet helped The Pitt News’ visual editor and news editor get into the event. The editors sped through traffic across Pittsburgh to arrive at the event on time.
All the work from staffers paid off, however — The Pitt News was able to cover the speech, and a photo taken at the event was used for the outlet’s front-page reporting on the election results. The page won first place for page design in the 2021 Keystone Press Awards.
Figure 4: The award-winning Pitt News front page announcing Biden's victory (“46”). 17 During a year of heightened political polarization and national milestones, student journalists worked to cover a contentious election locally and nationally in their communities.
The Daily Orange’s election coverage focused heavily on the fact that Biden is a graduate of Syracuse University Law School. Darnell said this added a dimension to the “anticipation and excitement” of the election.
When Biden won the election, The Daily Orange’s coverage was more in-depth and
Syracuse-oriented than would be typical for a college news outlet (Hicks). Darnell said much of
The Daily Orange’s coverage was completed remotely, which strayed from what the outlet would have done in previous years.
“We might normally send someone to inauguration or, if Joe Biden was coming to an area near us, we definitely would have sent someone… but that obviously didn’t happen,”
Darnell said.
However, Darnell said Daily Orange staffers who felt comfortable reporting in person were able to interview voters on Election Day. Many outlets followed a similar model, including
The Lantern.
In addition to interviewing and photographing voters, Raudins said Lantern photographers went to off-campus locations to capture images of students having “election parties” during the pandemic — adding, “that’s Ohio State for you.”
Prior to the election, Pogarcic said The Daily Tar Heel focused on creating “reader-led” coverage.
The outlet sent surveys to the Chapel Hill community asking people what they cared about and what questions they had about the election. The survey answers guided the outlet’s coverage, Pogarcic said. 18 On Election Day, Daily Tar Heel staffers went into the field, as well. Additionally, after
Election Day, The Daily Tar Heel felt the stress that journalists across the country felt when it took days for the election results to be reported.
“[This election] was pretty fun and exciting to cover,” Pogarcic said. “It made us feel like we really had an important role [in the community].”
Sports Coverage without Traditional Sports
At many student-run outlets, sports coverage makes up at least half of the content that is published on a daily basis.
Therefore, when sports were canceled at many schools, sports journalists had to get creative.
Many outlets saw the cancellation as an opportunity to expand upon feature and column writing within the sports section. Human-centric stories about athletes and teams became common stories for sports reporters to pursue.
In some cases, new beats were created to highlight this coverage. The Michigan Daily created a “sports and society” beat to focus on societal issues like racism and sexism within sports, while The Diamondback created a “sports and identity” beat to explore the intersection between sports and identity.
“We’ve always done features on athletes and who they are… but we’re making a more concerted effort [to seek] those stories out,” Grant said about the sports and identity beat.
Grant specifically said she was proud of a story that The Diamondback published about the experiences of Black athletes on the Maryland women’s soccer team. Maryland’s team has the highest number of Black women’s soccer players in the Big Ten (Suggs). 19 Grant added it was easier to focus on these longer form stories when reporters didn’t have the “daily grind of sports” to balance with feature writing.
If colleges and universities did hold any sports during the fall semester, revenue sports were much more likely to take place. Some schools didn’t allow fans to attend sporting matches, while others — like Notre Dame — allowed fans at a limited capacity.
Leontaras attended Notre Dame’s infamous home football game against rival Clemson in
November. After Notre Dame beat Clemson, a group of students — described by Leontaras as a
“mob of people” — stormed the field.
The action made national news, and Leontaras reported on it for The Observer, conducting interviews after the game over Zoom (Leontaras).
As the number of sporting events began to increase, the reporting on these events was not the same as it had been. Sports reporters often found themselves covering games from their laptops and TVs.
For those who were able to cover games in person, athletic departments often reduced the number of press passes that outlets received. In several instances, students said they weren’t even able to send a photographer to games, instead having to rely on photos from athletic departments or other news outlets.
Additionally, as many colleges and universities held little to no sports during the fall semester, they supplemented this with double the sports in the spring semester.
At schools like these, there was a drastic change in workload from fall to spring for student journalists.
“[It’s] to the point where there’s too many sports going on right now… I feel like I’m editing a sports story every 10 seconds,” Raudins said during the spring semester. “There's a 20 level of stress and burn out there, but I think [the sports staff is] just glad that sports are happening.”
21 Chapter 3
By the Numbers
The impact of the pandemic is clear when examining the numerical performance of student news outlets in 2020 and 2021.
Digitally, many outlets outperformed their previous years in pageviews — including all eight of the outlets featured in this article. Whitley said this is because many outlets were forced to focus on the digital side of journalism rather than the print side.
The average increase in pageviews was about 35% for the seven outlets that had access to this data. The Daily Tar Heel lost access to some of its analytics after redesigning its website; however, Pogarcic said the outlet “definitely” had more pageviews in 2020-21 compared to
2019-20.
Figure 5: Total pageviews at seven of the eight outlets. The graph compares pageviews from June 1, 2019-Feb. 28, 2020 and June 1, 2020-Feb. 28, 2021.
22 The push to focus on the digital landscape was fostered by the decline in print products for many outlets. Seven of the eight outlets planned on continuing to print regularly before the pandemic struck.
During the 2020-21 academic year, six of the seven news outlets reduced the amount they printed, though none of these outlets cut print completely.
Figure 6: Six out of seven news outlets reduced weekly print during the 2020-21 academic year.
23 For many professional news outlets, the past year has been marked by layoffs and furloughs as these organizations struggle to stay afloat (Hare).
In contrast, student media is typically volunteer-based, and students are not hired by the student-run outlets they work for. Rather than face declines in staff sizes, six of the eight outlets saw growth in membership.
These six outlets reported having more staff members during the 2020-21 academic year compared to the 2019-20 academic year. The Observer reported no change in staff size between academic years, while The Berkeley Beacon reported a decline in staff members.
Figure 7: The average numbers of staff members each outlet had during the 2019-20 academic year and 2020-21 academic year.
24 Additionally, recruitment numbers were up for the four publications that kept track of these numbers from year to year.
Figure 8: Of the four outlets that kept track of recruitment in 2019-20 and 2020-21, all recruited more members in 2020-21. Note: The Lantern recruited 0 people in 2019-20.
25 Chapter 4
Innovation
The pandemic harmed outlets’ print-focused efforts, but from that harm arose innovation.
“One residual effect of [the pandemic] is that it has forced college media outlets to modernize,” Whitley said. “It has forced college media outlets to become more digital.”
From her experience at The Michigan Daily, Hao said that time once delegated to the print product and a print-based schedule can now be focused in other places.
“Before the pandemic, we were a pretty print-focused publication. Most of our energies went into creating our print product,” Hao said. “But once we were divorced from that print product... we launched newsletters, our social media game got a lot stronger, we created a
TikTok and we’ve seen our digital analytics explode. Knowing that’s where our audience is, we’re meeting people where they’re getting their news.”
The newsletter that The Michigan Daily launched is sent to every University of Michigan student weekly, as The Michigan Daily has access to a student body email listserv. Hao described the newsletter as a “way of growth forward,” adding that it serves as a new source of revenue.
The Michigan Daily hopes to expand the newsletter’s reach to University of Michigan faculty and the Ann Arbor community, Hao said.
In addition to focusing on newsletters and social media, The Michigan Daily has put more time and effort into its data team. A story published in March 2021 that was six months in the making examined data on the 301 high schools with the most applicants to the University of
Michigan (Harring). 26 “Without having to feel the pressure of filling a print paper every day… we’ve been able to [work on] stories with a longer timeline,” Hao said.
Figure 9: Graphics in the data-driven story published by The Michigan Daily in March (Harring). In a similar data-driven vein, The Diamondback created its own coronavirus dashboard after many community members found the University of Maryland’s dashboard to be inadequate. 27 Grant, who created the dashboard and updates it daily, pulls data from the university, county and state to inform the community. Published in September, the dashboard was made with Google Data Studio (COVID-19 Dashboard).
Grant said the dashboard received positive feedback online, and was consistently in The
Diamondback’s weekly top 10 most-clicked pages during the fall semester.
Figure 10: Part of The Diamondback's coronavirus dashboard in March (COVID-19 Dashboard). At The Lantern, innovation primarily stemmed from the outlet’s social media presence and website design. Raudins said The Lantern has redesigned its “typical schedule” so it no longer follows a print-reliant model.
“Everything has the backdrop of the pandemic, and it's like, reporting on the pandemic was really chaotic, but it also led us to things like cutting down print, and then it led us to really experimenting with social media and web design,” she said. “I'm really proud of how this staff in particular has been able to make the switch to a more ‘digital first’ kind of thing.” 28 One change that stuck out to Raudins was the creation of The Lantern’s TikTok. Staffers post everything from weekly news recaps to memes at sporting events. Since launching the
TikTok, The Lantern has seen half a million views and a 700% viewer increase in video content.
In addition to helping grow The Lantern’s online audience, the TikTok has also brought positivity and energy to The Lantern office.
“[The TikTok is] fun, and watching them have fun at work is really nice,” Raudins said.
“I'm like, 'Oh, the existential dread, I feel it lifting.'"
The Observer was able to expand its online audience by starting an Apple News channel for the outlet.
"You don't think people really care about your coverage, but then suddenly Apple's emailing you and they're like, 'Hey we want your coverage in our news app,’” Leontaras said.
For The Daily Orange, its staff revamped the outlet’s podcast section. Additionally, The
Daily Orange has focused its efforts on reorienting itself as a professional nonprofit news outlet over the past academic year.
Through steps like launching a membership program and encouraging readers to donate monthly, Darnell said The Daily Orange is working to create a new revenue stream for itself.
“Because of the time where everything is changing, it's felt like it's more acceptable to change other things as well that aren’t working and haven't been working for a while,” Darnell said. “The thing that I'm most proud of is being willing to take those risks and not being afraid of change”
Ultimately, student journalists have seen that innovation works — and it’s the future of journalism. 29 “I think [the shift to a digital-first mindset is] going to help in the long run,” Raudins said, “because that's just the future of our industry.” 30
Chapter 5
Mental Health
Raudins equated handling her staff’s mental health to putting on an oxygen mask on an airplane — she had to put her mask on first before she could help the person sitting next to her.
“It's hard to deal with your staff's mental health and morale when I'm still trying to deal with my own,” Raudins said. “Let me get myself put together, and then I'll help you next.”
Since March 2020, many student journalists have experienced the pandemic-induced declines in mental wellbeing that have occurred nationally.
“[Student journalists] are exhausted. They are stretched, in terms of all of the work that they're having to do,” Whitley said.
Researchers at Texas A&M found in a study that 71% of college students reported heightened levels of stress and anxiety due to the pandemic (Son et al).
Additionally, a survey by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and the
University of Toronto reported that about 70% of journalists reporting on COVID-19 experienced some levels of psychological distress (Selva and Feinstein). 26% experienced symptoms of Generalized Anxiety Disorder.
The impact of this decline in mental health has been felt by student outlets across the country, and the EICs of these outlets are tasked with leading their staffs through a national crisis
— often while dealing with their own mental health struggles. 31 Darnell categorized his staff’s mental health as “really rough.” In the past few months,
Daily Orange staff members have experienced the “burden” of covering death and tragedy within the community, he said.
Darnell specifically cited a day during the fall semester in which two Syracuse freshmen died within 24 hours of each other (House). One freshman died in a trolley accident, and the other overdosed in a dormitory.
“You expect things to be bad from COVID,” Darnell said. “When there's additional s--- happening, that's just a whole extra layer of trauma for everyone.”
Burnout, while not rare at a college news outlet pre-pandemic, has become more frequent and common. Moss said he was getting “very close” to burning out because “there is too much to cover.”
“We're trying to make sure there's a balance [between mental health and journalism], but also there is no real way to have like a balance right now because there's pandemic, civil rights movement, massive election, and the university up to all of the other crap that they're usually up to,” Moss said.
The news never sleeps, and leaders must find a way to balance many staffers’ need for a break with a 24-hour news cycle that can often be draining and disheartening.
Pogarcic said because student journalists often report on news that affects them personally, reporting can be especially difficult for students to handle emotionally.
“I really wished I could tell [my staff]... we could take breaks and days off...but it's not like I could make the news stop, or have us stop reporting the news, because that's not what we do…” she said. “Coaching people through [reporting] and being there for them... was really hard because there wasn't really anything I could change, other than to help them deal with it.” 32 In response to mental health struggles, Hao said The Michigan Daily has reevaluated its approach to deadlines and structure.
“If any of us are going through anything, [we make] it very clear that there are other people who can take some of the load. If we don’t publish something right away, that is fine,”
Hao said. “As much as student media is important and as much as student media is like professional media, we're also students, and this is also a student org.”
In addition to being more lenient on deadlines, some outlets have provided their staffs with wellness days. Raudins said The Lantern scheduled two days in which no new content was budgeted to give staffers somewhat of a break from the never-ending news cycle.
The pandemic has also impacted the camaraderie that is foundational to student-run outlets. Many students are working partially or completely remotely, and Pogarcic said that when
Daily Tar Heel staff members do see each other in their office, “it’s not the same” because students must socially distance and take coronavirus safety precautions.
Similarly, Darnell said much of the motivation in student journalism derives from this camaraderie. When The Daily Orange went remote, he noticed that his staff’s camaraderie suffered.
“When you're working crazy hours, the fun part is working with other people,” he said.
The absence or decrease of an in-person environment has impacted some students’ relationships with each other. Both Raudins and Darnell said their staffs have faced more internal difficulties and strained relationships than previous years.
Despite hardships faced by many outlets, student leaders have found positivity and encouragement. 33 Internal and external validation has helped boost morale at The Pitt News, Moss said. In addition to winning numerous student journalism awards, The Pitt News staff has fostered a more encouraging staff environment.
“We'll all try to say 'thank you' more often just to be kinder with each other, because that helps,” Moss said.
Pogarcic said working at an outlet like The Daily Tar Heel gives college students the chance to create content and work with other people during a time when many students are bound to their apartments and dorms taking online classes.
Hao echoed this.
“I get the sense that people still care about the Daily, they want to work for the Daily and the Daily is still a source of fulfillment for them,” Hao said. “It's really about making sure that it remains a source of fulfillment, and not another source of stress.”
34 Chapter 6
Leading a Staff
Throughout the ups and downs that student news outlets experienced over the past year, students themselves have been at the forefront of crises, innovation and structural changes.
The EICs leading these outlets are typically no older than 22 or 23 years old. Like their collegiate peers, these editors go to class, try to maintain a social life and begin job searching — all while leading news outlets with dozens of staff members that act as primary sources of local news in their communities.
In 2020 and 2021, these editors felt the added weight of the pandemic on both their outlets and their personal lives.
Raudins said her EIC tenure was difficult, as there was “a lot of s--- flying around this year.” While every year a staff experiences its “own crisis,” the crises of past years’ staffs seem to be “nothing” compared to what The Lantern staff experienced this year, Raudins said.
“Looking back, there were definitely moments where I was like, ‘Why am I doing this?
This is causing me so much stress and anxiety,’” Raudins said. “In specific moments, I was like,
‘This is not what I signed up for.’ But looking back, I’m glad I stuck it out.”
The question of “Is this what I signed up for?” wasn’t only on Raudins’ mind. Moss said he also has thought of this question.
His answer to it? He did sign up for this job. But not as advertised.
Moss said being in charge of a student-run outlet during a pandemic is very different than leading during a “normal” year. To keep himself rooted, he said he tries not to lose perspective when working. Not every mistake or issue is “world-ending serious,” he said. 35 “I’m here, I’m doing this, I just want to do the best I can to keep things going and keep them moving... We’re trying to do as much as we can, as best we can,” Moss said.
The pandemic understandably hindered many student outlets from achieving pre- pandemic goals and standards. This perception of “underachievement” led some students to believe their outlet wasn’t performing to its full ability.
Leontaras said at certain points of the year, it felt like The Observer wasn’t doing enough.
However, when she was submitting content for the Indiana Collegiate Press Association awards, she was “shocked” by the amount of “amazing” coverage her staff produced during the pandemic.
“We did as much as anyone could expect out of students who are living through this
COVID time and also reporting on it,” she said.
Similarly, Pogarcic said The Daily Tar Heel didn’t make as much progress as she had wanted on some fronts. She said she tried not to hold herself to the same standard as she would have before the pandemic.
“I'm trying not to beat myself up or hold myself to too strict a standard just because this year is so weird and so unique,” Pogarcic said. “I mean, nobody ever thinks stuff like this will happen to them.”
For some outlets that were primarily remote, the pandemic’s disruption of staff culture and friendships made the job more challenging. Darnell said this disruption caused him to burn out faster than he typically would.
"Not being able to do things with the staff or see everyone in person — and just have the normal joking around and bulls---ing and everything — has taken all of the fun out of why I've done this for a semester like a lunatic,” Darnell said. 36
Additionally, the lack of stress relief and the practically nonexistent separation between work and life impacted Darnell.
“It’s kind of like, is this job just too much? Or [is it more difficult] because we’re the pandemic management team?” he said.
In a similar vein, Hao said she sometimes feels like she’s getting “all the work of this job without any of the support or fun.”
However, Hao said she has learned a lot from her EIC tenure thus far.
“Every single day, I wake up and there’s three new crises to deal with, at least,” Hao said.
“I’ve become a much stronger journalist.”
Raudins also reflected on what the past year has meant for her personal growth. She said she is proud of the job she did as EIC, adding that she thinks handled the past year “the best she could'' by sticking to her ethics.
Additionally, she said the past year has taught her a lot and prepared her for life after college.
“One day, when this is all over, nothing that gets thrown at me will blindside me ever again,” she said.
Looking back at the past year, Pogarcic said a moment she was particularly proud of was the demonstration of her staff’s “resilience” over winter break.
Every year, The Daily Tar Heel puts out a year-in-review newspaper. This year, because of the university’s different class schedule, Daily Tar Heel staffers were on break when the paper was slated to be published.
37 However, the students decided they still wanted to put out the special edition, and spent two weeks of their winter break putting together a 20-page paper.
Figure 11: The front page of The Daily Tar Heel's year-in-review newspaper (“2020 Year in Review”).
38 “People cared so much about the news and this organization to use their break time to make something that is so important,” Pogarcic said in reflection. “I think that shows a lot about who we are, and how resilient student journalists are, especially.”
No doubt, it has been a momentous year for student journalists — filled with new structures, stressful weeks and impactful moments.
And, at the end of the day, student journalists are human, often in the need of a break, a word of encouragement or, sometimes, just some caffeine.
“If anyone reading this knows a student journalist, please send them money for coffee,”
Pogarcic said. “We’re gonna need it.”
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ACADEMIC VITA