Exhausted and lonely: learning in student newsrooms during COVID

ABSTRACT

In a mixed methods survey (N = 323), college journalists shared their experiences of working in remote student newsrooms during the COVID-19 campus disruptions. Through the theoretical lens of Communities of Practice, findings revealed students experienced robust, but different learning in disrupted newsrooms. While students reported that their ability to cultivate and learn with a community suffered, they still reported the formation of their identities as journalists and the development of meaning. Analysis demonstrated that the survey items created statistically reliable scales for each of the four pillars and overall CoP scale. This advances the Communities of Practice theoretical framework to help describe the nature of student newsroom learning in a disrupted environment. Consistent with existing literature, this work points toward the special nature of student-run newsrooms as high-impact learning environments, however, the isolation that came as a natural outgrowth of the lack of community contributed to students’ struggles with mental health. These findings also underscore additional practical implications of young journalists learning and refining their craft in isolated spaces. Reporting remotely required heightened self-sufficiency and resiliency, but also amplified feelings of burnout, low morale, and mental exhaustion.

KEYWORDS:

• Communities of Practice
• COVID-19
• experiential learning
• newsroom
• student media
• scholastic journalism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lisa Lyon Payne

Lisa Lyon Payne is a professor of communication at Virginia Wesleyan University, where she also advises the university student-run newspaper, The Marlin Chronicle. She has authored or co-authored two books and more than twenty book chapters and journal articles in the areas of college media, popular culture, crisis communication, reputation management and public relations theory development. In addition to her academic experiences, Payne has worked as a public relations consultant, research analyst, editorial assistant and writer.

Jean Norman

Jean Norman is an associate professor of new media and journalism in the Communication Department at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, and advises The Signpost. Her research covers how students learn and practice journalism as they prepare for careers in the media, as well as social capital and communication. She is published in Teaching Journalism and Mass Communication, Journal of Communication and Religion and College Media Review. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in journalism from Northwestern University, and her Master of Arts degree in English and doctorate of public affairs from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Elizabeth Smith

Elizabeth Smith is an associate professor of Communication at Pepperdine University and Director and Faculty Adviser of Pepperdine Graphic Media, the Graphic. She is an award-winning journalist, with multiple awards from the Associated Press and in 2010 won an Emmy for her work on the breaking news coverage of Michael Jackson’s death. She has also received commendations from the State of California for her work advising student news coverage on the Borderline shooting and Woolsey Fire. Smith is the president of the board for the Associated Collegiate Press and the California College Media Association. Smith has partnered with the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library on the topics of news literacy and understanding the spread of misinformation. Her research includes, news literacy, college newsrooms, and corrections and errors in news. Smith earned her bachelor’s in journalism from Harding University; she earned her master’s and doctoral degrees from Pepperdine University.

Kirstie Hettinga

Kirstie Hettinga is an associate professor of communication at California Lutheran University. She teaches media writing, editing, and content creation and serves as the faculty adviser to Cal Lutheran’s award-winning student newspaper, The Echo. Her research addresses issues of accuracy and credibility in news media, as well as how students learn in student newsrooms. Her work has been published in Newspaper Research Journal, College Media Review, Journal of Media Ethics, and Journalism Practice.