Helping women and minorities into newsrooms since 1993
Helping women and minorities into newsrooms since 1993
In the news industry, legacy media typically refers to the pre-internet giants NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox News, and the newspaper institutions that once set the national tone, such as The Washington Post and the New York Times.
Across the country’s 210 designated TV markets, most cities still have at least one of these outlets, with 842 local news TV stations. Larger metros may house several. But even within that deeply rooted terrain, new voices are rising.
Student media has quietly carved out space in that chorus, not to mimic legacy, but to supplement it—with grit, new eyes, and a willingness to chase what others might overlook.
At places like Arizona State’s Cronkite News, young journalists claim their voices, pursue stories that stray from the well-trodden path, and bring eyes to what matters.
“The generation that is participating in student media is offering a perspective that sort of legacy media and other media out there aren't embracing,” said Paola Boivin, director of the Cronkite News Phoenix Sports Bureau. “They're coming up with stories that other media doesn't realize are important.”
School-funded sports media is rapidly growing, a sentiment that’s not anecdotal, but statistical.
According to research from the University of Vermont’s Center for Community News, founded by Richard Watts, the number of U.S. universities offering sports communications programs jumped from 18 in 2013 to 92 in 2023 – a 411% increase in just a decade.
Watts’ team has helped propel that surge with a focused goal: Ensure student reporters have places to publish, not just practice. Whether through campus-supported outlets or independent partnerships, the aim remains to move student work beyond the classroom.
As these programs grow, students are stepping into increasingly vacant roles covering local and college sports. They’re covering the Friday night football game or the junior college volleyball match. Students are doing real reporting to fill this void.
“That’s the coverage that’s been most drained so far,” Watts said. “It’s the hyper-local and local news that we need to sustain our democracy, and student media can play a critical role there.”
At Penn State, department head John Affleck has watched the community advocacy potential first-hand. One of his students landed a coveted credential to an NBA press conference. But only six questions were taken: four from team-employed reporters, two from national outlets. The student never got the mic.
What could’ve ended there didn’t. Affleck and the young reporter turned the moment into a new story, one about inequity and the increasingly restricted access in sports media. Campus press assumed the role of championing a call for societal change.
“That speaks to this,” Affleck said. “There are times when that fresh perspective really helps. It matters.”
At WVUA 23, a University of Alabama station overseen by Daniel Bruce, students don’t just contribute, they help run the newsroom, supplementing work done by professionals in every facet.
“You’ll have students giving live reports, anchoring newscasts,” Bruce said. “And in many cases, you can’t tell them apart from the professionals.”
A free press is foundational to democracy. Now, as legacy media battle a reckoning, a crisis of fractured trust and crumbling budgets, the next generation is offering belief – belief that smaller stories deserve to be told and that someone will be there to tell them.
“The idea that there are many young people who want to fight the good fight and help us have a democratic society is validating,” Affleck said. “It’s a relief. The idea that we’re not just gonna buckle under as a society.”