Student journalists find themselves at the center of coverage of campus unrest

OOrdered by police to leave the scene of a protest on the UCLA campus after violence broke out, Catherine Hamilton and three classmates the Daily Bruin Suddenly, they found themselves surrounded by protesters who beat, kicked and sprayed them with a harmful chemical.

On American campuses awash in anger this spring, student journalists are at the center of it all, sometimes uncomfortably so. They are immersed in the story in a way that journalists at mainstream media organizations often cannot. And they face dual challenges: as members of the media and as students at the institutions they cover.

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Across the country from the University of California, Los Angeles, on Tuesday night, a student-run radio station broadcast live as police cleared a building seized by protesters on the Columbia University campus, while other student journalists were confined to dormitories and threatened with arrest.

Hamilton’s attackers wore masks. But she recognized the voice of someone as a counter-protester sympathetic to the Israel cause due to previous reports when some of them filmed her working and harassed her by name. She walked out of a hospital on Wednesday after learning the injuries to her arms and chest were bruises.

“Although it was scary and honestly took a lot of mental processing, the experience confirmed for me the importance of student journalists because we know our campus better than any outside reporter would,” said Hamilton, 21. stopped me from wanting to continue this coverage.

Up-close and personal coverage

Fear and anger were obvious in the voices of the students who narrated the action in the Columbia’s WKCR Radio on Tuesday. The station’s website briefly went down because too many people were listening to an audio stream and its announcers recommended that people tune in to FM radio.

Although he wore a badge identifying him as a member of the press, police ordered Chris Mandell and other reporters from the Columbia Daily Spectator in a dormitory. When he tried to open the door, Mandell said he was told he would be arrested if he did that again.

Mandell has been covering the demonstrations and planning for months. While he considers it a learning experience, he said it “broke my heart” to see the police presence on campus and how the story was covered by outside journalists.

O Daily Spectator He was present every step of the way and did not hesitate to confront Columbia University leadership in writing. On a editorial late last month, students harshly condemned the university president, Minouche Shafik, and said administrators have been uncommunicative except for “late-night threatening emails.”

“This is your legacy”, the Viewer wrote — “a president more focused on his university’s brand than the safety of his students and their demands for justice.”

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On campuses across the country, 24-hour reporting on protests and student disciplinary hearings meant nightly vigils at camps turned into morning classes, homework and final projects crammed in between interviews.

Student-run news sites from Yale and the University of Texas-Austin cover the action with innovative live blogs. O Daily TrojanPrint editions for the semester have been halted at the University of Southern California, but editor-in-chief Anjali Patel tries to keep a reporter and photographer on hand at all times to power her website, post news on X and Instagram, and do live streams. All during final exam time.

“At the end of the day, we are still students,” Patel said.

At Columbia, whose journalism school is considered one of the best in the country, Dean Jelani Cobb wrote a memo on Wednesday to the population of budding journalists who are his students: “You are now part of history. Your perseverance during a confusing and challenging time cannot be underestimated. You told the stories that global audiences deserved to hear. You helped the school achieve its mission.”

See more information: What Teachers Owe Our Students Now

Learning professional skills in real time

The protest movement has become a training ground for students facing complicated editorial decisions at some of the first times in their careers. They face the embarrassment of reporting on their colleagues and the challenge of not getting carried away by emotion.

“This is a moment in the history of our campus,” said Arianna Smith, editor-in-chief of O Flashlight at Ohio State University. “Being able to contribute to your coverage is a privilege that we do not take lightly. We’re under a lot of pressure to get it right, to be accurate, so that’s what we’re striving to do.”

More than three dozen Ohio State University students and protesters face misdemeanor charges following the university’s Thursday night crackdown on protests over investment in Israel.

Lantern staff members are holding meetings to balance the experiences of pro-Palestinian protesters and Jewish students or counterprotesters, Smith said. They debate whether to publish the names of students facing discipline, compare language choices with other news organizations, and reflect on which points of view are missing from the stories. Editors instruct reporters to keep their opinions to themselves.

In the newspaper of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, O Tar Daily Heel, Student journalists are also making difficult decisions about anonymous sourcing. Editor-in-chief Liv Reilly said photographers are being careful not to take photos that show the faces of people who fear arrest.

Josie Stewart, chief content editor at Ohio State’s Flashlight, said he recognizes colleagues on both sides of the protest. The newspaper’s coverage is discussed in her classes and friends regularly ask her about it.

“It’s definitely difficult,” she said. “Every journalist has to balance ethical concerns, but it’s harder when you’re facing someone in the classroom.”

Sometimes Reilly feels the instinct to salute colleagues involved in the protest, but stops. She is concerned about saying their names out loud in case they are afraid of being identified and is aware of the boundaries between classmate and reporter. She makes a point of identifying herself as a reporter, but “sometimes people’s behavior changes when you say you’re in the media.”

Annika Sunkara, social media editor at Huntington news from Boston’s Northeastern University, said it was emotional talking to fellow students, some in tears, about their experiences with law enforcement. About 100 people were arrested there on Saturday morning as police dismantled pro-Palestinian camps on the campus.

But as national media outlets reach campuses across the country, student journalists say their connection to their campuses is their greatest asset. They built relationships with student groups, teachers, and administrators. They follow many of their peers, now protest leaders, on social media.

“We’re the ones on the ground seeing what’s happening with our own eyes,” Stewart said. “We have a different level of access, of trust on our campus and of understanding.”

Some universities, including UCLA, have also seen scattered protests and student organizing since October. O Bruin Diary has been there “every step of the way,” Hamilton said, so the team “understands student demands, different perspectives on campus, stakeholders in a way that other media outlets cannot.”

Using a Tar Daily Heel Hooded up, Reilly watched national news reporters get in front of cameras for live photos before heading home on a recent evening. She sat down with water bottles and blankets, ready for a 14-hour shift.

“This is a monumental piece of history for my generation and my peers,” she said. “And it’s been difficult to navigate, to make the right editorial decisions, to remain as neutral as possible while also not causing harm to any community. But we’re here and we’re learning, and we’re ready to keep covering.”

—Bauder reported from New York, Fernando from Chicago. AP journalists Jake Offenhartz and Mallika Sen contributed to this report.