On Thursday, Nov. 13, the CJMD participated in the Journalism and Public Interest Communication (JPIC) Autumn Mixer, where journalism students had the opportunity to talk with faculty and professional journalists, and have a panel discussion on the state of local news.
The panelists:
Jennifer Henrichsen, Assistant Professor at Washington State University
Judy Hucka, Board President of the League of Women Voters
Austin Jenkins (Moderator), Reporter for Pluribus News and State Affairs
Matt Powers, CJMD Co-director and Professor at the University of Washington
“When we launched this event, it had three aims: Bring students closer to professionals, bring the professionals closer to each other, and to provide a space where people who care about news can get together and feel like we are a community,” said Caley Cook, UW Professor and Journalism and Public Interest Communication Coordinator, who organized the mixer.
“I think we accomplished pieces of all three,” she continued. “Students were so enthusiastic to be able to mingle with journalists and talk about potential careers and hear from people on the panel who are experts in this area. But I think it was most rewarding to hear from reporters and editors that they just felt like it was nice to gather together as a community again. Covid and cuts to news organizations have really made our news and media community feel scattered and it’s always hard to find events where lots of different journalists get together and build that community. It felt like we accomplished that with this event.”
The most memorable moment? According to Matthew Powers, it was the panel’s discussion about public trust. Polling suggests that trust in local news is quite high (about 85%). Yet the number of people who actually pay for local news is quite small (15%). This underscores the need to distinguish trust from consumption.
“I really hope that everyone walks away knowing that we all play different, but important roles in building our journalism community up,” Cook said. “Professional journalists are doing that work every day, of course, but students are the future of this and we have to find ways to help them find ways into the industry and give them the skills and connections to do that. And my colleagues in the Department of Communication are doing their part too, researching the problems and solutions to the news crisis and getting the word out about why it matters. I just want everyone to know that journalism is worth thinking about, discussing, and celebrating. And I think we did that with this event.”
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