NewsBeat

May 2023 NewsBeat 23 souri, student stories on lack of high- speed internet service in rural areas in 2018 built momentum for lawmakers to pass new legislation that has pro- vided millions of additional dollars to increase access to broadband. In early 2023, the University of Flori- da's statehouse team broke the story of a $300,000 private swimming pool be- ing built at the mansion occupied free of cost by the university president just before Ben Sasse, a former U.S. senator, assumed that role. In Louisiana, 92 publications run stories from Louisiana State Univer- sity's statehouse reporting team. In a companion effort, called the Cold Case project, students dive deeply into racist murders from the state's past. In late 2022, a series of stories about the po- lice killing of two students at Southern University led to a public apology by Gov. John Bel Edwards. In Montana, a student statehouse reporter wrote a probing story in early 2023 questioning spending in a state fund focused on mental health and health prevention. The story was repub- lished widely, including in small papers like the Ekalaka Eagle, serving a town of 400 people, as well as the statewide news outlet the Montana Free Press. A week later, Gov. Greg Gianforte an- nounced $2.1 million in new spending on universal mental health screening from the fund. As far back as 2016, series of sto- ries from the University of Maryland's Capital News Service generated a lot of attention about the lack of state oversight of nursing homes. Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh cited the students' work in his pursuit of new regulations; legislators passed two laws addressing issues raised in the series. New programs launch In Vermont, the University of Ver- mont's Community News Service start- ed a statehouse reporting program this spring with three students who each receive six credits and a stipend of $1,000. Together the students have al- ready published 23 stories on issues as wide-ranging as diversifying agriculture and child marriage. For our university, the program meets several needs: Students get ex- perience, media outlets get content and the university meets its public-service mission. Clearly, more colleges and univer- sities can step in to fill statehouse reporting gaps. We found that in just eight states — Georgia, Tennessee, Ken- tucky, Mississippi, South Carolina, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Rhode Island — there are 42 colleges and universities with more than 200,000 students with- in 10 miles of the statehouses. Public universities, with their public service mission and long-standing jour- nalism programs, provide most of the student reporters in our study. Private colleges are largely missing. But in Indiana, some of the 1,000 stu- dents at tiny Franklin College staff the Statehouse File, producing stories like a deep dive into the KKK's effects on the state and an examination of pregnan- cy-related deaths due to new abortion laws. Student journalists in these univer- sity-led programs are filling local news gaps, adding legislative stories that are lacking while also building skills, polishing their clips and learning how government works. I believe more public and private universities need to follow their lead. Democracy depends on an informed public. Richard Watts is senior lecturer of Geography and Founder of the Center of Community News, University of Ver- mont. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Governor Kathy Hochul delivers her 2023 State of the State address in the Assembly Chamber at the State Capitol. (Mike Groll/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul)

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