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We had launched the Digital Newsroom at the beginning of fall 2014, just one year after the School of Global Journalism and Communication (SGJC) came into existence. It was one of three performance centers created to implement our immersion education philosophy, giving students the opportunity to directly apply classroom lectures and exercises to their craft in real-world situations.
In November, more than 100 students participated in classic election night coverage of what could have been a historic gubernatorial election, had the Democratic nominee prevailed and become the first black governor in Maryland history. They also covered the balloting for other statewide and local offices, tweeting interviews with voters at the polls and neighborhood rallies. Teams of students reported as they followed candidates for key offices throughout the day, finally settling in to monitor the results at headquarters or celebration locations. Others in the digital newsroom were pulling together all the information coming in and fashioning it into stories for The Spokesman, the online student publication.
That experience, as we had hoped, motivated several students to begin to make the digital newsroom their home. We were even able to corral a small cadre of students to cover the inauguration of the new governor in January during the winter break when regular classes at the university were not in session.
By spring, Gray’s death provided another compelling and defining central event, continuously breaking news, conflict and confrontation over longstanding issues between major stakeholders and the opportunity to give voice to stories that often go untold, which is a part of our mission at the SGJC.
Activists, religious and community leaders held hastily planned peaceful protests. Then, on the day of Gray’s funeral, rioting erupted and the government followed with implementation of a heavy-handed response, including calling out the National Guard and enlisting help from surrounding jurisdictions to enforce a 10 p.m. youth curfew that was expanded to all residents. The mayor, police commissioner, governor and the newly-elected, youngest state’s attorney in the nation held daily news conferences to explain their actions. The national media swarmed into the city, and our students were there and energized.
However, we were mindful that we were sending students into situations and circumstances that could instantly become dangerous or deadly for any number of reasons.
Our student journalists, most of whom were black young adults, physically resembled those who had rioted and most recognized the significance and were sympathetic to the issues being raised by protesters because they personally have had unpleasant or negative encounters with police.
They were learning firsthand the challenges of being detached observers and balanced reporters. Additionally, they and we were constrained by a different kind of deadline, being subject to the citywide curfew that had been imposed.
We fell back on some basic operating procedures
for professional journalists in similar situations. Students were to contact the newsroom when they arrived at an assignment, before they left a location and when they returned home or back to the newsroom. We tried generally to send them out in pairs or with instructions to make contact with a second student assigned to the same location. One was there to handle the text reporting while the other was responsible for photos and/or video,
much that rivaled what the professionals generated.
Billy Murphy Jr., the lawyer for Freddie Gray’s family, speaks to the press (Photo by Herman Fogus)