Save Student Newsrooms Day of Action: Saturday, April 25
The work students journalists are doing today, serving their communities in the middle of a pandemic and economic crisis is extraordinary. Under normal circumstances, you publish stories online and/or in print with a barebones staff and limited resources, fueled by passion and caffeine.
Now, you’re covering campuses and universities that students have been told to leave and where administrations are figuring out how to run a campus completely online, and you're figuring out how to keep publishing.
In 2018, on our day of action on April 25, the voices of more than 100 student newsrooms reached almost 12 million people on Twitter. This year, we’re asking you to highlight your work covering the COVID-19 pandemic with the hashtag #SaveStudentNewsrooms.
What we’re asking you to do ahead of April 25th is a lot, but at this point, we’re confident that you’re used to tight deadlines. Here is a list of actions we strongly encourage you to take:
Publish and write an editorial about your COVID-19 coverage, if you haven’t already. Explain to your readers the impact you’ve had and why student journalism is essential. You can check out past editorials here.
Share stories on social media that your staff has written on the impacts of COVID-19, your own personal experiences, photos, videos and any other coverage that is telling of this insane chapter in news.
Highlight investigative pieces or other projects you’re proud of.
At the very least, tweet using #SaveStudentNewsrooms!
If you have a donation link or a way people can support you, be sure to include that as well. But we know times are tough right now. What you’ve accomplished during this time is important, and we want to make sure readers understand the role student journalists play, even if they can’t donate. You can ask them, for instance, to write to your university and advocate for funding for your publication or ask them to show support online.
The work you’re doing is essential. It’s also stressful and scary. But you are part of a community of kickass student journalists and your voices matter during the story of our generation.
We hope you’ll participate in this day of action. We’ve set up a Facebook Group here and you can request to join.
More information can also be found at https://savestudentnewsrooms.com/2020-day-of-action/. Don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions. You can also find a list of student newsrooms that we're reaching out to here.
Feel free to forward this to other student newsrooms. We’re using our list from 2018 and it’s not perfect. With that in mind, if you plan to participate, please fill out this form. It helps us get a headcount, amplify your voices from our own profiles and secure contacts for you all to use going forward.
Sincerely,
Caitlin Ostroff
Melissa Gomez
Jimena Tavel
Sam Ogozalek