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Keywords: Community Journalism, News Deserts, Experiential Learning
The idea started like this: a University of Georgia journalism course could take over the editorial side of the only news organization in neighboring Oglethorpe County-a weekly newspaper about to close its doors. When the department head asked about the concept, hatched by a UGA alum/newspaper group founder and our dean, we saw the depth in such an opportunity; we would turn a failing newspaper into a nonprofit learning lab to repair and benefit both local news and our students' experiences with community journalism.
Through work with the Cox Institute's Journalism Innovation Lab and Georgia news organizations, we had been trying to create cohesion between journalism students and local news in incremental, temporary ways. Yet, UGA journalism graduates often passed up smaller newsrooms for legacy, metro papers and national cable brands.
This opportunity-taking over the 148-year-old Oglethorpe Echo-was like striking gold. It had immense value for our students and an industry in atrophy at the expense of a functioning democracy. Of course, there was much to work out-and quickly. It was in the weeds of curriculum and newsroom development, however, that a journalism education endeavor worthy of reflection and further development emerged.
Traversing Deserts for Purpose
In research built upon interviews with residents, Mathews found that a newspaper's closure deeply affected everyday lives and a sense of community.
... the suggestion that 'life is harder' without the newspaper surfaced frequently. Without journalists in the county, residents acted as reporters themselves, sifting through websites and social media accounts for critical information, often with frustrating results (Mathews, 2022, p. 1260).
All in the industry know this instinctively. Saving The Oglethorpe Echo became a mission-driven project for UGA journalism faculty and students, but we needed more than passion to sustain us. We looked to other news-academic partnership models, like the University of Kansas, Northeastern University and Duquesne University, to see how these collaborations served communities and became experiential learning tools (Allen, 2021; Salahi, 2021).
We found our model would have to be different. We were creating new products (a website, four social media channels and an email newsletter), but also taking over a newspaper that had been printing for nearly 150 years. Although The Echo's editorial side would be staffed...