New study reveals surprising breadth of student reporting in public media
Courtesy Delmarva Public Media
University of Maryland Eastern Shore student journalist Sydney Rutledge-Smith interviews Maryland Gov. Wes Moore.
At a time when both academia and public media are under attack, a new study from the Center for Community News shows how extensively they are working together to address the crisis in local news.
Local stations are the Swiss army knife of media. In addition to distributing PBS and/or NPR content, they also have local service missions that include news, education and emergency services.
Public media organizations also play a large and underappreciated role in the training of college students, according to our research.
At more than 200 NPR stations, approximately 3,000 journalists produce local news, as do journalists at many PBS stations. Between 2011 and 2018, NPR affiliates grew their newsrooms by an estimated 1,000 reporters.
Meanwhile, colleges and universities have increased their efforts to help students cover local communities. The Center for Community News identified 227 programs in 2025, a 27% increase over the year before.
So we wondered: How common is it for public media organizations to provide opportunities for college students to inform their communities?
It turns out, surprisingly common. More than 88% of local NPR/PBS affiliates engage college students to help cover their communities, according to our study.
This is a striking statistic. In almost every corner of America, college students can receive real-world experience at their local public media stations.
Some of this is because of who licenses and controls local public media stations. About half are licensed to a college or university, giving them access to students and a motivation to participate in their success.
Still, many stations that are not university licensees are providing these opportunities for students. Whether governed by a community board, tribal council or state government, these stations still see the benefits of student involvement.
Different forms of student opportunities at stations
The most common opportunity provided by local stations is internships. Of the 88% that have student involvement, 59% have a regular, sustained internship program (levels 3 and 4 on the map below.)
Interns most commonly help produce news, but they also work in production (audio and video) and other departments. Often, these internships are supported and supervised by station staff, with no additional compensation from the college or university.
For these internships to succeed, dependability is important. The more regular the internship, the better the experience for students and the station.
But internships are just the beginning. Many stations have developed content-creation partnerships with college faculty. These faculty have been deputized as editors for the public media station, producing everything from Instagram reels to half-hour news magazines for stations.
We see potential to increase this type of class-based partnership. The station receives content it otherwise could not produce, and student work reaches a broad local audience.
Also, students can help stations look beyond the broadcast and reach new audiences on digital platforms. Some stations lack the staff to consistently post on these platforms. College classes could fill that need.
A pillar of support
A 10-foot column of photos rises above Emily Reddy’s desk. Each picture is an intern she’s mentored over the past 16 years.
“I’m running out of space,” said Reddy, news director at WPSU in State College, Pa. “I’ll have to find a new place to put them.”
These photos are a testament to the ongoing, accumulated impact of WPSU’s internships. In news, WPSU sponsors a graduate assistant and two or three interns every semester. There are other opportunities for interns in video and digital production.
Our report includes eight case studies of stations with extensive student involvement. We conducted dozens of interviews with station leaders and faculty to better understand how these partnerships work.
At WPSU, interns are paid, thanks to individual donations, Giving Tuesday campaigns and Community Service Work Study funding. Two WPSU donors created endowments to make sure internships were supported into the future.
In addition to internships, WPSU-TV serves as an important platform to distribute a class-produced show. Centre County Report is a potential model for other collaborations, led by Penn State faculty and staff, produced by students and distributed through WPSU.
WPSU plans to continue expanding opportunities for student journalism, despite budget cuts from the university and the potential loss of federal funding. The university’s Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications recently hired an editor to help more student-produced news reach the larger community, including through WPSU.
More sense than ever
We shouldn’t take for granted that public media stations can continue to sponsor student journalists. Among the 12% of stations who don’t sponsor interns, several blamed budget cuts for the elimination of their programs.
That’s where colleges and universities can step up to the plate. The most successful partnerships require resources and buy-in from the university, with dedicated faculty and staff committed to the partnership’s success.
Universities would be wise to partner with public media organizations. It is difficult to stand up a new local news outlet and build an audience for it. Public media organizations have the reputation and infrastructure to reach local communities today.
Public media organizations and universities both have extensive donor networks to tap for sustainable support for these programs. They can attract donors from both worlds interested in the future of journalism and democracy.
As both academia and public media face challenges, these news-academic partnerships make even more sense than before. Working together, they can provide students real-life learning opportunities while reversing the decline of local news in a cost-effective way.
Scott Finn is public media advisor for the University of Vermont’s Center for Community News, which documents and builds news/academic partnerships between local media organizations and colleges and universities. Finn also teaches UVM classes that produce journalism for news outlets throughout Vermont. He has worked in local journalism for 25 years, first as a reporter and news director in West Virginia and Florida, and more recently as leader of West Virginia Public Broadcasting and Vermont Public.
