Student Journalists Are Fighting for Protection After Covering the Crises of 2020 – TeenVogue.com

When there's a possibility of censorship, prior review, or even self-censorship on staffs, it makes it less possible for other students and communities to hear as many perspectives as possible, Neha Madhira, a student journalist currently reporting for The Texan at the University of Texas at Austin, tells Teen Vogue. She says she began doing First Amendment and press freedom work during her junior year of high school after a censorship incident in her own school, where they had to petition to reverse a ban the principal had put on certain stories. She also helped spearhead New Voices legislation at the Texas statehouse. Neha is now the recording secretary for the board of directors for the Student Press Law Center and helps students with bill language and getting in touch with representatives. Neha says that student journalists arent just the future, but the now of whats happening, and that its vital to emphasize the importance of local reporting because not everyone has access to in-person meetings or updates on campus and beyond.

Says Lily Wobbe, 17, a student journalist who is part of the New Voices coalition in Kentucky, The media is such a crucial part of democracy, and if us students learn how to contribute to this democracy while were still in school, well be so much better equipped when we eventually fill the roles of professional journalists. She continues, Theres no reason we should be censored and prevented from covering things like gun control or racism or climate change, because these things impact our lives just as much as they impact adults lives.

Lily Wobbe giving a speech at the Kentucky Youth Assembly

Often journalists who are students are experiencing the firsthand, real-time effects of what theyre covering, whether thats a campus closure or holding leadership accountable for policies on campus. When the George Floyd stuff was happening in late May and early June, that was really difficult for me as a student, particularly because I'm Black, Marissa Martinez, 22, former editor in chief of the Daily Northwestern, tells Teen Vogue. Having to kind of watch the country crumble around me as I'm finishing five finals and leading a newspaper It was a lot.

She mentions being proud of how the staff handled coverage of protests to abolish university police on Northwesterns campus, another sensitive issue, that already had the country watching. I think it's really interesting to see [that] larger outlets have to come back to our coverage, she says, explaining that college publications are often seen as a stepping stone to the professional world, but are where bigger outlets come when they need a scoop. We are reckoning with the consequences of being, of course, [a] literally hyperlocal paper for our campuses, and then for our city as well, says Marissa. While national journalists can parachute in and out of a campus or city, student reporters have to personally deal with the consequences of not covering something accurately or angering community members with their coverage.

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Student Journalists Are Fighting for Protection After Covering the Crises of 2020 - TeenVogue.com