The Utah College Media Collaborative is a cross-campus project bringing together student journalists from Utah State University, Weber State University, the University of Utah and Salt Lake Community College so they can reach broader audiences. The students choose a theme and develop stories in print, radio, video and social media.
Nonprofits Amplify Utah and PBS Utah launched the effort. Marcie Young Cancio, the founder and executive director of Amplify Utah, said the project is inspired by the Great Salt Lake Collaborative and its solutions-journalism approach.
“We took that inspiration and applied it to the college level, knowing that this is the type of journalism that students will be doing when they leave the academies and go into the real world,” she said.
Students applied and three journalists from each school were selected for the program. Growing up through an era of mass shootings, the team chose to cover guns on college campuses.
Cancio said Salt Lake Community College did a three-part series. The first part of the series looked into student reactions to concealed carry permits. A U.S. Army combat veteran said knowing people are carrying makes him nervous. However, Cancio said many didn’t want to go on the record to talk about it.
“People didn't want to be super straightforward and honest, because this is such a polarizing topic,” she said.
The second part examined the four schools’ active shooter policies and training and the third focused on gun clubs on school campuses.
A Utah State student reported on the school’s alert system called Aggie Alert. The three University of Utah students created a documentary short film featuring interviews with the former director of the Black Cultural Center and the U’s operations captain. The film explores the relationship between campus police and people of color.
The media collaborative students will share their work at a PBS Utah event discussing media and misinformation April 3.
