The joys of teaching journalism students, battling declining media literacy and how we can take an active role in Macon’s future

The first college class I taught was a Journalism 101 class at Texas A&M University-Commerce (which was recently renamed East Texas A&M, to the delight of all alumni). 

I was a senior and I had some decent experience as editor of my school paper, The East Texan, and reporter for the local daily paper. I’d somehow never taken the J-101 course and I needed it to graduate.

The course’s instructor was coming in late after visiting his son in California, and he asked me to lead the first day of class: take attendance, go over the syllabus, answer any questions. It all went smoothly, even if I got some strange glances the next week when I switched from temporary instructor to student. 

When I ran the Norman Transcript, I was an instructor at the University of Oklahoma’s college of mass communication, teaching a survey course. My students were usually freshmen or sophomores. A few wanted to be journalists, but most were in advertising or creative media productions. I even had a few creative writing majors (sweet kids, but awkwardly out of place amongst PR and journalism students).

I loved teaching college students. Most had a wonderful energy, an honest desire to learn (or, at the very least, pass the class) and unique perspectives on the world. Generally, they were far more emotionally mature and empathetic than my generation.

I was often reminded that though they were technically adults, they still had some growing up to do. Once it rained, and half of them came into the class shivering and dripping wet (I sent them all home). I had a student who came to class obviously very ill. She hadn’t seen a doctor yet, because she was waiting for her mother in Texas to make an appointment (I sent her to the campus health clinic). 

One of my favorite student interactions was with a young man named Alex. He was popular on campus, amiable, funny and quick to smile. I gave my students the customary “man on the street” assignment — go talk with 10 strangers and ask them a set of questions. This standard J-school assignment is designed to provide students some familiarity with walking up to strangers and interviewing them, a key skill for reporters. 

Alex texted me about 30 minutes before class started. He hadn’t done any of his interviews. 

“What should I do?” he texted.

“Panic,” was my one word response.

“Already on it.” 

Hard not to like Alex, huh? I gave him an extension to finish the assignment. He got an A in my class.

*****

I teach practicum students at Mercer University each semester. It’s a great way for students to get practical newsroom experience and I’m able to build relationships with young journalists. One of my former practicum students, Micah Johnston, is The Melody’s sports editor. 

I was able to work with Micah for three years before he graduated through practicum courses, internships and the general osmosis that comes from housing a newsroom in a building with journalism professors and classes. 

Mary Helene Hall is another Mercer graduate who was able to take advantage of practicum and intern opportunities and gain some real world experience as editor of the Mercer Cluster. She now works for The Melody and is the editor for our sister paper, the Times Journal Post. 

Student journalists are incredibly important, both to our current journalism infrastructure and for our future. Everywhere I’ve worked, I’ve built relationships with student media. Though the majority of students who work for the college newspaper or radio station don’t enter the field of journalism, it’s a wonderful way for them to become media literate in a world that is trending in the opposite direction.

Media literacy is rapidly declining across the country. How folks consume information has rapidly evolved. The proliferation of smartphones and the accompanying apps has made us more passive than active in news consumption. News (and a lot of misinformation and disinformation) is now filtered through memes, dances and 15 second reels. Legacy media companies are struggling mightily to find a business model that allows them to survive, striving between the proverbial rock and hard place of hedge fund ownership and dissolving revenue streams.

But that’s a column for another time.

*****

Tuesday afternoon I spoke to  Professor Thomas Ellington’s Local Democracy Lab class at Wesleyan College. I was struck again by how exciting it is when young people begin thinking about their community like reporters. They’re curious and engaged. They want answers to important questions. They want to understand why things are the way they are and what can be done to make them better, more equitable, more consistent.

I hope what The Melody does each day is inspiring you in a similar way. Macon has a fascinating future ahead of it. But it’s easy to be distracted. It’s simple to allow inertia to build up, to believe things have to stay the way they are. 

We collectively have a tremendous amount of power to shape what Macon looks like in the next year, five years, 25 years. It will take an active, engaged community and leaders who aren’t intimidated by roadblocks and who genuinely want to make Bibb County a better place to live for everyone in it. 

I see that energy all the time in my students. It’s time for the rest of us to rediscover it.

Caleb Slinkard is the managing editor of The Macon Melody. Email him at caleb@maconmelody.com.