Castleton students stepped outside of the box this fall as they shed light on the issue of diversity in local newspaper content during their recent polling project. As part of Castleton’s focus on Civic Engagement, the class is centered on taking the information from the classroom and applying it in the community.
With the guidance of Media and Communication Professor Dave Blow, the students spent time researching and developing strategic plans to create in-depth and diverse news coverage in hopes of increasing readership.
Focusing on the Rutland Herald the class set out to determine if the newspaper’s coverage represented all segments of the local society, and if not, how it could improve.
Students began by studying a week’s worth of newspapers, identifying stories and photos that showed diversity, and each edition was given a letter grade based on the class’ opinion of how diverse the coverage was in each category that day.
“With diversity, people think ‘black-and-white,’ but we wanted to get away from that,” said Blow, adding that the study not only focused on diversity with race but also with other categories such as age, gender, religion, economic status, and sexual orientation.
To take their research to the next level the class then polled over 150 area residents to get additional feedback, providing them with a 14-question survey regarding their opinions on how diverse they believe the newspaper’s coverage is.
With the help of Rich Clark, Director of the Castleton Polling Institute, the class turned the survey results into comparable data, which was then used to help the Herald improve upon their coverage and to better please their audience.
Results showed that readers who were surveyed felt the Herald does an average job of showing diversity throughout the paper, but agreed that there was room for improvement in most categories.
Based on feedback and scores received from the poll the group presented productive solutions to the editors at the newspaper to expand their coverage in areas that were lacking.
“For every concern that we presented them, we gave suggestions and ideas on how to address them,” said senior Erica Bilodeau.
Bilodeau believes that the Herald will utilize their suggestions and use the information provided in their final report to build a stronger connection with their audience.
“We even agreed to assist them in doing so, whether it is by contributing stories or helping design a new page,” she said.
Through their research students learned that even in small states, such as Vermont, diversity is still important in everyday coverage.
“Newspapers should focus on their community and learning about people and things that are unique and different,” said ethics class student and communications major Anders Axe who has taken this experience and grown as a journalist. “I want to bring those ideas to stories that I write.”
Students walked away with a vast understanding of the role diversity plays in newspapers and the importance of representing the wants and needs of readers.
Blow praised the students for their efforts, calling the student-driven report “a professional approach that was not ‘complaining’ about a lack of diversity, but giving real ideas on how to address the issues.”
He hopes that his Media Ethics class, as well as other prospective Civic Engagement courses, will continue to grow and flourish while creating an interactive learning environment for Castleton students and benefitting the local community. “It’s a neat break from teaching ‘how to write,’ where you get to see ‘aha moments’ of deeper thinking and discussions,” Blow said. “It has also helped us develop a great working relationship with area newspapers, lending credibility to the program and the work our students are capable of producing.”