Over the past two years, The Baldwin Bulletin has partnered with Georgia College & State University’s (GCSU) Mass Communication Department to offer mass communication students professional experience.
Depending on the class, students cover a range of stories from hard news to community events. In addition, students can explore different forms of storytelling from photo pages to Q & A format.
“Journalism is a craft, and there is no better way to master a craft than by doing,” said Dr.
Christina Smith, GCSU associate professor in mass communication. “Journalistic partnerships between universities and local news outlets allow students to put to practice what they learn in their classes, which leads to knowledge retention and, ultimately, improved journalistic skills.”
Smith’s Journalistic Writing and Reporting and Feature Writing classes have partnered with The Baldwin Bulletin over numerous semesters. Assistant Professor of Mass Communication Dr. Chad Whittle oversees Enterprise Journalism, the senior capstone course, and has partnered with the Bulletin for two semesters. For each class, students work directly under Associate Editor of The Baldwin Bulletin Bailey McCully.
Students can pitch ideas, receive pitches, and submit articles that are published in both the print and online editions of the paper. Each of their articles is edited by McCully and students receive feedback to help improve their writing. Students also take their own photos and video for their stories, which are credited to them upon publication.
“Partnering with The Baldwin Bulletin has been a great experience for our students because it has allowed them an opportunity to go into the real world and put into practice what they have learned in the classroom,” said Whittle. “I try to make my journalism classes feel like a real newsroom, but nothing beats having students go into the field outside the four walls of a classroom and do journalism that will appear in a real newspaper.'
On top of giving students writing and photography experience, they explore the community and become directly involved with important events and news. For some students, this is the first step of leaving downtown Milledgeville and exploring Baldwin County as a whole, which creates further bridges for students to learn the significance of the city and county beyond the college perspective.
“Additionally, the students' contributions to the local news outlets allows those outlets to produce more relative content that readers want from their local media,” said Smith. “Frankly, for local news, no matter the production platform, to be sustainable, there will need to be more journalism partnerships between media organizations and universities.”
The Baldwin Bulletin is proud to partner with local schools and be a step on the journey each student walks to their future career.
Starting next week, students will be writing for The Baldwin Bulletin through early May.