Growing Share of Student Reporters in Statehouses Across the Country

 By Connor Kelleher

Stonehill College JRN 100 Staff Writer

Student reporters in statehouses have grown considerably in the past decade and show no sign of stopping.

Emily Sheftman, a Communications Coordinator with the University of Vermont is partially to thank for this large increase. After helping to compile student statehouse news services from universities from all over the United States, she then started working to create even more, starting with her own alma mater the University of Vermont. 

The University of Vermont Capital News Service was founded in January 2023. 

When asked what her next steps are she had this to say: “We are currently in the process of starting three or four more in different states.”

Sheftman is just one piece of the large group at the University of Vermont that is continuously working to compile college and university-run statehouse groups throughout the nation and helping to bring about more student journalists in statehouses. This group is constantly communicating with schools from all over the United States and learning all about the programs that are being run.

In a study published by the Pew Research Center titled, “In some states, students account for a large and growing share of statehouse reporters”, researchers found that in many states the share of student statehouse reporters has grown substantially when comparing the share of student reporters in statehouses in 2014 to those in 2022. 

In states like Maryland, the share of student reporters jumped from 14% all the way up to 25%. 

In addition to many states increasing their numbers, other states had new programs created in order to introduce students to the statehouse. States including Alabama, Louisiana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming all gained some percentage of students in their statehouse from their previous 0% in 2014. 

Nebraska gained the greatest increase in student reporters, all the way up to a 58% share of reporters in the statehouse being students, just in those eight years. 

Sheftman helped to clarify how there are really no downsides to the increase in student statehouse reporters. One of the many positive points she gave was that “They understand issues that aren’t at the forefront for older generations.” She continued by explaining how these students are not taking away from the other reporters that are already there but can only increase the information that is available to the public.

Another key figure in this increase in student journalists is Martin Kaiser, the Managing Director at the University of Maryland’s Capital News Service. 

Capital News Service has been running since 1990 and is a large and impactful group with bureaus in Baltimore, Annapolis, Washington, and College Park. When asked if these students were filling a gap in statehouse reporting, Kaiser made a similar point to Sheftman saying, “The void can help be filled.” Going on to explain how these students are doing serious work and helping give a greater emphasis on state issues.

In many of these situations, the students are not doing anything close to light work. This is a serious task that they are undertaking and a large responsibility. Kaiser explained how the students are “...working four days a week, all day long.” He emphasized how this is real content that they produce and will go out. 

All the content that is produced is sold to other news sites or uploaded in one form or another so that it reaches the public.

While these student journalists may still be in school, that does not limit them at all from making a substantial impact. While most college students are too preoccupied with classes or clubs to be busy with anything else, these student journalists undertake the large task of traveling to their statehouse and reporting on their findings. During the year, most students are studying up for their classes in hopes to make an impact on the public later in life, these students are making an impact while still in school.

Kaiser and Seftman both made it clear how impactful their programs have been, whether they have been running for over 30 years or just over three months. Each of their programs is in wildly different places with very different sizes of operation but both are running efficiently and are prepared for their long futures to come.

Seftman explained how at the moment they have only three students in the program with plans to expand, but at the moment they have made a “pretty substantial impact” which is an amazing response seeing that they had only begun at the start of the year. She seemed very excited and prepared for the future to come.

At the University of Maryland’s The Philip Merrill College of Journalism, all graduate students are required to work at a Capital News Service bureau, while undergraduates need to apply to be a part of the program. Kaiser emphasized how this experience is “tremendously important” and gives the students real job expertise before they have even left school. The service runs exactly how a normal news service runs its operations, which just adds to how useful of an opportunity it is.

Not only is the goal of these programs to teach the students but also to give them experience as a part of a real news service and produce informative news for the public on state issues and politics.

No matter the statehouse, the work being done by these students is phenomenal and an amazing asset to have. More information being given out to the public is very rarely a negative thing and, in this case, it seems to be all positive. This is real journalistic work being done by students who are dedicated to this field of work and committed to spreading this useful information to everyone. 

Kaiser expressed how serious they are by saying “These aren’t student projects; these are real news articles.”